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Lincoln:
In May 1927, lack of demand for the
Model T
forced Ford to shut down the assembly lines
on the iconic vehicle. Later that year, the
company introduced the more comfortable
and stylish Model A, a car whose sleeker look
resembled that of a Lincoln automobile.
In fact, the Model A was nicknamed
“the baby Lincoln.”
In 1917, Henry Leland, a founder of the Cadillac
auto brand,
established the Company; he reportedly named the new
venture after his hero, President Abraham Lincoln.
Facing financial difficulties, on February 4, 1922, the
Ford Motor Company purchased the failing luxury
automaker
Lincoln Motor Company for $8 million.
In the 1930s, Ford’s Lincoln
division introduced
its popular Zephyr model, which was inspired
by the Burlington Zephyr, a streamlined,
diesel-powered express train that debuted amid
great fanfare in 1934 and featured an engine
built by General Motors.
The Lincoln Continental launched in 1939 and was a
flagship
model for decades.
Other leading Lincoln models over the years have included
the Town Car, a full-size luxury sedan released
in the 1980s, even though Henry Ford
had a custom-built vehicle called a
Town Car in the 1920s.
Mercury
and Edsel:
In 1938, Mercury was created by
Edsel Ford ( Henry Ford's son ).
Forming half of the
Lincoln - Mercury Division,
the brand was intended to bridge the price
gap between
the Ford and Lincoln vehicle lines.
Ford’s vision for Mercury
included improved
power, ride, handling, stopping distance,
internal noise and enhanced styling.
To offer a
medium price car under its own marque,
Edsel Ford began Mercury as a separate
company within Ford in 1937. Even
though
it was used on the Chevrolet Mercury for
1933, the Mercury name was selected
from
over 100 potential model and marque names.
The first
model, the 1939 Mercury 8, sold for
$916 and had a 95
horsepower V-8 engine.
More than 65,000 were built the first year.
The offerings included a two and four door
sedan and a town
sedan.
When World
War 2 ended in 1945, Mercury was
coupled with
Lincoln, and the Lincoln - Mercury Division
debuted.
In the 1950s,
featured more styling and
features such as the first fixed sunroof on
the 1954
Mercury Sun Valley, with a transparent
Plexiglas top.
In 1957, Mercurys grew wider,
longer, lower and more powerful
with what was called Dream Car Design.
Mercury had entered its heydays as a premium
brand with models
like the Montclair, Monterey and Turnpike
Cruiser.
In the late
1950s, the launch of the Edsel
brand would significantly affect both the
Lincoln and Mercury divisions.
For 1957, the entire Mercury product
line was
redesigned, and for the first time since 1948,
Mercury vehicles no longer shared
a common body with Lincoln.
In 1957, Mercury
introduced station wagons as a model line,
such as the Voyager and wood-grained Colony Park.
While Lincolns would shift to unibody
construction for 1958, the 1957
Mercury line shared the chassis
and underpinnings of the premium models of the
upcoming
Edsel range.
In a marketing decision that would prove fatal
to the future of
the Edsel brand, the pricing of the Edsel
division overlapped
the Mercury division completely.
Edsel was developed, and manufactured
by the Ford Motor
Company for model years 1958 - 1960.
In 1958, 63,110
Edsels were sold in the U.S.,
and 4,935 were sold in Canada.
In 1959, 44,891
Edsels were sold in the U.S.,
and 2,505 were sold in Canada.
And in 1960,
Edsel's last, only 2,846 vehicles were
produced.
Ford invested
heavily in a yearlong campaign leading
consumers
to believe that the Edsel was the car of the
future.
After it was unveiled to the public, it was
considered to
be unattractive, overpriced, and over-hyped.
The Edsel never gained
popularity with contemporary
American
car buyers and sold poorly.
The Ford Motor Company lost
about $350 million on the
Edsel's development,
manufacturing, and marketing.
In 1967,
the Cougar was introduced, which
was Mercury's version
of the Ford Mustang.
The 1970s Mercury saw
the introduction
of the Grand Marquis, Mercury’s
best-selling
nameplate. Mercury sales peaked
in 1978 at
an all-time high of 580,000.
In
1975, several changes
across the Mercury line.
The long running Monterey was
discontinued, with the
Marquis becoming the sole model,
and a new Grand Marquis
was put between the Marquis and
Lincoln Continental.
Originally intended as the
replacement for the Comet, the
Monarch,
led to a completely new market
segment:
the luxury compact car.
After the 1997
model year, the Cougar was
discontinued as the personal
luxury market began to decline
in demand.
In 2010,
Ford announced the closure of
the Mercury line by the
end of the year.
In terms of overall sales in
North America, the Mercury brand
held only
a 1 percent share, compared to
the 16 percent share of Ford.
With under 95,000 vehicles per
year sold for 2009,
Mercury had sold
fewer vehicles than either
Plymouth in 2000 or
Oldsmobile in 2004.