Hooniverse Asks- What Was The Best Looking Mercury?

No that Ford has announced that the Mercury brand will go gently into that good night, it’s time to reflect on their 72-year history. As we discussed last week, when the company’s demise had yet to be set in stone, many of Mercury’s product has, over the years, been not much more than re-badged Fords. But that’s not to say the upscale brand didn’t improve on the styling from time to time. But which of them stood out as the best looking?
Mercury’s debut took place on November 5, 1938, and that car shared the transverse leaf spring suspension with its Ford brethren. Its body was unique, however, and Ford bored out the flathead V8 from 221 to 239.4 cubic inches for an improvement of 10 horsepower.
Henry Ford never wanted anything to do with Mercury, and left it to his son, Edsel to make the brand viable. Over the years he did just that, creating a worthy competitor to the Buicks, DeSotos and Hudsons of the day.
Mercury also carved out a small niche in performance cars helped by the 1949 chart almost-topper Mercury Blues. But even before then, the styling of Mercury cars had been equated to airplanes and Ford always gave Mercury the biggest motors they had.
In the early sixties, the  Monterey introduced the reverse cant back glass with “Breezeway” lowering center portion. Around that same time, the hot Marauder fastback was introduced. Adding to Their performance cred, the Cougar leapt into the market with claws bared in 1967. The seventies and eighties showed the beginnings of Ford’s consternation  over what to do with the mid-level brand. The European Capri and DeTomaso Pantera brought new customers to Mercury’s dealers, and in the ’80s for tried to even sub-brand their sub-brand with introduction of the funky Merkur cars. It didn’t take however when their mid-western dealers failed in pronouncing the new brand’s name.
Since the Euro-looking Cougar of the ’90s, Mercury hasn’t had a bespoke model they can tout to be their own. Despite that, some of their products – notably the Mountaineer -are arguably better looking than their Ford progenitors. But out of all the years, and all the models, which Mercury car do you think captured that lightning in a bottle the best? What car was the best looking Mercury of all time? And as there’ll be no future contenders, your choice really will be of all time.
Image sources: [Future Classics, Muscle Car Club]

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29 responses to “Hooniverse Asks- What Was The Best Looking Mercury?”

  1. B72 Avatar

    Hard to pick just one. This one is pretty sweet:
    http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-1950-1959/1950-
    as is this one:
    http://image.automotive.com/f/featuredvehicles/me
    and maybe this one: http://image.mustangandfords.com/f/9320805/mufp_0
    How do you embed images?

    1. SSurfer321 Avatar
      SSurfer321

      "<img src="web%20address" ,="" width="500/">"

    2. dukeisduke Avatar

      I would agree with those three. I also like the title photo car, with the suicide doors.

  2. B72 Avatar

    Thanks. How do I do it?
    Give a man a fish…

    1. muthalovin Avatar

      Start with < then img src="whateverlink.com" and end >

      1. joshuman Avatar

        If you need to make the image smaller, add width=400 (or smaller) between the final " and the >

      2. B72 Avatar
        B72

        Let's try it:
        <img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e23/preppy555/freddy_mercury.jpg&quot; width="400'/">
        Oops that's Freddy Mercury! I prefer cars, thank you very much.

    2. SSurfer321 Avatar

      I did give you a fish. Muthalovin was nice enough to TEACH you how to fish 🙂

      1. B72 Avatar

        Yes, he caught my drift! I ought to slip him a fin…

  3. dukeisduke Avatar

    I also like the '63 and '64 cars. A cute girl I went to high school with drove a nice clean '64 four-door with the Breezeway styling.

  4. Tripl3fast Avatar

    Not sure about the past, but the last one to roll off the line will be pretty good looking to me. Now go have a beer with Olds and Pontiac. All you have left is the stories, tell them with with friends.

    1. Alff Avatar

      Make that deadbeat Plymouth pick up the tab. He was always a cheapskate.

  5. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    [URL =http://imgur.com/d7xHW.jpg][IMG]http://imgur.com/d7xHW.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
    You guys wanna see something really sad? This is what's parked in the next-door neighbors driveway. Apparently he hasn't touched it in years and is thinking about parting it out.

    1. Tim Odell Avatar
      Tim Odell

      Dude, I'm sure you and Andy can pull the necessary strings to get that into the ever expanding Detroit Crew collection.

      1. Ben Avatar

        We're actually trying to get rid of Henry (the roll back) right now and pick up a good beater full size van. But yes, it would make a lovely addition. I bet it even shares a couple parts with my Lincoln which sits all of twenty feet away.

        1. Tim Odell Avatar
          Tim Odell

          Still got the XJR?
          Not a lot of overlap between assorted MEL engine bits and the (likely) 289/302 in that Cougar, though.

  6. soo΄pәr-bādd75 Avatar

    The LN7 was waaay better looking than the EXP.

  7. longrooffan Avatar

    You can see my favorite on this link
    http://longrooffan-forposting.blogspot.com/2010/0
    I am the olelongrooffan, after all.

  8. muthalovin Avatar

    Good job! See, Hooniverse cares.

  9. Tim Odell Avatar
    Tim Odell

    Another one bites the dust!
    Queen Rules.
    BTW, have you heard the DJ Lobsterdust remix of a preacher talking about how when you play Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" backwards it sounds like "it's fun to smoke marajuana?"
    Good stuff:
    [youtube pdXek5d2ocw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdXek5d2ocw youtube]

    1. B72 Avatar
      B72

      That was excellent!
      Here's a Queen video that's Hoon worthy:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQTu9vx-laY
      Sorry my video linking is misbehaving right now…

    2. Alff Avatar

      Only through divine intervention were we blessed with CDs. Have you ever tried to play one of those backwards?

  10. Tim Odell Avatar
    Tim Odell

    There's so much goodness in that picture…

    1. Smells_Homeless Avatar

      I don't see a car. Isn't this a car site?
      (Neko Case == Mmmm.)

  11. Smells_Homeless Avatar

    Dude! Do you know how whipped an engine has to be to blow like that?

    1. Black Steelies Avatar

      Idk, my friend had an '87 grd marquis that didnt spout such impressive backfires but could make a decent fog machine if he forgot to dump a qt of oil in at every fillup. I joked it had a 2 cycle engine. He sold the car to some demo derby freak who made it his daily on the justification that it was "too nice to derby".

  12. Tomsk Avatar

    The tube-frame IMSA GTO versions were badass. Same can be said of all IMSA GTO racers, really (Z32 300 ZX, Cutlass Supreme, Audi 90, etc.).

  13. Alff Avatar

    Here's a quarter…

  14. Mad_Hungarian Avatar

    Game over. That's it. Mercury was the ONLY brand ever to produce a true 2 door hardtop wagon. Take that, Nomad. It doesn't get any better than this.