OLD CARS: 1949-51 Mercury cars were special

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Mercury was never an immensely popular car brand, but it had its moments.

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OLD CARS: 1949-51 Mercury cars were special Back to video

In the 1920s, while General Motors had six different automotive brands, and Chrysler had four, the folks at Ford had two – the inexpensive Ford and the expensive Lincoln.

Ford cars were priced to compete head-on with Chevrolet and Plymouth, but Ford owners who wanted to gravitate to a more costly brand, unless they could afford a Lincoln, were compelled to go elsewhere.

The problem with Ford’s marketing void became more obvious in the early 1930s and an attempt was made to fill the gap. A “cheaper Lincoln”, the Zephyr, was introduced in 1936. Yet while medium-priced, the beautiful Zephyr was still too expensive for a great many Americans and Canadians.

Ford then turned to Plan B. Rather than making another smaller Lincoln, it decided to make a bigger Ford.

The driving force behind Mercury was never Henry Ford, who in 1938 would have been 75. It was his son, Edsel, a talented man who was passionate about automobiles and who was forever pushing his father to adopt a less conservative approach to design and style.

Under Edsel’s stewardship, Ford had opened its own styling department and the stylists reported directly to him. The new Mercury was patterned after the Zephyr.

Two prototypes were built in 1938, and the first production Mercury was built at Ford’s assembly plant in Richmond, California on Sept. 21, 1938. Three weeks later, on Oct. 8, regular Mercury production began at plants in Chicago, Louisville and Kansas City.

A big plus for Mercury was that it would have a new V8, developed in 1937 for Ford’s police fleet customers. The V8 offered Mercury owners something to brag about, as few cars in that price range offered such an engine.

The 1939 Mercury was offered in four body styles: a two door, a two-door sport convertible, a four-door Town Sedan and a two-door Sedan Coupe.

The Mercury resembled a Ford yet was different. The grill featured horizontal bars rather than vertical, and the fenders were less bulbous. The taillights were barrel-shaped rather than Ford’s tear-drop. Also different were the hubcaps, hood emblem and trim.

Bigger changes were found inside. The body was wider than a conventional Ford, to allow three people to sit across the front and the back seats. Standard equipment included armrests, an electric clock, front and rear ashtrays, a trip odometer, a combination ignition switch and steering wheel lock, tools, a locking glove box, rustless steel trim bands for the wheels, bumper guards, and cowl-mounted rather than roof-mounted windshield wipers.

There was only one transmission, a floor-mounted three-speed manual.

The new Mercury was a hit. Within three months, the brand was ranked ninth in the Detroit industry for sales. In its first year, almost 71,000 units were built.

The 1939 model remained essentially the same throughout the 1940s. But the new Mercury for 1949 was a head-turner.

So well-designed and attractive was the 1949 Mercury that it, and the 1950 and 1951 models, are still coveted. Sales statistics from that era say much for new design’s appeal. In 1948, Ford sold 47,142 Mercury cars, but sold 301,319 for 1949, or almost nine times as many.

Unfortunately, Edsel didn’t live long enough to witness Mercury’s success. He died of cancer in May 1943.

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Mercury had been folded in with the Lincoln division following the Second World War, and the 1949 model was the first Mercury to be produced by the Lincoln-Mercury Division. The new Mercury shared its body with the Lincoln EL Series.

Mercury kept its 118-inch wheelbase but was longer than the Ford at 206.9 inches and was designed to occupy a much larger visual space. The all-new Ford for 1949 was compact-looking and would be dubbed the Shoebox Ford, but the Mercury was more sculpted. It was a remarkably handsome vehicle.

Its engine was a 255-cubic-inch V8 that produced 110 horsepower. The car was driven by a three-speed manual transmission.

The new Mercury Eight could be purchased as a two-door coupe, a two-door convertible, a two-door station wagon or a four-door sedan. The four-door sedan was structured so its rear doors were hinged on the B-pillar. The so-called suicide doors were a neat feature.

Sales for the new Mercury were spectacular. For 1949, the Ford Motor Company sold a jaw-dropping 301,819 units – a record for Mercury. The new Mercury Eight was so well-received that its sales lifted the nameplate to sixth overall in North American car sales. That was a prestigious position, especially during a post-war car boom when almost every car company was posting record sales. For 1949, the best-selling nameplates were, from the top: Ford, Chevrolet, Plymouth, Buick and Pontiac. And Pontiac sold only a few thousand more cars than did sixth-place Mercury.

For 1950, there were some slight changes. The Monterey name was added as a high-end two-door coupe. Ford was doing the same thing with its Crestliner, while Lincoln offered the two-door Lido and Cosmopolitan Capri. The reason was to better compete against GM’s two-door hardtop coupes that had been introduced for 1949.

Mercury sales weren’t as strong for 1950, with sales of 293,688 units. That was slightly lower than 1949. But for 1951, and with the Mercury line-up relatively unchanged, sales were stronger than in 1949, at 310,397.

Over the three-year period, Mercury sold almost 906,000 cars.

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The design genius behind the 1949 Mercury was Eugene Turenne Gregorie Jr. (1908-2002), more commonly known as Bob Gregorie.

Born on Long Island, New York, Gregorie never finished high school and was hired by a yacht-building company in New Jersey. He worked there for about a year before being hired by another yacht design firm in Manhattan.

By late 1928, Gregorie was working for an automobile body design company, Brewster & Company, but moved to Detroit in 1929 and worked for a few months at GM in its new design department.

But when the Stock Market crashed in late October 1929, Gregorie was laid off. He tried to get a job at the Lincoln Motor Company but a hiring freeze was in place. For much of 1930, he worked at various job related to the yacht industry.

Gregorie’s big break came in late 1930 when he received a telegram from Lincoln’s chief body engineer saying they needed a designer. The directive had come from Edsel Ford, who oversaw all of Lincoln’s operations, including design.

Gregorie was hired in early 1931; he was only 22. His first assignment was to design a Ford car for the European market.

Fortunately for Gregorie, he was working closely with Edsel Ford, who held a deep appreciation for automotive design and who wanted to inject smart styling into all of the automobiles engineered and built by the Ford Motor Company. Edsel Ford saw in Bob Gregorie a protégé and like-minded man who held a similar passion.

Gregorie’s brief experience styling yachts had provided him with a window into practical design and application. Ford engineers were pleased with how well their new designer could meld together the various elements required of an automobile designer. Gregorie was able to deftly incorporate function with style.

Indeed, it was said the young man could sit at a desk and sketch designs while Edsel Ford paced the office floor speaking about his vision for a various model. Gregorie’s interpretation of what Edsel wanted, or thought he wanted, was said to be remarkable.

Their professional collaboration would lead to a string of memorable automobiles, including the 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr, the 1940 Lincoln Continental and finally the 1949 Mercury.

Bob Gregorie left the Ford Motor Company in 1946, but only after he had designed the 1949 Mercury.