Mercury automobile
Mercury is an automobile brand name of the Ford Motor Company founded in 1939 to market semi-luxury cars slotted between entry-level Ford and luxury Lincoln models. To this day most Mercury models are based on Ford brand platforms. Mercury was its own division at Ford until 1959 when it was combined with Lincoln and the ill-fated Edsel into the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division; with the demise of Edsel, it's been in the Lincoln-Mercury Division ever since.Mercury, like the defunct Edsel was created from scratch, rather than being a takeover of an existing company like Lincoln. Mercury's heyday was in the 1950's, when its formula of stretching and lowering existing Ford platforms was very successful.
With a range consisting of only four vehicles right now, all even more thinly disguised Fords than ever, many industry observers question whether Mercury will survive in the long term. Its alliance with Lincoln has so far kept it alive; all Lincoln dealers also sell Mercury vehicles, and they desire some lower-priced vehicles in their showrooms.
List of Mercury automobiles
See also: List of automobile manufacturers
