The Mercury brand was born of Ford Motor Company's realization that they had nothing to offer in the "mid-priced field" - the place between the $700 Ford and $1,400 Lincoln Zephyr. This market segment was producing lots of revenue for Chrysler Corp., General Motors and the independents and Ford wanted a piece of the action.

Henry Ford's son, Edsel, came up with the idea of creating an additional offering for Ford. He was thinking of a "super deluxe Ford", rather than a separate model. In fact, early production Mercury models carried hubcaps with 'Ford Mercury' on them. At its late 1938 introduction as a '39 model, the car was finally designated Mercury. Early Mercs looked a lot like Fords, although the two didn't share a single exterior body panel. Nevertheless, the Mercury was a little bigger, more powerful and better-trimmed than its Ford Deluxe sibling and it sold well - 70,835 vehicles in its first model year.

Mercury was restyled slightly for 1940 with new sealed-beam headlights, new taillights and was given the designation 'Mercury Eight', an acknowledgement of its 95 horsepower V8 engine. (Many of its medium-priced competitors had mere six-cylinder powerplants.)

In 1940, over 86,000 Mercuries were sold. Most of these sales probably would have gone to other medium-priced make if Mercury didn't exist; in that context, Mercury was a success. But, it was a qualified success, in the sense that most other mid-priced brands handily outsold Mercury:

Nevertheless, the early Mercs were handsome cars and quite popular with hot rodders just after World War II. (posted 5/31/10)