1945-1975: A "Junior Lincoln"

First generation Mercury Cougar

Second generation Mercury S-55

Mercury was its own division at Ford until 1945 when it was combined with Lincoln into the Lincoln-Mercury Division, with Ford hoping the brand would be known as a "junior Lincoln," rather than an upmarket Ford. In 1949, Mercury introduced the first of its "new look" integrated bodies, at the same time that Ford and Lincoln also changed styling radically. Again in 1952, Mercury offered a further modernization in its look.
In 1958, the Lincoln-Mercury Division and the ill-fated Edsel brand were joined into the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division; with the demise of Edsel in 1960, it has been the Lincoln-Mercury Division ever since.
Like Edsel, Mercury was a brand created from scratch as opposed to the 1922 acquisition of Lincoln. Mercury's heyday was in the 1950s, when its formula of stretching and lowering existing