A “Story Ideas Bank” request asked for more coverage of station wagons, so let’s take a step in that direction with a brief look at the 1957-60 Mercury. The Ford Motor Company invested heavily in an expanded wagon lineup as a means of helping to move the Mercury upmarket in the premium-priced field. It sort-of worked, but perhaps not quite like Ford expected.
Chevrolet’s introduction of the Nomad in 1955 helped to unleash a round of experimentation with station wagons. Previously, they had been a purely utilitarian body style. However, the Nomad, with its unusually sleek two-door greenhouse, showed how wagons could also be halo cars.
In 1956 American Motors offered a four-door hardtop wagon with its new Rambler. Then, in 1957, General Motors followed suit with its premium-priced Buick and Oldsmobile brands.
Mercury picked up the ball and ran the farthest with new variations on a wagon. For 1957 the brand didn’t even offer a traditional wagon, which was based upon a four-door sedan. Instead, only pillarless hardtops were offered in both four- and two-door versions.
Also see ‘1956 was an odd transition year for Ford’s Mercury brand’
This was in contrast to Mercury’s corporate siblings, Ford and Edsel, which from 1957-59 only offered more traditional wagons.
For 1957 Mercury also expanded the number of trim levels of its wagons from two to three — the entry-level Commuter, mid-level Voyager, and top-end Colony Park. The first two series were available as a two- and four-door hardtop and with six- or nine-passenger seating.
Also see ‘1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser is a monument to Ford’s failed ambitions’
In contrast, the Colony Park only came in four-door, nine-passenger form. In addition, it was the only Mercury with fake woodgrain exterior decor. Add two-tone paint and it was a veritable fiesta of colors.
Unlike the Nomad, Mercury’s two-door models used the same greenhouse as their four-door siblings. That may have been cheaper to produce, but it didn’t add a whole lot stylistically. Thus, it doesn’t strike me as surprising that production of two-door models didn’t even reach 7,000 units in 1957. That represented only 19 percent of Mercury’s total wagon output.
Mercury’s 1957 wagons achieved record-breaking sales
The good news was that wagons were one of Mercury’s few bright spots in 1957. Whereas overall production was down by 13 percent, wagons went up more than 15 percent to almost 36,000 units. That would stand as a postwar peak for the big Mercury wagons.
For 1958 the wagon lineup was carried over with relatively few changes. The most noticeable difference was a much more attractive front end that integrated quad headlights instead of tacking them in a crude fashion, as was done on some Mercury models the previous year.
The premium-priced field saw output fall almost 39 percent in 1958, but Mercury was down even more — 53 percent. Once again wagons held up better than the rest of the lineup; they only fell 38 percent. The best-selling model was the Commuter four-door wagon shown below.
Two-door wagons didn’t sell nearly as well as those with four doors — they were off by a whopping 64 percent. Only 568 Yoyager two-door wagons like the one below were produced in 1958.
Mercury’s wagon offensive beat a slow retreat
For 1959 the two-door wagon was only offered on the entry-level Commuter, where a minuscule 1,000 units left the factory. So for 1960 the grand experiment with two doors was over.
The four-door hardtops lasted one more year. But when Mercury was repositioned downmarket as a fancy Ford in 1961, it once again only offered sedan-based wagons. They didn’t look as stylish as the 1957-60 models, but the pillared-door design arguably better fit with why people generally bought wagons — for their added utility in hauling lots of people and cargo.
Also see ‘1966 Mercury Colony Park wagon was an unsung bright spot for the brand’
Through 1964 wagon output was roughly half that of 1957 but it hovered at around 14 percent of big Mercury production. Wagons proved to be a good niche for the brand while the rest of its big car line struggled to regain traction in the first half of the 1960s. The pillared wagons just weren’t as interesting as the hardtops of 1957-60.
NOTES:
Specifications and production figures are from the auto editors of Consumer Guide (2006), Gunnell (2002) and Wikipedia (2020).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1993, 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Wikipedia; 2020. “U.S. Automobile Production Figures.” Page last edited Oct. 4.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Mercury (1957, 1958, 1961)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Mercury (1959, 1960)
Wagons, Ho! Loved this story, Steve. I didn’t even know that the 2-door hardtop wagon existed until fairly recently. As you noted, they are barely distinguishable from the 4-door hardtop versions so one questions why they even bothered, other than for the sake of being the only make to offer such a bodystyle. I am curious if these Mercury hardtop wagons sold better than the 1957-58 Oldsmobile and Buick hardtop wagons. The Mercs are certainly better looking, IMHO.
CJ, I’ve been on deadline so just got a chance to do a quick check of production figures. In 1957 Mercury was the clear leader. Buick produced around 24,000 units and Oldsmobile 20,000. Chrysler didn’t offer a hardtop wagon, but as a point of comparison it produced only around 4,000 units. I’ll take a deeper dive when I get more time but I suspect that these rough patterns will hold for a few years, with Chrysler eventually moving up in relation to Buick and Oldsmobile.
The full size 2 door wagon was faltering by the late 50s, seen as the loss leader wagon and a delivery wagon with windows. Mercury should have not done the two door wagon in the lower two trim lines, but kept it special like Nomad and the Pontiac clone. Mercury was now going head to head with Olds and Buick. The 2 door wagon should have been offered only as a model in the Turnpike Cruiser series, a true shooting brake.
Great story ! I only saw was a pillar-less Mercury station wagon in a showroom in 1958, but never on the road. I had a friend whose parents owned a four-door pillared 1960 Commuter wagon. A neat car, but rare on Indiana roads and highways. That said 1957 and 1958 Olds Fiesta and Buick Caballero wagons were pretty rare, too.