It happened. Mercury is gone.

Yeah....car companies need to streamline, no doubt. But I will always remember the Mercury models that were part of nostalgia's class act. I'll never forget my '51 Merc convertible. Or my '67 Cougar XR-7. I would love to have both of those cars back again.

 

Thank you for the kind words about Buick.... !!!

 

Erik, Henry Ford was building motorized vehicles and engines as far back as 1876. Lots of great companies started as simple proprietorships, not corporations. He was a goldminer for a few years and returned to Detroit, the Ford family owned lots of farmland, and built a wagon factory, which later became his first car plant.

What's unique about Henry's vision of a car factory is that he actually owned the forests for his wood frames and had a steel smelter at one end of the plant to make his own sheetmetal and frame stampings and cast his own engines. The original plant was 1.5 miles long. He pioneered what we Industrial Engineers call Vertical Manufacturing. From Raw Material to finished goods AKA Real Added Value. That's why he could sell his 1908 Model T at $708.00 and later, in 1935, he could sell a 1935 V8 convertible for $535. The efficincies Henry could acheive, actually reduced the price of the cars! Right in the middle of the Great Depression! A lot of other companies closed then, and later joined the US Government to build war machines and weapons. Ford built fridges and radios under the Philco brand. Probably built a lot of parts for the war effort too.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5553707/

 

so where is that kind of thinking in the current management of ford?
it looks like to me ,there only care about there pay checks and pay raise, than making right ideas.

 

"Stormin' Norman"
(Sorry to address you like this, but I don't know your first name)

Now you finally came out of the closet and told us in your own way that you're a Buick fan (which is the oldest car manufacturer in North America), the next minute you start to twist facts around, hoping that we didn't read between the lines.....

 

I found the following.....
[SIZE=-1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Charles and Frank Duryea[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]America's first gasoline-powered commercial car manufacturers were Charles and Frank Duryea. The brothers were bicycle makers who became interested in gasoline engines and automobiles and built their first motor vehicle in 1893, in Springfield, Massachusetts. By 1896, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company had sold thirteen models of the Duryea, an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s. (Learn more about Charles and Frank Duryea)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Ransome Eli Olds[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]The first automobile to be mass produced in the United States was the 1901, Curved Dash Oldsmobile, built by the American car manufacturer Ransome Eli Olds (1864-1950). Olds invented the basic concept of the assembly line and started the Detroit area automobile industry. He first began making steam and gasoline engines with his father, Pliny Fisk Olds, in Lansing, Michigan in 1885. Olds designed his first steam-powered car in 1887. In 1899, with a growing experience of gasoline engines, Olds moved to Detroit to start the Olds Motor Works, and produce low-priced cars. He produced 425 "Curved Dash Olds" in 1901, and was America's leading auto manufacturer from 1901 to 1904.[/SIZE]
Henry Ford
[SIZE=-1]American car manufacturer, Henry Ford (1863-1947) invented an improved assembly line and installed the first conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory in Ford's Highland Park, Michigan plant, around 1913-14. The assembly line reduced production costs for cars by reducing assembly time. Ford's famous Model T was assembled in ninety-three minutes. Ford made his first car, called the "Quadricycle," in June, 1896. However, success came after he formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903. This was the third car manufacturing company formed to produce the cars he designed. He introduced the Model T in 1908 and it was a success. After installing the moving assembly lines in his factory in 1913, Ford became the world's biggest car manufacturer. By 1927, 15 million Model Ts had been manufactured.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Another victory won by Henry Ford was patent battle with George B. Selden. Selden, who had never built an automobile, held a patent on a "road engine", on that basis Selden was paid royalties by all American car manufacturers. Ford overturned Selden's patent and opened the American car market for the building of inexpensive cars. [/SIZE]

 

I wish I knew. I have the same beef with our government and our corporations. Look at both our countries. Resource rich. How many companies are struggling to bring costs down by reducing wages, cutting fulltime jobs to part time, and getting their offshore factories to produce in low wage nations?

Vertical manufacturing cuts emissions because you aren't shipping ore to some distant country to get parts made and then shipping them back to assemble. It keeps good jobs here, and not lost money in shipping costs. It creates new industries, and to top it all off, it makes the product more efficiently and affordable.

Why aren't we doing more of it? Because Old Joe Kennedy had his company town scandals, or other companies like the Oil industry, who do exactly that, from oil well to gaspump are so aggressive?

Wood, iron, bauxite, copper, zinc and other minerals are being pumped out of our country by anybody else but our own companies and refined anywhere else. We're just resource aphids, paying way too much and creating jobs for customs agents and tax collectors. Where's the ingenuity in that?:banghead3:

 

Norm, Norman or Normand (French Canadian version). When my wife's really angry with me (she's Mexican), she'll call me Normando or pinche puto.

I do like Buicks. Owned a few Rivieras too. But I'm not really enamored with any brand. I love my Fairmont (Owned a new one in 1981) because it is one of the most contradictory cars of our times. In these days of accelerated Planned Obsolescence, sometimes with Government support (like the US/Canadian Clunker program), this line of fox-bodied cars shares parts from 1960 to 1996, and because of the popularity of Mustangs and TBirds as collector cars, has a huge aftermarket supply of parts manufacturers and upgrades that will outlive me! Its just not gonna die like so many other models have. I can buy a new floorpan, windshields, etc. I can get weatherstrippng, upgrade the engine to almost any Ford engine ever made. It's got staying power for another 50 years! For that, I am indebted to Henry Ford and his sons' ingenuity.

 

Erik, if my car was wiped out in an accident, I would get one just like it in Mexico and take my good parts out of this one, and use the insurance money to restore the new, rustfree wagon.

Oh, and my wife loves this wagon too. A critical element having the wife agree, she can drive it as a Mexican and Canadian citizen through the US borders and reduce the complications of importing it into Canada.

 

and why do you go to work in the morning? ....damn that pesky paycheck!
it gets in the way of my right ideas....!

 

Lovin' a '59 Mercury

Just wanted to post a link to a photo of a beautiful 1959 Colony Park. Love those headlight bezels, full-width wide grill and sturdy bumper. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

http://www.seriouswheels.com/1950-1959/1959-Mercury-Colony-Park-Station-Wagon.htm

 

I remember riding in those. Never owned one but a few of my friend's dads had them. What a great car. A true classic today.

 

I never saw one in person, Silverfox, but hope to some day. There was a pretty white '60 C.P. in a nearby town when I was growing up, but the droopy tail-lights kid of gave me the creeps. The '59's & '60's were pretty massive. though. Length of the '59 was 219 inches with a whopping 126" wheelbase compared to my '90 with a surprising identical length (lots of front end overhang in the nose) but much shorter wheelbase (114.2" - better for cornering, just don't forget that big front end!)

 

I had moved to Florida and then came back to visit in 61. That's when I rode in 2 of those wagons. I was 21 or 22 at the time.