Canadian cars and trucks are the mother-lode of badge engineering. Mercury trucks came about due to a quirk of the Canadian Ford dealership system due to the sparely populated areas of Canada. Many smaller towns would have either a Ford-Monarch (Mercury in US) or a Lincoln-Mercury-Meteor (Ford) dealership but not both. So starting in 1946 Mercury received its own version of the Ford truck line. So why weren’t they called Meteors? To keep you Americans confused.
The earliest Mercury trucks did differ in the use of chrome. The post war Fords featured a lot painted trim due to a chrome shortage but the Mercury version was lavished with lots of chrome trim. As the years went they became more and more similar to their Ford siblings. For most of the years the difference was just minor trim and badges.
Mercury truck history follows Ford trucks almost identically and while Fords used the ‘F’ prefix the Mercury trucks used ‘M’. From 1948-1950 the Canadian model postfixes where different and represented the maximum gross vehicle weight with the zeroes dropped off. So a 4700 GVW rating would give a model name of F-47 or M-47.
For 1951 the Canadian trucks followed the US naming convention of F-1, F-2, etc and Mercury followed suit with M-1, M-2, etc.
Interestingly there were a few mechanicals differences in the Canadian market due to its smaller market size. It was only V8 engines in post war trucks until 1956 when a 223 cid inline six was offered. Canada kept the flat head V8 for an additional year in 1954 instead of the newly induced in the US OHV V8.
When the US and Canada signed the Automotive Trade Agreement in 1965 Canadian variants slowly started to disappear and the Mercury trucks turn came in 1968.
So how rare is a Mercury truck then? Well for the early trucks the Fords are most common but by the 50s and mid 60s the Mercury trucks seem to make up just less than half of the remaining examples. The updated 1967 and 1968 examples seem quite scare but are still around. They are quite easily to fake though as there is no VIN difference as they were built randomly on the same line as the Fords.
The whole truck range was sold in the Mercury line up so there are Mercury Econolines, heavy duty models, cab over engine models and even school buses.
I lived in Niagara Falls, Ontario at the end of the ’60′s. My dad had a new Ford F-100, the next-door neighbor owned a new Mercury M-100. I remember Mercury trucks seemed as common as Fargos (Plymouth badge-engineered Dodge trucks); also GMC had a different naming system up there: the American 1500 (1/2 ton) was a 910 in the Great White North.
Ive seen a M pickup in NZ as a British commonwealth country the US vehicle supply came from Canada I had always assumed the owners badged this ute themselves as they had a Mercury V8 sedan but my father told me the ute was like that new, he was right as it turns, out one escaped Canada Must be the reason the yblock didnt get here for the correct model as well.Most US cars here were private no remittance imports but supplied thru dealers so there wasnt any real continuity of supply but unlike Australia NZ kept pace with US models ie our Chevs had V8s not 6s , Aussie made Star V8 Fords till 1960 or so a Meteor grille in a 56 Customline.Ford badged not Merc Plenty of old FARGO badged Dodges here too
Part of my sick addiction is feeling the need to own a Fargo and a Mercury badged Slick (I’ve never seen one but heard they exist..).
A buddy of mine had a ’66 Mecury short box in high school. Loved the gear and lightening bolt emblem that appeared several places on the truck…
You learn something every day. I had absolutely no idea that Mercury made trucks.
Not only trucks but there are Mercury Econolines around too.
I think I have the rarest Mercury truck,it’s a 61 Short box Uni body
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