In 1965, the luxurious LTD took the full-size Ford into the mid-price realm, which was theoretically supposed to be the domain of the middle-class Mercury brand. Ford had tried to give the full-size Mercury its own identity, with unique styling and larger dimensions, but did the LTD now beat its big brother at its own game? Let’s take a look at a 1966 LTD four-door hardtop and a top-of-the-line 1966 Mercury Park Lane and see how they compared.
The original purpose of Mercury was to bridge the substantial price gap between Ford and Lincoln. However, Mercury was usually most successful in the lower end of that gap — an extra-deluxe Ford rather than a junior Lincoln. In the ’50s, it wasn’t too hard for Ford to get people to pay around $300 more for a Mercury than for a senior Ford, but going above that was dicey. Even in Mercury’s good years, the brand was never very competitive with upper-middle-class models like senior Buicks and Chryslers.
There was nothing inherently wrong with selling extra-deluxe Fords, except that Ford Division could do that too — and did, often with great success. That was true even before the introduction of the Ford LTD in 1965, but the LTD’s list price put it squarely in the same realm as an Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 or a Buick LeSabre, and made it directly competitive with the Mercury full-size line.
Ford hadn’t exactly hung Mercury out to dry. The 1965–1966 full-size Mercury was bigger than the full-size Ford (although they were structurally very similar), stretching 10.4 inches longer on a 4-inch-longer wheelbase. It was offered only with FE-series big block engines — no sixes or 289s — including a 410-cid version not available in the Ford line. There was also the Breezeway sedan, with its retractable reverse-slant rear window, which was a little odd-looking, but accounted for almost 30 percent of 1965 big Mercury sales.
This 1966 Park Lane four-door hardtop isn’t a Breezeway, but it was pretty close to the top of the Mercury line — only the Park Lane and S-55 convertibles were priced higher. It was also the best-selling individual big Mercury, by a slight margin over the cheaper Monterey two-door hardtop.
With a base price of $3,460, this Park Lane was theoretically competitive with the Chrysler 300 and Buick Wildcat. However, it’s hard not to wonder how the Park Lane compared with the Ford LTD.
In four-door hardtop form, the 1966 LTD listed for $3,278, $182 less than the Park Lane.
Things weren’t that simple, though, because the LTD came standard with automatic transmission, which was optional on all big 1966 Mercurys for $227. Almost no one bought cars like these without automatic, so factoring that in brought the price difference to about $409.
The Mercury Park Lane also came standard with the 335 hp M-code 410-4V engine, which wasn’t offered at all on the Ford. This car has the optional Q-code 428-4V V-8, which cost an extra $97.
The bronze LTD has the Z-code 390-4V, which cost an extra $184 with automatic transmission. If this car had had the 428-4V, it would have added an additional $64, making it $215 cheaper than a Park Lane with the same powertrain.
Anyway, you get the idea. You could buy an LTD for less than a Park Lane, especially if you were content with the 289, and Lincoln-Mercury usually charged more than Ford for the same options. However, with comparable equipment, the gap wasn’t huge for a buyer in this class — perhaps $7 or $8 more a month on a 36-month car note.
Inside, the Mercury had the nicer instrument panel, with more actual instruments.
The LTD just had a ribbon speedometer, a fuel gauge, and a clock.
Four-door hardtop versions of both cars had flow-through ventilation, exhausting through the vent under the backlight.
Along with their different dashboard designs, the LTD and Park Lane had different interior decor, although they were similarly ornate.
Both models had simulated walnut paneling on the dashboard and doors.
Although the Mercury was noticeably larger than the Ford on the outside, none of its greater length and longer wheelbase went into the passenger compartment, so these cars’ interior dimensions were almost exactly the same.
Unlike the LTD, Park Lane hardtops were optionally available with real leather upholstery, but this was offered only in Burgundy, and it was not common. I think the brocade fabric was more common, and more comparable to the “Limousine-Luxury” nylon in the LTD, which Ford designers nicknamed “panty cloth.”
Both the Park Lane and the LTD four-door hardtop had fold-down rear armrests.
The Mercury’s styling and larger exterior dimensions made it look more imposing, although they also made it about 150 lb heavier than a comparably equipped LTD, with no advantage in usable space.
The styling of the LTD was less boxy than its bigger brother. Whether that was a plus or a minus was a matter of taste. I happen to think the full-size Ford’s flared “hips” look better on the two-door hardtop; they seem a little incongruous with the formal roof of the four-door hardtop.
Obviously, the biggest criticism you could make of the LTD was that despite its price and interior appointments, it was still just a Ford. On the other hand, Ford had been surprisingly successful in offering pricier models that transcended their brand — affluent buyers hadn’t balked at the Ford badges on the Thunderbird and Country Squire — and I’m not sure how much higher the Mercury marque rated in prestige.
Here’s a serious question: Was Mercury ever really seen as a premium brand? At least during my lifetime, its place in the complex social hierarchy of automotive brands never seemed that high. A Mercury was more expensive than an equivalent Ford, which in America usually counts for something, but I’ve never seen much indication of people being wowed by the cachet of owning a Mercury. These ’60s cars were before my time, but I noticed that the trade-in values of the Park Lane lagged significantly behind a similarly priced Chrysler or Buick, and weren’t notably better than the LTD.
The 1966 Ford LTD was a popular car: It sold 101,096 cars for the model year. If it had been a standalone model, that would have been no great shakes, but total full-size Ford production for 1966 (including the cheaper Galaxie and Custom models) was close to a million cars, so the LTD was frosting on a rather rich cake.
1966 was the best year for the Mercury Park Lane, but production totaled only 38,800. Total big Mercury sales were only 146,946, down somewhat from 1965 and less than half the total sales of full-size Buicks for 1966.
I don’t know that the LTD really HURT sales of the full-size Mercury line, which hadn’t done very well since before the 1957 recession. However, the LTD raised some difficult questions about Mercury’s direction. Ford had made a decent effort to differentiate the big Mercury from the big Ford in size and styling, but the mediocre sales didn’t go a long way towards justifying the cost. The full-size Mercury line let Ford spread out its engineering and shared tooling costs over a larger number of cars and helped to support the 2,500-odd Lincoln Mercury dealers, but it could probably have done that just about as well at lower cost with a lightly made-over Galaxie.
The LTD had a much simpler path to success. All it had to do was to seem plush enough and luxurious enough to persuade a reasonable number of Ford buyers that it was worth a few extra dollars a month over the price of a Galaxie 500. It didn’t matter if anyone called the LTD a gussied-up Ford because it WAS a gussied-up Ford, and it was so profitable that there was no reason for Ford management to try to squelch it to protect Mercury. That would have been leaving money on the table, and I’m sure everyone involved knew it.
This conclusion turned out to be the way of the future for Detroit. In the long run, the trend for most mid-price brands, even successful ones, was downward: less differentiation, lower costs, diminished prestige, and eventually declining sales. A lot of those brands are now gone — including Mercury — and some that remain are on borrowed time, but a quick glance through the current F-150 or Bronco lineup reveals that there’s still a robust market for gussied-up Fords.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1965 Ford LTD – It Launched The Great Brougham Epoch (by Paul N)
Vintage Review: Car And Driver’s 1965 Ford LTD – Possibly The Best Ford Ever Built (by Rich Baron)
1966 Ford LTD – “Remarkable! I Do Believe Your Ford Is Quieter!” (by Paul N)
Junkyard Heirloom Gallery: 1966 Mercury Park Lane Four Door Hardtop (by Jim Klein)
1967 Ford LTD (With Original “Panty Cloth” Upholstery): Charting the Rise of the LTD (by Paul N)
Somehow I never got any firsthand experience with an LTD until my father got a new 69 model. And it was a really nice car. The interior on this 66 is way, way nicer than the one in Dad’s 66 Country Squire, which was pretty much a Galaxie 500 inside.
This piece asks a really good question. Somehow, poor Mercury never really made a case for itself over a sustained period. Most new car buyers traded every 2-4 years back then, so it would have needed 2, 3 or 4 design cycles to develop a significant following. 1965 might have been the start of a good effort which began bearing fruit in the 70’s with the Marquis, but then came 1979 and suddenly it was 1961 all over again. I knew lots of people who owned 1960’s big Fords, but recall only one guy in my circle of acquaintances who owned a big Mercury.
I was going to say the strategy did finally strike gold with the Marquis. I think Mercury was doing so well with that and Ford convinced Bob Tasca of Rhode Island (one of if not the largest Ford dealer in the USA) to switch to Mercury in the early 70s.
The LTD cozied up close to the Mercury and Aaron you have shown that. The styling of the Merc was Lincoln-esque but apparently that wasn’t enough. The Marquis took it up a notch and that seemed to catch on. What happened later in the 80s would require a deep dive but I’m thinking you could lump Pontiac and Oldsmobile in that conversation.
Yes, the Marquis did get them moving – and moving upmarket. Until as you note, it didn’t. And to JP’s point above, starting in 1965, Mercury advertising overtly linked the mid-priced car with the Continental Touch. They pitched the Colony Park as the wagon Lincoln would build if they had one.
The Marquis did make a case for Mercury as a significantly better car than an LTD, yet in the end our market resolved to our current mass/class duopoly, with Chrysler, Buick, and maybe Infiniti and Acura as exceptional ‘mid-priced’ survivors – even thrivers in the case of Buick.
Which left no room for Mercury, Olds, Pontiac, Saturn, or Plymouth against stronger mass brands in their corporate portfolios.
Have to admit I’m not a big fan of the ’65-’66 Mercury, one of the few cars that could make a full-size Dodge of the same era look exciting.
I spent a lot of time in the front passenger seat of our family’s 1972 Ford Country Sedan wagon. The right side of the dashboard had a label marked “Galaxie 500”.
A quick check on Bring a Trailer indicates that the dashboard of a 1972 Country Squire (with simulated wood on the sides) was marked “LTD”.
I have a soft spot for 1960s full size Mercs. My uncle was a successful criminal lawyer in a small town and liked his comforts. He always had a new Mercury. It was always heavily optioned and in an understated colour. He and my Dad had been best friends since they were kids. His kids, my cousins, were the same age as my brother and I. So we saw each other a lot. I remember a conversation where the topic of cars came up, and my uncle explained that while he could afford a Lincoln, he didn’t feel he could afford to be seen in one. But a Ford wasn’t quite right either. The Mercury, or sometimes a Meteor, was just right for the image he felt he needed to portray. “Successful but not greedy” was how he put it. Unc was a die hard Ford man so wouldn’t even consider a Buick or Chrysler. And I suspect a lot of Mercury customers were the same.
The LTD gave such folks another option and probably siphoned off some of Mercury’s customers over time, but I don’t think it made Mercury obsolete because Mercury was already obsolete before the LTD arrived. It just took awhile for their customers, guys like my Uncle, to age out of the market. I’m in my ’60s now and no one in my age group that I can remember ever even noticed a new Mercury let alone wanted one. Nothing wrong with them, but nothing interesting or unique about them either.
If the interior dimensions are the same it might have come down to which dealer was closer and who wanted to deal. I had one neighbor who bought big Mercury sedans when I was a kid, because Lincolns were too flashy, but a pretty good smattering of Fords in the neighborhood.
I didn’t really pay that much attention, we were a solid Oldsmobile family…base model Ninety Eights and 88s, vinyl top, vinyl seats, AM radio and A/C…that was it.
The biggest irony came at the end of the Mercury brand. The Panther-chassis Grand Marquis truly was a “gussied-up Ford” with nothing but a few trim bits and different materials to separate it from a Crown Victoria. But the public perception of the Crown Vic was as a cop car, taxi, or municipal vehicle, so if you wanted your big FoMoCo sedan to have any cachet at all, you skipped the Ford dealer and headed straight for the local L-M store.
The 50s and 60s were peak Sloane ladder philosophy. Each GM premium car had its own styling, drivetrain, and personality. Ford’s Sloane ladder with two less cars was more of a hurdle. It always seemed that Mercury seesawed between being a senior Ford and a junior Lincoln, and never found its niche.
Both are good lookers, I’d take the Merc. .
-Nate
There’s another element in the success of the LTD and Ford in general vs. Mercury. The Ford brand was not as locked in to being a low-price brand as were Chevrolet and Plymouth. This was due to several factors, including the Thunderbird, the Country Squire and the Mustang, all of which were highly acceptable (and popular) with affluent buyers.
The LTD benefited from that, both with more affluent buyers as well as less affluent buyers who saw the LTD as a genuine step up in prestige. All of this worked very much in favor for Ford at the expense of Mercury, which had always struggled with its image.
So the answer is: Yes, for the most part. But as we know, Mercury did come back in the ’70s when the Brougham Decade really kicked into high gear.
Indeed and let’s add to the list print and tv ads like “Built in the Lincoln Continental tradition” and “at the sign of the cat” with a big cougar roaring on top of the Mercury-Lincoln sign also helped Mercury in the 1970s.
Bingo, I was coming here to say the same thing. When my aunt got a new LTD coupe in 1966 and later parked it next to our 1965 Thunderbird it compared very favorably. LTD quickly became a real separate status nameplate. Even when I moved from Indiana to SoCal in 1972, folks here spoke of LTD as an aspirational car, well above a “Ford.” Initially including a V8, automatic, full wheel covers, and many other luxury appointments as standard was a good move, similar to one Ford used with the first Mustang that included bucket seats, carpeting, full wheel covers, etc as standard. There weren’t any low end appearing examples of either model around so the name conveyed a certain status.
There weren’t many Mercurys around when I was growing up and I don’t remember anyone expressing the view that they were superior to say, a Ford Galaxie 500. Perry Mason drove Ford Skyliner and Sunliner convertibles before the Cadillacs and Lincolns/Continentals but never a Mercury!
Perry Mason jumped from a ’57 Cadillac to a ’57 Skyliner but then mostly Fords until the Kennedy Lincolns came out.
As far as Mercury goes, everything changed when in 1968 Steve McGarrett wheeled around this beauty in Hawaii 5-0.
IIRC the earliest episodes in 1957 featured a Skyliner and then Perry switched to a 1957 Cadillac. Then it was back and forth quite a bit. In a few episodes he drives 1959 Continentals and Cadillacs.
I was so heavily invested in college and graduate school from 1968 onward that I never watched a single episode of Hawaii 5-0 and that continues until this day so it’s never been on my radar screen. I do watch Adam Wadecki’s YouTube channel; he’s quite keen on those Mercurys and IIRC owns a few.
Even the comic strips saw the LTD as an aspirational brand.
Good one. Sal and Angie Boca drive a spiffy LTD in The French Connection and it appears in nearly as many scenes as the Mark III. The cops refer to it as the LTD not the brown Ford – they of course are in a lowly blue Custom 500.
Still, the styling of the 1965 LTD with the stacked headlights might have also played a role. Some said the 1965 Ford front end was inspired by the 1963 Pontiac (and also gived inspiration to Plymouth with their new Fury the same model year). We could said then with its full-size line-up, Ford not only goes against Chevrolet but also Pontiac!
The 66 coupe with its concave rear glass and mild coke bottle look seemed Grand Prix inspired.
A young Ford man back in the day and as a 12 or 13 year old, the ’65 and ’66 LTDs I thought were great. I give the edge to the ’66 because of its front-end grill redesign. My school girl crush’s parents had a ’66 Country Squire. My neighbor had a ’65 Country Squire. My other neighbor had a ’66 Colony Park. Surrounded by Fords. My parents were Chrysler people. Not me.
Thanks for this flash back!
Mercury offered a few more optional items that Ford did not. (Though I can be corrected). To my knowledge, power vent windows as seen on the Park Lane above were not available on full-size Fords. And Mercury had a vacuum power trunk release on cars so equipped with a T-handle in the glove compartment, while Ford used a rather utilitarian cable release with a heavy chrome pull knob next to the driver’s seat. As well, I don’t believe cornering lights, also seen on the Park Lane above were offered on full-size Fords that year.