"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
10/21/2015 at 10:17 • Filed to: None

‘57 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Ranchero.

DISCUSSION (5)

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/21/2015 at 11:03

So kinda the Canadian Edsel? In-between Ford and Mercury.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > JR1
10/21/2015 at 11:17

Yep, pretty much, and it was a thing much longer than Edsel was. Less unique ultimately going into it than Edsel, but that wasn’t a problem. Usually it was Ford + Mercury engine and some goodies, with unique trim (things like the bumpers/grill). As Wikipedia explains it, they had the Meteor as a way to sell Fords at Lincoln-Mercury dealers, and they had a “Monarch” to sell at Ford dealers that was more or less a Mercury... this being due to Canadian dealer franchising being a little weird. Interesting particularly since some of the Mercurys had related sheet metal to the Lincolns. The first year of the Falcon, they sold a version in Canada as the Frontenac - but for reasons I don’t really understand, the Frontenac though in theory not a Ford as such wasn’t a Meteor either. Of course, this was also the year that Comets were sold as their own brand *everywhere*, not just Canada, because it was originally supposed to be a mini-Edsel and they hadn’t badged it as a Mercury yet, exactly.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > JR1
10/21/2015 at 11:26

One note about the ‘57 Ford (and obvs. the Meteor because it was on Ford sheet metal): if you look at the headlight “eyebrows”, they’re much wider than the light. I think it’s because Ford was deviously widening the underpinnings a year ahead of schedule for the ‘58 model year - when paired headlights were going to become legal. I suspect the size and location of the bucket holes is probably the only difference between the two years for the grill/rad support sheet.

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/21/2015 at 12:46

That is an interesting observation. I always thought it was odd that before 58 the double headlight was illegal.

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/21/2015 at 12:47

Really it is a pretty good marketing scheme on Fords part. I can’t imagine something like that ever working today though. Oh how the times have changed.