Should I blog a ’59 Mercury?

Front. (Photo by Jeff Koch.)


Rear. (Photo by Jeff Koch.)

Yes; I was pleasantly surprised.
The May 2016 issue of my Hemmings Classic Car magazine has a feature on a 1959 Mercury Park Lane.
1959 was not a banner-year for Detroit auto styling.
Every General Motors offering for that year except Buick looked dreadfully ugly.
Even Buick was garish, but looked pretty good. They succeeded despite the idiom.
Ford Motor Company was debatable. Its Ford looked passable, but then there was Edsel, advanced but blessed with its vertical horse-collar grille.
The Lincoln looked insane.
Chrysler I had to look up — indicating their cars were forgettable.
It was the time of Exner excess, gigantic tailfins from Virgil Exner.
I remember Plymouth, inordinately ugly after the 1958, which didn’t look too bad — what the ’57, the same body, shoulda been.
I also remember Dodge, a complete disaster.
But then there was Mercury. It made a few small mistakes, but otherwise looked great.
The front was simple, and those rear rocket-shape side concavities define the taillights and rear — which also look great.
It looked pretty good compared to 1959’s styling disasters.
Mercury went out on its own with its 1957 model.
It looks ridiculous, but back then I thought it looked pretty good, especially with Cruiser-skirts.

A ’57 Mercury Turnpike-Cruiser (this car has Cruiser-skirts).

Back then I lusted after styling excesses like the Mercury Turnpike-Cruiser with its funky opening rear-window.
One also has to remember Mercury was first to break the 400 cubic-inch displacement barrier. Available was an engine at 430 cubic-inches.
For some reason it didn’t generate the press of the 409 Chevy, which came two years later.
And the Park Lane was a special car. Its wheelbase was three inches longer than the new 1958 models.
Ford was considering dropping the Park Lane, the premium Mercury model.
But they didn’t, and the Park Lane is still very much a Mercury.
Compared to the ’59 Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and even the ’59 Chevy, the worst-looking Chevrolet ever made, the Merc looks great.
It’s a shame not many ’59 Mercuries are around.

• Dudes, click the 409-Chevy link.