Mercury Comet
The Mercury Comet was a vehicle that was from 1960 to 1977 by Mercury, a brand of Ford Motor Company built. He was the smallest offered by Mercury model until 1974, the even smaller Mercury Bobcat appeared.
The Comet was not a stand-alone model, but it was based on different contemporary American Ford models. Basis of the Comet was of
The Comet Falcon - based (1960-1965)
Mercury Comet MJ 1960
Launched in the fall of 1959 Ford Falcon was a huge sales success from the start. He showed that not all Americans were eager to drive a big street cruiser, but that a market for smaller cars was present.
To build on this success yet, Ford brought in March 1960 Mercury Comet out. As the big Mercury models still somewhat larger than the Ford models and Mercury models were basically positioned higher, and the Comet was compared to the Falcon as the high-order model. However, a six-cylinder in-line engine with 2400 cc and 85 hp SAE (63 kW), the same engine as in the use of Falcon found at 4200 rpm; so that he had inferior performance compared to Falcon. To remedy this deficiency, there was ³ from the fall of 1960 for the new model year Optionally, a slightly larger engine at 2800 cm. From the spring of 1963 there was even a 4700 cc V8 engine.
From autumn 1963, the Comet received a slightly more angular bodywork. In this form it was built until 1965. In addition came as a better, more expensive versions, the Comet Caliente and Comet Cyclone series into the program. With the next model change of the Comet grew in dimensions, so that the technical basis used so far found no use.
From the first Comet series originated a total of 803,000 copies.
The Comet on Fairlane - based (1965-1969)
Mercury Comet Cabriolet MJ 1965
Introduced in the fall of 1965 series no longer based on the Falcon, but on the next larger model, the Ford Fairlane. The Comet was now 5.16 m long. From now on, he no longer belonged in the category of compact cars, but the American middle class. The engines were grown. The base six-cylinder now had 3300 cc, the eight-cylinder reached up to 6400 cc. In the 1967 model year Mercury caused confusion because only the base model was still called " Comet ". The better-equipped variants were called Capri and Caliente, the sports coupe model Cyclone.
In model year 1968, the name Capri Caliente and were replaced by the name of Montego. The base model was still Comet, the sports coupe Cyclone. According to the model year 1969, the Comet name was abandoned completely. The complete series was now called Mercury Montego, only the sports coupe was until 1971 still called Cyclone.
From the second series of the second Comet (including Capri, Caliente and Cyclone without Montego ) just under 430,000 copies were sold.
The Comet on Maverick Base (1970-1977)
Maverick Mercury Comet on base
In the meantime, grew up in America, the demand for smaller cars. The Mercury Montego was now too big for an entry-level model of the brand in its dimensions, so that the offer had to be extended by a smaller Mercury model.
Also in this case shied Ford the cost of a stand-alone Mercury model. Therefore, the introduced in the fall of 1970 Comet was based on the Ford Maverick, whose production had begun a year earlier. Unlike the first Comet the body with the Maverick was largely identical; the Mercury version differed from the Ford Model externally only by a more pronounced grille. The main differences between the two models existed in the respective equipment.
Also, the motor program was identical to the Maverick. There was a six-cylinder with either 2800, 3300 or 4100 cc. In addition, a 4942 cc V8 engine was offered for those customers who did not want to give up an eight-cylinder engine in the compact car segment.
This Cometmodell was, like the Maverick, built until 1977; There were a total of 487,000 copies.
Successor models
The model class was afterwards still continued by Mercury; also the successor models based on corresponding Ford models. One after another followed the model types (Ford - based models in brackets):