Heritage
Pre-War Fords - Meteor (Phase 2)
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The sudden and late decision by Ford United States to stop making the Mercury Meteor left Ford of Canada in a dilemma. Some quotes from the PRODUCT IMAGE AND STRATEGY document from Ford of Canada's Product Planning Office sheds some light on how the Canadian company responded to this predicament.
"The Meteor's principal competition is the Pontiac, the industry leader. . . .The Canadian Pontiac has the U.S. Pontiac Catalina body shell with a Chevrolet chassis and driveline including 230 CID six cylinder engine."
Consequently, Ford of Canada devised a new model to meet its competition. This document goes on to describe that car. "A last minute decision to cancel the U.S. Meteor at the end of the 1963 model run required a stop-gap redesignation of two series of the Mercury shell as Meteors. These cars differed from the Mercury in that they had Ford car instrument panels, Ford interior trims, slightly less exterior ornamentation and a base six cylinder. The low series Meteor was priced $50 wholesale delivery over the base Ford."
So, Meteor re-emerged at the beginning of the 1964 model year, very different from the earlier Ford-based Meteors, and the mid-size 1962-63 Mercury Meteors. Now it was a version of Mercury instead of Ford. As such, it was a foot longer, eight inches wider and an inch higher than the 1963 model.
This Meteor was in almost the same position as the Monarch had been, but with three important differences. 1) The revived Meteor was aimed at the low end of the Mercury class, instead of the upper end of the Ford class. 2) Meteor had been an extremely popular car, so its name was better known and accepted. 3) Meteor was a Mercury dealers' product, while Monarch was sold at Ford agencies.
Because the re-introduction of Meteor was such a quick decision, there was no time to tool up for it. Therefore, the 1964 Meteor looked identical to the 1964 Mercury. The Meteor name badges and Ford interior were the only visible differences from Mercury. Under the hood, however, the base engine was Ford's 223 cid 138 hp six, but Mercury's base V-8, 352 cid 220 hp, was optional.
Two- and 4-door sedans, and 6- and 9-passenger station wagons were offered in base and Custom series. Price of the base 4-door sedan was $2861. That placed it $690 under the lowest priced Mercury sedan, and the price as the Ford Custom 500 2-door sedan. The Meteor sedan under priced Pontiac's lowest priced full-size 4- door sedan by $46.
Calendar 1964 Meteor sales topped 25,100 units. That earned it 8th place in the sales when the full-size Mercury reached only 17th place. Here was another case of Ford of Canada's mutation achieving greater success than the model from which it evolved.
Meteor's 1965 sales were even more successful when registrations totalled over 33,500. Now it had gained back its habitual fourth place standing of its former Ford-based days.
