Here on planet Earth, these words can take on a different meaning. Mercury, a brand of the Ford Motor Company, was positioned above the Ford vehicle line and below the Lincoln line, similar to Buick within the General Motors (GM) line. Comet, the upscale version of the Ford Falcon, sold as a Mercury model, capitalising on the popularity of the space race in the 1960s and its bigger sibling, the Mercury Meteor.
MCNAMARA’S MARKET SCORE
After World War II, the Ford Motor Company was losing millions, so Henry Ford II employed 10 US Army Air Force veterans who had specialised in operations and logistics. These 10 men became known as the ‘Whiz Kids’, and they helped the Ford Motor Company transform its production, logistics, marketing, and design so that, by 1957, it was neck and neck with Chevrolet in units sold.
One of these Whiz Kids was Robert McNamara. He decided that the US needed a smaller, cheaper-to-produce, and safer car than the large sedans and coupés being produced in the second half of the 1950s. The result was the Ford Falcon. It was launched in 1959 for the 1960 model year.
