The Fords that weren't.

[@chrisjeffries2322]

I always thought that the Canadian makeover of U.S. car brands looked awful. Thank you for this share.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

I would say some worked better than others.

[@CJColvin]

I thought the Canadian Fords looked pretty cool just like the Acadians and Beaumonts.

[@enriqueoliva6988]

No wonder I was getting confused with their name,these are american cars for export to Canada.

[@OLDS98]

Once again an excellent job. I like the fact you talked about these other global Fords and the variations. I liked the attention to details. It is clear this one took a lot of work as well. You once again can see this. The variations are unreal. I liked how you touched on the GM variations and that they did it as well. It would great to see a video on that. Once again, thank you.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Once again, thank you. I don't have planned video on those GM cars, I will have to ad it to my list.

[@DavidHall-ge6nn]

I subscribe to a Canadian car channel that featured the purple/maroon and white Meteor Montcalm posing serenely on the grass recently. Surely there can't be two! I wonder, by the way, what marketing genius came up with that inspiring moniker? Weirdest taillights in history, without a doubt. I find Canadian iterations of American cars fascinating, so this was an absolute treat!

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it. But I love the weirdness of it all.

[@OsbornTramain]

There are some people that claim that the 1961 Meteor would have been the US styled 1961 Edsel if Edsel had continued. You can see the Pontiac inspired grill in both the 1960 Edsel and the 1961 Meteor.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

@@OsbornTramain Interesting.

[@CJColvin]

​@OsbornTramain Edsel would've definitely been Ford's version of Pontiac had Ford done a better job with the Edsel brand in 1958.

[@markreisen7038]

​@@OsbornTramainI thought the exact same thing thinking this would have made a great looking 1961 Edsel Citation or Corsair of the future. They could have sold the Monarks as Edsel's, Ford's Meteors or Mercury's. The Canadian built Monarks ans Meteors always peaked my interest. Some of the coolest names too.

[@riceburner4747]

Very informative/interesting. Those were the days when cars had character. 👍

[@OsbornTramain]

The simple and basic reason for Ford's Canadian strategy was simply this. A town could only support usually one Ford Brand of dealer. Either a Mercury Dealer or a Ford Dealer. Economic Conditions wouldn't allow town to have multple brands of dealerships, They wouldn't have been profitable. A small two with a Mercury Dealer and also a Ford Dealer would mean, one or both would go bust. Monarchs were only sold at Ford Dealers, Meteors were only sold at Mercury Dealers. This way, a town could have one dealer selling all ford type cars in the low and medium price class, either a Ford Monarch Dealer (or Edsel) or a Meteor Mercury Dealer. It worked for almost 30 years.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

I remember small town dealerships doing "trades" with other small town dealerships in nearby area to diversify their offerings. I suspect that much of that was done outside the manufacturers realm of control.

[@gcfifthgear]

It helps to be Canadian to understand this, but Meteor gave Lincoln-Mercury a cheaper car to sell, while Monarch offered Ford dealers a more luxurious car to sell, giving both a comprehensive lineup. Another Ford under another name was the 1960-only Frontenac, sold by Meteor-Lincoln Mercury dealers, which was a Falcon in disguise. When Comet began being sold in Canada in 1961, it was goodbye Frontenac. Pontiac-Buick dealers in Canada were comparable with Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealers for the same reason, and Acadians and Beaumonts were individual makes, not "Pontiacs." And Chrysler-Plymouth dealers in Canada sold Plymouths. Dodge-DeSoto dealers used the "Plodges" with Plymouth body and Dodge front clip to provide a cheaper car to sell (the Custom Royal was the only American Dodge sold in Canada)...

[@rallymodeller]

Short "Why?" answer: Dealership territory guarantees. Dealers in Canada often had non-overlapping Ford and Mercury brand territories with exclusivity guarantees, and the new brands existed to give Ford dealers a more upmarket model (Monarch) and Mercury dealers a more price-conscious brand (Meteor). This is also the reason for Mercury pickups and the Frontenac (a first-generation Falcon sold through Mercury dealers here until the Comet was ready). Canadians are also more frugal auto buyers than Americans, so the availability of lower-priced options was often the difference between a sale and the prospect walking over to the GM or Mopar dealer.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Thanks for sharing that.

[@arnepianocanada]

It also faced 10% buyers of USA. Canada's lo-cost GM: Pontiac (built on Chev bones) Laurentian, Strato Chief, Parisienne. Chev based Acadian & Beaumont also allied w/ Pontiac.

[@brunobandiera2062]

Interesting side note to the Canadian Ford variants, some Meteors were built with right hand steering and exported to Australia, as a sister Commonwealth nation, the import duties were less than on U.S.-built models. You frequently see some examples on the PBS / Australian drama "The Doctor Blake Mysteries".

[@thehopelesscarguy]

That is interesting.

[@JC-zg4xe]

Yes Australian produced Ford Customlines did use a mix match of Meteor trim during the later model years. We also kept the Flathead one year longer. The 58 Customline had a 55 Meteor grille and 56 side trim.

[@brunobandiera2062]

Thanks for the update ! I see you had plenty of the UK Ford products also, were they imported complete or shipped as knocked-down chassis for Australian local assembly ?@@JC-zg4xe

[@wraithconscience]

Fanstiastic research! I had no idea there were so many Canadian variants! Fascinating and bizzare! Great video!

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@wintersbattleofbands1144]

Canadian models make for some unique collecting opportunities.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

I would think so.

[@jeffbranch8072]

The story I've heard about the Mercury badged Ford trucks is that in rural areas the dealerships were spread far and wide, and some customers would not find it convenient to buy a truck at a Ford-brand dealership, and might otherwise buy another brand of truck. I don't believe there were any differences other than the obvious badging.

[@jeffbranch8072]

WHAT??? HFII did NOT conceive the Edsel, and flatly stated that he "did not want to see his father's name on ten thousand spinning hubcaps". The Edsel was 100% the child of "design by marketing" led by Lee Iacocca. The later Mustang was a huge success but the Deuce never personally forgave Iacocca for putting his father's name on a huge, public flop.

[@Primus54]

Excellent video as always, HCG. The Edsel was one of those corporate decisions that in hindsight makes one ask, “What were they thinking?” Further, the name itself, “Edsel”, was just awful.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Thanks. Edsel was not the worst name name for a car brand I can think of, but it certainly isn't a marketable one. I can however respect that he named it after his father.

[@Primus54]

@@thehopelesscarguy Did you ever see the movie, “The Betsy”? Fictional story about a new car model that was going to be called “Betsy”. 🤣

[@thehopelesscarguy]

@@Primus54 I don't know that one, I'll have to look into it. Still, beats Erskine, Locomobile, and Stellantis.

[@Primus54]

@@thehopelesscarguy ‘70s movie that bombed in theaters but had an all-star cast starring Lawrence Olivier, Robert Duvall, and a young Tommy Lee Jones.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

@@Primus54 wow

[@levyoliver5363]

Like the Ford Courier pickup truck.. is essencially a Mazda Truck..

[@jeffking4176]

I kind of liked the Canadian “Pontiacs”. They looked pretty cool. 🚗🙂

[@thehopelesscarguy]

yeah.

[@MandusahRamirez]

America is the only country where we have to have luxury nameplates just to sell the same vehicles fully loaded.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

I don't know about the only one, but it sure seems silly to me. And people will pay a premium for a badge.

[@BenSHammonds]

always been a Mercury guy but sure like that 50 Meteor with Merc grill and like that all black 59 Edsel I must admit

[@thehopelesscarguy]

The 50 Meteor looks like a mild custom job to me. Actually, most of them do.

[@Primus54]

@@thehopelesscarguy Exactly what I was thinking!

[@markreisen7038]

They gave away a black 1959 Edsel Ranger tha is identical to this car. I just love all the Edsels. Make mine a 58 Roundup 2 door wagon with the 332 or 361 V8.

[@bobpierce115]

The supposed interior dash shot of the '58 Edsel at 5:38 doesn't look like it at all. It's very odd.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

ok

[@rebeccamayers2056]

Confusion at its Best

[@jackwood2328]

That's a lot of mysteries cleared up in a few minutes!

[@winthropthurlow3020]

Ford seemed to follow the same pattern with these ill-fated badges: first, they'd start off with the idea that customers wanted a premium version of existing Ford models, but within a year or two, they'd strip out anything that distinguished these new models from Plain Jane Fords, thereby eliminating any incentive to step up; and second, they'd adorn these new brands with God-awful or just plain weird styling cues (see, e.g., Edsel and Merkur). No wonder these things never worked out.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

The Merkurs seemed to do well in Europe as Fords, but they didn't fit into the norm of what American buyers were used to. When they later brought the Mondeo over as the Contour that didn't do all that well either. Or when they tried to replace the Falcon in Australia with the Taurus. Perhaps an argument against the idea of a "world car".

[@rallymodeller]

@@thehopelesscarguy Merkur was the brainchild of Bob Lutz, who was president of Ford of Europe at the time. It was a great idea at first, but costs started to pile up both with conversion of the platforms to US safety standards (the XR4Ti is significantly different under the skin to the European Sierra) and the exchange rate between the dollar and Deutschmark. The XR4i in Europe was the initial performance Sierra and was built at the Ghent, Belgium facility, powered there by the evergreen 2.8L Cologne V6 (which also powered the Scorpio). As the Ghent facility was winding up production of that model at the time, it was arranged to move the tooling to Karmann where the XR4Ti would be built (insert extra $$). Adapting the Sierra's platform to receive 5 MPH bumpers needed significant modification to the front structure and rear floorpan, and included such things as moving the fuel tank. By the time they were done, it was basically a new car underneath. And quite a bit heavier than intended. It was also decided for some reason to drop the excellent V6 and replace it with the turbo 2.3L Lima motor, but without the Thunderbird TC's intercooler or the SVO Mustang's intercooler/special ECU setup. All of this is even more baffling as the 2.8i with both manual and automatic transmissions had already been federalized for the Ford Ranger. So what we got was an expensive, overweight, underpowered European car that Mercury dealers had no idea how to sell. It cost as much as a BMW 325iS or Alfa Romeo Milano, but was slower than either, suffered awful turbo lag that didn't affect the V6 competition, and wheezed out at higher speeds as the intake air heated up. Still handled great, though.

[@area51isreal71]

I don't get it. Why not just call them Ford's and Mercury"s.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Why not indeed.

[@wintersbattleofbands1144]

Well, for starters, they wouldn't use an apostrophe (plurals don't need them. Think : dogs, cats, Fords.)

[@johnchildress6717]

What they did with the 59 full size Pontiacs was horrible .Put it on a chevy frame that was not wide enough with a straight 6 engine.Look at one ,you won,t believe they would do this.

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Oh I believe it.

[@gcfifthgear]

@@thehopelesscarguySame principle as the Meteor and Monarch. Pontiac/GMC and Buick was one dealer network. Chevrolet and Oldsmobile was another dealer network (Cadillacs were sold by both networks). The American Pontiac got wide-track wheels because Bunkie Knudsen saw a prototype of a '59 model and said it looked like "a football player in ballet slippers." GM of Canada used the Chevy chassis for both Chevies and Pontiacs and didn't have that option

[@arnepianocanada]

Thanks! A 🇨🇦Canadian, I'd never seen (even in pix) the earliest in these 2 Ford variant series. FYI: Rideau "Ree-doe"; Beaumont/Acadian alone (no "Pontiac").

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Doesn't exactly flow does it.

[@markreisen7038]

It helps to have a trace of French in ya. Pronounced Rideoo.

[@louislepage5111]

The economies of scale 😊

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Sure

[@youtubecarspottersguide1]

cool should do gm next

[@thehopelesscarguy]

I should.

[@jeffbranch8072]

I've seen some 1950's Monarchs at the Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show - that Monarch trim is kinda gaudy and tacky.

[@timothyhh]

Plodges, hahahaha!

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Sounds like a minor video game villain.

[@garbagecan6969]

in canada meteor rideau is pronounced meattier ree-doh tabernacle fucker him her la

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Uh-huh.

[@markcopland5738]

The German Fords were God awful,Fiesta was nice though

[@thehopelesscarguy]

I've never been a fan of German cars in general, but of those I do like, Ford wouldn't be a the top of the list.

[@michaelwallbrown3726]

both forgettable cars

[@thehopelesscarguy]

Both?