(EXPANDED FROM 4/6/2023)
A “Story Ideas Bank” request by CJ asked for more coverage of station wagons, so let’s take a step in that direction with a look at the 1957-60 Mercury. The Ford Motor Company invested heavily in an expanded wagon lineup as a means of helping to move the Mercury upmarket in the premium-priced field. It sort-of worked, but perhaps not quite like Ford expected.
Chevrolet’s introduction of the Nomad in 1955 helped to unleash a round of experimentation with station wagons. Previously, they had been a purely utilitarian body style. However, the Nomad, with its unusually sleek two-door greenhouse, showed how wagons could also be halo cars.
In 1956 American Motors offered a four-door hardtop wagon with its new Rambler. Then, in 1957, General Motors followed suit with its premium-priced Buick and Oldsmobile brands.
Mercury goes big with wagons in 1957
Mercury picked up the ball and ran the farthest with new variations on a wagon. For 1957 the brand didn’t even offer a traditional wagon, which was based upon a four-door sedan. Instead, only pillarless hardtops were built in both four- and two-door versions.
Mercury’s experimentation contrasted with its corporate siblings, Ford and Edsel, which from 1957-59 only offered traditional wagons based on sedan bodies.
For 1957 Mercury also expanded the number of trim levels of its wagons from two to three — the entry-level Commuter, mid-level Voyager, and top-end Colony Park. The first two series were available as a two- and four-door hardtop and with six- or nine-passenger seating.
In contrast, the Colony Park only came in four-door, nine-passenger form. In addition, it was the only Mercury with fake woodgrain exterior decor. Add two-tone paint and it was a veritable fiesta of colors.
Unlike the Nomad, Mercury’s two-door models used the same greenhouse as their four-door siblings. That may have been cheaper to produce, but it didn’t add a whole lot stylistically. Thus, it doesn’t strike me as surprising that production of two-door models didn’t even reach 7,000 units in 1957. That represented only 19 percent of Mercury’s total wagon output.
Wagons went upmarket like the rest of the Mercury line
The 1957 Mercury wagons weren’t just dramatically redesigned — they also moved up in price. The Colony Park with a third row of seats saw list prices soar from $2,977 in 1956 to $3,677 in 1957. That shifted the top Mercury wagon from competing with Pontiac’s high-end Safari to Buick’s Caballero.
Meanwhile, the entry-level Mercury wagon went up from $2,819 to $2,903 in 1957. That situated the model between base Pontiac and Buick wagons. Mercury would maintain this price positioning through 1960.
Then, in 1961, prices would shift back slightly below Pontiac’s — which was where the Edsel was situated before it was discontinued the previous year.
Mercury’s 1957 wagons achieved record-breaking sales
The good news was that wagons were one of Mercury’s few bright spots in 1957. Whereas overall production was down by 13 percent, wagons went up more than 15 percent to almost 36,000 units. That would stand as a postwar peak for the big Mercury wagons.
For 1958 the wagon lineup was carried over with relatively few changes. The most noticeable difference was a much more attractive front end that integrated quad headlights instead of tacking them on in a crude fashion, as was done on some Mercury models the previous year.
The premium-priced field saw output fall almost 39 percent in 1958, but Mercury was down even more — 53 percent. Once again wagons held up better than the rest of the lineup; they only fell 38 percent.
Two-door wagons didn’t sell nearly as well as those with four doors — they were off by a whopping 64 percent. Only 568 Yoyager two-door wagons like the one below were produced in 1958.
Mercury’s wagon offensive beat a slow retreat
For 1959 the two-door wagon was only offered on the Commuter, where a minuscule 1,000 units left the factory. So for 1960 the grand experiment with two doors was over.
The four-door hardtops lasted one more year. But when Mercury was repositioned downmarket as a fancy Ford in 1961, it once again only offered sedan-based wagons. They didn’t look as stylish as the 1957-60 models, but the pillared-door design arguably better fit with why people generally bought wagons — for their added utility in hauling lots of people and cargo.
From 1961-64 wagon output was roughly half that of 1957, hovering around 15,000 units per year. That was well below even the bad old days of 1958, when wagon output fell to just over 22,000 units.
Even so, wagons averaged around 14 percent of big-Mercury production during 1961-64. That was slightly higher than the 13 percent wagons garnered in their peak production year of 1957. The reason wagons held relatively steady in their percentage of total big-Mercury output was that non-wagon sales collapsed in 1958 and continued to struggle through 1964.
Mercury wagons showed glimmers of promise
The 1957-60 Mercury wagons went too far in some respects. Even if the two-door hardtop models had been better distinguished from four-door models, they arguably were too large to function as a halo car — yet weren’t practical enough to work very well as a traditional wagon.
By the same token, the four-door hardtop sold relatively well and looked better than wagons with pillars. However, I would imagine that structural integrity could be a problem. A more promising direction might have been the approach used on the 1961 Lincoln Continental, which combined frameless door glass with a B-pillar.
One of the most successful aspects of the 1957-60 wagons was the Colony Park, which sold well against comparably priced Buicks. Indeed, Mercury was arguably more successful in moving upmarket with its wagons than any of its other models.
Also see ‘1966 Mercury Colony Park wagon was an unsung bright spot for the brand’
By the same token, while the rest of Mercury’s big-car line struggled to regain traction in the first half of the 1960s, wagons proved to be a good niche. Unfortunately, the sedan-based wagons weren’t as distinctive as the hardtops of 1957-60.
NOTES:
This story was originally posted on April 6, 2023 and expanded on Nov. 28, 2025. Specifications and production figures are from the auto editors of Consumer Guide (2006), Gunnell (2002) and Wikipedia (2020).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1993, 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Wikipedia; 2020. “U.S. Automobile Production Figures.” Page last edited Oct. 4 (no longer available).
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- fordheritagevault.com: Mercury (1957, 1959, 1960, 1961)
- oldcaradvertising.com: Mercury (1957)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Buick (1960); Mercury (1958); Rambler (1956)
Wagons, Ho! Loved this story, Steve. I didn’t even know that the 2-door hardtop wagon existed until fairly recently. As you noted, they are barely distinguishable from the 4-door hardtop versions so one questions why they even bothered, other than for the sake of being the only make to offer such a bodystyle. I am curious if these Mercury hardtop wagons sold better than the 1957-58 Oldsmobile and Buick hardtop wagons. The Mercs are certainly better looking, IMHO.
CJ, I’ve been on deadline so just got a chance to do a quick check of production figures. In 1957 Mercury was the clear leader. Buick produced around 24,000 units and Oldsmobile 20,000. Chrysler didn’t offer a hardtop wagon, but as a point of comparison it produced only around 4,000 units. I’ll take a deeper dive when I get more time but I suspect that these rough patterns will hold for a few years, with Chrysler eventually moving up in relation to Buick and Oldsmobile.
The full size 2 door wagon was faltering by the late 50s, seen as the loss leader wagon and a delivery wagon with windows. Mercury should have not done the two door wagon in the lower two trim lines, but kept it special like Nomad and the Pontiac clone. Mercury was now going head to head with Olds and Buick. The 2 door wagon should have been offered only as a model in the Turnpike Cruiser series, a true shooting brake.
Great story ! I only saw was a pillar-less Mercury station wagon in a showroom in 1958, but never on the road. I had a friend whose parents owned a four-door pillared 1960 Commuter wagon. A neat car, but rare on Indiana roads and highways. That said 1957 and 1958 Olds Fiesta and Buick Caballero wagons were pretty rare, too.
The ’57-’64 era hardtop wagons from any of the brands are my favorite niche segment from any era. A nice run down specifically on Mercury. The restyled lower sheet metal on the ’60 was a good leap forward.
Mercury’s 1957-58 wagons were much sleeker and modern looking than the tubby Buick Caballero and Oldsmobile Fiesta. The necessity for 2 door models is confusing because unlike the ’55-57 Nomad and Safari they offered nothing in the way of different styling or more luxurious interior appointments. Also, why in Mercury’s class would product planning even think a 2-door wagon made sense. Based on what you wrote, Steve, I feel that Mercury had the opportunity to really exploit a niche and become a class leader with the Colony Park. The downgrading to a gussied-up Ford wiped that out and of course near the end of the Mercury Brand’s life, the Colony Park was just a badge-engineered Ford Country Squire.