The Mercury Medalist is a 2-door sedan (1956 & 1958) / 2-door hardtop Sport Coupe (1956) / 4-door sedan (1956 & 1958) / 4-door hardtop (1956) from Mercury. Under the bonnet: 312 cuin Ford Y-block V8.
Where it came from
The Mercury Medalist is an automobile which was produced by Mercury for the 1956 model year and was similar to the Ford Customline in market segment. The Medalist was introduced as a two-door sedan only in September 1955 as Mercury's low-price model. It was positioned below the Custom, Monterey and Montclair models and replaced the entry-level status the Custom previously held. A four-door sedan, a two door hardtop and a four-door hardtop were added midyear at which time the Medalist was given full series status. It was offered only with a 312 cubic inch V8 engine. The standard items included textured vinyl upholstery, rubber floor mats, and chrome front and rear window surround mouldings, and a rear quarter panel body side stainless steel trim. Optional items included a heater and windshield defroster, "Travel-Tuner" signal seeking AM radio, padded instrument panel, seat belts, power adjustable front seat, power windows, power steering, power brakes, white wall tires mounted on 15 in (381 mm) steel wheels and auxiliary road lamps. Every Mercury for 1955 offered a canted hood over the headlights previously introduced on the Mercury XM-800 concept car from 1954.
For 1956, Mercury introduced two types of two-tone paint combinations, offering the traditional approach of a roof color over a different body color, and "Flo-tone" where the roof and lower body were painted in one color and the upper body painted in another color. There were a total of thirty-one two-tone combinations and twenty-eight "Flo-tone" combinations. The listed retail price was US$2,254 ($26,692 in 2025 do
Under the skin
Power comes from 312 cuin Ford Y-block V8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 3530 lb. It shifts through a 3-speed manual / 3-speed Merc-O-Matic automatic / Touch-O-Matic overdrive. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 119 in (1956) / 122 in (1958). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Main plant. Nearby in the Mercury catalogue sit the Mercury Bobcat and the Mercury Capri.