Mercury does not build many cars like the Mercury Meteor: a 2-door hardtop / 2-door sedan / 4-door sedan / 4-door hardtop / 5-door station wagon with 223 cuin Mileage Maker I6, built from 1961 to 1963 in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar.
The story
The Mercury Meteor is an automobile that was produced by Mercury from the 1961 to 1963 model years. Adopting its nameplate from the namesake Ford of Canada brand, the Meteor was introduced as the base-trim full-size Mercury sedan, while the compact Mercury Comet shared a naming convention associated with the ongoing Space Race of the early 1960s. Slotted below the Mercury Monterey, the Meteor was the Mercury counterpart of the Ford Fairlane.
For 1962, as part of a revision of the Mercury range, the nameplate was adopted by the first intermediate-size Mercury sedan (with the Meteor again serving as a counterpart of the Fairlane). Following the 1963 model year, Mercury withdrew the model range. While the Meteor would become one of the shortest-lived Mercury nameplates, its role within the division would be revived for 1966 as the Mercury Comet grew into the intermediate segment (later becoming the Montego).
What is underneath
Under the skin sits 223 cuin Mileage Maker I6; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The gearbox is a 2-speed Merc-O-Matic automatic / 3-speed Multi-Drive Merc-O-Matic automatic / 3-speed manual. 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 120 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Where it sits in Mercury's history is not in doubt: the Edsel Ranger came before it; the Mercury Monterey followed it; it was built at Wayne, Michigan. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Volvo P1800, the Jaguar E-Type, the Alfa Romeo Giulia. Nearby in the Mercury catalogue sit the Mercury Bobcat and the Mercury Capri.
The money
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Mercury Meteor has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.