Well I would if I could, I suppose. Maybe.*
Ford took Mercury's away from Canadian buyers quite a few years ago. Now they're gone entirely. What a pity.
Back in 1974 I spent a second summer working on the Ford assembly line in Oakville. The Ford LTD had been given to the plant to build in place of the Torino. Oakville had already been making the full size Mercury's for some time. I worked in body build for the first half of that summer, and spent time making the rear quarter panels for both the LTD's and the Mercury Grand Marquis. The quarter panels for the Mercs were a little bit larger than their Ford counterparts, but otherwise looked the same. But the thickness of the sheet metal was different. If you shook a Ford quarter panel you could get the metal to flex and make that metallic "whooping" sound. Not so with the Mercury. You could really feel the difference in weight, and the metal wouldn't "whoop" if you shook the panel. It was thicker.
So, if you ever get a chance to buy an old 70's LTD or Mercury, I'd say buy the Merc. It was a more solidly built car.
Don't ask me why I'm making this post. It's called nostalgia.
By the way, if you're ever tempted to think that assembly line workers in the USA are over paid, think again. I did that work, and believe me, I was well paid by the standards of the day, but I earned every penny. I mean that. They had every job timed to the second. You had to keep moving the whole time. Every possible action you had to do for your job was accounted for the time and motion guys. In those days we built one car every 60 seconds. The last I heard, it was down to one car every 50 seconds. Good grief, I'll never figure out how they shaved off a whole and very vital 10 seconds. I'd like to be young again, but not to work a summer or two on the assembly line at 50 seconds per car!
The following summer of 1975 I took advantage of an opportunity to work at a local oil refinery instead. I was paid a little less money, but compared to working at Ford, the work I did was like a paid holiday.
*(Actually, I'm not very impressed with the quality of Ford Motor products these days. Be very careful which model of Ford you buy. Check with Consumer Reports first! )
