Mercury Monarch

Mercury Monarch
1978 Mercury Monarch
Overview
Manufacturer	Mercury (Ford)
Production	1975–1980
Assembly	Mahwah, New Jersey Wayne, Michigan
Body and chassis
Class	Compact near-luxury car
Body style	4-door sedan 2-door coupe
Layout	FR layout
Related	Ford Granada (North America) Lincoln Versailles
Powertrain
Engine	200 cu in (3.3 L) I6 250 cu in (4.1 L) I6 302 cu in (4.9 L) Windsor V8 351 cu in (5.8 L) Windsor V8
Chronology
Successor	Mercury Cougar (1980)

The Mercury Monarch is a compactautomobile that was manufactured by Mercury from 1975 to 1980. Released in the model year 1975, the Monarch was a badge-engineered version of the Ford Granada which was identical save for the grille, headlights, taillights and some interior and exterior trim. A total of 575,567 Monarchs were produced during this time period. For 1981, the Granada was replaced with a smaller version based on Ford's Fox platform, and the Mercury version took the Cougar name.

Monarch was first used by Ford of Canada from 1946 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1961. As such it was used as a standalone brand name, that used Mercury models, trimmed specifically for the Canadian markets. This was done to give Ford dealers a product to sell in the medium-price field. This was typical practice in the Canadian market, where smaller towns might have only a single dealer who was expected to offer a full range of products in various price classes. The Monarch was dropped for 1958 when the Edsel was introduced, but the poor acceptance of the Edsel led Ford to reintroduce Monarch for 1959. With a drop in medium-priced vehicle sales in the early 1960s, and the introduction of the similarly priced Ford Galaxie, the Monarch was dropped after the 1961 model year.

Monarch used the contemporary Mercury body with only unique grilles, taillights and other trim to distinguish them. Model names included Richelieu, Lucerne and Sceptre.

Developed as an extensively updated Mercury Comet for the 1975 model year, the Mercury Monarch originated as external circumstances outside of Ford Motor Company forced major changes in consumer buying habits. As the 1973 fuel crisis would lead to buyers valuing luxury over performance, with fuel economy becoming a key attribute. As Ford predicted the compact segment would grow in sales, the Comet/Maverick would remain in production. For 1975, Ford introduced the restyled Maverick as the Ford Granada; the restyled Comet became Mercury Monarch.

Although General Motors introduced the Buick Apollo (later Skylark) and Oldsmobile Omega in 1973, the Granada/Monarch would be one of a few vehicles that would break a long-standing tradition within American auto manufacturers of associating size with luxury. To differentiate the Granada/Monarch from the Maverick/Comet, Ford offered the new-generation vehicles with a number of comfort and convenience features in a compact-segment car.