History 1938 mercury...i'll be danged..anyone else have one?

ok,i have these two old mercs sitting in the shed for years,i swear i thought it was a 39 and a 40. an okie hamber cb chief ,has been wanting these cars forever,s we set a price,he agrees and comes out to finalize the deal.my wife digs through all the titles and we find the 40,but no 39..but she does have a 1966 title from texas for a 38 merc. silly me says that can't be,cause mercs started in 39.......wrong again...all my life i thought 39 was mercury's debute...anyone else have a 38? do you know how many were made? the net does not have a lot on a 38 merc car.but there is a zillion 38 mercury dimes..ha ha

here are some pics and the 40

 

Clerical error, no 38 mercs.

 

38 mercs were introduced in late 38...even old dogs have to learn new lessons.

 

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1032229/Mercury

this says 38....

 

It may have come out in late 38, but it probably is a 39 model. Every old for book says 39 was the first year. Plus if it were a 38, it would probably look simlar to a 38 Ford. Cool car none the less!

 

if you go to ebay,you can buy an owners manual and parts book for a 1938 mercury. it has hydraulic brakes and is 4 inches shorter than a 39 mercury. type in 1938 mercury prototype..you will see a 38 merc.

 

Good Lord, does no one remember that cars are introduced in the late part of the year preceding their model year designation?
Only a few times in history has this not been the case.
Texas became a title state in 1939, so a 38 Title is not out of the question though it is most likely a typographical error.

 

has anyone searched on google? you may be surprised.

 

Clerical error, no 38 mercs.
Young dogs have the advantage of arriving at a conclusion without the necessity of facts.

 

still you probably have not googled 1938 mercury sedan..

 

Trust us, not Google or Wikipedia, they NEVER made a 1938 Mercury.

Here, read this.

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=14054

 

My Ford book says 1939. I'm sure it's either an error or it was first titled before 1/1/39.

 

they may have never made a 38 merc, but that does not stop anyone from selling a 38 merc on ebay,

 

Obviously neither have you.

http://www.google.com/search?q=1938...ent=firefox-a&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw

 

From many years back, I remember reading about the prototype for the 1939 Mercury. The spacing of the grill bars was wider than the production model, 1/2 the number of bars. I think this was in the Old Cars Weekly magazine, like I say, many years ago. I would guess that there would be other differences as well this is just the one thing that I remember. It is a long shot that yours is one of the prototypes, more likely just a clerical error. But who knows?

Neal

 

No '38 Mercurys!!!!!!

 

I've heard before of local DMVs insisting on dating a title in the year it was sold, even though the manufacturer clearly stated a designated model year for the vehicle. I don't know why, but they must have had some degree of autonomy at that time. That being said, though, it doesn't rule out in my mind the possibilty of a limited number of one-off prototypes. Four inches shorter is four inches shorter. What other known differences does this " '38 " have from '39s?

 

OK you wouldn't put up a link so I googled and it says you're wrong. Everywhere I read that says the company was founded in 38 then proceeds to refer to the first cars as 39 model year. Sorry, but you asked me to check

 

Some states titled new cars for the year they were sold rather then the model year.

It says here http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1941-1948-mercury.htm that the first 39 Mercury made it's debut on Nov 5, 1938.

 

I found the following Ford motor company interview tonight and it specifies a production number for 1938 Mercury. I am going to do some more research before making any claims but the title will remain as it is for now. I bought the car planning on parting it out but now I am going to wait on that. I want to check some more, one piece of information i have found stated that the 1938 Mercury wheelbase is 4 inches shorter than the 1939. Either way it has some really nice parts, the car is complete, all the trim and missing pieces are inside the car.

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June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. said sales for its Mercury division, heading toward a third straight annual decline, may fall below the company's Lincoln brand for the first time since Mercury's creation 70 years ago.
``We think this is the year that Lincoln outsells Mercury,'' in the U.S., said Brett Wheatley, marketing chief for the Lincoln and Mercury divisions. He made the remarks in an interview this week in Washington, where he was promoting the new Lincoln MKS sedan.
Mercury is Ford's poorest performing division, delivering 23.4 percent fewer cars and light trucks than in 2007. Mercury, with 60,938 in U.S. sales this year through May, led Lincoln by about 14,000 units, down from 19,000 in the same period last year and 37,000 in the first five months of 2005.
The decline has furthered speculation that Mercury may not survive, as shrinking sales force U.S. automakers to pare divisions. General Motors Corp. announced this week that it's considering a sale of its Hummer unit, and Ford and GM are slashing truck production.
Ford has said it doesn't intend to sell or eliminate the Mercury division. Ford marketing chief Jim Farley said as recently as February that the company continues to invest in Mercury and is ``not going to compromise'' the brand.
The deterioration of Mercury sales to their lowest in 47 years contributed to Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford's losses of almost $16 billion since mid-2005 and a failed effort to hold off Toyota Motor Corp. as the No. 2 U.S. automaker.
`Rebadged Fords'
Ford, struggling to turn around operations after abandoning its goal for a profit in 2009, needs to revamp Mercury's lineup to set it apart from the parent company's namesake brand, analysts said.
``Mercury is a brand without a strong identity; it doesn't have exclusive products and its vehicles are essentially rebadged Fords,'' said Jeff Schuster, an analyst with J.D. Power & Associates. ``Lincoln has a much more dynamic and exciting vehicle lineup right now.''
Ford develops vehicles for its namesake division and alters them somewhat for the Mercury line, said Schuster. Mercury's best-selling Milan sedan, for example, is built on the same frame as a Ford Fusion. The Milan starts at $19,095, compared with $18,135 for the Fusion, and sells less than a quarter as many units in the U.S.
None among Mercury's five-vehicle portfolio tops the Ford version in sales volume.
The Year for Lincoln
Only in 1938, when Mercury debuted with its Eight car, did Lincoln outsell the other Ford division, with 16,991 units to Mercury's 6,835. The following year Mercury's 65,884-vehicle total was more than triple that of Lincoln's, according to Automotive News, a Detroit-based trade publication.
Purchases of Lincolns were down 22.5 percent in the first five months of 2008, according to Autodata Corp. in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Even with those declines, analysts said new products such as the MKS, scheduled to begin sales in mid-2008, have buttressed the brand's outlook.
``For Lincoln, this is the year,'' Farley said in an interview this week in Washington.
U.S. sales for Mercury peaked in 1978 at 579,498 units on the strength of vehicles such as the Cougar sports car. Sales have fallen almost every year since, including a drop of 6.9 percent last year to 168,422 vehicles, the lowest since 1960, according to Automotive News.
Driving Profit
Lincoln was the fastest-growing U.S. division among the six largest automakers last year, as demand for the MKX crossover vehicle helped boost sales 9.1 percent to 131,487, according to Autodata. The division's sales peaked at 231,660 in 1990.
The results may signal that Ford's turnaround strategy has started to take hold at Lincoln.
``From a business standpoint, from our dealers' profitability, from our customers' profile, absolutely'' this helps drive profitability, Farley said this week.
Average U.S. transaction prices through the first five months of 2008 for Lincoln vehicles were $39,892, compared with $25,382 for Mercury, said Jonathan Wahl, a spokesman for Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California. The industry average was $26,911.
Ford fell 36 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $6.04 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 10 percent this year

 

One thing I noticed is that the taillights are different than the 1939 ones I found on ebay. Also the grille bars lokk a little different in person than the 39.

 

Anybody wanna buy a 1983 Corvette?

 

O. K.!! I Googled 1938 Mercry prototype, came up with an amazing cool history post on early mercs. Yep, there it is 1938 prototype, a bitchin black 2-dr sedan,gorgeous. Then other posts of 1939-40-41 etc. Showing original ads that so hip, a Mercury rag top with whitewalls on it, aye carimba!! Check this out. it is a little tricky to get to, heres how! Google 1938 Mercury prototype, when it comes up , click on first page 1942 Mercury brochure, then you will see a line on this page saying 1938 Mercury prototype, click on it and see the sedan I was talking about!! I am sure this was very limited build but a start of introducing the Mercury line. You get the drift check it out. A fella learns something new everyday!! Cool ~Sololobo~

 

My 45 GPW is titled as a 42 ford ! oh well at least its still a ford.

 

Still wanna see a link or photo to this car since everyone is saying to google it and I couldn't find sh*t

 

And your point is?

That means that they debuted their 1939 year model in 1938. All car companies do that. The statement about the following year is in reference to the 1940 year model's.

1938 Mercury's never have nor never will exist. And all this talk about Googling stuff is ridiculousness. There are a lot of mistakes on the Net. That is one reason why this site is here, to clear up many misconceptions.

 

1938 mercury...i'll be danged..anyone else have one?
no, and neither do you...

 

buaaawwwwhahahahaha!

 

this is an interesting read.. what was the supposed wheelbase of this 4 inch shorter merc.. i'm not sure about the first mercs but i know the ones from the 40's that came from Canada had a shorter wheelbase.. may be a possible explaination.. there was a 39 merc(or rather the shell of what was left of one) at my local junkyard.. no paper work to prove it but you could easily tell it was a 39-40. But i thought that it looked a little shorter than ones i had seen before.. let us know if you find anything else out..

 

Not to get off track, but didn't we discuss 27 Model A's or was it 28 Model T's not too far back?