I was looking at pickups on the internet when I came across a 1967 Mercury M100. Now it was the same exact thing as a 67 Ford F100, only it was a Mercury. This truck was in Saskatchewan, and I once heard that non-truck makers like Chrysler and Mercury made pickups only for export. So what is all this about, do those companies still make pickups? Where could I find pictures of more of them?
I’d also like to add that I saw an old Dodge SUV with a snowplow on it, only it was a Plymouth.
Yep, it was a Canada-only model. They’re badge-engineered Fords. Before the Auto Pact of 1965 made importation of US cars into Canada much easier, the Big Three’s Canadian marketing strategy required that medium-priced car lines have low-line versions and/or trucks in order to offer a full model range to the Canadian consumer.
This led to such products as the Mercury and Fargo (Chrysler) truck lines, and cars such as the Canada-only GM Beaumont, Ford Meteor, Monarch, and Frontenac, and the Chrysler “Plodge” which were Plymouth based cars badged and sold as Dodges at a lower price point.
An excellent book on the subject is “Canadian Cars” (I think that’s the title, my copy is at home) by R. Perry Zavitz. It was released in 1984, but it might be available through a used bookstore or on eBay.