Here’s a detailed look at the 1949 Mercury in an original Ford Motor Company promotional film.

For 1951, the Mercury division of Ford Motor Company was in the final year of a three-year product cycle that began with the all-new 1949 Mercury.  And these were great years for the Mercury brand, as sales rose sharply with the redesigned product line. The ’51 update included a new grille and revised rear-end styling that featured a larger rear window and larger tail lamps, too. But the biggest news for ’51 was the introduction of Merc-O-Matic, Mercury’s first fully automatic transmission.

Designed by the Warner Gear division of Borg-Warner, the Ford automatic was marketed by Ford as Ford-O-Matic, by Mercury as Merc-O-Matic, and by Lincoln as Turbo-Drive. The up-to-date unit featured a three-element torque converter and a three-speed planetary gearset, though only the top two gears were used in normal driving. Low gear could  be selected manually.

Buyers were quick to warm up to the Merc-O-Matic, as one in three Mercury owners chose the extra-cost option in ’51—an impressive take rate for a new and untested gadget. Merc-O-Matic and all the new Mercury features for ’51 are covered at length in the nifty factory film below, called The Drive of Your Life.