 Had Robert S. McNamara, then head of the Ford division, had his way, Lincoln, Edsel and Mercury would have been eliminated.Instead, a compromise was made, and beginning in 1961 Ford and Mercury used the basic Ford body shells, and relied upon unique trim elements to differentiate the marques one from another.Edsel, meanwhile, was discontinued after a short run of 1960 models; what emerged as the 1961 Mercury Meteor was initially envisioned as the 1961 Edsel.