And another one bites the dust

[r0tor]

always sad to see the end of a brand... but the fact is its been irrelevant for pretty much most of my lifetime

[Laconian]

My only experience driving a Mercury was driver's ed in a horrible, horrible Topaz.

[omicron]

My only experience driving a Mercury was driver's ed in a horrible, horrible Topaz.

What sort of rubbish model name is Topaz, anyway? What's next? The Cadillac Quartz? Ford Talc? Darling, I'm sorry about the affair. How about these topaz earrings?

I think not.

[dazzleman]

My only experience driving a Mercury was driver's ed in a horrible, horrible Topaz.

Yes, it was a most crappy car for a pretty long time.  I owned 2, and neither was anything to write home about, to put it mildly.  The decline of Mercury is symptomatic of the decline of the American auto industry in general.  For that reason, it's a sad occurrence.  But I can't say I'll truly miss their cars.

[Laconian]

What sort of rubbish model name is Topaz, anyway? What's next? The Cadillac Quartz? Ford Talc? Darling, I'm sorry about the affair. How about these topaz earrings?

I think not.

I dunno, that seems appropriate for the velour and faux wood veneer 80's.

[dazzleman]

I dunno, that seems appropriate for the velour and faux wood veneer 80's.

The fake wood veneer on the station wagons was more 1960s and 1970s.  It wasn't popular anymore by the 1980s.

[MX793]

The fake wood veneer on the station wagons was more 1960s and 1970s.  It wasn't popular anymore by the 1980s.

It was standard fare on 1st gen Caravans.  GM was using it on a lot of their wagons through the 80s and even into the 90s (the Caprice wagon, or maybe it was its Buick twin, had the faux wood veneer on the sides).

[dazzleman]

It was standard fare on 1st gen Caravans.  GM was using it on a lot of their wagons through the 80s and even into the 90s (the Caprice wagon, or maybe it was its Buick twin, had the faux wood veneer on the sides).

Ah, thanks for the information.  I didn't remember it much in the 1980s, but it was really big in the 1970s.  My family had several station wagons with the fake wood, and we thought it looked so much better with wood than without it back then.  I wish I had a picture.

[Laconian]

I seem to recall my family's 1970's Pontiac Safari station wagon having blue-green wood decals. Wood harvested from Pandora, no doubt.

[the Teuton]

We had one that looked EXACTLY like this.

[2o6]

My mom's Electra Wagon had wood, roughly the same color scheme as Teutons, but much larger. (IIRC, ours was white, not burgundy)

[dazzleman]

We had one that looked EXACTLY like this.

Wow, your family was really ballin' when it came to cars....

[the Teuton]

Wow, your family was really ballin' when it came to cars....

That was the last car purchased in the family without my oversight. Since then, it's been much better cars all around.

[dazzleman]

That was the last car purchased in the family without my oversight. Since then, it's been much better cars all around.

So both your parents now drive PlastiCars?

[the Teuton]

So both your parents now drive PlastiCars?

No, but they now drive reliable cars that don't have vinyl wood on them. Come on, that Cutlass replaced a Dodge Dynasty. Their track record was terrible.

[dazzleman]

No, but they now drive reliable cars that don't have vinyl wood on them. Come on, that Cutlass replaced a Dodge Dynasty. Their track record was terrible.

What do they drive now?

[wheelypop]

Can't say i'm sad to see it go

[Nethead]

Meh.  The marketplace changes.  The Nethead here has had two Mercuries--a '69 Cyclone CJ 428 automatic and an '85 Lynx wagon five-speed.  Both were excellent!  The CJ 428 was the first Ford product I'd owned, and it was a real surprise--as a bowtie boy from birth I had just assumed Fords (speaking generically, to include Mercs & Lincs) were Chevies with less cachet and generally inferior to anything with a bowtie on it.  The CJ was an accidental acquisition--it was a rebuilt wreck that was all I could get for the POS five-year-old Chevy C10 pickup that nobody wanted except a used car dealer with a lot full of tired used cars and beat-to-shit musclecars that even fewer people wanted.  I drove the GTO, the two SS-396s, the 383 Belvedere, and the CJ--which had a lot more miles than the others but had more power and no suspect noises despite the extensive use of replacement parts (Back in the day, manufacturer replacement parts had concealed stick-on labels that were a bitch to remove without leaving traces--this fellow hadn't made any effort to remove the tell-tale evidence, so it was easy to cut a deal when I fretted about whether anyone could possibly have survived an accident that had caused such extensive damage...).  This damned car was fixed RIGHT--14.10 after a tune up and it tracked true through the lights.  Best I ever got was a 13.80 on a strip that hadn't been prepped in weeks (months? years?).  But to get said CJ into the mid-elevens required a time and wallet commitment a man who was building high tension line towers all week long (four tens and an eight on Friday) just could not make--there ain't a lot of shop equipment in motel parking lots...When the Nethead here got the college admissions letter the year after I bought the CJ, I traded it for a new '73 Datsun PL620 (payments of $21.90/month for 36) and lived happily ever after in a pussy pit far, far away...The WifeDude & I traded our extremely disappointing new Honda Accord (which had replaced an even more disappointing new Plymouth Duster she had gotten in college) for a new '85 Lynx wagon ($65.00/month for 36) as it was the cheapest  new Lynx/Escort we could find in SoCal that the dealer would trade in exchange for our crop-dusting Accord.  Comfortable, economical, practical, great to shift, and tenacious in all corners pushed hard.  The weight distribution of the wagon body musta had some synergistic relationship with the FWD--the sum was greater than its farts...One of the cars I've/we've owned that the Nethead here really misses

But Mercury lost relevance as the marketplace matured, and you can't "bask in reflected glory" of past achievements forever.  Pontiac had more past glory than Mercury ever did, and we see how that saved Pontiac's ass, huh?  In fact, what remains of Chrysler and General Motors had better wake up and smell the roses imports.  Ford has, and they're in a fight-to-the-death to pull ahead of the imports--and that fight for survival could not spare the resources to keep nursing Mercury along.  End of story.

[Byteme]

From 1950 until about 1977 my dad was a Ford man.  This was the era when folks were loyal to a brand to the point of starting a fight with a Chevy man or Dodge man.  About the time I starting really becoming aware of cars as more than something we sat in to go from place to place I asked him why he never bought a Mercury. His reply, "A mercury is just an overgrown, overpriced Ford."  With very few exceptions, like the 67 and 68 Cougar, I have to agree with him.

[omicron]

[Nethead]

From 1950 until about 1977 my dad was a Ford man.  This was the era when folks were loyal to a brand to the point of starting a fight with a Chevy man or Dodge man.  About the time I starting really becoming aware of cars as more than something we sat in to go from place to place I asked him why he never bought a Mercury. His reply, "A mercury is just an overgrown, overpriced Ford."  With very few exceptions, like the 67 and 68 Cougar, I have to agree with him.

The '67 Cougar--at the time the Nethead here liked it better than the '67 Mustang.  The '68 Cyclone fastback came out in the Fall of '67 and I liked that better than any other car I could ever hope to afford.  But each successive version of those glorious Mercs appealed to me less and less.  I hardly noticed when the Comet/Cyclone and the Cougar were discontinued...

[dazzleman]

The '67 Cougar--at the time the Nethead here liked it better than the '67 Mustang.  The '68 Cyclone fastback came out in the Fall of '67 and I liked that better than any other car I could ever hope to afford.  But each successive version of those glorious Mercs appealed to me less and less.  I hardly noticed when the Comet/Cyclone and the Cougar were discontinued...

Oh man, the '67 Cougar was one of my favorite cars of all time.  I absolutely loved that car as a kid, and I still do.  I liked it better than the '67 Mustang.

My uncle had a '67 Mustang (I think that was the year) that was a stick shift.  He lost his arm to cancer and had to give the car up because he could no longer drive a stick after that.  That would have been a great car to keep.

[dazzleman]

Beautiful pictures, man.  Beautiful.

[AutobahnSHO]

We had one that looked EXACTLY like this.

LOL
That's my driver's ed car, only in silver and no wood.  What a lame Taurus wagon copy.

[Madman]

LOL
That's my driver's ed car, only in silver and no wood.  What a lame Taurus wagon copy.

Except it was launched four years BEFORE the Taurus.

[280Z Turbo]

[3.0L V6]

The last gasp of a cool Mercury:



Too bad they didn't put the 390hp supercharged DOHC 4.6L from the 2003 SVT Mustang into it. That would have made it a sleeper. Sadly, it was no quicker than an Accord V6 of the day. A shame, really.

[omicron]

This is what happens when my back is turned.

The last gasp of a cool Mercury:



Too bad they didn't put the 390hp supercharged DOHC 4.6L from the 2003 SVT Mustang into it. That would have made it a sleeper. Sadly, it was no quicker than an Accord V6 of the day. A shame, really.

A fantastic-looking car. Can you pick them up cheaply? It would make a fine tourer with a little tinkering here and there.

[AutobahnSHO]

A fantastic-looking car. Can you pick them up cheaply? It would make a fine tourer with a little tinkering here and there.

Those are outrageously expensive.
Fortunately they're the same as the Crown Vic, so you just need some aesthetic work (engine swap too?) and you have the same car...

[Vinsanity]

IMHO, a lower axle ratio would be a much more effective mod than even the supercharger in breathing some life into that car.