(first posted 9/18/2011) How many of us can say we’ve owned and loved a car so long that we could have driven it to the Moon and back if we wanted to? As we’ll get to shortly, if we just kept up on regular maintenance, we could all drive the sturdy and stylish 1964 Mercury Comet to space and beyond if we had a Highway into the sky and beyond.
As has been told before, the Comet was intended as an Edsel. When the Edsel brand was sent to the guillotine at the end of 1959 the Comet was marketed as a stand alone brand, not unlike the Plymouth Valiant. Being a ridiculous runaway success, it was folded into the Mercury Brand just in time to get a big(ger) brother, the Meteor.
Our scrappy little Comet didn’t have much to worry about. Not being all that much smaller in interior space (being the first stretched Falcon on a 114 inch wheelbase) than the Meteor, marginally pricier than the Falcon and by 1963 available with V8 engines and a Convertible, it didn’t give the Meteor much room to breathe and grow.
So, for 1964 the Meteor was sent packing and the Comet got some very chic updates. The “Continental” look, at least in the grille was applied delightfully. Gone were the stubby tail fins and other ephemeral “Am I a Ford, Edsel or Mercury” touches that made the original Comet geeky yet charming. Like shedding braces, the Comet wanted to strut its stuff as one of the more sophisticated compacts on offer.
The same soft focus dreaminess that was used to give the Skylark a relaxed elegance was soon applied to the marketing of the Comet. And to spice things up there were two new sub models, the spicy Caliente and the thunderous Cyclone. Replacing the awkward S-22 designation for sporty Comets, they implied exotic elegance (the Caliente) and a whirlwind of performance (the Cyclone). Neither particularly disappointed.
Underneath this new fire and elegance was surprising durability. A set of Cyclones was sent out in one of those traditional 1960s endurance tests. That fleet of 5 Cyclones was driven for 42 days, 24 hours around the clock, and the cars racked up 100,000 miles. Average speed (including required maintenance, fuel stops, driver changes, and other repairs) exceeded 105 mph, with top speeds often going close to the 120-mph mark.
During the run, only one of the four cars suffered a problem big enough to pull it out of the trials. After six weeks of constant driving, the rest of the Comets drove the entire distance with nothing more serious than the need of a tune-up and oil changes.
This endurance test is peanuts compared to one particular Comet Caliente, that has gone over half a million miles with basic maintenance. I think we’ve all heard the story of “Chariot” the Comet Caliente and her owner Rachel. With a set of lifetime guarantees on parts (the things you eventually have to replace) like shocks and mufflers, the basic sound design of the Windsor 289 V8 and Merc-O-Matic have stood the test of time.
Unfortunately for the future Comets, it was one of the last times that they would soar. More like the Meteor, these later Comets would soon fall to earth. Starting with the 1965 models’ “everyone follow Pontiac” looks, then moving genuinely to take over the Meteor’s space in 1966 (and becoming properly paired with the Fairlane), each model year got less and less distinctive.
I made a similar comparison between the 1962 Monterey and Galaxie 500. Same issue, 2 red cars, very similar. And again, I give a slight tip of the hat to the Ford, given that it has more crisp detailing. The Comet looks a little bit bloated. It also lost all of the distinction of looking very junior Continental like our 1964 subject cars. Of course, the Comet took a serious blow when 1967 brought the Cougar, which was the last true runaway success that the brand would see until the Sable nearly 20 years later.
This pretty much leaves the Comet with one seriously distinctive model year. 1964 is the only year you can look at one and not immediately think in the first 30 seconds “gussied up Falcon.” And in a way, it was the close of an era. After 1965, only the Corvair bothered to be glamorous and under 200 inches long. All iterations of the Nova (and its series of clones) screamed bargain basement no matter how many vinyl top patterns were available. The Dart and Valiant were innately appliance related, from being practical muscle cars to practical sedans.
In 1964, the concept of a true Luxury Compact meekly sighed a resignation that America will always look for the bigger and better. It turned in the crisply tailored suit for the leisure suit and gold chains. But before it completely disappeared, it made one grand exit with the finest style, accessories and quality that pleased a number of customers for years.
Cute little car. I’d have to comparison shop against a Cutlass from the same year, though… 🙂
I had a ’64 Comet wagon, can’t quite remember the trim designation now — 404 maybe? It left the factory with a V8 and automatic, not really sure which ones — when I bought it it had an 80s hi-po 302 and C4. It was a very sweet ride, and looked like a librarian’s car to me — white with red interior, original wheelcovers, and that underdash AC unit that worked really well even in the south with all that glass. That thing was a real sleeper, stand on the gas and it was like a rocket! *Really* needs disk brakes badly, the drums are woefully inadequate. Also the steering felt practically nautical, R&P would be a lovely addition.
But it’s still kicking, sold it to a friend back in ’98 who still drives it sometimes, though now it has some body damage. Maybe I’ll get it back some day, fix the body, convert to disks and R&P… 🙂
Comet was one of those names that got “lost” to me in the wirlwind of Ford trying to make Mercury different and then not trying to make Mercury so different… throwing money at Mercury and then doing Mercury on the cheap…
That is a beatiful car and like any “multibrand” company the years they were most differentiated were the best years.
I always liked these Comets. I loved the link to the lady with the half-million miles on her ’64 as well.
When my oldest son was about 4 or 5, he always said that he wanted a Mercury Comet. He had no idea what one was, but just thought the name was cool. I kind of agree.
I think on reflection, I agree that the ’64 is the best looking of them all. I like the Lincoln-esque grille and the multiple taillights. Just a nice shape.
Rachel and her Comet were at the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals. She was very gracious and funny…she loves that car, and knows a great deal about cars in general. Both her and the car are gems.
That last sentence should read, “Both she and her car are gems.”
And I’m really liking that black 1963 Comet four-door sedan.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsupreme/5770371377/in/set-72157626126522097 There’s more photos of it.
I must admit that the 1965 Comet looks a bit better to me than the 1964. The extended roofline on the four door better fits the long deck, and the side creases are cleaner.
The Comet was shifted to the mid-sized class partly because Ford effectively abandoned its compact platform in 1966 (except for the Mustang). The Falcon became a shortened Fairlane, which was on a four-inch wider body. There was no room for the Comet unless it grew larger than the Fairlane.
After the departure of the compact Comet, the Dodge Dart filled the top-end niche through the early 1970s, when it devolved into a badge-engineered Valiant.
AMC’s George Romney wanted the new-for-1963 senior Ramblers to continue to be classified as compacts, but Automotive News instead labeled them as “intermediates.” The 1963-64s could plausibly be called luxury compacts because they were only 190 inches long but, in Ambassador trim, were comparable in fanciness to big cars.
Great sized car in this part of the world like its compact Fairlane sibling shame the usual bloat set in and the right sized Ford had to go at least these cars provided decent under pinnings for the hitherto brittle Falcon.
After my friend’s dad bought a 1966 Buick Special, his wife got the 1961 Rambler for awhile until they sold that and bought her a 1964 Comet, 4 door, white with red interior. 6 cylinder auto. A very sweet little(!) car that was fun to cruise around in with my buddy. That was 1968.
Nice article! Nice car!
An interesting trip back, on a car I was too young to appreciate when it rode the highways. My memories of those Mini-Con Comets are of them battered and worn…a work car. Only because by the time I was old enough to notice them, they mostly were.
I never liked the canted-blade tail-light treatment; but in retrospect, the front and general dimensions please. And yes, the glory years of Mercury was when Ford let Mercury be Mercury. Both with the full-size, in 1950; and with the Comet here; and with the Cougar…a successful rebodying of the Mustang.
I can’t think of the Comet without calling up images of the rebadged Maverick…which makes me wonder: with Lido’s proven prowess in reading the market, why was it that he was the greatest perpetrators of Aggravated Badge Engineering? I mean…really, the man who could make the plain-jane Falcon a Mustang and a Maverick, couldn’t do any better for the Comet than hang a modified cathedral grille on, some new hood lines, and a MERCURY nameplate? The mind boggles.
Maybe the problem was a lack of overriding theme and philosophy. In McNamara’s day, the governing theme was austerity. That gave the Mercury shop the opportunity to go another direction; more glamor, more style.
Iacocca went the other way…long hood, short deck, faddish style. Flowing lines, until the Brougham Era got underway. But, apparently, no deviation from the Word of Lee was permitted. Mercury must march in lockstep.
A shame. Iacocca’s crime, and Mercury’s execution.
By the late 1960s, Iacocca was running up against Ed Lundy’s bean-counter brigade. The Finance Department had Ford – both the company and the man – in its iron grip by the early 1970s.
Henry Ford II became extremely conservative in his final years at Ford regarding investment in new products. His mantra was “minicars, miniprofits,” and certainly he wasn’t about to splurge on distinctive sheetmetal and interiors for a low-profit car like the Comet. Always remember that, in the end, it wasn’t Iacocca’s name on the building.
There wasn’t really all that much to distinguish one version of the GM NOVA X-body compacts on the rear-wheel-drive platform from another. They did use divisional V-8s, but the sheetmetal was basically the same. The differences in the V-8s were probably lost on most buyers.
For that matter, the Aspen and Volare were clones of each other. I remember as a teenager being disappointed at how little differentiation there was between the two cars. Singling out Iacocca for criticism is not quite fair here.
All good points. And, it sounds like you’d read the same background sources I had…
If anything, once Lee got to Highland Park the Dodge and Plymouth twins stopped shipping with the wrong badges on one fender…
When I was 5-8 years old my mom had a ’67 Comet. Baseline 2-door pillared sedan, white with a red plaid interior and the gutless 200 six under the hood, mated to the Merc-O-Matic transmission.
None of us were particularly fond of that car, but it never let us down. I kind of wish I had it now. A hot small-block and a disc brake upgrade would make for a fun sleeper.
Actually one of these witha late Falcon turbo 6 powertrain would be kinda fun use the 4wheel discs and all and it would more than likely bolt in
“..late Falcon turbo 6…”
You folks down under get all the cool toys. Falcon turbo 6, Chrysler hemi 6, big Holdens, utes, Citroens — I’m envious!
No the ohc & dohc 4.0’s are too long to go in these early birds, especially if you are trying to fit an intercooler in as well. The 250ci crossflow can still make a lot of power with a turbo though.
I learned to drive on my mom’s ’65 Comet three-speed manual six. It was a 2-door stripper (with window frames, AM and no AC. White exterior, red vinyl interior and the stacked headlights of all Fords that year. Nice little car, but Spartan.
It is interesting to read of the endurance run, there was a similar one here in Australia that marked a turning point for the Falcon locally, 5 cars did 70,000 miles in 8 3/4 days averaging just over 70mph – on the mountain handling course! A high-speed bowl had been green-lit but was not built yet. Again no mechanical issues, just body damage from crashes & trouble finding enough drivers to keep the schedule.
The father of a friend of mine from elementary school had one of these. By the time I knew about it in the mid-70’s, it was what we called back then a ‘work car’, meaning beater. The family had owned it since new, but had been supplanted with a newer Mercury Comet, and this one was relegated to work car status.
My friend Joe however, was in love with the 64. It was a white 2 door with a light brown interior and a six. I don’t remember which one anymore. The crowning jewel in this treasure was the original dealer’s plaque that this car was especially built for his parents. Which, I’m sure the dealer put in every car they sold in 1964…
But, by 1976, this was a rusty, crusty somewhat unreliable old car that could only spark the imagination of a 13 year old budding motorhead like no Ferrari or Porsche could at that time. Because it was attainable. But, it wasn’t too long before that the car had some too-expensive-to-fix malady afflict it and it was scrapped.
They replaced the car with a brand new 1978 Oldsmobile Omega, that came with a 305 Chevy 4 bbl. By that time Joe was old enough to drive, and drive he did. He abused the crap out of that Olds. But I covered that in another post some time ago…
Nice to see one of these again. I see these every so often at car shows, but I’m really more of a Cougar kind of guy.
My uncle bought a white Comet 404 sedan in 1964.
It was a bit of a surprise as he had always driven the upper-level big Dodges (Royal Lancer 500 or something similar).
I thought it was a nice little car with fairly deluxe materials the few times I rode in it.
I guess he wasn’t too impressed as it was traded on a ’66 Dodge Coronet 500 coupe after 2 years. He was back to the big Dodge Monaco by 1969 where I think he was more in his element.
There is a believe a 1965 Comet two door sitting for sale in my town. It looks original. I snapped some pics of it, thought about doing a CC on it, but I lost interest for some reason…
Looks like a 66 or 67. Growing up a neighbor had a 67 Caliente sedan, with 49,000 miles on it, and it sat parked in her garage till she had to move to a nursing home. I begged her to sell it to me, and she wouldn’t. Her son sold it to a guy that then drove it for a bit, parked it and I lost track of it.
Fast forward to about 6 years ago, I run across a guy in the parts store talking about this 1967 Comet, I ask him if its a Caliente trim and a 4 door, along with an odd-ball color like your pic, he says yes, I asked him if belonged to Mrs. Campbell, he didn’t know but it was around the corner and if I was interested in buying the car, He’d sell it to me cheap. So I went and looked at it, and sure enough, the same car! That time spent parked outside did a number on it, the interior was trashed, the paint was gone, and he was in the process of parting it out, he kept asking me how many miles were on it, and I looked at the odometer, it had rolled up another 5,000 miles, and I told him that it was correct, it had’t rolled over, and there in the glovebox was all her documents, and registration. He was floored that I knew a lot about that car.
Sadly I didn’t have a place to keep it and all its parts boxed up at the time, otherwise I’d have gotten it and tracked down all the missing parts again.
Some friends of our family had a light blue ’66 Comet 4-door with 3 on the tree. I rode in that car many times as a little kid, and I thought it was a great car. The stacked headlights gave it a lot of character. I was kind of sad when they traded it for a ’68 Biscayne.
I absolutely love the 2 door version of this model, along with the Falcon. My ’64 Fairlane is it’s bigger sister. With a small V8 and a 4 speed, these make really cool street machines.
I prefer the 64 to earlier Comets, but would rather own one of the intermediate-sized Comets. To me, the 64 Comet looks like the designers just couldn’t stop adding chrome “bits” to the front and back. Does this car really need those chrome bits at the end of the front fenders? How about the redundant chrome bits on the “C” pillar?
My father had to borrow a car to take the family to my cousin’s wedding and the car he got was a 65 Caliente 2 door hardtop. It was one of the worse possible cars for 5 passengers to share for an hour and a half….each way. Aside from seats that were as comfortable as those in a modern McDonald’s booth, the rear seat legroom was pretty much non-existent for humans over 3 or 4 feet tall.
I don’t know. Looks like it still has “stubby tail fins” to me. 65 was when they squared off the fins.
It resembles a 2/3rds size 63-64 Monterey, which really does give the luxury compact designation credibility. That was also consistent in the Comet’s advertising with it’s “fine car” styling and appointments given a lot of play in the copy.
Had a 66 Comet Caliente. First car I bought on my own. Still wish I had it, of course. Earl Scheib Avacado green metallic and a 304 transplant.
And a 60-61 Comet is still my dream car, even though I;m not 13 years old anymore. Great observation Geozinger. Some things never change. What’s a Ferrari ?
The first brand new car my grandfather ever bought!
A nice little car here ~ I like it’s lines and the extra trim bits too .
In 1978 I bought a ’61 Comet Coupe from it’s little Old lady original owner for $150 , white with (naturally) red upholstery .IIRC it had a 144 ? CID engine and couldn’t make it up the incredibly steel hill I lived on , unless i locked it into low and charged the hell out of that hill , not pleasing my neighbors one bit as I lived in the very last house at the top of the hill and there were a few kids living on that tiny street .
-Nate
The first car I bought was a 64 Mercury Comet 2 Dr. for $160 with an FM converter! Sand brown color. 1972. It ran pretty good if you didn’t try to turn or stop. No pics that I know of.
I hated driving and being seen in the car. 8 months later I sold it for $150 and a oz of pot. I kept the FM converter.
I bought a 1968 Fiat 124 Sport Spyder and never looked back. That car I loved.
This pretty much leaves the Comet with one seriously distinctive model year. 1964.
I had no idea that when one of these (in sand tan) was my first car that it was distinctive.
I’ve always loved the ’64 and ’65 Comets and Falcons. Almost bought a wimbledon white ’64 Comet 404 back in college but probably best I didn’t. Maybe someday… I like the wagons and 2 door post models the most.