We’ve enjoyed various “theme days” lately here at CC, but in reality, many of them are completely unplanned—a post will go up, and one or more of us will have had a car in the queue that complements it in a way that’s too good to pass up. Had we not spent most of yesterday working with the Jaws of Life on the site, I would have had the perfect ripostes to Paul’s Falcon Futura as well as JPC’s Mercury Comet, plus a little something for Tom, too. What’s cool about the three cars following is that they were shot within a half-hour of each other while I was out looking for a completely different CC I had spotted recently, and as you’ll see, there’s a “three degrees of separation” link between them, too.
Let’s start with our first score, a 1962 Mercury Meteor that “runs great!” The previous year’s Meteor was the full-size sister of the Mercury Monterey, riding on the same 120″ wheelbase and essentially differentiated by trim. For 1962, the Meteor nameplate was repositioned in-between Monterey and Comet as a mid-size offering on a 116-1/2″ wheelbase, one whole whopping inch longer than the Ford Fairlane.
Base power came from a 170 c.i.d. straight six making 101 hp. A 221 c.i.d. V8 making 145 hp or a 260 c.i.d. V8 making 164 hp were optional.
While this front end looks like it might fit better on an electric razor, I kind of like its straightforward face.
But what really gets me going are the other chromey bits all designed to cash in on Space Race Mania.
Good luck finding replacements for practically any of these trim bits—despite there being over 69,000 Meteors (all trim levels and body styles) sold in 1962, these are getting somewhat hard to find in decent shape. Our subject car is definitely a “20-20” car (looks good at 20 feet or 20 mph), too.
The interior is actually pretty nicely appointed, and reminds me a little bit of my high school best friend’s ’65 Mustang dash.
Laurence Jones has a more detailed writeup of the Meteor if you find yourself craving more…
So having satisfied myself with a CC “in the can,” I headed back toward home, and spotted another Mercury—a Comet, this time!
This 1971 model has the graceful, thin front bumper which would be replaced by beefed up “battering rams” in 1973 to meet new federal crash standards.
While the vinyl roof would seem to offer the promise of broughamy goodness inside, it actually looks pretty sparse in there. It’s certainly well-preserved, though – only 23,402 miles!
All in all, it’s a pretty handsome car in that cream white and burgundy red roof. But wait—what’s that reflected in the side of the Comet?
Incredible! It’s a matched pair!
The Concord was introduced in 1977 (as a ’78 model), right about the time the Comet was ending its production run. Like the Comet above, this specimen is also an inaugural year car.
Ahhh! Now we’re feeling the broughmance! That’s quite a nicer interior than on the Comet. And only 47,012 miles on this beauty!
And again, that cream white trimmed in burgundy is really sharp.
I’d love to know the story behind these two cars in particular, but all-in-all, it was a great day for CCs!
Love the Meteor,it has class and style by the yard.I don’t recall having ever seen one in the metal in many years at car shows.Back then Mercuries didn’t look like a Ford in drag
Gems comments are interesting The black Meteor was’nt sold nere new but its twin the compact Ford Fairlane was very popular. the white car yeah nar we didnt get or want them.
Love the Meteor. That dash looks like quite an upgrade over the Fairlane, and both inside and out the car emulates the senior Mercury quite well.
Now that I am a Comet expert, I am having trouble making sense of your white one. It seems to lack the Exterior Decor Group which included the bright moldings along the rocker panels, wheel lips and from front to back on the upper bodysides. However, the car does have the bright window and roof moldings (part of the LDG). The lack of the upper and lower brightwork really lets that Maverick mid-body sculpting scream at you, and would make it hard to ID as a Comet from the side.
The Concord really looks better as a 4 door.
I halfway think they were “restored” together and done in those colors on purpose. Next time I’m up there, I’ll have to stop in and ask.
I did a quick search for some documentation and could not find any concerning the bright roof and window moldings. I wonder if they have came with the vinyl top option.
That is an interesting looking aftermarket radio / 8 track unit hanging under the dash. An unusual option combination; vinyl top, air conditioning, but no radio. The outside mirrors appear to be aftermarket to me (they look larger that the oem versions, plus there is a matching one on the right), as well as the wheel trim rings.
The red-over-white cars appear to be part of a display related to the building behind them, which is also white with a red roof. I assume that is Motor City Kewanee used car dealership. According to their webpage, they are asking $3990 for the ’78 Concord and $4999 for the ’71 Comet, reduced from $6490.
Are the Concord’s seats really as faded as they look in the picture?
They probably were, although I was fighting mind-morning sun coming in at just the wrong angle…
Kewanee–home of Good’s! Buy a Barcolounger, then have a Reuben in the Wine Cellar!
Ed would know what I’m talking about 🙂
The Meteor with its bare foot gas pedal, rubber mats and three on the tree would make a fun summer beach cruiser. That all-metal dash is a thing of beauty!
The other cars are too nice for sand and surf and not the right vibe. 60s American cars were special that way, with their room, sturdy construction and carefree style. In a weird way no seat belts is part of the charm.
The Comet looks like it has factory air, rare in ’71 Like some of the other readers I am a fan of the simple layout and concave shape of the Maverick/Comet dash (though what a striking contrast to the Comet dash). It’s a shame the outside of the car is so hard on the eyes.
The Concord is an amazing specimen. The seats look well made and comfy, but I can’t tell if the color is faded red or tan.
Thanks Ed!
The ad is quite interesting. The disguised car actually looks smaller than the Comet. The line “Meteor shares only its famous Canadian name with the past” is also quite unusual. It doesn’t have a maple leaf on it so I’m guessing it’s not an ad for the Canadian market so why would the name be famous in the majority of the US? What is even more interesting to me is the fact that the new midsize Mercury was called Meteor meant that Canadian Mercury-Meteor-Comet dealers lost out on having a full size car in the low price field for those years. Why not use another name on the midsize in Canada? It wouldn’t have been that expensive to make a different badge for it. Or why not come up with a different name that could be used in both countries w/o taking away that car in the low price field from the Canadian dealers.
It’s an ad for the Canadian market. If you look closely at the top of the page, it appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.
Missed that, I was looking for a leaf near the Mercury logo.
When FoMoCo introduced the intermediate Fairlane and Meteor for 1962, I think they expected it to do more damage to the market for low-end fullsize cars than it actually did. Based on this assumption, Ford pared back its offerings at the bottom end of the fullsize range. The elimination of the Canadian Meteor is probably yet another example of this.
For 1962, Ford completely dropped what had been the lowest-price series in its ’61 fullsize lineup (the base Fairlane, equivalent to the Chevrolet Biscayne and Plymouth Savoy). It wasn’t replaced by something under another name, it just went away. IINM, the same thing happened to Ford’s fullsize wagon lineup when intermediate wagons were introduced in 1963, with the fullsize Ranch Wagon disappearing. Ford quickly realized that all of this was a mistake. For 1963, a new bottom-end series appeared in the price range formerly occupied by the fullsize base Fairlane, called the Ford 300. It lasted for just that one year. For 1964, a new Ford Custom appeared, absorbing both ranges formerly occupied by the fullsize Fairlane. The base Custom and Custom 500 paralleled the old fullsize Fairlane and Fairlane 500. The fullsize wagon lineup was soon back to normal as well, with a restored fullsize Ranch Wagon.
Similarly, after the first year of the intermediate Meteor, Lincoln-Mercury in Canada realized that it wasn’t capturing all of the market who had bought the pre-1962 fullsize Canadian Meteor. They needed a fullsize car that was more downmarket than the fullsize Mercury models that were sold in the U.S. For 1963 Mercury introduced a new fullsize model in Canada called the Mercury 400. Similar in concept to the Ford 300, it was stripped-down version of the fullsize Mercury, and would also last for just that one year. For 1964, with the intermediate Meteor gone, the fullsize Meteor reappeared in Canada. Like the 1963 400, it was now based on the fullsize Mercury body, rather than being a badge-engineered version of the fullsize Ford body as pre-1962 Canadain Meteors had been.
The pre-1962 Canadian Meteors were always just “Meteors”, not badged as Mercurys. I had thought that was the case in Canada with the 1962-63 intermediate Meteors as well, but the ad clearly shows that the ’62 Meteor was considered to be a Mercury.
Wow, nice finds all! I think the Comet and Concord both look excellent in the red and white. When I was in middle school, a neighbor had a near-identical Concord coupe, only with a white top and (I think) a blue interior. It was a ’79 with the Lincolnesque grille and quad rectangular lights, and it was absolutely pristine. He still had it when we moved across town in 1995. I wonder if it’s still there?
Oh, and I had a reverse CC Effect with a Meteor recently. There was one at the Classy Chassy cruise night in Coralville a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a pic:
Nice, I bet they want more than $2500 – and it would be worth it
I love the black s33. Sold my first one 42yrs ago in Saskatchewan and am trying to find it with out much success. If yo no where I can get one please let me know.
[email protected] cash deal.
I am still looking for a Mercury Meteor S33 for cash sale. If anyone can put me onto a pristine one i would consider a finders fee once purchased. Black being preferable.
This ’62 Meteor 4-door sedan strongly resembles the ’61 Ford Fairlane 500 4-door sedan. Not by accident I’m sure.
The 62 Meteor was a badge engineered Ford built on the Ford line for Canadian Mercury dealers to have a car in the low priced field. Over at Ford they got the badge engineered Monarch since they wanted a mid priced car since Mercury dealers got a low priced car. So you had Ford-Monarch dealers and Mercury-Meteor dealers.
I meant the Mercury Meteor in the first photos, not the Canadian Ford Meteor. Wikipedia says “The brand was retired for the 1962 and 1963 model years, when the name was used for the Mercury Meteor sold in the United States.” Confusing!
Is that a ’62 Meteor or a ’61? Earlier it was stated that there was no fullsize Meteor in Canada during the two years the intermediate Meteor was built, and I had thought that was correct.
From 1949 to 1961, the Meteor was a badge-engineered fullsize Ford sold in Canada by Mercury dealers. It was not badged as a Mercury or as a Ford, just as a “Meteor”. This car existed because 1) the Canadian market was slanted more heavily towards low-priced cars than the U.S. market, making it difficult for a dealer network to survive selling nothing cheaper than middle-priced cars; and 2) the lower population density in Canada made it difficult for FoMoCo to have both a Ford dealer and a Lincoln-Mercury dealer readily accessible to all areas, so Lincoln-Mercury dealers in some places may have needed to cover the low-priced market. Other brands that were midpriced in the U.S. similarly sold low-priced models in Canada, either in place of or in addition to their U.S. models (e.g., Pontiac, Dodge, DeSoto).
The 1961 U.S. Mercury Meteor was somewhat similar in concept, in that it represented a fullsize car sold by Mercury dealers that was down in the low-priced (Ford) class. It differed from its Canadian counterpart in that it was badged as a Mercury and used the standard fullsize Mercury body and styling, not the fullsize Ford body.
During the same period noted above, Ford dealers in Canada sold a badge-engineered Mercury called the Monarch. Similar to the Meteor, it was not badged as a Mercury or as a Ford, just as a “Monarch”. It allowed Ford dealers to cover the mid-priced market in areas where there might not be a Lincoln-Mercury dealer nearby, and ensured equal product offerings between the two networks. A interesting bit of trivia is that there were no Monarchs during the 1958 model year, because Ford believed they would compete unneccesarily with the new Edsel, which was sold through Ford dealers in Canada. After the Edsel flopped, the Monarch returned for 1959.
The fullsize Meteor and Monarch were both dropped after 1961. Following two years of intermediate Meteors, the fullsize Meteor reappeared in 1964, although it was now a stripped-down version of the Mercury body rather than a badge-engineered car built off of the Ford body. It lasted into the early ’80s, although over time it eventually came to be considered a Mercury, and towards the end was actually a subseries of the Mercury Marquis.
Looking for mercury s33 in Canada cash sale.
That’s actually my Meteor! Somehow it made its way to the mountains of North Carolina. Sure is a beauty! Turns a lot of heads.