I’m going to continue to open Corey Behrens’ Christmas packages at the Cohort, one day at a time, this being the third. It’s another American, but unlike the Pacer, this Mercury Colony Park wagon is clearly too long for Amsterdam’s parking spaces. But I’m sure the locals will give it the grace it deserves. It’s a woody, and almost as scenic as the wood boat tied up at the canal in front of it.
Here’s another shot, that shows off its long old-growth wood planking as well as the traditional Amsterdam houses on the other side of the canal. I’ve only been in Amsterdam once, in 1969, when our family went to Austria for an extended summer vacation. Our charter plane’s destination was Amsterdam, so we took a day to explore it.
We arrived midday, after a very short night on the plane. Since we couldn’t yet check into the hotel, my father led us to a taxi stand, and at the head of it stood what had to be a quite new W115 200D, since they were only introduced a year earlier. Then he did one of the most uncharacteristic things ever: he had me get in the front seat, while he hopped in the back with my mom and two little brothers. It was so out of character, I still feel the mixture of confusion, appreciation and pride, sliding into the big front passenger seat. And I can still see the driver deftly rowing the gears to make the most of the 55 hp diesel.
My father had the driver take us on a scenic tour, of which I remember mostly the cars, as it was my first immersion back into the very different world of European cars.
Like most big European cities at the time, the streets were dominated (and often clogged) with cars, a result of the explosion of personal income and purchasing power in the 1960s. Bicyclists and pedestrians were not happy, and there.
In 1972, this led to a growing protest movement, led by mothers and children too. The result was a major re-think of priorities, and over the following decades, cars have increasingly been pushed to the margins in Amsterdam.
Now many streets are closed to cars, and those that ore open have narrow lanes and restrictions. Bikes and pedestrians once again predominate.
After the grand tour, our driver deposited us at a little hotel facing a canal, but it certainly wasn’t a HoJo. And despite my jet lag, I quickly abandoned my family for an extend walk along the canals, taking in the cars as well as the boats tied up and of course the distinctive houses.
And I do remember seeing one or two big American cars too, like this Pontiac in the background of this still from a documentary about the children’s protests against cars. As we’ve often pointed out here on these pages, the Netherlands had a much higher percentage of American cars than most other European cars. Going back a ways, some American cars were even assembled locally, from CKD kits. It’s because there was no domestic car industry, except for DAF starting in the 1960s, and that was the case for certain other European countries that had no domestic brands either. Loyalty to American cars lingered much longer, and in the Netherlands, they’re still more common than average, but as our correspondent Johannes Dutch has shown, the new ones are more likely to be pickups. But then that’s the case in the US too.
And if you’re wondering how I came up with the model year of this Colony Park, I decided to Google “Netherlands license plate lookup”. Sure enough; easy peasy. And the result even had a fine picture of this car, in almost the same parking spot. And still hanging its big boxy arse into the sidewalk.
How marvelously out of place it looks!
When I see one of these I still think of it as “one that got away”. I was ready to buy one and had cash in my pocket. But we didn’t come together on price until after I had bought something else later that day. Oh well. The truth is that I think I like these more in the abstract than I do in real life.
Really?
I’ll take the 1963 Catalina Safari – this Mercury (i.e., an uglier Ford) is boring and pure bad taste – look at those “opera” lamps, all that misaligned chrome? piping – makes it the Family Truckster, Mercury style
opera lamps on a wagon, just plain nutz – a rolling American monument to bad taste, something some Europeans relish, like old Jerry Lewis movies
A very nice article and reminiscence of the Netherlands. Comparative car spotting is an interesting activity, especially in the past, before American cars started looking like the European ones.
As a teen, I spent the summer of 1981 in Britain. I loved all cars at the time and was mystified at the irrational anti -American views displayed by most British car enthusiasts. At the time, Britain seemed depressed, with high taxes and lower income. Most cars seemed to be miserable, cramped, slow and uncomfortable, but were the only ones average drivers could afford. I only saw two American cars that summer, a new (1981) silver 2 door Cutlass and a new dark blue Malibu. They were the height of luxury and comfort by comparison. But obviously for my British relatives they were worthless for a list of clichéd anti American reasons that really didn’t apply to the new A- bodies.
One bright spot, Dad rented a European-made Ford Granada, a magnificent fine-performing luxury sedan, very different from our American Granada. After driving it at 100 mph, Dad said liked it so much he wanted to buy one when we got back to Canada. I had to break the bad news if he wanted that kind of driving experience back home he’d have to buy a Mercedes, as that Granada wasn’t available. Of course he’d never buy a Mercedes due to his wartime experiences. He bought a Cutlass Ciera instead, which served us well, but was no Granada.
“Of course he’d never buy a Mercedes due to his wartime experiences”
After 1976, the European Granada was 100% made in Germany. As German as Mercedes-Benz.
There are still quite a few members of the local Jewish community that would never consider buying a Mercedes or other German car. Memories of the Holocaust run long and deep.
I wanted to chime in about the Dutch politics in the 1970s that have restricted the automotive traffic as to give more “safe space” for pedestrians and bicyclists. In some instances, the politics could have gone too far in closing more streets to the automobiles without considering the long-term consequence or whether the right balance was established.
Case in point: Munich. In the last ten years, Die Grüne and SPD (both on the left side of political spectrum) in the city council have focused on reducing or eliminating the vehicular traffic in the city centre. They would rather want the people to peruse the public transportation service or bicycles to reach the city centre.
One long street was converted to a pedestrian street while many streets within the city centre were reconfigured to be one-way streets that don’t alway go anywhere the motorists wanted easily and effortlessly. It might take a several convoluted turns before reaching their desired destinations. The city council hoped it would frustrate the motorists into using the public transportation or bicycles instead.
What the city council didn’t consider was the delivery vehicles and waste collections which the businesses depended on greatly. The reconfigured streets make it harder and more time-consuming for the deliveries as well as waste collections. Sometimes, the delivery vehicles have to stop in the middle of the streets, blocking the traffic, because they have nowhere to park away from the traffic. That causes more pollution and back-up than needed.
However, prior to the pandemic this year, the city council realised that its grand scheme has backfired a big time. More and more small mom-and-pop specialty stores and restaurants in the city centre have already closed down their business or relocated to the automobile-friendly quarters outside the city centre. Many medical offices, too, have packed up and moved out since many patients, especially elderly ones or ones with restricted mobility, depend on taxicabs or specially equipped vehicles to bring them to the curbside or take them home. Without medical personnel and patients, the restaurants and cafés took large hit in their business.
A survey was made to find out why the city centre is slowly emptied out. The shoppers and store owners reported that the shoppers are more likely to make larger or heavier purchases if they bring their vehicles to the city centre. Same for the multiple purchases, too, in one go. It is especially true for Christmas shopping every year. If the shoppers reach the city centre by public transportation or bicycles, they are more likely to make much smaller or fewer purchases that can fit their bicycle baskets or can be easily carried home.
The city council hadn’t considered certain groups of people who cannot use public transportation or ride bicycles: large families, people with health issues or restricted mobilities, people living outside the city limit or far from the public transportation, etc. So…
Oliver, I think that is a common scenario in many countries unfortunately.
Certainly we see it in Australian cities. We try to tell the council beforehand about the need to take into account delivery access and waste collections – and emergency vehicle access too – but somehow it seems they make the same mistakes as other authorities elsewhere in the world, while somehow expecting a different result this time. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?
In my nearest city, the council is determined to have bike lanes on many main shopping streets, despite the resultant traffic clogging due to loss of a car lane. Although you hardly ever see any cyclists actually using the route either before or after the bike lanes are in place. And yet it is council policy, and seemingly cannot be changed.
Now I can see the need for it in a country which has a tradition, a culture of cycling. When I was a child, think of Holland and the stereotype of tulips, clogs and bicycles came to mind. Yes, I can see the need there. But in a country where there is where there is no such tradition, and no history of cycle usage on a particular route, and poor to nonexistent public transport to make up for lack of car access, and the shopkeepers do not want it for the very reasons you give – but the council is determined to go ahead anyway…
A victory of political ideology over common sense.
Been to Melbourne recently, Pete? You’d be hard-pressed to get half a Smart car down most of the boulevards now, what with huge superhighways for the bikes and the whopping and inanely-named Superstops for trams in the middle. (I mean, they’re just bloody tram stops, fer gawd’s sake. God save us from those who would market to us, an admittedly lost cause, and I digress, but it feels better out).
Politically, I’m pretty much your loony-lefty type, and bikes do get a lot of users in peak times now, and lots of the changes are entirely sensible and good also for all sorts of enviro reasons, God Save the Planet and all that.
However, the Righteous Lycra crowd – professionals, inner-city, well-paid, largely selfish, and ignorant of anyone not Them – are as powerful a political force as they are in many cities, and thus generally get whatever they want. The clogging and innaccessability cost affects probably about the same number of the population as the lanes et al benefit them, but that population of oldies and other strugglers is invisible to their view as they have all long attained the once-thought-unachieveable state of never being wrong.
Ah well. I suppose they’ll all get old eventually, and Iikely demand it all be ripped up and replaced by mega-highways even through protected parks for their convenience.
That Colony Park is only 218.3 inches (5545 mm) long. A (chosen at random) 1974 would have been 7.3 inches longer.
For some reason, those Colony Parks seem to be much more common in Hollywood studio rental fleets than their Ford Division and GM counterparts, to say nothing of the smaller FWD offerings that handily outsold them when new. “Stranger Things”, “The Goldbergs” and “Young Sheldon” all feature a box Panther Colony Park as the protagonist’s mom’s car.
There are a couple of reasons. Why you see the Merc instead of the Ford is likely due to the demographics of the original buyers. The guy buying the Ford is more likely to be younger and buying a wagon because he found himself in need of a wagon for the expanding brood. Those young kids are likely to trash the interior of a car and that family on a tight budget is more likely to delay maintenance and not fix those little issues until the car reaches beater status.
Meanwhile the buyer of the Merc is more likely to purchase it once he and the kids are older, or to buy it once the kids are gone to tow the boat or travel trailer. That older buyer with more money is more likely to make sure all the maintenance is done on time and the little issues are taken care of as the pop up rather than accumulate until the car becomes a beater.
Why Panthers instead of B-bodies is because the survival rate of the Panthers is higher than B-bodies.
Why a Panther instead of say a Celebrity? Having watched The Goldbergs and Young Sheldon I don’t see those fathers as being less than full size buyers nor early adopters of FWD. The Taurus of course didn’t hit the scene until the late 80’s and weren’t really everywhere you looked until the 90’s so it wouldn’t reinforce that the show is happening in the 80’s
If this Mercury is too long; what would the 1990’s Whale Wagons of GM be called?
A 1991-96 Caprice wagon is 217.3 inches long, slightly shorter than the Colony Park in this post. The Roadmaster is 217.7″ which ia still a bit shorter than the CP.
You are correct!
The Mercury is longer by a whopping 00.07 inches. (218 inches length)
The GM wagons just “look” longer (to my eyes).
Great images — this would be a fun find in any North American suburb, but in Amsterdam! I’m glad Corey stopped to take some pictures.
And I’m always amazed by these pictures of angle-parking along Amsterdam’s canals, with no barrier to stop cars from plunging into the water. Here is the US, we’d have a whole row of giant, bright yellow MUTCD-approved bollards to keep that from happening.
I think you lucked out with the platesmania website, as that’s a user-populated service that’s pretty spotty. For Netherlands license plates, I typically use http://www.kentekencheck.nl — which is in Dutch, but seems pretty much all-inclusive.
The one and only official site to check all Dutch plates (and the only one I am always using) is this:
https://www.rdw.nl/
Scroll down to TIK HIER. All important data of the vehicle (trailers and semi-trailers included) are there.
Thank you, Johannes!
A dozen or so years I was visiting Switzerland and saw a decent number of American cars. The one that I lined the most was a Chrysler 300 wagon. It was the Dodge Magnum rear with the 300 front end. From then on I wondered why they never tried that here. It looked great. Imagine a Hellcat 300 wagon. Makes as much sense as a Charger.
Chrysler made a HUGE mistake there, not having the 300 wagon here
the 300 wagon was so much better looking and like the Cordoba, it probably would have outsold the Dodge like 10-1
Nice write-up, Paul. I’m happy these shots are making “the big time” on CC! Would’ve been a trip to see Amsterdam in 1969 back when it was more car-dominated, however much as I love cars the city’s restrictions on them make Amsterdam a more livable city. When I first arrived in 2016, I was surprised and delighted to see that this bike-dominated city has in fact (as far as I can tell from my “buitenlander” perspective) a very rich car culture.
Oh and thanks for the tip on platesmania.
Is this the only wagon ever to have opera lights?
Good grief – I didn’t even notice them hiding in all that chrome!
that wagon is pure bad taste – Mercurys were known as the uglier Fords
maybe the Family Truckster did too
nope, too over the top for that Ford wagon icon – probably the most famous Ford wagon
There is an easy to identify if a full size Ford product is a 90/91 or earlier.
90/91 dashboards were made of a higher grade vinyl and didn’t crack all to bits like the earlier dashboards.
The pre-90 dashboards had a straight edge from side to side whereas the 90/91 didn’t.
A driver really needs to know where his corners are! If that wagon was parked backwards with the wheels on the edge, the overhang would be crashing into boats.
I can relate to that Dutch station wagon owner, even in Oregon my 20′ pickup tends to poke out of parking spaces, except at the Wilco Farm Store, where they know their clientele and have extra long spots. I think I’ve mentioned the Dutch and Ameircan cars since they even show up in books and films. Janwillem Van de Wetering’s Adjutant Grijpstra drive a Ford Bronco late in his career and a Dodge Viper is used as an undercover car. Also the recent Oldenheim 12 has a character driving a 70 Ford SUperCab pickup converted to propane
The Mercedes 200 is striking because we have been watching The Sweeney (UK 1975-78) and several later episodes feature these as bad guy’s cars in place of the stereotypical Jaguar. The Sweeney’s street scenery is also a sharp contrast to Inspector George Gently which is set in Durham UK from 1964-1970 and wade 2008-2017. The Sweeney is much dirtier and more run down with a much wider range of cars, including many imports and many beaters. In contrast George Gently has more upscale vehicles and much more well kept vehicles since they have to use collector’s cars. Also many of the locations are cleaner and less run down, plus several are recognizable from the modern series Vera.
The Sweeney is great for car spotters since in addition to the expected Fords and Jaguars there are several appearances by a Renault 16 as well as the aforementioned Mercs,the occasional VW., a Porsche 912 and several Ford Transcontinentals, plus the odd Ford Mustang.
Anyone know the English translation of Dutch word “Autovry?” It’s spray painted on the overturned cars by protestors. None of the online translators seem to know.
I think it means “car-free”, or something similar.
Autovrij. Without cars/no cars allowed.
What always drove me nuts about these cars were that they left the seam / cutout for the Ford’s tail light visible.
Im an American that lives in Ireland part of the year. There is a Cadillac Escalade parked in Athlone that looks SO enormous, completely out of place I always wonder who owns it. Then there is the 80s era Sedan de Ville in Galway. I can barely turn corners in my Yaris let alone thinking how to float a Caddy around Ireland.
Great pictures, Corrie Berends! (I Dutchiefied your name for this occasion)
The Netherlands is one of my favorite places. I grew up in a part of South Chicago filled with Dutch culture; Lansing, South Holland Illinois and Munster Indiana. Our church was Dutch Reformed. Calvinist. These towns were where truck farms for the Chicago market were established. I can still easily smell the onions! The Edna Ferber novel and movie, “So Big” takes place there. So studying in Friesland and traveling from East to West to escape the rigid conformity of Germany on weekends, connected with me deeply since Dutch culture, religion and manners were a part of my life growing up.
The most important part of understanding the Dutch is its size and the fact that it is under sea level. You don’t forget that if you failed to keep up the infrastructure, you’d drown. You join a hive of people fighting against nature. The Netherlands face west and their culture is more in line with Britain than with Germany. The moment you cross the frontier from Germany to the Netherlands, everything changes. It was a shock to me to see how an invisible border could become so visible in all other aspects of life. (I learned the hard way to never speak German in the Netherlands, as 20th century scars run deep.)
As to automobiles, cars in the Netherlands reflects the limited space and resources of the nation. This is a nation of canals, which are a side benefit of draining away the waters from below sea level. Many streets also have canals, the same way that most streets in our cities, also have an underground drainage for rainwater. Having a street-wide canal, limits the size for foot and vehicular traffic. Before the advent of the internal combustion engine, these streets were used to pull barges down the canals by animal.
Since it such a small place, it is easy to live without a car. Since every inch and foot of the Netherlands is taken and held back from Mother Nature, so everything has been planned and engineered. Mass transportation is well done. Bikes are the major mode of transportation. The University of Groeningen crafted the standards by which Euthanasia is handled. You see, the Dutch feel a need to engineer every facet of life, including its end.
So a Mercury Colony Park fits this culture about as well as a DAF would fit in Abilene Kansas. I wouldn’t want to drive it around there. It would take far more awareness of surrounding obstacles than I could muster. The Dutch love the eclectic and I’m certain based on what I experienced there, that that huge wagon gets more than a few laughs and thumbs ups from bike peddling traffic.
You’d be surprised how many cultural and religious differences there are on such an utterly small piece of land (and water).
The RC south, the Protestant north (of the main rivers). Then we have our own lil’ Bible Belt, running from the south-west, through the center, up to the north-east. Besides that, there’s the highly urbanized and crowded west, Amsterdam included, vs the rest.
And the eastern half prefers to face east, to Germany/the Rhineland model, certainly not to Britain/the Anglo Saxon model.
Car related, want you wanted, back in the sixties and seventies, was a Ford from Köln. And an Opel rather than a Vauxhall. At least, where I am.
My old stomping grounds was Groeningen.
Oh yes, Groningen. The name of the province is the same as the name of its capital city.
Back in the days, many workers in that province (working for the numerous rich farmers or in the strawboard factories) were loyal followers of the communist party.
More like the Mercury Parked Colonizer, taking up as much of Amsterdam as that.