I’ve got nothing I could possibly say that would do justice to this Mega Marquis, shot and posted at the Cohort by Donald Williamson. It’s a mighty big job, but I’m sure some of you are up to it.
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: Mercury Marquis – Like a Great Big Stick of Butta’
– Posted on March 18, 2020
Outright comfortable vehicle for a ride. Chrysler borrowed the color for their Aspen and Volare models and called it Jasmine Yellow.
That must be what color my parts car T&C was, cuz it looks identical to the color of that Marquis.
Those badges on the headlight covers and on the C pillars are exactly the same ones as those on the Australian Ford P6 LTD made 1976-79 – I know because I had one, and someone stole the badges off mine. I was easily able to buy replacements
It looks like it is dressed and ready for Easter morning. 🙂
I found these Mercuries much better looking as big 2 doors than their LTD counterparts. In fact, they were the only one of the big-boned FoMoCo 2 doors that kept a traditional hardtop roof.
I first noticed these when I worked with a guy who owned one. He was a big bear of a guy and had a red Marquis 2 door with the fender skirts but with no vinyl roof. The slick roof made for a nice looking car. After fuel got expensive he traded it on a 80-ish Buick Regal 2 door. I couldn’t imagine how a guy built like him could be comfortable in such a small car. Turned out he wasn’t. I forget what he replaced it with, but the Buick wasn’t around long.
My great uncle had one that he purchased in the exact same color as my Dad’s (later my) ’73 LTD. It looked almost exactly like one that Yohai71 shot in Israel a few years back (pictured below). My great uncle always upstaged my Dad every time Dad bought a new car, this being the most egregious example.
I did not realize that the Merc held onto the hardtop longer than the Ford, JPC. That’s the one thing that bugged me about the LTD, as they went with that stupid “pillared hardtop” from 75 thru 78, while it appears that the Marquis hung in there a few years longer.
I always liked the hardtop look, but my LTD was the only one I ever owned as that body style just went away, sadly.
I have to agree, even though I owned an LTD, the Mercury Marquis was a much nicer looking car, inside and out.
It simply screams Palm Springs in the ’70’s. And while so over the top is still impressive that it exists at all. Someone did a fabulous job of keeping it garaged and the new(er) owner based on the license plates is obviously a big fan.
This is a Mercury, perhaps the best embodiment of that vague term Ford bestowed upon it. A car with presence, but not arrogance.
Quite a few years back, a guy at Hagerty drove nothing but a Model A for a year. If CC should ever decide to do similar with a 1970s model car, I would volunteer for that task if I could drive a Mercury like this. Despite the less than tempting color I’d drive this thing everywhere. Even if it was only equipped with a puny 351.
Hell, it’s about the same size as the ’75 Thunderbird I had, if not a wee bit smaller, so it would not present any undue challenge in drive-thrus or parking lots. Having that Thunderbird made me a better driver; everyone should own a car of this size at some point in their lives.
My drivers ed car was a yellow 1975 base level Marquis 4 door with black cloth interior. That was a whole lot of yellow paint. And what a great car to learn to parallel park with. 🙂
As I’ve mentioned before, I own one of these, 77 4 door, and I like it. It’s an extreme example of the traditional huge American car, so smooth, floating and isolated it’s a hoot to drive. If soft absorbent suspension was an automotive superpower this car would be highly respected. In our frost heaved potholes streets such softness makes some sense, although the handling is so vague and wallowing, I think most typical drivers would be horrified to drive it. But that’s part of the vintage driving experience
The car is delightfully simple and straightforward to work on, but the mechanicals are surprisingly truck -like. Huge frame, huge axle huge engine etc. Throw a hitch and brake controller on it and tow 5000 lbs easily.
The only downside to the awesome retro driving experience is the awesomely awful fuel economy. I daily drove mine for about 2 weeks and it crippled the wallet
It’s really beautiful. I didn’t think much about these when they were new, sort of didn’t even notice them. But now, wow.
I used to laugh to myself as a young kid in the 70s, at the number of elderly people (men and women) that drove these. Many of them very average or below average in height. I had an older Grade 5 teacher with one, and she must have been less than 5’4″. And beside her in the school parking lot was the gym teacher, who was at least 6’3″, driving a Corolla. 🙂
I spent several years growing up in a small town, and while the nearby Trans-Canada highway was the perfect setting for driving one of these, many of the secondary highways leading out of town were narrow with steep blind hills, sharp curves, and no gravel shoulder. This being before the geometry on many highways was improved, from the standards of 20 or more years before. Given how often these sat in garages for much of the week, a Mercury Comet (for example) would have been so much easier, and affordable, for many of these folks to own and drive. 🙂
These Mercs and most like them, are the Duesenbergs of the future. they are on the way to becoming true classics. i’ve always liked these Mercs and their LTD bretheren although i prefer GM’s beasts. This is truly a beautiful example of America at it’s brougham-est!!(well i preffer a 74 to 76 Cadillac Fleetwood brougham with the Talisman package)Nice catch Paul!!
My grandparents gave me their old ’78 Marquis sedan that was this same banana cream yellow. It’s the only large car that I’ve owned that I look back fondly on. I always preferred the look of these compared to it’s Ford and Lincoln siblings. They look classy without being over the top.
I have always thought the various 1973-78 Marquis models to be peak Mercury, when Ford Motor Company came closest to achieving its goal of providing a respectable upper-middle priced alternative to a Buick or Oldsmobile, even in the GM-heavy Chicago suburb where I grew up in the 1970s. Before about 1968, Mercury always seemed to be irrelevant within the FoMoCo lineup and after about 1980, Mercury began its long, slow, sad decline into oblivion. For a shining 1970s moment, though, Mercury was the place to be.
Well said sir.
As a car buyer in my early twenties at the time, I had zero interest in full size cars such as this. The target market was probably people in their fifties and up. So what did I and others my age buy? A lot of us bought pick-up trucks and vans. I bought an early model 1977 Ford F-100 step side. And yes, I wish I still had it.
These brougham-mobiles are interesting, but I will let others who really appreciate them
buy and care for them. They are a part of American automotive history.
I’m thinking someone got a “whale” of a deal on this one.
See what I did there?
Whales are Chryslers that seat about twenty according to the B-52s
seats about 20
Hurry up and bring your juke box money. My first car was a 1970 Fury III sport coupe. My dad called it “the Nimitz”. 60’s-70’s pre-OPEC boats make awesome first cars.
Amazing car. Size and luxury. I would love us to find a way back to the time when people who weren’t at the tippy top of society could own and operate cars of this level of ostentatious wowness. This was a middle class ride…
Wow, was I ever surprised to open CC this morning and find my Grand Marquis photos posted. Had kinda forgotten about them, we were walking our dog one morning during the Thanksgiving holiday, I think it was, when we came around a corner one half block from our home and stumbled upon this beauty. I live in Palm Springs, and as Jim Klein notes above, it could have been the perfect embodiment of the 70’s era here. I had never seen this car before in our neighborhood, and it was gone a few hours later, never did find out who it was visiting. But man, you talk about presence, in a very GRAND way! I was elated to find such a stunning example just sitting there, all dressed up and everywhere to go. And it was in the most perfect condition you could ever imagine, an incredibly impressive machine. Thank you, Paul, for posting, I thought it might ultimately catch some interest, I am so glad it was shared here.
Don, thank you for sharing these pics with us! This Grand Marquis is just that: grand, and in all the right ways. Truly a beautiful specimen.
Thank you, Joseph. This car was so breathtakingly perfect when I rounded the corner and spotted it sitting there, it just begged to be photographed and shared with the Curbivores. It even prompted me to sign up for the Cohort just to post this. It was even more Lincolnesque than a contemporary Lincoln, if such a thing was possible. Truly a stunning curbside classic, if ever.
Now that’s a CAR!
That color just makes me happy. Sunny and warm.
If I lived in the US, and wanted a weekend car, this could well be it. Always fancied being a 70s TV private detective
But Roger, you don’t look a day over 50. 🙂
This is HUGE for a 2-door car!
That car is objectively very beautiful. I cannot help but admire it, and yes, I would love to have one today as a Sunday car.
However, when they were new I just didn’t feel any love for them.
They reminded me of the Pomelo fruit; an ancient relative of the grapefruit. They are huge on the outside but there’s not much interior, and the quality of that interior isn’t as pleasant as some of its smaller more modern relatives.
Took my first driver’s test in a ’73 Colony Park, the wagon version. They trimmed the wood-like panels in chrome strips, instead of the fat, lighter colored wood-like trim of the Ford version. You didn’t drive that thing, you piloted it. It was an awesome car, inside and out. It had a squarish, adult presence like no other car out there.
Peak brougham. It’s hard to believe that there was a time when dinosaurs like this were everywhere on US streets and highways. Then downsizing and FWD took over. But it was a great last gasp for the behemoth domestic car.
Fat, blinded, insular, oversized, unoriginal, unable to adapt, heavy user of resources – and that’s just the buyer of the time.
Ok, ok, a bit mean. But you’d have to confess it’s not exactly sophisticated, in looks or in what lies beneath them. More margarine tub than butter stick, lacking taste and not being very good.
Funny thing is, though, if you look to Europe for the diva superiors to this, they’re not to be found there either, and likely to be much more troublesome in use. Just not a great era for good design.
Understand that I do get the swishy appeal of this car, and might even concede, if you were paying for the drinks, that it has a sort of beauty, because it does.
But the appeal is really that of an idea, not a reality. Of easier times, and simpler ones, when such size and profligacy spoke loudly of a country confident that such generous servings would be infinite.
It appeals as an extant object from fond memory, even if reality rightly classifies it as a mountainous assemblage of kitsch.
There were two of these land yachts in my family, my brother in law owned a ’70 and later the same year as this.
The later cars such as this were the Grand Marquis, the name was fitting.
Both cars were black on black, freshly washed and waxed
Both grand in size and luxury they were the “poor man’s Lincoln” as luxurious as the Lincoln at a working man’s price. A trip down the expressway (where these cars were meant to be driven) felt like a visit to upper class living.
I miss these cars, excessive by today’s standard but still a King a king the highway.
Freshly washed and waxed they were gorgeous.
The ’70 was as yet unbridled by emission controls for the most part, so the performance was impressive for it’s size. Sadly it met an untimely death from a drunk driver.
Beautiful car, but I can’t believe it’s not butter.
Don’t forget the butterscotch flavor, err, I mean color.
I’m surprised, Dennis, that you did not respond to this little story. You still have your beautiful triple black 73 Grand Marquis I assume. We need a photo.