1964 Mercury Monterey Convertible: A One-Owner, 48,000-Mile Rarity

I’ll come right out and say it: I don’t quite understand why Mercury sold only 2,592 Monterey Convertibles in 1964 when their intracorporate rivals at Ford sold 37,311 Galaxie 500 Convertibles (not including the 15,000-plus XLs). It’s a pity, because the Mercury looked really good in 1964, and it cost less than $200 more than a comparable Ford; however, at least a few Mercury-loving souls beat feet down to their Lincoln-Mercury dealers looking for a sporty Monterey, and this 48,000-mile, one-owner example in Glacier Blue was bought by one of them. It’s for sale at Connors Motorcar Company in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with an asking price of $38,500.

Perhaps being mechanically identical was one reason why Mercury didn’t sell any better than Ford. While a 250-horsepower 390 two-barrel was standard in the Monterey, a good reason to step up from a base Ford with its base 223-cubic-inch six, many were certainly optioned with this 300-horsepower Z-Code 390 four-barrel, a staple in both Ford and Mercury lines throughout much of the 1960s. The Merc-O-Matic transmission was the same Cruise-O-Matic you’d find in the Galaxie, and with power steering and power brakes, this Mercury was equipped as many Ford Galaxie 500 Convertibles certainly were.

One thing you didn’t get on a Ford was this cool “Marauder” badge complete with a neighboring checkered flag, a flag that represented Mercury’s successful foray into NASCAR and other forms of motor racing. The Mercury V8s were “Marauder” V8s, while Ford slapped a pair of “Thunderbird” valve covers on the 390. I’m a fan of words, and “Marauder” simply sounds right, even though the Z-Code 390 wasn’t doing much actual marauding on the street (it was adequate but not exhilarating with 0-60 times in the 9-10 second range).

The interior wasn’t appreciable more luxurious than Ford’s either; the dashboard was similar, the Medium and Light Blue Metallic crinkle vinyl bench seat was similar, the fancy brake pedal was similar. The only appreciable difference was Mercury’s helmeted Roman head on the glove box.

Regardless of which big Ford or Mercury convertible one chose back in 1964, the options could add up quickly; the Monterey’s base price of $3,226 ballooned to $4,180.82 after adding the engine, transmission, power options, and a few other goodies. Notice that the original owner traded in a two-year-old, 390-powered Ford hardtop; things must have been looking up. You might also notice that the car was purchased on July 17, 1964, which means that the car had been sitting on the lot at GW Motors in Winchester, Virginia, for quite some time. The door tag tells us that it was an early-in-the-year build (October 22, 1963), and its low VIN means that it was the 9,855th car off the line at Wayne Assembly in Michigan for the model year.

Galaxies and Montereys both had a spacious trunk with Ford’s distinctive checkered trunk mat.

Unfortunately, this car’s gotten a healthy spritz of undercoating, but the pictures don’t show any obvious butchery, so we’ll assume it’s just for balancing out the look.

OK, there’s nothing wrong with a Galaxie 500 (XL in this case) Convertible, and you can see why Ford Motor Company sold a lot of them in 1964.

But when looking at this beautiful 1964 Monterey, a car that cost roughly the same with comparable engines, it’s hard to grasp why it sold at less than 10 percent of the Ford’s volume. It’s a mystery to me, but happily, this car, with a vary tasteful blue top, still exists, and its waiting for a new owner who doesn’t mind that it wasn’t so popular when it was new.

Related Reading

CC Outtake: 1964 Mercury Marauder – The One Crucial Detail (by DougD)

Curbside Capsule: 1964 Mercury Monterey Breezeway – A Case of Mistaken Identity? (by Ed Stembridge)

Vintage PR Shot: 1964 Mercury Monterey Two-Door Sedan – Stripper Breezeway (by Paul N)