Things had certainly changed dramatically in 1987. Pharmacy was not for me, so I decided to transfer to the University of Pittsburgh. It was far cheaper to study at Pitt, and it meant that I could afford a new car. I was working full-time at Northland Public Library. My parents said that I had to pay for my own car, and since I had a job, they would let me use our 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon as a trade-in. My dad, like many who lost their jobs in the steel industry, did not like Japanese cars, and so I started looking at American cars. I would end up buying a compromise of sorts, a 1988 Tracer; a Mazda 323 based subcompact with a Mercury badge.
At first, I was looking at used cars. I saw, in no particular order, a Buick Century, a Jeep Cherokee, and a Pontiac 6000 STE. The Pontiac was found via a classified ad (I am certainly showing my age), and it had 100,000 highway miles as the owner used it to travel back and forth to Washington DC on business. I can still see my parents rolling their eyes when I told them we take a look at it. Instead, my parents suggested that I should consider a new car.
It would need to be a small car and would have a new car warranty. The Dodge Shadow had just come out, and I thought that we should check that one out, an idea my parents were more amenable to. I test drove one; it was red with a grey interior, had AC, AM/FM stereo, automatic transmission, and a sunroof. I really liked it, but when I started calculating payments, it was more than I was comfortable spending. My mom had bought a Mercury Lynx, so she suggested we go to Demor’s Northway Lincoln Mercury and look there.
I had to work on Saturday, so my parents went to the dealer and took a test drive in a new 1988 Mercury Tracer. The car they drove was a three-door hatchback with an automatic transmission, but it was sold by the time we went over on Thursday to look at it together. However, they had two five-door hatchbacks, one blue and one red; both were 5-speeds, and I couldn’t drive a stick shift. My dad said he would teach me, and so we took the red one on a test drive. It rode well and was peppy. The Tracer was a brand-new Mercury-exclusive model based on the Mazda 323. It was assembled in Hermosillo, Mexico, and was very well equipped. I had secretly lusted after a Mazda 323, but that was a non-starter in my family at the time. Today, my dad drives a Mazda CX5, which he loves, so people can change over time.
The Tracer was well equipped. It came with power mirrors, AM/FM Stereo, cloth interior, a rear defroster, map lights, a cargo cover, split folding rear seats which would come in handy, and an illuminated entry system where the front door lock keyhole would light up. These were luxury features and they were going to be in my car. The salesman was named Rich and he had sold my mom her Lynx. He was a nice guy, in his forties, and well-dressed.
Today’s car salesmen wear khakis and golf shirts but the salesmen at Demor’s wore suits: nice suits with polished shoes, expensive but not overly flashy watches, conservative ties, and white or blue dress shirts. The flashiest jewelry was cuff links and perhaps a signet ring. Casual was a blazer with loafers.
The deal was struck, and my parents cosigned the loan. We got $900 for the Cutlass, and I paid just around $9,000 for the Tracer at an interest rate of 8.9%. It was a special offer from Ford Credit, and for the time, it was a fabulous rate. My car payment was $173.78 for the next 60 months. Since I couldn’t drive a stick shift, my dad drove it home while I followed in his car. We then drove over to North Park and spent the next three hours where I learned to drive it. I had class that evening, and so I dropped my dad off at home and drove the Tracer to Pitt. Hills were still a challenge, so when I drove to class the next day, I had to stop for a school bus. On a hill. With a crossing guard and some parents watching me. Needless to say, I spun the tires when I launched the car forward. In time, I became quite proficient at driving a stick.
I still had friends at Duquesne, and we got together that weekend. I wanted to show off my new car, and they wanted me to meet a girl they had met. Everyone thought we’d hit it off right away and would start dating, but we didn’t. I can’t remember what we did that evening, but we probably went out to dinner. That girl and I became good friends, and we certainly did stuff together, usually with the two friends who introduced us. She liked my Tracer and thought the color, medium cabernet, was pretty. I guess you could say we became best friends because this year will mark our 30th wedding anniversary.
Life with the Tracer was pleasant. It was a great commute to both school and work, and it was fuel-efficient. In the summer of 1988, I took a new job at Carnegie Mellon University at Hunt Library. I was the Reserve Assistant, and my boss was a lady I had worked with at Northland Public Library. The salary was a big jump, and I got tuition reimbursement for two classes at Pitt each semester. I was 20 years old when I started. I worked Sunday through Thursday from 10:30 AM to 7:00 PM, and my job was to put all the class-reserved readings behind the counter for classes. It was time-consuming at the beginning and end of the semester, but not so busy during the term. I was able to go to class and work.
Hunt Library was a fun place to work. The Library Director was named Tom, and he loved to throw the Christmas party at the library. The party took place on the last Friday of finals. The last final started at 4:00 PM, and that is when we closed the library. The circulation desk became the bar, and so we had to take down the computers and move all the books from behind the desk. Tom and other staff carried in cases of booze, and the caterer brought in tons of food. I was 20, so I couldn’t drink legally. I had never been to a party like this. Many of the staff were older than me–in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. I had no idea people could party like that. I left sometime around 10 PM as I was meeting friends, but I heard on Monday that the party ran to sometime after 5 AM. Monday meant we had to clean the desk and put the computers back together. Tom later took a position in Boston with a computer software firm, and so the legendary parties were no more.
The Tracer was an excellent car for road trips. It made one trip to Washington DC where some friends and I hung out, but the biggest trip was a ski trip to Killington, Vermont. On New Year’s Day, 1990, five friends and I loaded our luggage into two cars–my Tracer and an S10 Blazer and headed off to Killington for a week-long ski trip. The fold-down seats expanded, so my skis could fit in the car along with other luggage. I had skied at Seven Springs, PA, but Vermont was a different level of skiing. At Seven Springs, you can ski down a hill in ten minutes. At Killington, a run could take you an hour or more. In fact, there was one trail that you could not take after 2:30. If you were not parked at or staying at the bottom of that trail, you would not make it down in time to catch the last lift back to the ski slope that would take you to the other lodge when the lifts stopped running.
Working and going to school full-time took a toll on me. I was tired and not sure what I wanted to study. My parents felt you went to college to study something that would lead to a career. Studying something like political science was not what they had in mind. To that end, I took a year off while I figured out what I wanted to do. I continued working, and Bobbi and I started dating officially. Bobbi had gone to Duquesne and graduated with her undergraduate and master’s degrees in Education. She was destined to be a teacher, but I did not feel a calling to a profession as she did. When I finally decided on my major, it was through a program Pitt had where you could design a major. I chose Western European Studies and Economics. I certainly got my degree, but it has had nothing to do with my career.
The Tracer stayed with me for six years. I’d like to say ownership was uneventful, but it was involved in two minor and one not-so-minor accidents. The two minor accidents resulted in the front bumper cover being replaced, but the third accident was a bit more serious. Bobbi and I were out on a date with another couple, Jenn and Curtis. We were driving back to Jenn’s house, and I was waiting to make the left turn onto her street. I saw the Maxima come up behind us all of a sudden, and the driver tried to swerve. She hit the back corner of the car and pushed us forward. Her car had more damage than mine. She was with her brother and sister, and they were on their way home from a wedding. She begged us not to involve the police.
Since both cars were drivable and no one was hurt, we exchanged insurance information and went on our way. When we got to Jen’s house, I called my parents to let them know. They weren’t home, which was odd since it was almost 11, but it was a Saturday night. I left a message saying something like we’ve been in an accident and the car is drivable, and then hung up. Around 2 am, we left Jen’s house and went back to Bobbi’s house. It was summer, so we were just sitting outside as I was getting ready to leave. Bobbi’s mom saw us there and came out to tell me my parents had called. My sister was in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. They had just returned from the hospital when they got my message.
By 1994, I had figured out that I wanted to finish my degree. I had been promoted at work to Overdues Assistant and worked 7:45 to 4:15. I had less than 30 credits left and decided to go back full-time and work that last year. Bobbi had taken a teaching job in Washington, DC, and I wanted to move down there. The Tracer has passed 100,00o miles, and I was ready for a new car. I decided to sell it myself and got a used car guide, KKB maybe, to determine the value. I posted it on the electronic billboard at Carnegie Mellon and had a buyer within the week. I sold it for $1,500 to a graduate student and his wife. They were from Poland, and he knew the Tracer was based on a Mazda. We went to the AAA in East Liberty and signed the papers. He paid in cash, and Bobbi drove me to the bank to deposit the money in her car. Bobbi’s car was with us for five years, and we’ll talk about that next week.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1988 Mercury Tracer – The Road To Hiroshima Runs Through Hermosillo
1988 or 1989 Mercury Tracer – Looks Familiar
Well written and since half my DNA is from western Pennsylvania I can relate to the institutions mentioned. Looking forward to the next installments.
Rented one on our Alaska trip in 1988. One of the better rentals of the time; beat having another K-car.
In 1988 my wife and I needed a new car as our 78 Caprice was very tired. My father in law had leased a new Sable wagon (that we would assume the lease on in 1990) so he suggested the LM dealer.
I was looking at a Sable sedan when the salesman mentioned the new Tracer. They had a silver wagon with every option, and it had an attractive lease deal-$198 a month nothing down. We had rented a few Tracer hatchbacks and found them to be well put together.
The only thing the wife and I didn’t like was the lack of a tilt wheel. But after two years the automatic transmission started to fall. We were on the Florida turnpike one day and heard a loud bang. After checking and finding no issue, the car began to run at a much higher rpm- at 55mph the tachometer showed just under 4000 rpms!
Ford was unwilling to help so, under threat, I told the leasing company that they could either take it back early with little to no penalty or I’d drive it until the engine blew and then they could go to court with me where I would pull out the 60 pages of repair attempts. They took it back. We should have got the manual
Crazy that a salesperson would take someone looking at a Sable and then steer them towards something two sizes smaller as well as being a car that their brand made next to nothing on. That’s like looking at a new F-150 and hey, let me show you a Maverick!
Likely due to their age and/or the way they were dressed. My cousin and her husband went looking at a New Yorker around 1990. It was their day off and they went immediately after doing some yard work, thus they were not exactly dressed for success. He took one look at them and offered to show them a LeBaron because they clearly couldn’t afford the New Yorker. They bought the New Yorker, and I believe from that same sales person. I wouldn’t.
Yea, I’m sure it was an age related move on his part. Her and I were 25 at the time. The dealer has since closed
> The only thing the wife and I didn’t like was the lack of a tilt wheel.
This was one of my chief complaints about my ’89 Tracer too, particularly frustrating because the Mazda 323 in similar trim levels had an adjustable-height steering column. What made it bad is that Ford/Mercury’s fixed-height wheel was at or near the top of the 323-with-tilt-wheel’s adjustment range, and the wheel was about 2″ higher than where I would have liked it. I even looked into swapping a 323 tilt column from a junkyard car into my Tracer
Yes, thank you! Why Mazda offered it but the loaded Tracer did not was silly.
I really liked that car and rented two before we leased it-both hatchbacks. We took both on a road trip to see how bad the rpm’s would be with the automatic, and while higher than I liked, they were livable.
For the first year, we drove our Tracer on the road quite a few times and, driving sensibly, it was fine. Then one day while on the Florida turnpike I heard a bang, checked out what I could, and continued driving. Wow, that tachometer was really high! I can’t remember for sure, but it seems like 60 was 3900 and after that incident 50 was 3900! Ford originally was willing to fix it, until the district rep came in and told me that they wouldn’t replace it due to the new model coming out and it having to come from Mexico. He even told me to “take us to court or try the lemon law. It’ll be cheaper for us in the long run.” I guess he didn’t think about customer retention!
Nice luxurious economy cars, especially with those plush velour seats. You dodged a bullet getting a manual. I may be wrong, but it seemed the Tracers had only three speed autos versus the four speed OD autos in the Mazda 323. Drove a friend’s three speed auto Tracer and it revved way up high at freeway speeds, smoothly like a 2sp Hondamatic but likely losing many mpg’s.
No, you are correct, at least for the 1988-89 Mazda 323 which offered a four-speed automatic. The first two years of this generation 323 from ’86-87 did have a 3-speed auto, but Mercury was still using the 3-speed into 1989 even though Mazda last used it in 1987. And yes you took a big hit for choosing a 3AT rather than 5MT, 3 mpg on the EPA city cycle and a whopping 6 mpg reduction on the highway. My 5-speed Tracer was still noisy on the highway; with the engine racing in third gear it would have been intolerable. Acceleration was slower with the slushbox too, and it added about $800 to the cost of the car – about $2,200 in 2026 dollars.
That generation of Ford Escort and Mercury clones was far and away superior to the ckunky and stodgy prior generation. From rental experiences I preferred them to the Ford Tempo, which was derived from the old Escort, for the same reasons that usually favor the larger car: ride, quiet. Performance and handing were better, too. I actually downgraded one Hertz rental from a Tempo to a Tracer when they ran out of cars and had no Taurus for my corporate frequent-renter step-up.
You’re doing a great job of conveying and recalling life in one’s 20s…starting out with jobs that may or may not (I suppose we’ll see!) have much to do with what you ultimately wind up doing; living with a busy circle of friends in an academic or academic-adjacent town; and just doing a whole lot of stuff that from a perspective of 40 years hence makes me feel simultaneously exhausted and jealous. In short, there’s much here that parallels and makes me recall how I lived my life back then. I’m totally in it for the long haul on this story.
Great car. Similar to the Chevy Nova in that it allowed a person to drive a foreign car without driving a foreign nameplate. As with your father, many folks felt okay driving Japanese-designed cars as long as they had an American nameplate. That really makes no sense to us now, but that’s how it was.
The Dodge Colt seemed to be the most prominent captive import of its era. But Dodge often marketed the Colt as a Japanese car whereas Chevy and Mercury downplayed their cars’ Japanese roots (Chevrolet would later adopt Dodge’s approach with the Geo sub-brand aimed at Japanese-car adherents).
I really enjoy reading these life stories of success .
Glad you made it well .
-Nate
Very enjoyable COAL. My only question is that if the Dodge Shadow was too expensive, why didn’t the salesman point you towards a Dodge Omni America? It was likely less expensive and better equipped than the Tracer.
I don’t remember why the salesman didn’t try to steer me to an Omni. I think he probably thought my parents would help me, and he wanted the bigger sale. The Tracer was nice on the inside but noisy as someone else pointed out.
Your various situations and the time period resonate with me a lot. I wonder what my life would have been like if I had chosen something cheaper and more practical for my first new car (which I bought about that time).
And an early congratulations on your 30th anniversary! We’ll done!
Great and enjoyable story!
I always loved the clean sleek shape of these cars, especially the roofline and rear. First thing that always comes to mind with this gen Tracer is the commercial in the rainstorm. Gladys Knight singing a cover of “You’re A Friend Of Mine” by Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne.
Sounds a lot like the first car I bought, though used. Lots of candidates were Pontiac 6000s, and I bought one of them. $7000, 48 months, 9.75%, around $175/mo I think. It was an automatic, but with the super torquey 3.1 V6 and 3.33 final drive. Coming from a worn out Cavalier 2.0, it took some getting used to. Driving in fireworks gridlock traffic shortly after, I squawked the tires by mistake and apologized to the bystanders.
My sister had a Shadow, again used but ran well, no rust, looked good. But in a couple years the rear bumper fell off on the highway. And the drivers door striker bolt tore out the body. Not from rust, just thin crap steel. Lido would say “if you can find a better car, buy it”. Sounds like you did just that.
And in perfect CC effect, the opening picture has a 90s Grand Cherokee in the background, echoing the story from a day earlier.
Like Kevin wrote above, I remember the velour seats in these cars – they seemed much nicer than other cars in the Tracer’s price range. I do remember these being good deals at the time, largely because Lincoln-Mercury dealers weren’t exactly where people would look for affordable hatchbacks.
Interesting about learning to drive a stick on this car because just today, I was giving one of my daughters a lesson at our local community college’s parking lot, and there was another kid in the lot who was learning to drive a stick. That’s something rarely seen these days. The kid (driving a Tacoma) did pretty well, and practiced starting on hills. Brought back memories.