It’s been well documented on these pages how much I’ve been aching to get my hands on a classic Oldsmobile. But there is a mid-century mid-market option that repeatedly rears its neglected head: Mid-sixties big Mercurys.
Two Mercurys I’ve previously featured on Curbside Classic have donned “for sale” signs and have been put up for purchase on Craigslist since they got their time in the spotlight here. This beautiful Breezeway has had a few $5,000 runs on Craigslist, but still sits in Bushrod Park awaiting a dance.
This massive mother of a 1966 Commuter preceded the Breezeway by a couple of months at a cheaper price: $2,950. As much as I love wagons, I couldn’t convince myself that it was worth the price.
Enter our Milquetoast Monterey sedan. Third owner, mostly original, but with some “carb or vacuum issues” according to the seller. $2,000. Although this was one of those “Little Lincoln on a Fancy Ford budget” periods of Mercury, you can’t deny they embody a simple wholesomeness. I always liked how stately the 1965-66 Mercury big cars looked, despite so obviously being Galaxies underneath.
It’s very “mid 1960’s generic big car” in appearance, so most people wouldn’t know what it is. Nerdy and sturdy is the most apt description I can think of. Well, and with a 390 V8, probably thirsty too. What say you fellow curbsiders, would you hook yourselves to this rather ordinary winged messenger?
Indeed. I’m not really in the market for another money sink, but if I were, it would be a ’65 or ’66 Monterey with the breezway rear window.
It’s a bit Freudian, I guess. Sometime in the mid-’70s I bought a ’66 that was mint from the C-pillar forward for all of $75 (it had been hit hard from behind), then promptly destroyed it in my one and only foray into demolition derby. It drove real nice out to the scene of its execution, I’ve gotta say. Maybe my desire for one now is by way of atoning for my automotive sins.
Sure! Two grand is cheap admittance into the old car club for a comfy cruiser, providing the body and interior are presentable. If you lose interest later on, you should be able to recoup your investment. If you’re one of those folks that want to use it for a daily 80 mile commute, need something that does 40mpg, or fret that it doesn’t have 10 airbags or ABS, go have a look at your local Kia dealership.
Great photo’s as per usual…
I’ve wimped out twice before. My work commute is public transit (and when I do drive it’s a 15 minute/mile trek across the Bay Bridge) so Fuel Economy isn’t too much of a concern.
The only other concern would be handling and brakes, which would take a bit more time and investment to bring up to more modern standards. Too many brake fade moments on Sharp Park Road in the ’75 Cutlass I had in High School makes me nervous to own/drive daily a 4,000lb car with 11 inch drum brakes at all corners…
I understand the feeling completely. I have a 13 mile round trip commute, and used my ’75 Monte Carlo and ’85 Crown Vic for the task. Although they have front disks, it was always safer to drive as if everyone was out to kill you (politically correct- defensive driving) Problem is that a few people had vehilces with all kinds of mod con, but forget that the guy next to them doesn’t. We usually see them in the ditch with their SUV’s, but they are not averse to taking folks along for the ride with them if they are too close. Odd thing is that I fear my newly acquired ’02 Focus Wagon handling characteristics far more than the Monte or the Vic….absolutely treacherous in the snow or wet.
I hear you, Laurence! Fish Camp Road/Berkeley Hills would be an adventure today as it was in the day with my ’61 Catalina and cast iron 10.5″ drums on all four wheels (manual brakes, manual adjustment). I wouldn’t mind this Mercury for a weekend cruiser, and with all the hole-in-the-wall garages in and around Oakland/Alameda, I believe the carb issue would be a breeze to be rectified. I noted the City of Oakland street signs! Mondo cool!!
Where are you from by 1970
front disc brakes were standard equipment on all cars if you had a 75 olds with drum brakes you should have kept it as it was the only one ever made
A fond memory of a time when you could get just what you wanted:
A friend’s father in the Mercury dealership in 1966 was ordering a new 4-door Monterey. He asked for bucket seats, and was told they don’t come that way.
“May I use your phone?” he asked the salesman.
“Sure. Why do you need it?” was the reply.
“I want to call Henry.”
“Why would he listen to you?”
“He was my roommate at Yale, and we’ve been friends ever since.” (an exaggeration!)
“Oh, okay. Bucket seats. We’ll see what we can do.”
Apparently, when he got to 390 and a 4-speed, a similar conversation ensued.
“What color would you like, sir?”
“Yellow. With a black interior.”
I never drove it, but I rode in it. One of the coolest big cars ever!!
The gentleman was a doctor, Henry the second really was his college roommate for a year, and the doctor was a magnificent man!
Interesting story, mainly because I actually saw a full size Mercury (don’t recall the exact model) of this vintage with a 4-speed for sale on ebay awhile back. It was apparently a factory job, to the best of my recollection.
As a 12 year old in a San Rafael 2nd tier used car lot, I remember seeing a pristine ’64 Marauder four door hardtop, black on black with buckets and a top loader four-speed.
If I had a barn, I’d have it filled with cars like the Monterey. I’d rather have a bunch of old drivers than a concours winning antique. Cars like this Mercury have little value, but when driven, get a lot of attention. Parts are relatively cheap, a shadetree mechanic can work on it, and one doesn’t go crazy worrying about it if a shopping cart dings it.
Case in point. A few years back, the wife and I went for Sunday ice cream in my Monaco. When we returned to the car, a group of people were standing around it. A woman old enough to know better was SITTING on the trunk. The wife wanted to say something, but I motioned no. I got in the car, started the engine as if to drive away. The woman jumps off the trunk and meanmouths and cusses at me. They all cleared out after that, and we drove away.
Now, if it had been a valuable car, I would have been livid. No damage was done to my aged car, but I’m sure the idiot woman would have marked up a $ 15K paint job.
One other time, in a church parking lot, a passenger side door got away from an old lady while opening her door, and her door dinged my door. She didn’t even apologise. I doubt she realized she hit it.
Most people are quite courteous and respectful of others’ property, but incidents like these abound.
Yeah, most people are probably respectful of other’s property, but there’s certainly enough imbeciles to go around.
Some clown hit my dad’s Camry with a shopping cart…the day he bought it. Not even 10 miles on the odometer.
I guess you can’t sweat it too much. Fortunately, cars in my family tend to take a beating mostly due to driver stupidity. That poor Camry is not aging well due to abuse. I scratched my car multiple times when it was brand new with the wand at the local self-wash. And just last week, I curbed one of my wheels on that same car in a drive-through, right after chuckling at the car in front of me for doing the same thing…must be bad Karma.
I’d go out of my mind owning a pristine classic. I’d be afraid to touch it, let alone drive it.
A big 66 Merc would be a nice car. Didn’t FoMoCo put a 410 in these instead of a 390? I recall that the engine was a mishmash of 390 and 428 pieces. [Edit – 2bbl 390, 4 bbl 410 or 4 bbl 428]. Still, certainly nothing wrong with it, and there in the Bay Area, you would avoid the frame rust that killed most of the midwestern versions. The 66 is one of my very favorite Mercuries.
As an alum of a 67 Galaxie 500 convertible years back, I remember these as very nice cruisers. Smooth and quiet and loaded with low-end torque, just the way a big car should be. The Cruise-O-Matic will give you much less trouble than anything with a Roto HydraMatic. IIRC, the 66 still used the “green dot” shift quadrant that put “regular” drive 3 notches down from reverse instead of the usual two – this should satisfy your yen for oddball automatic shift quadrants. 🙂
I don’t know if the 390 was available, but my father had the ’66 with the 410. As I recall, it got 12 mpg, whether or not we were towing a tent trailer.
We had a Monterey with the breezeway, with the usual teething problems. On its first road trip, the right front wheel bearing died, probably not helped by being parked in water one day. The heater controls hated really cold weather, so on penalty of a thumping, we had to remember to get the heat turned up in the evening during winter.
Eventually, it did in its valves, by which time the tinworm made it trade-in fodder. Fun to drive, but I’ll pass on owning one.
We went through this when I wrote about a Monterey Convertible a while ago:
The only 1966 Mercury to have the 410 as standard was the Park Lane. The Monterey and Montclair had the 390 standard with a 410 an option.
http://www.mercurystuff.com/1966-engines.html
Edit: I have a slight defense of the Roto-Hydramatic coming up in about a week.
I’ll be looking forward to that one… I’ve always been very interested in the weird forays into automatic transmissions each GM division took back then. Has there been a CC Turboglide article?
Ahh, the Turboglide and Triple Turbine Dynaflow: A classic example of an idea that worked much better in proving grounds testing than in the real world and one of my few forays into doing something like a technical schematic. (I tried to do the dual coupling Hydra-Matic for the same story, but it broke me.)
It’s a great deal,a proper stereotypical big Yank cruiser. I’ve a soft spot for Mercurys if I had the money and space I’d be there myself.As a kid I ignored 4 door cars and the only Mercurys I liked were the 67/68 Cougars and the Cyclones.Thanks for showing mwe what I’ve been missing in another great article
Cool ones: Colony Park (woody) wagon, S-55 (XL equivalent), Park Lane (LTD) big but not much more so than a full sized Ford.
If it’s good enough for the original McGarrett…
I really felt the ’65-’78’s Mercuries really did fall in between a Ford and Lincoln quite well. The Park Lane was a plush, nice set of wheels, although McGarrett flogging it up and down King, Punchbowl and Beretania Streets or the Pearl City Highlands certainly didn’t help it . . .
I’d draw the line at 1970, but overall I agree with you.
Mercury is the Rodney Dangerfield of the automotive world, it don’t get no respect!
See until the 70s at least GMs multiple divisions had “uniques” going for them, unique engines or unique transmissions or unique options.
Mercury on the other hand whether it was in its “mini-Lincoln” or “tarted up Ford” phase didn’t have anything to recommend it over its Ford or Lincoln bretheren. As I have matured however I’ve realized that for almost any year Ford I like the Mercury styling better. Given the low cost of most old Mercurys, that is enough for me.
I’ve spent more money on worse.
For $2k I’d already have bought this without even haggling the price! Of course, on this side of the country ANY car this clean from this era would probably go for quite a bit more than that, but if it was available I’d be all over it.
Not my favorite car by a long shot, but considering my general apathy towards the Mercury brand I have to say I do really like their mid-60’s styling themes. Fancy Ford? So what? This car is gorgeous compared to the (admittedly awesome) 1958 Mercury Abortion that Tom Klockau posted a few weeks ago from when they were selling a much more unique product. I know you’re an Oldsmobile guy, and to my eyes these Mercurys had a very similar vibe – only for a few years. For $2k, you’re almost guaranteed to get your money back out of it when you sell it.
Why not get it? This car was my next door neighbors’ when I was a little kid. (Theirs was blue, I think.) Love those taillights. I like this almost as much as the contemporary Chrysler New Yorker, and for the same reason. Very clean styling.
Given the Elwood Engel connection between the ’61 Lincoln & the ’65 Chrysler, it’s not surprising to see the similarities.
Driving in Mid-Michigan I’ve not had any problems with drum brakes, but I can see how front discs would be a priority in the Bay Area.
My grandmother drove a ’67 Monterey coupe with the 390. I was lucky enough to drive it a number of times before she passed away.
Would love to get my hands on another one someday.
Nice article, but these Mercurys never did anything for me. The 1965-66 Dodge Polara/Monaco and Pontiac Catalina/Bonneville were more compelling choices. For that matter, I’d take a 1965-66 Ford Galaxie over one of these Mercurys.
The early 1960s Breezeway models were interesting, and the first Comets have a certain nerdy appeal.
But Mercury didn’t really find its groove until the 1967 Cougar and 1969 Marquis. Even that didn’t last too long.
Little Lincoln? Those are REAL Lincoln taillights on that Milquetoast model!
Fantastic read about the Monterey. I had a Black 1966, 390CI, 3 on the column, convertible, AM radio with 2 speakers (front and back center between the seats), roll down windows. What a cruiser, had the top down even in the cold weather with the heat on high. Just good for the front seat, no heat got to the back so it was me and Danny for shot gun position. It keep the riff raft from joining us. I entered the car by running to it from the back, one foot on the trunk, the next one on the back seat, the next on the front seat and then a quick slide in behind the steering wheel.
10 MPH no matter how I drove the car. It could pull a hole shot on demand ever time. Maybe that’s why I only got 10 MPH….
I drove it for years before I went in the service and gave it to me brother.
Not that it would happen today, after my stag party there was about 3/4 of a keg of beer left. We poked a few holes in the spare tire area below the trunk and filled it with ice and my brother drove around with it until it was empty. I don’t remember how long it lasted but I do remember water from the ice melting dripping from the truck for some time.
Nothing but found memories of that car.
69 was the year the Marquis was a model 67-68 it was an interior package on the parkland 69 was also the first year for the 385series engine 429/460 365/375 HP THE 460 WAS introduced in 68 in the Lincoln mark only in 69 429was ford mercury and the 460 Lincoln only that were awesome if you stomped on the skinny pedel you better like the smell of tire smoke cuz these cars would smoke the tires off.in 71the horse power dropped to 212 these cars were gutless compared to their 70 counterparts still didn’t get more than 10/12 mpg but the right rear tire lasted a lot longer