Mercury does not build many cars like the Mercury Comet: a 2-door hardtop / 2-door sedan / 4-door sedan / 4-door station wagon / 2-door station wagon / 2-door convertible with 144 cuin Ford straight-six engine#144, built from 1960 to 1977 in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar.
The background
The Mercury Comet is an automobile that was produced by Mercury from 1962–1969 and 1971–1977 — variously as either a compact or an intermediate car. For 1960 and 1961, Comet was its own brand sold by Lincoln-Mercury "Comet".
The compact Comet shared a naming convention associated with the ongoing Space Race of the early 1960s with the Mercury Meteor, which was introduced as the base-trim full-size Mercury sedan. The Comet was initially based on the compact Ford Falcon, then on the intermediate Ford Fairlane, and finally on the compact Ford Maverick. Early Comets received better-grade interior trim than concurrent Falcons, and a slightly longer wheelbase.
The engineering
Under the skin sits 144 cuin Ford straight-six engine#144; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The gearbox is a 3-speed manual / 2-speed automatic / 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 114 in (coupe, sedan) / 109.5 in (wagon). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Where it sits in Mercury's history is not in doubt: the Mercury Zephyr / Mercury Monarch followed it; it was built at Oakville, Ontario, Canada. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Dodge Challenger, the Volvo P1800, the Nissan Patrol. Its Mercury stablemates include the Mercury Bobcat and the Mercury Capri.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Mercury Comet — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.