Mercury does not build many cars like the Mercury Monarch: a 4-door sedan / 2-door coupe with 200 cuin I6, built from 1975 as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry.
The background
The Mercury Monarch is a compact automobile that was marketed by the Mercury division of Ford from the 1975 to 1980 model years. Designed as the original successor for the Mercury Comet, the Monarch was marketed as a luxury compact vehicle; alongside its Ford Granada counterpart, the Monarch expanded the segment in the United States as automakers responded to the 1973 fuel crisis. Taking its name from a former marque of Ford Canada, the Mercury Monarch was slotted between the compact Comet and the Montego in the Mercury model line (later, the Zephyr and Cougar). Sharing many of its chassis underpinnings with the Comet, the Monarch marked the final evolution of the 1960–1965 Ford Falcon chassis architecture.
The Monarch was also the counterpart of the 1977–1980 Lincoln Versailles sedan. In total, 575,567 Monarchs were produced. Ford assembled the model line alongside the Granada at Mahwah Assembly (Mahwah, New Jersey) and Wayne Stamping & Assembly (Wayne, Michigan). For 1981, the Monarch was discontinued after a single generation, with the Mercury counterpart of the Granada taking on the Cougar (and ultimately, Marquis) nameplate.
The engineering
Under the skin sits 200 cuin I6; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 1490 kg. 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. 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 Cougar (1981) followed it; it was built at Mahwah, New Jersey. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Hyundai Pony, the BMW 3 Series, the Volkswagen Polo. Its Mercury stablemates include the Mercury Bobcat and the Mercury Capri.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Mercury Monarch — 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.