Mercury Monterey

The Mercury Monterey is a 4-door sedan / 2-door sedan / 2-door coupe from Mercury, built from 1952 to 1974, at the height of the post-war boom. Under the bonnet: 255 cuin Ford Flathead engine#255.

How it came about

The Mercury Monterey is a series of full-size cars that were manufactured and marketed by the Mercury division of Ford from 1950 to 1974. Deriving its name from Monterey Bay, the initial Mercury Monterey served as the top-of-the-line two-door sedan model for 1950 and 1951 to compete with the hardtop models of Oldsmobile and Buick. It came with a vinyl roof covering, upgraded upholstery, and other features. The hardtop was introduced for 1952.

During its production, the Monterey would be offered in multiple body styles, ranging from coupes, convertibles, sedans, hardtops, and station wagons. Over its 22 years of production, the Monterey served variously as the flagship, mid-range, and entry-level offering of the full-size Mercury product range. The only Mercury nameplate to be in continuous production throughout the 1960s, the Monterey was positioned above the Medalist, Custom, and Meteor; later, it was positioned below the Turnpike Cruiser, Montclair, Park Lane, and finally the Marquis. Following the 1974 model year, Mercury discontinued the Monterey, consolidating its full-size range down to the Marquis and Colony Park station wagon. For 2004, the Monterey nameplate was revived, becoming the counterpart of the Ford Freestar minivan; it was produced through the 2007 model year.

The hardware

Power comes from 255 cuin Ford Flathead engine#255; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a 3-speed manual / 3-speed Merc-O-Matic automatic. 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 118.0 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Family and rivals

Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Mercury Eight; its successor was the Mercury Marquis; assembly was at Main plant. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Cadillac Eldorado, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Toyota Land Cruiser — show what else the money bought that year. Its Mercury stablemates include the Mercury Bobcat and the Mercury Capri.

What it costs now

There is no federal ownership record for the Mercury Monterey — 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.