1975 Ford LTD Country Squire

No Reserve: One-Owner 1975 Ford LTD Wagon for sale on BaT Auctions - ending August 22 (Lot #117,783) | Bring a Trailer

 

What's up with the front end?

 

According to the ad text, this is a LTD wagon (not a Country Squire), with the Country Squire trim added by the selling dealer at the request of the original owner. Looks to me like a Mexico-market Ford, but I don't know why or how a Ford dealer in Del Rio Texas could get his hands on a new one straight from the factory.....

With the color change, it's my belief there's some hanky-panky going on with the mileage, purported to be only 13,000 kilometers )or around 8,000 miles. In MEXICO? - No way.

My spidey senses have kicked in on this one.

 

I think it was actually the other way around, a guy in Mexico went to Del Rio, TX and bought a car from them and took it to Mexico. Probably was a better optioned car than you could get in Mexico at the time. It was bought in April 1975 and imported to Mexico in October 1975, certified and approved by their federal agency responsible for it (the extra tag and the registration stamp).

That exhaust sure is funny.

I bet it's 100k-200k miles. It's been repainted and redone - the car was originally brown and had no woodgrain but someone repainted it red and added all that trim. You can't trust anything on it because when it was repainted, they included the firewall. And other than some overspray on the hinges, everything looks like the color change was done by taking the entire car apart to do it. All that remains is "did they do a good job?" when you ask yourself if you want this car.

 

Am I losing it or is that a Mercury grille?

 

I agree, the grill doesn’t look right. Also, I don’t remember the woodgrain surround trim having all of that “knotty” look to it.

 

You're correct. The VIN confirms that this is not a Country Squire. The description states that it is equipped with the Squire option package, but there was no such package for the full size wagon that year. The Country Squire was a separate model in 1975, not a package on the LTD wagon. Note that it lacks the LTD Landau front end with the hideaway headlights. It does have the Landau hood ornament, but the "plain" LTD tailgate ornament (true CSs had a Landau style ornament on the tailgate). The grill does seem to be from a Merc, but it somehow looks quite different on that front end. Hard to fathom that it's been bid that high considering it's lack of authenticity.

 

That would also explain the rocker moldings on the rear behind the wheel. That was LTD wagon only too.