1976 Mercury Marquis Colony Park

Looks pretty sweet for $2420!

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/4270985450.html

 

Sure does. I wish he had put more pictures and details in his ad. The dinoc looks like it's not in the best of shape, but from the two pics, it looks pretty solid. Can't go wrong for $2420.

 

Can't go wrong?

 

This looks like a really good deal. Very well equipped, too, by the look of it. Pw/pl are good to have. It is nice to see the cornering lamps, and they are not common, so I have to wonder what else is on this one. It could well be a very nicely equipped wagon.

 

nice

We had a twin, less the woodgrain from 78-83. MPJ

 

Yours, of course, would have been a Marquis wagon, not a Colony Park. Much rarer. Too bad you don't still have it. Just think, for just $2400 you could have a brace of big Merc wagons with hidden headlights.

Well, '76 Colony Parks (Colonies Park?) aren't exactly common these days, but I'd venture to guess that a fair percentage had cornering lights (just a guess; I haven't been keeping track). These were higher end wagons, after all. Mine has them, along with power windows and, interestingly, power seats but not power door locks.

There's a good chance it has a 460. The Autozone website claims that 83%of '76 CPs had this engine, and only 17% had the base 400. Of course, even with the 460, there's enough weight on the car and enough smog controls on the engine that it won't be winning any drag races.

 

I may be wrong but I think this one has power vent windows

 

How do you come up with $2420 as an asking price? How about just $2400? I wonder if he'd take $2415? Or $2414?

 

Looking at both pics on craigslist and JWDTENN's enlargement, I can't see vent windows. I had power minivent windows on a '75 Country Squire years ago, and every time I put them down they jumped out of the frames/tracks and jammed the main windows down. Then I'd have to remove the door trim panels and hold them in the tracks while I ran the windows up. No longer on my list of favorite options.

 

That option was only around for a few years, available on the big Fords, Mercurys and Lincolns. Maybe Ford decided it was too much trouble that it was worth. Mechanism was probably fairly complicated - one switch controlling the whole thing. As I recall, first the smaller vent section went down. Then when it was completely lowered, the main glass would lower. You couldn't control them independently.

 

I'm always suspicious of any vehicle advertised with an oddball price like that.

 

Ctrysquire
If you look at the main picture, looking through the windshield you can see the right vent is up. looking at the left door there is no glass reflection between the mirror and the A pillar because the vent glass is down.

I agree that they were a royal pain. I had them on c/s,c/p and mark V Lincolns. the only ones that worked right were on 1980-89 town cars.

 

You're correct. I assume they used this system because of the "pillared hardtop" styling of the '73 - '78s -- no window frame to which to anchor a pivoting vent window. After '78 they returned to sedan styling and made the pivoting window an option.

 

Price now discounted to $1842.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/4270985450.html

 

Wow you've got good eyes. You must be the guy who spotted the missile installations in Cuba. I had to enlarge JWDTenn's photo up to about 300% before I could see it, and at that size the resolution became so poor that I could just barely make it out.

Doesn't anyone think this is worth $1842? Or does it not appeal to Californians?