1978 Mercury Zephyr

1978 Mercury Zephyr Villager station wagon. Original 302-2V car with a transplanted 5.0 HO (302 4V) from a 1985 Mustang. PS, PB, dual exhaust w/crossover, 600 Holley, C4 automatic, etc.

Kind of a bare bones car (bench seat, vinyl interior, no A/C, no power accessories) but it was a great car all the same. Totally reliable, fast and fun to drive. Wish I had pics of it with the 15" turbine-style aluminum wheels & Michelins I added (from a late-'80s Mustang GT) or the cool body-colour wheels with rings & centre-caps that it came with. However, I never took any pics of it then.

I bought the Zephyr from the original owner in late 2002 (he swapped in the '85 engine when the original one died). I then sold it upon moving to England in October 2003. After returning to Canada in January 2005 I managed to buy back the Zephyr. It had been used as a work vehicle and was a little worse for the wear but still OK overall. I cleaned it up, fixed a few things and used it as a daily driver for a year.

By mid-2006 it was getting tired and needed work: suspension/steering, paint, headliner, engine freshening, brakes.

Instead of fixing it up like I could have, I foolishly picked up a 2005 Chrysler Sebring (BIG mistake) for ridiculous monthly payments and sold the Zephyr - these pics are from just before I sold it. By that time the paint was fading and the interior was getting a bit rough, especially the headliner which was sagging pretty bad, and the master cylinder was toast.

However, had I been smarter at the time, I would have figured out I could fix EVERYTHING on the Zephyr (and improve some things too) for less than 1 year of payments on the Sebring. But the Sebring was a "shinier object" back then. Lesson learned... I dumped the Sebring in 2009 and never looked back.

Gotta say: in truth I don't own the Zephyr car any more but it's the last *interesting* station wagon I owned. (My actual last wagon was a 1987 Toyota Camry - a super reliable & economical little car but not really interesting or unique in any way.)

Also gotta say I don't own any wagons right now but I'm looking to rectify that ASAP!