Said to have been a Maine barn find, the seller is listing this 1977 Mercury Bobcat Wagon for a friend who no longer drives. The friend bought it in 2012, drove it cross-country, and then has stored it at the seller’s place in Billerica, Massachusetts since 2016. Oh yeah, it only has 35,698 miles. It’s posted here on craigslist, and they’re asking $6,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Barney for the tip!
Made for the 1974 model year in Canada, Mercury’s “fancy Pinto” was available in the U.S. in 1975, and by the end of 1980, they were gone. Since the Bobcat wasn’t around before U.S. bumper regulations, they all had the giant bumpers front and rear, but somewhere, someone must have modified one by using early Pinto bumpers, or I hope that’s the case. This color is another wacky name by Ford designers: Dark Brown.
Almost all of the photos are blurry, and I can’t quite read what that bumper sticker says, but I didn’t expect to see a peace sign on a Mercury, even if it is basically a Pinto. The seller mentions this as being a Maine barn find, but we don’t know the timeline of that or how long it was stored. It had to have been stored for years to have only accumulated 35,698 miles on it. They say the current owner has only put 11,500 miles on it since buying it in 2012, and it’s been sitting since 2016.
The first order of business is changing those tires. Even if they only have 11,000 miles on them, they’re most likely at or past the point of being safe to use, despite how good they look on the outside. Then, fix those front bucket seats; that full acre of flat vinyl has seen better days. The back seat looks perfect, but the rear cargo area is showing its age, as is the underside, which is showing some heavy surface rust. No “rot or holes” are present on this car, just surface rust.
The engine is the basic 2.3-liter OHC inline-four with 89 horsepower and 120 lb-ft of torque when new. This one is backed by a three-speed automatic that sends power to the rear wheels, and they say that a “professionally rebuilt” engine was installed and now has 10,000 miles on it. There is no power steering or power brakes, but this car had factory AC, which has been removed, and the parts come with the sale. Any thoughts on this Bobcat wagon?
We had one when I was growing up, it was a Villager so it had the fake wood trim and little slotted mags. Had the 2.3L four cylinder, power steering, brakes and AC. Served us well for a long time, never giving us any trouble and took the four of us and all our luggage — slowly — on many family vacations in comfort.
Neat Bobcat wagon. The majority are Pintos so seeing one of these in solid shape is a treat. I’m with you Scotty on retrofitting early Pinto bumpers. That would be unique. I’m guessing that the Ford Motor company was cutting back their overtime in the design department in 1976/77 so some guy named Ralph just came up with “Dark Brown” on a whim and said, yep, good enough, it’s Friday, its 449 pm I’m outta here. This would be great to see on the road again. The wagons are my favorite ( especially if you can nab one with a stick).
I’m with Driveinstile. Overall this Villager isn’t bad. The car does start and drive. Obviously needs interior work and maybe the paint can be improved. Check out those nifty wire wheel covers. Very good ad (unusual for craigslist), seems like an informed and honest seller. Not expensive.
Hats off to Ralph, he was a very straightforward guy.
Good job Scotty.
It’s great that the seller included a picture of the speedometer otherwise there would be no proof offered to verify it’s low mileage, after all, its overall condition and list of replacement parts and repairs suggests it’s been rolled over.
Steve R
I have my suspicions about this car and its seller. One is the claim of factory air conditioning. Minimal research suggests it was a ~$450 option on a ~$3500 automobile. The ad’s pictured AC controls aren’t factory. At some point this car received aftermarket AC. The installation probably wasn’t made in central Maine.
The body looks surprisingly good for a 48 year old car which was found in a barn. The interior is extremely ragged. The driver’s position carpet alone shows too much wear for the claimed low mileage. Mechanically after ~36K miles a new engine shouldn’t have been needed. The battery hold-down is something special. The paperwork shows nothing more than an odometer reading from 2012/13.
My guess at some point this car came from the far west or southwest to Maine (the cross country drive) and was parked later with ~136K true miles. The seller’s story is full of words. For $6500 there are better beaters to be found.
I agree with your assessment. .y 13 year old Ford has about 135,000 miles, and the drivers side carpet doesn’t look that bad. Also agree as to why a 35,000 mile car would need a new engine. Something ain’t right…
Ahh, five pieces of chrome and it’s a Bobcat. Never understood some of extra money just to buy a Mercury.
If this car has only 35k, I’m a Monkey’s Uncle.
77… I got married in 77…. thought my wife would look good sporting around in one of these… Probably should have bought her one… when I divorced her in 80 it would have served to move her stuff out….
The 2.3 and automatic are good. But the lack of functioning air conditioning, power steering and power brakes are negatives. The surface rust, the trash can ready front bucket seats, questions about how it was stored and overall provenance on a 1977 car makes buying it a big gamble. The wagon has better odds in a rear end collision. 1977 was the model year that FoMoCo made factiry changes to make the Pinto line safer which is awesome. As much as I have a soft spot in my heart for the Pinto and Bobcat, this particular one raises more questions than answers.
It’s an easy PASS for me.
this didnt stem the flow of the Japanese invasion like the falcon stopped the vw Bug as superior (may B not popularity/kouwell factor). Too bad the companies used that nation’s w/re-badging & partnerships. If they worked hard at it instead of roll over we might be in the game (the hi volume, middle bulge of what merica buys/uses) of daily appliance. My hope? (not w/current policies) snatch the EV market but one (still from Japan) has that well in hand
24 years now…
Had a friend of the family bought their daughter one of these, fully loaded with 2.8 V6 and A/C. She drove over to my house one winter day, missed the driveway (perfectly flat with no imperfections) And ended up in the middle of the lawn. And proceeded to bury it in the snow up to the rockers. She was an airhead teenager that had no business out driving in the snow. How she made it the 15 miles to my house without wrapping herself around a tree before she made it to my house was pure luck. With no locking rear differential and all the weight up front. It was not an easy extraction. I like these, without the park benches tacked on the front and back.
Body is pretty clean but there is no way this car doesn’t have 136k . I do think it’s a decent car but overpriced in my opinion. The 2.3 was a pretty decent dependable engine no barn burner but if maintained ran well and lasted longer than the bodies would. These do not need power brakes or steering they stopped and steered just fine in manual form. I had a couple of these in Pinto wagon as company cars, one was a 78 to my surprise it did impressive power brake burnouts the others not so much. I may be swayed for half the asking price, maybe 🤔
This reminds me of the 1979 Bobcat wagon I bought while in the Air Force. I drove it 50,000 miles then traded it. I had no power steering, power brakes nor any A/C. I was a single guy at that time but I still loved the car.
Always thought the front clip on these looked weird. The 79 restyle looked better to me. This looks like granddaughters playing dress up at grandmas wearing her shiny necklace and church hat.