In an attempt to capture buyers looking for an entry level luxury car, Ford created the Mercury line in 1938. The brand was at its peak in the 1950’s and the top model was the Monterey. It came in several variations, including a nine passenger Woodie wagon. The current owner of this 1954 Mercury Monterey Woodie Wagon found it hiding under a car cover in a barn. It can now be found in Chesterton, Indiana or here on eBay with a BIN of $24,700.
There weren’t many of these Woodie Wagons built in ’54, and no one is sure how many are left. They claim this is how the car looked when they found it, but that it had been restored previously, which would explain why it looks so good. The original 256 cui Y-code V8 runs and sounds great. They claim that it drives and is very fun to cruise in.
They also claim that the interior is original and unrestored, but they have no way of proving it. Either way it looks great, but we wish that someone hadn’t installed that gauge on the heater control console. This would still be a fun car to haul the family in, especially for trips to the beach. Chances are you won’t ever see another one on the road.
We love the looks of this wagon, but we would be sure to ask lots of questions before we handed over any money. The seller makes a lot of claims, but lacks documentation to back them up, which makes us leery. A few of these have gone to auction in the past year and have fetched considerably more than the seller’s asking price, but those were early cars with solid wood paneling and were in much nicer condition. It’s still a great car and would make a unique family hauler.
This car looks like a tin woodie & these were around the time of tin woodies, but these inserts look like vinyl overlays while the thick trim looks to be real wood. So I wonder if that is the way they came I don’t remember, however these Merc’s are much rarer than the Fords. It does look great, the price is what someone wants to pay for it .
My dad was a HVAC guy for years. He always had some kind of truck for work. In 1962 or 63, I was about 14 and we lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. He got a job with some other guys to work in Moab, Utah (about 220 miles from Salt Lake) on a new Potash plant that was being built about 20 miles from Moab. He had to spend the whole week there so he bought a 1954 Mercury wagon to haul tools. I think it was the same color as this one and I’m sure it had wood-grain too. He and the boys would drive out to this potash plant daily taking a road that ran right on the banks of the Colorado River.
At some point, there was lots of rain and the river rose up over the dirt road. His friends, in their Ford and Chevy 4x4s made it past the water several days and so did my dad in his Mercury wagon. The last time they took the drive, the water was higher than they thought and while the trucks made the trip, his Merc got lifted up and started floating down the Colorado. He and his buds got out and waded back to shore and watched the Mercury float down several hundred feet until it hit a sandbar.
I don’t remember how they got his car out but remember seeing it the next weekend when we went for a visit. There was dried red mud all the way up to the dashboard, all dried and sad-looking. He got some money out of it, and as I recall, bought his 1959 Ford truck that he drove for years afterwards.
Yes, the outside is wood surround with plastic tape inside. But this tape doesn’t look right. More like shelf paper.
Indeed a tin……..and I can’t say woodie in the same sentence as tin. It is however a steel station wagon with some stuff……..stuck on the side.
And yes, I like it for what it is.
neat looking wagon, but as mentioned before, i would not call it a true woody
~ more attractive details than the equivalent Ford wagon. Di-noc by 3M was the original wood grain material, not sure bout this… Contact shelf paper?