The seller has a pretty fun description for this 1984 Mercury Lynx L, so please click on the listing of the “original listing” link and check it out. If you think you have what it takes, you can own this little fancy Ford Escort, badged as a Mercury Lynx. It can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Sea Cliff, New York, and they’re asking $3,999. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Zen for the tip!
Located in New York now, the seller’s description says this four-door, or what Mercury called a five-door (including the hatchback) L-model Lynx was originally from outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The color is Light Desert Tan, a perfect color for New Mexico, even though the seller refers to the color as “Burning Man Beige.” The car appears to be in excellent cosmetic condition, and other than not showing a back seat photo or any underside photos, the seller has provided a good variety of images.
Here’s the fifth door. The Lynx L was the base model, believe it or not, even though L typically means luxury. Although I’m not sure how much luxury was really on the to-do list while designing the Lynx. Mercury offered this rebadged Ford Escort from the fall of 1982 for the 1983 model year until the end of 1987, at which point the Mazda-sourced Mercury Tracer took over. Here’s what the rear cargo area looks like. Nice and clean, as expected, but with some possible heat-related or UV-related degradation of the hard plastics. That should be at least somewhat fixable with interior spray paint.
It’s a bummer to not see a manual transmission in a small car, but the front interior looks pretty nice. We don’t get to see the back seats at all, which is unusual, given all of the photos the seller provides. Here is a 1984 Mercury Lynx brochure so you can dream about going back in time and ordering your very own Lynx…
The right headlight (on the left side) appears to be out, but that shouldn’t be an issue to replace. The engine should be Ford’s HO 1.6-liter SOHC inline-four with 80 horsepower and 88 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by a three-speed automatic sending power to the front wheels, the seller says this Lynx has 39,852 miles and it “runs and drives to perfection.” With an hour spent detailing the engine compartment and a weekend touching up the interior, this could be a crowd pleaser at almost any Cars & Coffee event. Or just use it for commuting. Have any of you owned a Mercury Lynx?
Well, the ad was definitely worth the read. The brochure is great, I forgot how nice those rim designs looked on these. I don’t remember the last time I even saw a Mercury Lynx. We had a big Mercury / Lincoln dealership nearby and these were around back then. It looks like its in pretty good shape too. This could be an affordable way for someone to get into the old car hobby.
Great brochure. 👍 Popular model for seniors it seemed back in 84′
A quick gander at that brochure listed a couple of engine options I had no idea existed. Standard 1.6l in a few forms, a turbo version in RS trim, and a 2.0l diesel. The Turbo RS trim looks best IMO, but I don’t recall this or the sister Escort being considered good cars, in any form.
The Google AI overlord says the diesel was sourced from Mazda.That diesel intrigues me (or, may have, back in the good ol’ days). Sounds like it wasn’t very good choice – aluminum heads, rubber timing belts and interference design. The fuel economy, when running, must’ve been phenomenal.
The basic shape of these cars was pretty good, decently proportioned, I’m sure if you can do your own engine maintenance/upkeep, it would be a fine frugal runabout.
I have an ’84 Escort with the diesel motor. Got it as a non runner, still looking for a shop manual on the diesel
I owned a 1981 Lynx wagon. It had a nice fake woodgrain on the side and was a really cute little car. It was automatic and it shifted horribly (we called it a whiz-bang transmission), but other than that it was a good little car.
Had the 82 Escort version of this from Ford as my second car, the first was a 71 Ventura sedan which I very quickly wrecked and sorely missed. It might be hip now but in the 80’s this was so embarrassing to drive. I actually worked with a guy who had an 82 Lynx in the same color and our keys fit each others car.
39K? Suuuuuuure it does, now for comparison, you have the Rogue ad, believable in every way, then this. I know, a fancy rebadged Escort, here? That’s right, and I’d rather see 10 cars like this. The Escort/Lynx had some pretty big shoes to fill. It, in 1981, replaced the highly successful Pinto, and had everything the Asian econoboxes had. While I vorch about imports stealing sales, the Escort sold over 1.4 MILLION cars by 1985, PLUS, over 365,000 Lynx. Imports still got us, with over 613,000 Corollas in 1984 alone. The major downside here is, they still used a cam belt, and this, unlike the Pinto, was an interference motor, meaning, scrambled eggs when the belt broke. I remember many of those Escort/Lynx lay in junkyards with bad motors.
Sorry, 139K, that’s the way I see it. I’d give them a grand, maybe.
5 digit odometer definitely inspect in person I would recommend a timing belt change before you drive it home from New York and it would allow you to look underneath for rust price is more than I personally would pay for it but not horrible
Here’s a basic trimmed economy car bought by an original owner who appreciated the recognition of having a Mercury. Four (five) doors, automatic and band aid color that I actually appreciate. Fast? No. Fun? No. Frugal? Now we’re getting somewhere. The Pep Boys CHMSL tells you they were a mature customer. To give an idea of these cars in the marketplace the second generation were Ford Motor Credit’s higher risk credit car. I followed up with more than one person who didn’t get bought on a Shadow or Colt, but they were delighted to be driving a new Lynx Trio.
Usually the reason to choose a base Lynx like this over an Escort came down to the local L-M dealer vs the Ford one.
True. Our dealer was Ford but the next town over had L-M, too.
My Dad had an ’82 Lynx 3 door. Not a lot of options. It was a manual and it did have a/c. I recall that the engine was referred to as an “HO” engine. Lol! I ended up with it later and had close to 100k miles when I let it go for something newer. Only problem it ever had was the timing belt broke around 50k miles, causing some internal damage. Ford had a somewhat quiet extended warranty on the belt and they had to take care of the damage.
Nicer daily driver than any of the current suv crop, new or used, if it runs as well as described.
Agreed that 39K miles is most likely questionable, but a decent looking car nontheless.
Biggest question I have: Would BFer Charles Atlas add this next to his ’84 Escort, white with manual.
Had one. Two-door version, same color. 1.6L with the automatic. One of the slowest cars, scratch that, THE slowest car that I’ve ever owned. Any good hill or fairly significant grade was a major ordeal for that thing.
Brings back lots of memories though!