Mercury Tracer. Forgot about that one, did you? It was indeed an offering from the “better-than-Ford-but-not-quite-a-Lincoln” brand and a low mileage 1993 Mercury Tracer station wagon survivor is for sale on eBay in Canton, Georgia to help you remember for $3,890.00.
This little long roof shows less than 85,000 miles on the clock making it a three thousand, four hundred average miles per year car. While the seller doesn’t say that it was only driven to church on Sundays by a little old lady, he does point out that it was in the ownership of one family from new. And being a southern car, it avoided the rust-out fate of its northern cousins.
The paint looks spectacular in the photos, likely having been given a thorough detail job, which it certainly deserved and the body appears to be laser straight. The Mylar “chrome” on the bumpers is surprisingly free of wrinkles- usually one of the first age-related problems with the trim. The black plastic door handles and plastic wheel covers show that it was a lower spec car when it was new.
This is the period of time when red interiors were RED. The carpets are deep pile, unlike the modern trunk lining material that passes for carpeting in today’s new cars. The driver’s seat is barely worn, but there are hints of a beaded seat cover visible in the photos. Power windows and locks are a convenient touch and this airbag-free car makes use of the old “mad mouse” shoulder belt technology. The spotless condition extends to the rear load floor and trim which looks almost brand new.
Here is the 1.9 liter four cylinder engine that puts out 88 horsepower and drives the front wheels through a four speed automatic transmission. Eighty-eight horses won’t get your heart pumping but it will get you where need to go. Eventually. Everything looks tidy in the engine room with some new-ish looking hoses and spark plug wires adding to the confidence factor. For less than four grand you could be the owner of pretty decent little driver. It is too nice to use or should it be driven as intended?
BF’s turning into “OK Used Cars”? Friend had a car something like this, since I wasn’t into it, I didn’t care what it was, but his kid beat the heck out of it, even put it in a swamp, and it still ticked. Had a ton of miles on it. It was a good car.
I think it should just be used but taken care of. The only new car my wife ever bought was a Mercury Tracer. I chuckle whenever she reminisces about that car the same way we talk about wishing we would’ve kept that 70 Superbird or 63 Vette.
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Rodney’s opening line, “forgot about that one, didn’t you”? Yeah, we did,,,,thanks for reminding us.
Had a 84 Escort Wagon at one time the wife drove. I don’t remember which engine it was but one is an interference engine. Cheap transportation. but it had a hard time getting out of it’s own way.
probably this one was the interference engine since it is a rebadged mazda NOT an mercury version of the escort/lynx
This is a rebagdged Ford Escort Wagon. You are thinking of the earlier Tracers.
If you look at the engine picture you can clearly see the turkey 1.9L engine that almost all of the Escort’s had.
Will it be at Barrett Jackson anytime soon?…no. Does it appeal to someone for the pure nostalgia and memories, maybe of childhood or as a first-time parent?…for sure. They can’t all be stereotypical classics, otherwise the hobby would become a boring world of me too cars.
Exactly.
I’d rather have almost any station wagon, even this one, than most 50’s-70’s 4 door sedans. They are more useful and usually look better. That might be because my moms cars while I was growing up we’re all station wagons. Me and my sister spent a couple of weeks each summer in the back seat as it chewed up thousands of miles on our annual family vacations.
Steve R
My wife an I had a ’93 Tracer sedan. It was loaded similar to this wagon, but ours had a 5 speed manual. We bought it as a dealer demo vehicle with about 4000 miles on it. Very solid car actually with almost no repairs. The only reason we let it go is we needed a larger vehicle, but when we let it go it had around 70k miles and was still running very well. The 1.9 motor was definitely not fast, but it was very reliable. I think those hubcaps were on pretty much all Tracer’s except for the sporty LTS model. Had one of those as well that our daughter drove. It had around 160k miles when we let it go and was still running strong.
It is too bad Ford never put the Mazda engine in the wagons. It would have been a neat car.
I would buy it for my grandma if she was alive.
I once owned a 93 Mercury Tracer wagon. I put over 200,000 miles on it and it was still running great when I sold it. The only bad thing I can think about it was that I went through three heater cores. But it sure was great on gas.
Some of the new writers seem unclear what this website is about.
Keep in mind that young people consider this car a classic now.
Actually, it’s the editors that have the final say in what goes up.
Wow. My sister still drives one of these, nicknamed Speck. Same year but “butt mist beige” in and out. Bought brand new in ‘93. Still putting along with all manner of battle scars and a serious case of psoriasis on the roof and hood.
Named for Richard Speck the Serial Killer? :) I could see him driving one of these.
Daily driver
Buy it, drive it! It will never reach collector status!
For all the naysayers, it was a common car in its day, rarely seen now, is why it’s here. That being said, I had an Escort wagon, same year, 5 speed, and I can really milk horsepower out of anything. The car went 333K when a deer hit me. The car was driveable, just a bashed up passenger side. Insurance company told me to get quotes for repairs and I did. A few months later I contacted a garage for repair – my insurance company decided to total the car out. It was still in running condition when I signed it away.
Rarely seen? There’s scads of first gen Escorts on the Portland Craigslist right now. I stopped counting at 7 on the first half of the first page.