The last time the former Mercury Division of FOMOCO used the Comet moniker was between 1971 and 1977. It was a badged-engineered version of the compact Ford Maverick. The two cars used most of the same sheet metal and shared powertrains. This 1976 Comet 4-door sedan is presented as a nice survivor with low miles and sporting aftermarket wheels. Located in Chantilly, Virginia, this Merc is/was available here on Facebook Marketplace for $13,600. But that was a few months ago and may not have sold at $13,600. Kudos for the tip, Dennis House!
Given the initial success of Ford’s 1970 Maverick, it’s logical that Mercury would get their version of the car the next year. The last time Mercury had a compact was in the mid-1960s, though it had been selling the European-built Capri as a subcompact since 1970. The front clip was different than the Maverick as were the taillights. Both cars received some of the largest protruding bumpers out there due to new safety regulations (the ones on the seller’s vehicle look like small picnic tables).
Mercury sold plenty of these Comets over seven years: 487,000 units in total and 36,000 in 1977 alone of which 21,000 were 4-door sedans like this one. According to the seller, this car has been in storage on and off for much of its life. It made only short hops to church and the grocery store, only attaining 24,000 miles in its first 23 years. Nothing much happened over the next 19 years with 6,000 miles were added from 2018 until 2024.
We’re told it runs great with an inline-6 under the hood (200 or 250 cubic inches), paired with an automatic transmission. The body and paint present well, including a vinyl top. The wheels and tires have been upgraded to 15 inches, but the stock ones have been saved and will go with the sale. The carburetor has been rebuilt but a spare one comes, too, just in case. Lots of new parts have been installed, like the radiator, gas tank, brakes, shocks, and all sorts of rubber pieces. This should be a sweet ride – if still available and the asking price is perceived as reasonable.
That lead pic certainly doesn’t do anything to downplay the size of the park bench bumpers! Makes one appreciate the pre-collision-standard bumpers on the Mavericks/Comets.
Overall this Comet looks good. The greenish yellow paint with the green vinyl roof and interior just screams 70’s. The upholstery looks great. I would be fine with the stock wheel covers. So, just drive it around town and take it to Cars & Coffee and enjoy it on country cruises, where needing big horsepower isn’t an issue.
I came to say the same thing about that front battering ram!! :-)
I totally agree with Bob and Moparman, when I saw that lead picture my first thought was…. Dear Lord!!!! Look at the size of the I Beam on that thing…. but, it did its job, and thats how this Comet came from the factory. It’s in terrific shape though, and looks like a great way for someone to get into the hobby. The straight 6, especially if it’s the 250 should keep up with traffic.
It’s a FOMOCO… it’s a 200ci guaranteed. They do OK but not like the Chevy 250. The biggest problem is squeezing more power out of them because the intake is integral to the head and, unless it’s a large log head, the runners are pencil thin so the engine is sucking it’s air through a straw.
The 250 was the middle engine option by 1976, as the emission controls and unleaded gasoline combined to continue to degrade power output. The base 170 was gone by then, which was the base engine in 1970, the 200 was the base engine by the mid 70’s, with a two-barrel 302 as the top dog in 1976. Either six was a slug by ’76, but the addition of air conditioning, while welcome in this example, would further degrade power output. The intake manifold being cast into the head precludes any significant intake upgrades, so an engine swap is your only route to more power. The 302 is a bolt-in operation, and your local junkyard is a plentiful source of former Mustang engines available for short money, including the later models with fuel injection.
There’s no mention of if this bad boy has front disk brakes or the base drum brakes, but upgrade kits for power disk brakes are widely available for not too much coin, and are highly recommended, as the base drum brakes, particularly if they lack power assist, are completely devoid of feel, and are “grabby” in the rain.
I think the Comet and the Maverick were two of the sharpest car designs of the 70s, until they slapped those girders on them.
They may have looked good, but that styling came at a price, and part of the price you paid was reduced rear headroom and less space in the back seat, along with poor visibility over the high hood line. The handling was subpar even by the admittedly low standards of the day, and I found both the GM X-body cars (Nova and siblings) and the Chrysler A-Body cars (Dart, Demon, Duster and Valiant) to have superior handling and overall performance to the Ford offerings, the Comet and Maverick. They may not have looked quite as good as the Comet/Maverick twins, but they certainly worked better, IMHO!
Hey, the car will match the Avacado Green appliances. This just screams geezer car. Put a “my next car is a hearse” bumper sticker on it. It’s not me. I can’t believe it will go anywhere near the asking price. This just defines Malaise Era cars.
When I saw the photo, my first thought was, is this the Jay Leno special edition Comet?
Way overpriced. There is a reason it’s been in the market for 25 weeks, so far. Good deals don’t last.
Steve R
Granny’s Grocery Getter is in fantastic condition, and few of these still survive today. Most ended up going through the crusher after having been consumed by rust, but at $13.6k, the asking price is about double what I’d consider sale-able. An asking price of between $6k and $6.8k is more in line with what this is worth, which is why it sits unsold on Facebook after almost six (6) months. A similar Maverick for sale on Long Island, NY, sold for about $8k in Barn Finds not too long ago IIRC, but it had the Luxury Decor Option (LDO), complete with bucket seats and a floor-shifted C6 automatic transmission, along with the 302 V8 and A/C.
Ready for the Sonic drive-through (at one end of town) and the Burger King drive thru (at the other). Nice time capsule!
I see the original owner as more of an A and W type.
Is this a 50 mph bumper?
These bumpers, though hilarious in design did their job. Preventing serious damage to the car in some collisions and could be cheaply repaired or replaced.
Nowadays the approving authorities and the manufacturers have forgotten what a bumpers primary purpose was. They are now many thousands of dollars worth of tech that can be damaged in less than 5 mph collisions. Sometimes writing off the car.
But perhaps the manufacturers want that, they sell more cars and authorities can be paid off. The heck with wasting resources and the cost to consumers.
Did’nt this car start the lemon law?
There’s a guy with an olive green Mav that shows up to Pastieners in Birmingham, MI for Cars and Coffee. It’s a bare bones car, but what bones! These were really good looking cars.
I feel like I’m in the twilight zone here or something. I really can’t believe that only one mention of the price. Which is not just overpriced, but completely ridiculous. But this has to be the ugliest year for the Comet with the bumbers, in a very unflattering color combination, lowest possible power train option, and it has 4 doors. It has clicked every single red flag box except rust. This is the kind of car that used to be sent to the salvage yard for no other reason than nobody wanted it.
It’s the “My wife said I need to sell it before I buy anything else but I already bought it but she doesn’t know about it yet” price…
George, 200 and 250 sixes were available in these, and other FoMoCo rigs. Additionally, Chevy 250s after the mid ‘70s &also had integral intakes, which were prone to cracking. Both the Ford and Chevy versions were good work a day engines.
This is a great example of a totally undesirable vehicle. It is functional, and in good condition. And UGLY. If the 4 doors and chrome railroad tie bumpers aren’t bad enough, there’s the Baby Puke Green paint, with matching vinyl top. I have owned several early ‘60s Comets. 6 cylinder and V8. Last one was a ‘63 1/2 S22 hardtop. 260/auto. This poor thing is an embarrassment. The price is ridiculous, and the seller will figure it out eventually.
to hell with the bumpers. car way overpriced by double. ask all you want.
Back in the late 50s, Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge, Plymouth & Imperial had some of the biggest bumpers out there. But they were attractive and built into the design of the cars, not a slapped on steel girder protruding 12″ from the body. What was wrong with the designers of the 70s that they couldn’t design the ’73s on with 5 mph bumpers that didn’t look tacked on? For that matter, what is wrong with today’s designers, other than the fact that they are bean counters more than they are designers.
The “Big Three” fought every Federal Regulation “tooth and nail”, so they did the absolute minimum necessary to meet the rules, so they could continue to sell cars and stay in business. This was partly due to the limited time the Feds gave the Big Three to meet the ever more stringent rules, but mostly it was a result of the intransigence of the automakers. The prevailing attitude seemed to be: “You want 5mph bumpers? Here they are! Are you happy, now?” So almost out of spite, the automakers almost went out of their way to make these “bash beams” as ugly as they possibly could, in hopes that a consumer backlash would force a repeal of the rules.
That only worked once, when one of “Nader’s Nannies”, Saint Joan Claybrook, was made the head of NHTSA under Jimmy “The Peanut” Carter, and imposed the seatbelt interlock rule starting with the 1975 model year. The interlock was so unpopular, and members of Congress were so besieged by complaints from their constituents, that it took Congress less than a month to repeal the rule in the middle of 1975. But otherwise, being against safety and clean air was like being against Motherhood and Apple Pie, so the rules remained.
One unfortunate side effect of the 5 mph bumper rules was that in higher speed collisions, the new, heavier bumpers greatly increased repair costs, so it forced NHTSA to back off, and roll the standard back to just 2.5 mph, where it remains to this day!
After my 1946 Ford was hit, head-on, by someone in a ’79 Ford L.T.D. Crown Victoria doing 94 m.p.h. (according to the police at the scene), I got a 1971 Mercury Comet (Maverick) in orange, that had 23,000 original miles, for $2,500. What a pile of junk that car was! The beast was difficult to start and keep running, and the idle was exceptionally rough. When you put it into gear, it would stall-out, unless you gave it additional gas. It faltered on the road and couldn’t get out of its own way. The previous owner had installed new plugs and wires, which seemed strange for such low mileage. I took it to a mechanic, and I was told that the only thing I could do, was to experiment with advancing the timing. This I did, until just the point where the idle smoothed-out. It started and ran smoothly after that, with plenty of power — but it pinged like a 429 struggling to accelerate using 87 octane gas!. Even running the highest octane did not help! If I retarded the timing enough to stop the pinging, then the car ran rough and had all the performance of a slug! Worse, I noticed tiny “pimples” behind the headlights, in the rocker areas, and around the rear wheels– and even though I ran the car only in sunshine or rain (no snow); in very short order these “pimples” grew into open rust-holes, and the rear wheels splashed road wetness into the trunk, through the gaping holes which had opened there. I finally gave the car to a woman who was desperate for a vehicle, and she took it to several mechanics to try to resolve the problems with it seeming to need 109 octane fuel, simply to function! Later, at 46,000 miles, almost more rust than body, it sat in a salvage yard. I don’t even want to SEE one of these!!!
Welcome to my world, LOL! The primitive emission controls of the era almost guaranteed poor performance, and cars that stalled, hesitated, idled or ran roughly were the rule, rather than the exception. My Mom’s ’72 Maverick was similarly afflicted, and came complete with standard Diesel run-on feature, where the car would buck, shudder and chug for several seconds after turning the key off, LOL!
The car was at least 8 years old and was starting to rust? Back then it was par for the course. The aftermarket rustproofing outfits back then guaranteed no rust tnrough for only five years.
I liked the style and size of the Maverick and Comet. Earthtones like green as depicted were popular in the 1970s. Car would be better with more options like the 302 V8. Needs provenance for the claimed low miles and vehicle history. Since it is not a Chevelle or Road Runner or Mustang, would be a novelty at a car show.
To Kim in Lanark: the Comet was only 23 years old, and was beginning to structurally rust out from under me! But the inability to get it to run anywhere near to correctly, was what finished me off. Clearly, the original owner had tried to solve the problem, what with new plugs and wires — then, failing to do so, had fobbed me off with it. But, with that experience (and a friend of mine’s with a Ford Maverick), I wouldn’t get NEAR one of these cars! Incidentally, the Maverick had the very same problem, without the rust. Both of us bought low mileage older cars we could afford (or, so we THOUGHT). He also had a Pinto when they were new, which he drove until it fell apart — seats coming unstitched — floors with gaping holes so huge, you had to hold you feet up, or risk having them hit the moving pavement and being snapped-off at the ankles! Eventually, the front bench-seat, itself, fell through the floor, and he gave up. He had nearly 20 years, and about 240,000 miles, on that poor Pinto, and it was still fine, mechanically. But it was DONE, structurally. He put in planks of heavy plywood across the floor, to try to hold it together, but the wood rotted quickly. We used to make so much fun of that Pinto, with springs popping out of the seat! Nearly all of the Pintos had long since vanished, but he was still driving what was left of his…
A car that vintage lasting all those years is a surprise. I have a 16 year old pickup that is just starting to show rust on the door edge. Something to take care of when the weather warms up. Lemons still exist though. My son bought a new Dodge compact back in 2016 or so and it never worked right. He had it in repeatedly, and no one could fix it. The day it was stolen was the happiest day of his life.
To Kim in Lanark: that’s ONE way to lose a problem!
I think his sister had something to do with it. She knows people who know people.
If they sold this by the pound, you probably get a hell of a discount if you just lopped those bridge girders off of either end. That would be the first thing I would do if I ever bought one. Probably improve the 0 to 60 time and gas mileage at the same time. What would be left would be a really cute car, but as is, this is all the money and then some.
Good luck trying to find bumpers from a pre-1973 example to bolt on, though, as 1972 was the last year before the Feds mandated the 5 mph “bash beams” upfront in 1973, and followed up with adding the big beams in the rear in 1974.
I will admit that one nice side effect of the big bumpers, though, is Ford moved the turn signals from below the bumper to the the grille, and the new turn signals are a distinct improvement! Brighter and easier to see than the pre-1973 examples, the swap is a bolt-in replacement, and we did that in my Mom’s ’72 Maverick. The wires for the bulb sockets are long enough to reach the new reflector and lens assemblies without the need to splice the wires. Just remove the bulb sockets from the old lens assemblies, then swap out the grille, and snap the bulb sockets into the lens assemblies in the new grille. A fifteen minute job, requiring only a Phillips screwdriver and a 1/4″ socket set!
Those bumpers look like they could take more than a 5 mph hit.