Surprisingly, this beautiful 1977 Mercury Colony Park isn’t really that big, comparatively, despite how huge it appears or how big you may remember them being. It’s under nineteen feet in length and while that’s still big, there were longer cars that weren’t even station wagons. The seller has this car listed here on eBay in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The current bid price is $5,400 but the reserve isn’t met, and they have a buy-it-now price of $17,900 listed.
We’re all a little lulled into complacency (in more ways than one) by driving hulking SUVs that we NEED (heavy drama) for their AWD prowess, even though most of us don’t take them off-road other than barreling over an occasional curb in the Starbucks drive-thru line. That being said, this is a big car. Maybe we’re just not used to such a long hood anymore?
Give me this elegant and poised front end over 99% of the new angry electric razor-looking grilles of today. I love it, there is just enough ornament to be era-appropriate but not so much to absolutely require the driver to wear a burnt orange leisure suit at all times.
The fifth-generation Mercury Colony Park was made for a decade, for model years 1969 through 1978, and a lot happened in that decade if you think about it. This is the aforementioned covered headlight era which I personally like but I know some folks aren’t a fan of those. The failsafe on the Mercury system, among others, is that if a vacuum leak occurred, the headlight doors would open so they would fail on the side of safety which is nice.
This car looks almost like new inside and out and I say it every time, but I’m always surprised to not see power windows in what was considered a luxury car, station wagon body style or not. This car appears to have every other power option, though, and maybe the original owner just didn’t care for power windows. The (vinyl?) seats look perfect both front and back and the rear cargo area is big enough that if it doesn’t fit back there you probably don’t need it.
The engine is also big, it’s Ford’s 460 cubic-inch V8 which would have had a couple of clicks under 200 horsepower and 353 lb-ft of torque. The seller doesn’t give much info other than to say that this car is extremely solid and well-optioned but it looks like an outstanding example to me. Have any of you owned a Colony Park?
wow 🙌
Looks like you would need your own Colony to Park this Weekend Queen, esp at 8MPG downhill with a tail wind and a tow…but GADS does this look awesome.
Excuse Me, I had a 73 and it got 14 around town and 19 /21 on the highway
Colony Park = woodgrain bodysides. Looks a little naked without those “rosewood appliques.”
Those woodgrain patterned ‘Contac paper’ sides always eventually faded.
I have a 1978 Colony Park wagon with the wood sides. It is pale yellow so it became Big Bird to the kids. It has a 351 and lacks power to get out of it’s own way. It’ was parked in 1996 and is resting in the barn. Love the big wagons or long roofs as they are now known. May take some work to get it back on the road. It needs a big 460 engine.
Yes indeed, the peel on wood grain, peeled off after a while. I had a ’72 Torino wagon, no woodgrain. Later I had an ’85 Crown Vic wagon, with the woodgrain. It peeled so badly. I found the Torino looked cleaner.
The seller has many more cars (or dreams as he calls them) for sale.
https://www.donnichollsdreammachines.com/copy-of-services
Some nice cars and decent pricing. Mustang ragtop manual* and Olds look nice. Good link thx Mike
I might buy this just so I can wear my ” burnt orange leisure ” suit again .
Yes!
Bud Lee , you could go on the vacation of a lifetime ! And dobby forget to take your mother in law.
I keep asking myself, how did we drive these land barges?
Exactly. We had the Ford counterpart to this and it was a white-knuckle, cold-sweat experience trying to keep it between the lines in traffic. NO feel in the steering, went where it wanted to. You were just sort of along for the ride.
I’ve owned a a lot of big cars and keeping them in line was never a problem – your front end parts must have been shot
Good write-up Scotty. This is a nice Colony Park in period-correct colors. You would get plenty of attention at Cars & Coffee or even when you are gassing up at Speedway. If you have a few grandkids I can almost guarantee you will win their hearts by taking them for ice cream in this cruiser.
It weighs HOW much?
It gets WHAT gas mileage?
It has HOW MUCH horsepower?
Ahhh – the “Good Old Days”
These were actually easy to drive –
they had power everything.They were just BIG cars.
We drove them because that’s all that was built, other than the junk Vega and Pinto. Dad bought a new 68 Ford Country Squire. Took my driver’s test in that boat 50 years ago this week. Car rusted to death by 1974.
Colony Parks , Pintos and Vegas ? I seem to remember a lot more choices available
Great color
I had a 1972 Mercury Colony Park I bought New, 429 cu in, Gold with wood trim & roof rack had it for 20 year, wish I still had it!
Oh My God I love this. I’d add a trailer hitch and a Bluetooth hidden audio system, have the original wheels widened to run wider whitewalls with the original hubcaps and order “GAS STOP” as a personalized plate. Take off a couple of months and ramble around the US visiting old friends and making new ones.
@Carmanic
You forgot one thing…taking out a loan on the house to pay for the gas on that round-the-country road trip. But it does sound like fun.
My dad worked for a Lincoln Ford Mercury dealer and we had all kinds of variants of that particular body style roll through our lives. 73 LTD? Sure. 74 Ford Country Sedan with the same body as this one? Absolutely. As 3 battling teenagers we really appreciated the sheer volume of space in these land yachts, plenty of room to not have to deal with the other 2 kids. The handling was ponderous but the ride was comfortable. This one looks like a fine example of what was once the defacto choice for families of 5.
The family SUV of the 70’s minus the off road capabilities
They actually get driven off road?
And I don’t mean a gravel driveway.
I had a 71 Mercury Monterey wagon. I bought it used to use as a tow vehicle. Very stout, towed great, rode great. I miss that car. I am and always have been a big fan of wagons, both big and small. I love the utility of them.
I had a ’77 Colony Park Wagon white with woodgrain, 460. It was a great car. It was essentially a Lincoln wagon. I miss this car. A collector offered me more than I could refuse.
Had a girl friend in High school whose parents had a 72 colony park blue with wood grain that by 75 had rusted to pieces but only had 40 k miles on it. They sold it to me for $200 and my buddy and I took the 429 and trans out and bought a 69 cougar with a blown up 302 for $500 and transplanted the colony park drive line in it and sold it for $2500 thought we were in the big money lol that cougar would run like a scalded cat
If I’d only known years ago what these wagons would eventually be worth, I’d a bought a boat-load of them!
18.91 ft is pretty close to 19 ft! We’ve had two – a ’73 with pretty much one of everything on it (but no cruise!). The ’82 I ordered, and I did not order leather seats – wish I had. The one problem with the ’82 was Ford’s VV carburetor – should have waited a year and bought an ’83 with fuel injection. Nice cars over all – but not nearly as nice as our 2010 Toyota Sienna Limited which has had only TWO repairs in its 13 years. Otherwise – routine service at the same dealer save one – when we were in Seattle. The Sienna, at 202″ is 25″ shorter than the ’73 Colony Park – but sure has more interior room. Rick.
When I was a teen in the 70s and 80s, I would have thought this car ugly. Too big. Too much chrome. Not cool. Hated the brown/bronze/gold colors. Now it looks like a real beauty to me. Just like the Saddle Bronze Mustang on here a few days ago. Wouldn’t have given it a second glance as a teen. Now I think it looks great.
Dang, this thing is more then a land yacht. It’s like driving a piece of acreage!
Made it to $8,100 and ended at Reserve Not Met.
Beautiful car, how long is it? The hood looks so long. My early 70’s house has a 26 ft long 2 car garage but I am betting it won’t fit in most garages these days.
Mike Pesotski,
Yeah most trucks won’t fit in garage today ! So many new homes are trying to force you into smaller cars. 20 ft long garages. I think this is around 19 ft but my truck is all of 22 ft.
Those old wagons with enough to get you around in the snow pretty good just not much clearance
My father had a 75 wagon like this. It was the Marquis, a step below the Colony Park, which didn’t offer the wood grain. (It must have been removed from the featured car at some point). His was white with a burgundy vinyl interior, not as fancy as the one in this Colony Park but quite attractive nonetheless. Bought it from Country Lincoln Mercury in Huntington NY in 76. It ran well, was reliable, and he LOVED the way it rode, but hated the fact that, despite being tuned up by the best mechanic in town, the best gas mileage he ever got from the 400V8 was 11 MPG overall. And it was slow as molasses too. Not surprising, since it was hauling almost 5000 lbs of car. He sold it in 78 and bought a 77 Dodge Aspen wagon, a yellow SE with the 318 V8 and the wood grain. Rode nicely, but was a mechanical nightmare. Front fenders rusted, burned oil like crazy, chewed up 2 or 3 rear ends, etc. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when it stalled in the toll plaza of the Verrazano bridge on the hottest July day that summer and wouldn’t start again. Lots of angry NY’ers in line behind them voiced their displeasure! Turned out to simply be a bad ballast resistor, but Dad was DONE with the car. He traded it for a 78 Monte Carlo with the 231V6. To him, it rode as nicely as the Marquis, gave him much better gas mileage than either of the 2 cars prior, and he ran it up well over 100,000 miles with no major problems to speak of. Guess the third time’s the charm, as they say. But for YEARS after, he said that if he won a Chrysler product in a sweepstakes – he’d refuse it! Lol…
I always loved a big car! Especially a big 1970s Ford with a hood long enough to land a small plane on!
From the fall of ’85 to the spring of ’89, I owned a ’77 Ford LTD II S Brougham 4-door sedan. I paid $500 for it and put 45,000 miles on it in the time I had it. It was a joy to drive, with none of the handling issues to which Timmy V alluded. I miss that car terribly!
This Colony Park is a beautiful car that caught my eye instantly! But a 460 is way too much engine for me. I was pleased with the 351 Windsor I had in the LTD II.
This Colony Park confuses me, though. I wonder if there was a delete option for the wood-grain appliqué, because it was always my understanding that a Colony Park was defined in part by the wood grain, otherwise it was just a Marquis wagon, just as Ford’s Country Squire was similarly defined; without the wood grain, it was just an LTD wagon.
I worked at Campbell Ford Sales in Ottawa back in the ’80s, and the wagons with the wood-grain appliqués were Country Squires, and the ones without were just LTD wagons (mid-size, Fox body) or LTD Crown Victoria wagons. I also remember that the Country Squires didn’t say LTD anywhere on them. Even the window sticker identified them as Ford Country Squire.
Also, Scotty, regarding the power windows, some people just didn’t believe in paying extra money for luxuries that were expensive to fix if they failed. Power windows were an extra-cost option through 1985, and finally made standard in ’86 (unless you specifically ordered the Crown Victoria S, the base model). A/C was also newly standard at the same time, if memory serves.
I’m betting that the wood grain was removed from the featured car and it was then repainted minus the wood grain. The original eBay listing does describe the car as being refurbished. The giveaway is the stainless steel moldings on the body sides and the tailgate, which were there to separate the wood grain from the paint on the rest of the car. My Dad’s Marquis wagon, a step down from the Colony Park, didn’t offer the wood grain and had no moldings in those areas. So I guess if you liked the Colony Park but didn’t want the wood grain, you could order a Marquis wagon and bring it up to the Colony Park level by upgrading the options, interior trim, and wheel covers on the order form, thereby creating a Colony Park minus the peeling and fading the wood grain would inevitably be subject to.
I’m waxing nostalgic for the days when someone could pick and choose their colors and options, and create a car that was just what they wanted, as opposed to the present, where you’re at the mercy of a few “packages” that inevitably force you to take a slew of options you probably don’t want in order to get the one thing you do, and color choices are often limited to black, white, and a few shades of grey or beige…
Now that is a driver !!!!!
Auction update: this one ended at $8,100 and no sale.