It’s getting harder to find autos past the half-century mark that have been in the same family since their year of production, and when the history and maintenance can be traced back this far, I can understand how a vehicle of this type can command a premium price. This 1972 Mercury Monterey station wagon is one such example, as it was purchased by the seller’s father that same year and has spent much of its life residing in dad’s garage. The time has come for it to find a new dwelling, so if you’re looking for a nicely-preserved vintage family cruiser, the wagon can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Dayton, Ohio. After nineteen weeks on the market, this one’s failed to find a buyer at $17,500, so perhaps the seller is ready to listen to some offers.
Barn Finds reader Ted spotted this one, and we’d like to thank him for the tip! This area of the country isn’t particularly known for its winter friendliness toward sheet metal, and while the exterior falls short of perfect, it’s still pretty solid overall. The seller describes the rust outside as very minimal, which seems like an accurate assessment, and a few bumps and bruises are also mentioned. However, that’s still the original paint we’re seeing outside, so for the finish to remain this strong all these decades later seems like a good testament for the level of care this one’s received since the early seventies.
Although the interior appears somewhat basic, the condition remains far better than most wagons this age, and there are some fun features inside worth noting. Behind the second seat are two additional fold-up seating areas, the type that face each other, and it looks like plenty of comfort for a couple more passengers. It might be possible to cram four back here, but they’d have to like each other really well and be able to behave for hours at a time on long family trips. Up front, that’s one of the coolest sound units I’ve seen in a while, as in addition to an AM/FM Stereo, there’s also a CB radio!
It would be nice to see one of the larger offerings under the hood, but the 400 cubic-inch V8 can be found here, which was factory-rated at 172 horsepower. However, it’s important to remember that by this time, HP was being listed as net, not gross, as it had been in the past. All of the service records are said to be available, with a new fuel pump being one of the recently replaced components. The engine is said to run smoothly and quietly, and with only 89,000 miles of use, there may be some more good life left here. This 1972 Mercury Monterey station wagon appears like a fine survivor for the most part, but I’m thinking $17.5k may be a bit optimistic. What’s a more reasonable price to pay for this one?
Wow! That’s a cool wagon; it has to be the only one like it that’s left!
Good write-up Mike. This is a fun and interesting vehicle to consider. Even being a Mercury, it’s pretty basic. Soft yellow paint and brown interior is so different from today’s monochromatic sea of cars. Vinyl trim looks to be in good shape. Blackwalls and hub caps give it that stripper look. Cool CB radio. One family owned, with service records. The fancy-trimmed wagons get the attention, but this is cool.
What Bob said. Cool blast from the past before the SUV took over.
Growing up, I don’t think I ever saw one of these that didn’t have at least one broken taillight. It was unreal, like there were taillight-breaking leprechauns that would come out after dark and just go to town on Mercury wagons. Nice to see these have survived, they might be the only unbroken pair left.
The forerunner of the infamous “Camry dent”? :D But seriously, it does look like the lenses protrude on this car, without any kind of metal surround–the perfect scenario to get crunched by an errant shopping cart.
Just like Plymouth-Dodge-Chrysler minivans almost always have a dent in the tailgate. Before that it was the ’67 and ’68 Ford Customs, Galaxies and LTDs that always had a major dent in a quarter panel.
Nah, it was the dented trunk lid and bumper at about the 2/3 point across.
$17,500. But where are you going to find another one? What a time capsule.
You are right, where are you going to find another. It’s nice, but 19 weeks on the market says it’s overpriced.
Steve R
It’s been for sale for 4+ months.
It safe to say nobody is looking for another one!
Gawd dat’s a cool wagon. We had an Ford version of that waaay back and got into Big Trouble in the back of it and I think we were grounded for years…
Nice ride, my opinion is that it needs raised white letters on the tiers , it will still turn some heads.
I have a friend who owned one one similar to this , a few years older. We hauled a refrigerator once with the rear tail gate up, rear seats down…try that in your SUV!
That swingout tailgate is a testament to the bulletproof era of Detroit, can you imagine having to dismount that for adjustments?!
Compared to the huge numbers of Ford wagons produced, ya gotta wonder how many of these Mercury wagons there were in comparison.
I miss Mercury…and station wagons!
Cool old wagon for sure! I’ve owned many but you have to weigh your options. Driving 50 year old vehicles any distance will having you accept the fact that 10 mpg may be normal, fluid leaks and failures of aged seals and components are fair game at any point. You’ll also have to leave a lot of your creature comforts behind. If this is all okay with you, jump in and enjoy the ride.
I like it! Put a set of subtle aftermarket wheels on this and drive it.?
Two things our dad had a 69 Chevy Caprice Estate Kingswood and it already had a factory installed rear window deflector to help keep the tailgate glass free from dirt, dust and debris buildup on it. When he bought it used it had a dent on the right rear quarter panel where the red light striker marker turn signal was he took it to one of the area auto body repair shops where they pulled and straightened out the dent brought the side molding and right rear light striker marker assembly set up he had the body shop to order the replacement parts for the body side molding and he went to one of the area salvage yard and brought a complete chrome stainless steel factory roof rack when the auto body shop was finished with the body repairs and work done & the installation of the roof rack that wagon looked really good and it already powered door locks, windows and seats he brought a new am/fm stereo with cassette player and speakers to have them installed. He was riding pretty good for a few years when he wanted to buy something different and updated and graded because the engine was on its way out. So on a Sunday afternoon he came home through the house door with the Sunday newspaper and had me look and read through the auto advertisement section of the paper and look for another beach wagon station wagon. I found one it was a 75 Mercury Grand Marquis Colonial Park LS Park Lane.
He called the Mercury Dealership where it was and spoke with one of the salesmen and he told him that the Wagon was still for sale and our dad said he would like to come in on one of the 3 holiday weekends on a Monday and could he put it to one side so he can take a look and test drive it? The salesman said sure he’ll have it put to one side so when he comes in to look and take it out a test drive it will be ready when he gets there. When we pulled up to the dealership it was sitting up front waiting for him to look and test drive it. And did you know when we had pulled up to the dealership the Colonial Park was the exact same color of his 69 Chevy Caprice Estate Kingswood and the Mercury Monterey Beach Wagon Station Wagon that’s in the barn find above picture. The only thing it was a Colonial Park which was fully equipped, fully loaded and fully powered. With reclining chase lounge 60/60 seats and just about every option you can think of that comes to mind. The interior was the exact same color as well. Oh let me tell you what a ride again all i can say is what a ride. To this very day i still think about that 75 Mercury Grand Marquis Colonial Park. He took me, one of my older sisters and an upstairs neighbor’s daughter and taught us how to drive. Man oh man what a great experience and time that was to get in that drivers seat and sit behind the wheel of that ride it reminded me of his really good friend who had a 72 or 73 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe. Oh yeah by the way it had a big block 460 4BBL V8 power plant under the hood with tilt steering wheel cruise control an am/fm stereo radio with dual remote control mirrors and the exact same factory installed roof rack set up with the rear wind window deflector to help keep the electric power rear tailgate glass clean from dirt, dust and debris buildup.
The stuff cars that they are making and manufacturing today to are a big and huge disappointment. I still choose and pick my Antique, Classic and Vintage Rides any day and anytime.
Cram 4 more people somewhere in the car? Uh, not with the size of obese Americans nowadays. Be luck to fit 4 people total in there.
Mike, THANK YOU for putting the location in the first paragraph.
Some others require readers click-bate the link to see if the car is near.
Thank you for being a good writer,
barnfinds member
Nice wagon. Can’t afford it. Can’t afford the gas-guzzling, either. However… NICE WAGON!
i would say sellers # is a bit high. somewhere between 10-15k would be far but it is what it is
When I was a teenager, my dad bought a brown 1971 station wagon just like this one. It had a 400 2bbl and yes, I sat clear in the back seats many times on vacation. He paid $6,000 brand new.
Amazing how good this car looks to me now, as opposed to 40 years ago. Those poverty caps even look better than full wheel covers!
The Good: bright colors, big V8. The Bad: anti-smog gear chokes off power, it’ll pass everything but a gas station! The Ugly: puppy poop brown interior, 1970’s drivability, due to the primitive emission controls of the era.
My take: The 400 small-block was supposed to replace the 390 FE big-block, but only lasted for a couple of years before declining power output led the Big Three to start using the big-block “385” motors (429/460) in these, in an attempt to recover some of the lost ponies the emission controls took away. The Ford 400 is kind of an orphan engine in the Ford lineup, so replacement and upgrade parts can be hard to find. Some 351W parts will fit, but others won’t. If the parts supply becomes a problem, an engine upgrade might be your only option. The good news is that crate and junkyard options are plentiful and relatively inexpensive.
Mother traded her 68 Dodge for one of those, she loved it, until Carter screwed the US over.
Then they traded it for a 79 Rabbit Diesel.
Talk about a huge step down.
We could all hear that Rabbit 2 miles away.
Even though Our parents could afford Moms dream of a Chrysler Le Baron; they stepped down even further into a Dodge Colt.
If you gotta put up with something? at least get what you want.
Life is too short for regrets.
Dad would be pissed to know I still have my 62 VW panel van.
Best 50 bucks I ever spent.