Rekindling memories of childhood vacations, this 1974 Ford LTD Country Squire appears almost ready for a cross-country trip! You can find it here on craigslist in Brooklyn, New York for only $2,200. You’d better hurry up if you want it though; I can’t imagine this find staying around for long at that price!
As you might expect from a New Jersey car, there’s a little rust, some of which is visible here in the left rear quarter panel. However, with what looks to be original paint and wood grain siding that’s in pretty decent shape, I can’t imagine that this car has spent too much time out in the elements, although there is some fading below the gas filler panel.
We’re missing one wheel cover here. I remember selling a lot of replacements of this particular cover when I managed a hub cap store in the mid 1980’s, so that doesn’t surprise me a lot. These three are from the ’77-’82 cars anyway, so they aren’t original. This cover or this cover are what would have been original for the car. Okay, obscure wheel cover trivia mode off!
This is as close as we get to seeing under the hood. The seller does tell us that it runs and drives great, and also lists air conditioning as present, but offers no clue whether it’s functional or not.
I’m almost surprised that this one doesn’t have the third row of seats, but that opens this cavern up for taking your stuff along with you. And just imagine the additional room available if you fold that second row of seats down!
The front seat is what puts me in a quandary when it comes to the 33,993 claimed miles. On the one hand, the dash appears uncracked and the carpet looks pretty good. On the other hand, how could less than 34,000 miles with someone in the driver’s seat damage the upholstery that much! The door panels look mint as well, so I’m really torn here. Or actually, I’m not. Regardless of the mileage, at this price, I’m sending the front seat to an upholstery shop to match the vinyl as well as possible, replacing the front shocks and possibly springs as the seller states are needed, and heading for Wally World! Who’s with me?
Hubcap store! Now there’s an occupation that doesn’t exist much anymore….
Yup! At one point in time I was thinking about buying the business and taking on wheels as well. Glad I didn’t!
There’s one apparently still in business 2 towns away from me – Hubcap House in Pembroke, NH. I’ve been tempted to stop in to see what he has.
J – in this instance I would not doubt the mileage – this truly is (was) a sparsely used freighter – a good find, and by God it’s cheap – where is it ? Brooklyn?!
The family truckster!
you think you hate it now, wait till you drive it !!
If you like driving a sofa on wheels, you’ll absolutely love it!
We tend to forget how fragile upholstery used to be – vinyl seat with cracks and tears at 30k was not at all unusual. Every time I get in my 295k mile Dakota and see the drivers seat with no wear showing, I’m amazed at what we used to accept (like junking a car before it got to 100k)
I’m totally with you on this. Materials have come a long way. You don’t see cracking of plastics anymore, even yellowing / crazing of acrylics seem a thing of the past. Upholstery from a the 1970’s didn’t stand up to heat and UV rays.
I used to have a Matchbox Mercury station wagon back in 1970, which reminds me of this Ford. I can still see a dog peering out the rear window. Good memories.
Yours probably handled better…
Nice car but I don’t think I would buy anything out of Brooklyn.N.Y.
Even if I am french,it seems to me that the comments of the seller are poor english ,no ?
I bought one of these station wagons in 1979. Bottom of doors were rusted out . Damn good car, lasted another 10 years. Oh, I just foamed the bottom of those rusty doors.
I know it’s a long shot but is this car still available??? Do you know where it is?
Is this car still in Brooklyn and is it still for sale?