posted at the Cohort by Tim Finn
If were were having a CC Meet-Up at this Portland Cars and Coffee, which car would garner the most attention?
I know the answer given some prior history.
At the Baltimore area Meet-up last summer, this is what I said about this car:
This big fuselage ’73 Chrysler Town and Country wagon was probably the favorite of our group. It’s very original, and shows its age; a genuine survivor, and currently a daily driver. It was found and bought by its owner about a year ago.
And there were plenty of other “classic” and exotics there. Why? Fatigue with seeing another Z-28 or GTO. The human minds craves novelty and variety. Something way too many car nuts haven’t yet figured out.
I’d have to agree with that assessment, at least as far as I am concerned. The last C+C I attended I spent much more time looking at a well-worn but still delightful Toyota Corona Wagon than anything else.
How big is this subsection of fans of all things old wagon? And will we eventually be a force to be reckoned with for the new car market again? After all, those wagons were all new and available in a local showroom at one time. Bring back the (regular) wagons! Paul, you actually bought a brand new wagon in the not so distant past, but even that was after it was a discontinued model, IIRC. I wonder if a Camry or Accord wagon would sell these days (as opposed to Pilot or Highlander or whatever and if the incremental volume (but relatively minor differences for the assembly line would help arrest the slide of the sedan format by adding this closely coupled variant. It’d surely eliminate rear headroom complaints due to sloping rooflines if nothing else.
It’s not just that it’s a wagon, but a low trim original car. A six cylinder sedan would generate similar interest. Something nobody was interested in ten or fifteen years ago, except for some of us Curbsiders, of course. 🙂
As a young man I was all about V8 engines and scoffed at the sixes. However, I was always a low trim guy. I liked the Biscayne/Bel Air more than the Impala/Caprice (I think the two tail lamp Impala of the 2000’s is… well, it’s just silly) and the no nonsense look of unmarked cruisers and good ol’ pickups held an appeal for me. I have gained an appreciation for the six cylinder through CC’s write ups. One my favorite cars I saw at show a couple years ago was a 6 cylinder ’66 Mustang convertible because I finally understood why it existed.
“I wonder if a Camry or Accord wagon would sell these days ?”
Well, they’ve tried already.
From recent past, see Toyota Venza and Honda Accord Crosstour on Wikipedia. Also, there were earlier Camry and Accord wagons from the 90’s that were more car like, but still didn’t catch on.
For new cars, reality is, women make the decision of to buy in 60% [or so] of purchases, and they overwhelmingly want S/CUV’s, end of discussion about “wagons coming back”. Today, most men want a pickup to fit in with “the guys”.
Yeah I know there were wagons in the past but that was also when the sedans were selling like hotcakes. Now that sedans are slowing down, maybe add a wagon variant to the mix to take up some of the capacity and provide another option for those that don’t want a sedan but are also still turned off my CUV’s.
The Crosstour and Venza weren’t really great attempts but the Crosstour, for one, seems to be more popular now as a used car than it ever was when new. But by no stretch of the imagination are either really good wagons, the rear (especially on the Crosstour) is way too sloped. Look more at their first two generations of wagons on each one for a better, more useful shape.
Between the Camry and Accord, they’ll still manage to sell what, around 600k of them this year? That’s still a sizable number and with some others just giving up, some of that volume would flow to them.
But weirdly enough, people seem plenty enamored with sedans as long as it has a Tesla logo on it, so how does that work?
The Crosstour looked like an updated Chevrolet Citation when we checked the design of its fastback look.
More like an updated and rounded off Rover/Sterling 827SLi.
The irony is, all a CUV is really, is a tall, AWD station wagon.
Jim, this isn’t too far off from what was quite popular at the CC Meetup last September. I’m surprised you and I weren’t booted out of the place given how we were crawling all over that 1970 Galaxie wagon.
Wagons in particular are memorable as they are so infrequently seen today. A Mustang, tri-5 Chevrolet, or Camaro? Still common as dirt. But a wagon, particularly low trim, is not going to be common at any gathering.
It is still there, also.
https://countryclassiccars.com/ford-galaxie-1970/vehicle-details/?vin=Call for Vin 11158#prettyPhoto
Yeah but we are clearly the weird ones. 🙂 That Galaxie was a high point of the day. I note that the little Tempest convertible that came in as we were leaving went within a week if I am not mistaken. I still think about it and wished I would have pulled up the CC post on them while we were there, I might have been an owner. That 4cylinder was not nearly as bad as I recall you guys were trying to make it sound!
Twenty years from now an early Dodge Caravan with an intact transmission will be the belle of the ball, just watch…
I’d take it. And the G-body Cutlass wagon in the background too.
The others? Meh. BTDT
The sight of a stock standard original car always seems to draw a crowd, I’m not sure why, I like em but figured I was one of few, not so it seems, at a recent muscle car show I saw a very original looking stock HQ Holden Kingswood sedan with 68,000 miles accumulated since it was built, it was hard to get near but I managed to talk to the young owner about a couple of things its had done he didnt know about and is now planning to change back but the car had drawn a good crowd,
I think I know why. A stock standard or low-line car is a true time capsule. Every bit of it was there at the creation. The radio is the radio that played “Take it Easy” when that song was new. If you look at long enough, you can almost feel the present slip away, and for a precious minute or two, it’s “Yesterday Once More” as that other song goes (or went…).
Nice one Bryce, I can’t remember seeing many with the red interior back in the day, oh for the days being able to choose different interior colors
It’s an ironic twist that the musclecars that were once relatively rare, are now more common at car shows than the mundane sedans and station wagons that were everywhere back in the day. As others have stated, the latter are much more interesting to behold, particularly when found in their lowest performance guise.
Interesting that this thread focuses around station wagons. I saw something yesterday that I thought I never would. There was an episode of the TV show “My Three Sons” playing when I turned on the set yesterday morning. I don’t know why it was “tuned” to that channel other than that must have been where it was when turned off the night before.
Anyway, there stands Fred McMurry in his fedora and pipe. In the background is a Pontiac station wagon (keep in mind that Pontiac supplied vehicles to this program throughout its very long run). So what? I could only see the car from the A pillar and far enough back to tell it was a station wagon. How did I know it was a Pontiac? The darn thing had 8-lug wheels!
If anyone could elaborate on this I would really like to know how many Poncho station wagons came out of the factory with 8-lug wheels.
By the way, I favor the Town & Country. That is really all Clark Griswold ever needed.
The first seasons of “My Three Sons” was sponsored by Chevrolet. It switched to Pontiac when the series moved from ABC to CBS network. https://www.imcdb.org/m53525.html
Thanks for the info, Stephane. I did fail to mention the guide info for the show said that particular episode was from 1964 and it was in black and white.
I guess “MTS” was opposite “Bewitched” when it came to suppliers of automobiles. For many years EVERYONE that drove a car on that show drove a current model Chevrolet but I distinctly remember, in a later episode, Samantha and Darin (the second Darin) visiting Salem, Mass. and driving a 1970 Bonneville convertible.
Yay! For those of us in areas that put salt on roads, not a single one of these has been seen in over 30 years. 69 Fords were championship rusters, but this one is gorgeous.
I presume the little Ford emblem ahead of the front wheel signifies a basic 302? I am guessing that you could no longer get a six in the wagon by 1969, but could be wrong. I think anything 351 or larger got a callout there. I cannot tell if this is a Ranch Wagon or a Country Sedan.
Those were some of the least attractive “poverty caps” of anything Ford did in the entire post WWII period. I think they only lasted 3 years from 67-69 . The classic flat ones with the “Ford Motor Company” written in a circle around the center came the next year and are the Ford version of Chevy’s rally wheels.
Finally, that is the exact color of my 67 Galaxie and 68 Mustang, which in 1969 was in the last of the three years Ford offered it. I hated it then, but don’t mind it at all now.
According to The Encyclopedia of American Cars, the wagon had a base 250 six cylinder in 69 but the nearly identical 70 model had a 351 as the base engine. (I suspect I may be interpreting the info incorrectly.)
BTW, expanding the picture answers both of your questions: there is no engine “call out” in that front fender side marker assembly, it looks like an emblem/crown, that Ford used for several years.
AND, that appears to say Country Sedan on the rear fender as the “second” word begins with an “S”.
I could be wrong but isn’t that a 69 wagon?
It is a 1969 Ford Country Sedan and the lack of a numerical callout signifies a 302 V-8 or 250 six. 351, 390 and 429 V-8’s all got callouts.
The Encyclopedia is wrong, the full-sized six was the 240, not the 250.
The 351 was a mid-year intro on full-sizers, and some of the earliest
didn’t have the callout. I recall being at the dealer in about March ’69
where they had the most stripped 2-door LTD I had ever seen.
Base interior, no radio, clock , power brakes or anything else. My 9 year old self didn’t check for a PS pump, but I do recall opening the hood. It was a 351 but I don’t think it had a callout.
Yes, my Uncle bought a ’69 LTD with the 302 in April or May of 1969…it had a “crown” in place of the callout in the lower front fender (where the cornering lamps would eventually be put years later). My Dad followed suit probably in October of 1969 and bought a ’69 Ford Country Squire in the same color as the Ford Wagon (for several cars in a row, my Dad bought green colored cars, I guess no big surprise, we have an Irish surname)…at the same dealership, Luzerne Motors (now defunct). Dad’s ’69 had the 351 and the callout on the lower fender.
He only kept the ’69 for 4 years, replacing it with a ’73 Country Sedan…in metallic brown, with the 400. His Country Sedan was better equipped than the previous Country Squire, it had the trailer towing package, Air Conditioning, Power Locks (but manual windows) and AM/FM Stereo bought at Eustace Merchant Ford in Manassas, VA….to us it was “loaded” but of course there were options it didn’t have, for instance, it was a 6 passenger…he never did like the rear jumpseats, instead preferred to use the area for storage on trips…he called it the “Well” and part of my job was to pack it so there wasn’t any unused capacity…so my younger sisters could use the cargo area on top as a bed (or as much of it as remained unoccupied by cargo).
I was too young to drive the ’69, but the ’73 was one of the first cars I got to drive when I got my license in ’74. I even drove some pulling our camper (it was a 20′ pop-top) to spell my Dad on longer trips, otherwise I was navigator (map-boy).
my dad found and bought used a 69 ford wagon that had been special ordered as complete base model. with a 3 speed column shift and a straight 6 under the hood. no ac, crank windows. might have had an AM radio in that wierd control pod cluster – on the left side of the steering wheel. man was that thing ever slow. 30 seconds to 60 mph. first gear was a really tough start, too. lots of slipping to get the barge into motion. it was a medium blue inside and out. only thing going for it was that it was prettier than the green cohort one up top.
Those poverty caps transitioned to the pickup line at some point as my father’s ’70 F-100 had these. Perhaps there was a difference in the design in the center, but it was the same basic cap although his didn’t have the “beauty” rings.
Love seeing these old wagons. I’ve been seriously tempted of late to find a nicely preserved ’67-’72 Country Squire similar to what my mom drove back in the day while my sister and I rode – or mostly fought – in the “way back.” True time machines for those of us over 50.
Could 9 of us go for coffee in that? That would be fun,
Paul! Jason’s on my part of the seat!
With 9 of you in there and a 302, you’d better not be in a hurry to get there.
We had a ’69 Galaxie 500 hardtop with that engine and it marginally underpowered. Even my mom complained about it. The heavier wagon would have been iffy empty, never mind with a load.
That green Ford Country Sedan/Ranch Wagon have the same color then Jack Arnold’s Ford Custom 500 4-door sedan in the Wonder Years. https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_65205-Ford-Custom-500-1969.html
Such a period colour. To me, nothing says ‘late sixties’ so much as a metallic light green.
That was Ford’s ubiquitous Lime Green Poly on that wagon. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear that color was on every 1 out of four Fords between 1968-70. Drove me crazy back then and wondered why none of the other 14 colors weren’t chosen. When I see one, today, I go “now there’s a color you don’t see anymore!”
Of course, I should talk since I have two cars that are Sea Foam Green from 67 and 68. The Cougar, as you all know, was my father’s car sold to me so the color choice wasn’t mine to make. The 67 Park Lane 4 door hardtop, a rare car to see nowadays, just happened to be Sea Foam when I bought the car mainly to save it. The car was the draw.
The stock restoration 65 F-100 is Holly Green/Wimbledon White a rare combo. The all stock 68 Mustang is Pebble Beige another rare color. The 73 Polara Custom Spring Special 4 door hardtop could either be black, white or red with black vinyl roof. Mine is white which is pretty much the Wimbledon White paint code. The 91 Mazda 626 5 door in dark blue isn’t 30 years old just yet so it is just a car.
Should note that the Cars and Coffee held at the Blackhawk Car Museum stopped in 2018 due to traffic congestion and noise complaints so it is said. I never went since many of the cars were modded while others were relatively new given the wealth profile of Danville and Blackhawk and neither interest me as a basic stock car.
“If I didn’t know any better I’d swear that color was on every 1 out of four Fords between 1968-70.”
Paintref.com squares with my memory that it was actually 1967-69. Ford code M2041 was called Lime Gold on Fords and either Lime Frost or Medium Lime on Mercury. Something I did not know is that it was a 1969-only color on Lincolns. They changed to Code M3075 Medium Lime for 1970, which was a little darker. But you are completely right that this color was every-damn-where when these cars were common. Which was how I ended up with 2 of them from 1977-79 even though I detested the color then and would have picked almost any other color Ford offered on my 67 Galaxie and 68 Mustang.
Someday I will stumble across a “survivor” that calls my name. It doesn’t have to be any particular brand or model. It will be a plain, ordinary mode of transportation that was seen on a semi-regular basis, but not necessarily a common ride. Maybe even considered homely in its’ day. Equipped with a base engine and manual transmission, if I’m lucky. Probably not a Ford or GM product.
In the mean time, I enjoy following these stories, and being among the “subsection of fans” that appreciate features such as plain wheel covers, strange grilles, and an odd number of doors.
Thanks for letting me tag along.
I admit I don’t know how to post pics on here, so can anyone post the Matchbox Mercury Commuter wagon? It looks almost identical to the featured Ford. (I have one as I am a big kid and love my toy cars!) Thanks in advance.
Here you go, I thought of this toy as soon as I saw this post .
Superfast version
The Merc is a ’68, however. Both Ford and Mercury underwent a subtle restyling in ’69, with more rounded greenhouses.
I remember my dad having a baby-blue ’69 Country Squire company car with the 390 engine. He didn’t like it much, and turned it in when he changed jobs. One reason why might have been the time it slipped on ice and hit a tree. I wasn’t in the car, but my mom got a big cut in her knee and my brother a nasty bump on the head.
When the time came to buy his own wagon the following year, my dad got a Buick Estate Wagon with a 455. That car stayed in the family for 18 years.
What a nice Ford!
My Dad was never a wagon guy, so wagon experiences growing up were riding in all the neighbors’, such as a pale blue, 390-equipped, version of this one.
Like several of you, I remember way too many Fords in this, or a similar color back then, but have come to like it now. These days, only Kia Souls seem to come in anything close.
I, likewise, gravitate toward cars such as these when dropping by a local C&C. The handful of late-model Lambos and McLarens don’t get my blood pumping much, nor do over-restored, clone GTO’s, etc.
That Kia Soul shade is a little “hotter” than this late 60s green. The closest I have seen in modern times was when Chrysler tried bringing it back on Dodge trucks in 1996. They called it Light Kiwi. I noticed it immediately due to my youthful overexposure and wondered it it was coming back. Nope, it did not live to see 1997 in the Dodge color charts.
You don’t have to be a car nerd to appreciate the base model survivors. About a decade ago, my wife-to-be and I went to state park and came across a car show. My wife understands my interest in cars, but is largely indifferent to them. The show had the usual collection of muscle and pony cars, which didn’t interest me much, either.
However, there was also a mostly-original 1966 4-door Chevy Bel-Air in light green (natch), 3-on-the-tree, AM radio, dog dishes. I though it was kind of cool and pointed it out as an example of GM’s golden era of design, when even the bottom-of-the-line cars looked pretty good. My wife had a very different and much more enthusiastic take. She spent quite a bit of time looking it over closely and then explained that it brought back many good memories because her favorite baby sitter drove a car just like it.
I related to the Bel-Air as reflecting a fondly-remembered era in industrial design and manufacturing. She related to it in a much stronger, more personal way. It wasn’t just a 60’s GM car, it was her baby sitter’s car.
As has been pointed out many times here and elsewhere, the cars we grew up with are not proportionally represented at current car shows. That’s too bad, because I think more folks outside of our community would enjoy the shows if they had more vehicles they could personally identify with.
My ’69 Ford wagon was a Falcon Futura in Brittany blue metallic. I was the second owner; got it from the estate of the original woman owner. I bought the car in 1999 in Cody, Wyoming and sold it in 2010 to Ozark, Missouri.
302, auto, vinyl interior (excellent), auto but manual brakes. Those same poverty caps. I liked it very much and it did win “people’s choice” at one show but generally at C ‘n C it was ignored.