I have to admit that when doing For Sale searches for CC posts, my brain goes back and forth with the results I come across. Should I pick a pristine and rare example of some rare model? Or should I pick the type of daily-use car we used to find years ago on our curbside hunts?
I’m sure you can all guess what my brain chose with this one. (And what would your preference be, CC reader?)
Not that an early ’70s Montego was an easy find during my online browsing. Much less by the curbside, either ten years ago or since… the late ’70s, I think?
As much commentary at CC has told, these Dearborn products from the seventies just rusted away like the proverbial bucket. And to prove the point, the ’72 Montego has only made one appearance at CC in all of its history.
I can hear some youngsters saying: What’s a Montego? Well, it was Mercury’s intermediate offering at the time; and was related to the Ford Torino. The model carried proudly the Broughamy Neoclassical cues Ford grew awfully fond of at the time.
In any case, back in ’72, the Montego line sold about 135K units among its various body styles. As for the MX 4-door, all of 23K found a home. Rather decent numbers, though one would never guess that by looking at the few remaining survivors. Or non-survivors, as the case seems to be.
Back to our CC for sale. As can be seen, what we have here is quite the time capsule to the early ’70s. And other than the modern rearview mirror, it looks to be mostly all there. Yeap, I could easily see this one playing a supporting role in any ol’ McCloud or The Streets Of San Francisco episode.
How about the interior, you ask? Not too shabby, and indeed, appropriately shaggily accessorized.
If this baby was mine, I would add an 8-track deck and leave in constant loop the Roberta Flack ‘Quiet Fire’ cartridge my dad owned back in the day.
The engine is a Ford 302 V-8, shifted by a standard 3-speed auto.
If you must know, the car is for sale near Austin (HERE). And for 4K (OBO), this time capsule is yours. According to the ad, it’s got 94K miles, new disc brakes up front, new tires, and a rebuilt 2-barrel carburetor. That is on top of the work done by the previous owner. That included new upholstery in the front bench seat, and a new radiator, gas tank, and starter.
Of course, there’s more than one version of the ’70s that lives in our memories. Looking at car shows, the most remembered one seems to revolve around souped-up Detroit cars of the period; the Chevelles, Challengers, Firebirds, and so on. So, who feels like stepping into a different, and now more unique, take on the period?
Related CC reading:
Cohort Capsule: 1972 Mercury Montego GT – Look What The Cat Dragged In
Oh that green! Exactly like the 1972 Ford product I had for high school driver training, except ours was an LTD, even bigger. Same green interior. Five students plus teacher crammed inside it.
Well, for $4k that looks like good value for a fun old car. Good for tooling around town, picking up motorcycle parts and going for ice cream.
Amazing how many survivors wear that metallic green paint, I suppose it was effective in driving away car-abusing teenagers who would, given the choice pick a black Montego 2-door for thrashing to death.
I cannot abide that steering wheel cover though, that must go!
The green shag steering wheel cover is as much a relic as the car itself. I think I’d keep it, but thoroughly disinfect it first.
Back in the 70s we used to call these shaggy steering wheel covers ‘Muppets’ Kermit gave his life for that one. As British cars seldom had power steering back then you couldn’t actually drive with one of these, it would slip when you tried to steer.
I’m trying to recall the steering wheel on these; my Uncle had a ’74, four door just like this one (don’t know if it had vinyl roof)…but if it is the hard resin I’m thinking of, the steering wheel gets darn hot when the car is parked in the sun especially in the summer (you can burn your hand on it, and what do you do to cool it down? A/C might help a little, but do you want to wait (or drive with oven mitts?) till it cools down? I’m not a fan of these covers per se, but my car has a soft touch steering wheel that doesn’t get hot, plus I have cloth seats and a light colored roof to try to keep things cool, but if I had this steering wheel I might say damn with the fashion, or at least get one of those lace up steering wheel covers which might keep you from the hot surface a bit.
I live just down the road from this, in North Austin. Interestingly old cars aren’t exactly common (in my experience) here, so this is a welcome sight. How did you find this (assuming you’re not in central Texas) late model cars outnumber old ones vastly (unless you’re talking old pickup trucks which still are fewer than new ones here but way more common than older cars).
In the late 70’s I worked for Hertz as a transporter (not in Texas, lived in Vermont back then) and drove many LTD II and Thunderbird rentals “the other way”, these don’t seem that different (other than the non cowcatcher bumpers on the later cars). Back then at least our location had mostly Fords as rentals, maybe that’s changed, but we were just starting to get a few imports (only Toyota and Datsun) but most of the fleet was domestic.
I’m not sure how my Uncle ended up with a Montego, he started out buying wagons in the 60’s, then the Montego, folowed by a Dodge Aspen wagon (’76, he got reimbursed for the rusty fenders) got the Cadillac bug in the late 70’s which lasted probably to the early 2000’s when he switched to Lincoln, but his final car was a Lexus. We didn’t live near them, though when I got out of college I relocated so I was about 20 min drive from their home (for about 3 years) which is when I spent most time with them (but that was 42 years ago). His older brother (my Dad) never got the luxury car bug, his nicest car was probably the 1978 Caprice Classic he bought out of the showroom (it had the most options of any car he was ever to own, though by today’s standards it would be “normal”, other than the larger size of the Caprice). He mostly owned Fords as our “family” car but bought 3 Mercury Sables in a row starting in the late 80’s. His other car was almost always an import (starting with his ’59 Beetle) up through 1980 when he went domestic (and he never went back to imports after 20 years of buying them).
Hmm, a bit smaller than a Crown Vic, with pretty standard running gear, maybe it would be good retirement car…..though I’d rather it be a wagon (hatchback fan here) and not have a vinyl top (but hard to find a non-wagon without one from this timeframe) or vinyl seats, which also get very hot when the car is sitting outside with no shade). Now that I’ve gotten to “the age” there’s no more comfortable riding easy to get into and out of cars (don’t want a truck nor SUV, they don’t ride like a car). When I was younger, I didn’t appreciate that once I got older, I would appreciate attributes like that.
Hmm, pristine or beat up? Neither, as one never is out on the road and the other isn’t maintained. This Montego is clearly maintained both mechanically and physically. Vacuum them, wash them, no clear coat, and one can look decent a very long time. The wagon I bought fits that exactly.
Color looks to be medium green poly and looks close to lime frost poly in which a ton of 68 Mustangs came in. When the shine fades that is what they pretty much look like until color corrected. Now that exhaust tip isn’t stock though. For me that would have to go immediately.
A stock power steering cooler. Must really get hot in Texas.
“Now that exhaust tip isn’t stock though. For me that would have to go immediately.”
You’re quite right ! it needs _twice_ pipes and chrome tips =8-) .
Not noisy, just the sweet V8 burble .
-Nate
You’re quite right ! it needs _twice_ pipes and chrome tips =8-) .
Chrome tips!? On this car? Now what planet are you from, Nate?
Pretty neat and definitely a ‘rare’ now if not particularly valuable vehicle .
I hope someone buys this and re sprays it, the chrome looks pretty good and that YORK AC compressor is easy to service .
Most of these I see are Granpa’s cars in Pick-Your-Parts yards missing the cylinder heads for other projects .
I really like Hard Tops be they two or four doors .
FWIW, I remember working on Ford 302 powered vehicles and the simple fix to their constantly running hot was two fold : remove all the bends & kinks Ford put in the exhaust system to make them quieter and install the radiator from a 351 powered cousin ~ it’s a direct bolt in and a freer flowing exhaust needn’t be noisy if you do it right (add a crossover as close to the engine as possible & fit longer free flow mufflers) it’ll either be almost as quiet or have a slight rumble when your jumping on it .
These cars were very nice drivers in spite of the “5.SLOW” engine .
I be there’s a factory PHILCO AM/FM radio out there with matching knobs, a simple thing to add a remote sound system or glovebox …..
For a brief while I had a nice dent free low mileage 1978 F-150 (tax buster) fleet spec. shop truck, I uncorked the exhaust and fitted the bigger radiator, it was just as quiet as when fully stock, I also tuned it properly as the factory spec. for the ignition timing was about 4 degrees retarded from where it needed to be to run properly .
Disabling/Blocking the E.G.R. valve is a personal choice, I didn’t find it necessary .
-Nate
I remember working on these when they were new. 5.slow?
I’ll admit the 1972s were down on power compared to the earlier models. A lot of people dissed them for that very reason. But the changes yet to come would make the 1972 models look like race cars.
Beginning with the 1973 models, new smog rules REALLY started choking off both performance and fuel economy. If you had a 1972 model and didn’t trade it for the next decade or so, you were lucky.
Ah. That “requisite, 70’s”, green. Every “US” carmaker had a version. Not sure what condition the steering wheel is in; hideous cover has to go though.
Very decent looking car in retrospect. Just the right amount of patina, I wouldn’t touch a thing… respray? why? Perfect for a CC review, leave the pristine prima donnas to the show folks.
Not terribly desirable for me, but seemingly good value for a 52 year old car in decent shape. Some more photos would have been helpful for the sale.
To me, 94,000 miles would have accumulated, or should have, in about the first 8-9 years of normal expected use. This may have been a ‘second’ car, only driven a few thousand miles a year over a more extended period of time. Someone kept this car in OK shape, possibly stored indoors to keep the paint in half decent shape. Maybe a carport, causing the exposed side on the right to suffer a bit more weather wear and tear.
I’d still take a car like this to a show and shine, but the brakes had better be in good condition to drive it.
Also a good rear-view mirror. It seems to have fallen off in one pic.
Having driven one of these once, the nostalgia factor would be outweighed by the grisly reality in about ten minutes. Hard pass.
Bingo!
I remember these too well.
No way.
Absolutely no fun to drive.
While I’m glad someone kept this car in decent condition all these years, other than a whiff of nostalgia, all I see here is Mom’s much reviled 1976 Torino wagon, a fat wallowing pig of a car.
I will say the small bumpers on the 1972 Montegos look much better than the park bench bumpers that came with the 1973-76 models, just like the 1972 Torino is much more attractive than what came the next four years. Ford must have known about the upcoming bumper regs when these were introduced; that they didn’t plan for a more appealing solution leaves me shaking my head.
As you’ll remember Rich in one of my first COAL installments my first car was a 73 Montego Villager MX which I’ve learned means that it was equipped like Montego Brougham.
What a shameful car. Wasted space everywhere and the 351 was rated at under 200 horsepower.
But it not only served me, and a family before me, but it ended up on a construction sight as a daily driver!
Great find.
Also, the late Road Test magazine had chosen the 1972 Mercury Montego as their Car of the year while Motor Trend had chosen the Citroen SM as MT Car of the year.
http://99wspeedshop.com.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/roadtest.html
I was in grade school, as the crisper-styled new 1977 LTD II, never fooled me for a moment. Along with the Versailles, and Ford’s ongoing severe rust problems, I didn’t have a great deal of respect for Ford at the time.
And the LTD II wagon never got the crisper-styled of the sedans and coupes. I guess Ford got a hint of what GM come for their full-size ’77 as well as their own backyard with the Fox-body Fairmont/Zephyr and smaller full-size LTD.
Back to the Montego, is it my imagination or the rear end tried to emulate a bit the rear end of the 1971-72 Plymouth Satellite?
In 1976, my Father-in-Law traded in his 1966 Mercury 2 Dr HT with a 390 for a factory order Montego MX with a 400 – 2bbl, expecting better mileage and similar power to the 390. He didn’t say much, but I knew he was disappointed as the Montego couldn’t produce either mileage or performance.
It’d probably take a 460 in ’76 to match that 390. You’re talking about a big drop in compression, abysmal cam and ignition timing, tiny carburetors – on and on. With closed chamber heads (aftermarket or – hard to find – Australian 2V heads) and a decent cam and intake, a 400M is a great motor – more than a match for a 390. But as a factory motor, going from ’66 to ’76, it was one step forward, several steps back. So many people bought a car equivalent to the one being replaced in the 70s, only to find they had something slower, less reliable, and that burned more gas.
This car brings back memories of a very sweet lady who drove one in just this color. RIP Miss LeBrun.
The opposite of that 70 Torino I wrote up the other day in almost every way. While I liked the 72 Gran Torino when it first came out, these never did the first thing for me.
But I am glad this one is here. I hope someone adopts it and takes good care of it.
Not a bad-looking car, in spite of that ludicrously-long front overhang. Right colour too.