Meijer is a chain of big-box stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin. It’s like Walmart, only slightly nicer in every regard. Also like Walmart, pretty much everyone shops here, at least once in a while — and they roll up in whatever it is they happen to be driving that day. You find all sorts of old cars getting groceries here, like this 1991 Volvo 240 wagon.
My all-time favorite Meijer find is this 1979 Continental Mark V Cartier Edition. It looks well cared for.
I towered over this car. When this car was new, I wouldn’t have noticed that, because most cars were low like this. But not many gave this feeling of extreme length.
Another major winner is this 1985-87 Ford LTD Crown Victoria two-door. It’s a little dirty, but it’s all there, down to the wire wheel covers.
I’ve come upon many OG Panthers in my time writing for CC, but never a two-door. Someone must love this one for it to look this fresh.
I see plenty of old BMWs at the Meijer near where I live now, mostly 1990s-era 3-series sedans. Yawn. But this 1985-92 325i convertible made me haul my phone out of my pocket for a snap.
I loved the look of the 1986-1992 Lincoln Mark VII when it was new, but to me its chonkiness has not aged well. The Mark V above says “sporty elegance” while this Mark VII says “Weight Watchers.”
Old Ford trucks are a common sight here in Indiana. I see far more old Fords than old Chevys. This 1987-91 F150 is typical of what I see — in reasonable condition, not pampered, still doing what it was bought to do originally.
This 1990-92 Cadillac Brougham is in the parking lot nearly every time I go to my nearby Meijer, so it must be owned by an employee. It’s usually in a handicapped space up front.
I was astonished to come upon this clean 1992 Mercury Tracer wagon. I know it’s a ’92 because that was the first year for the lightbar grille and the last year for motorized seat belts.
Even though the Mark V up above is my favorite of all of these cars, this Mercury is the one I’d want to own. These were terrific cars for their time, sturdy and strong. I think the reason few of them survive is because they rusted.
Here’s another Ford F150, from 1992-97, just doing its trucky thing. I’d love to own a basic truck like this.
Where have all the Ford Contours gone? I was happy to come upon this 1995-97 example.
This 1996-98 Ford Mustang reminded me of the similar-vintage non-ragtop 5.0 Mustang my oldest had as her first car. She was a careful driver who generally stayed within 5 MPH of the speed limit — but she got more tickets in that car than in all of the cars she’s owned since, combined. Many of them were for minor things like 7 MPH over and not coming to an utterly complete stop.
Coupes were out even when Saturn made this one (1997-2000), but at least it has an attractive roofline.
This green 1998-2005 Chevy Blazer wraps up this collection. These are still common as pennies around here, but as we know, when a common car gets to a certain age they start disappearing. Best to document these now while we still have them.
Nice collection, Jim, and great find on the 2-door Panther. Not many of those around when they were new, and certainly not now. When I was 10, I went to Guadalajara, Mexico with my mom for a month while she studied Spanish (you don’t say…), and we stayed with a host family that had a 2-door Ford “Grand Marquis”.
I’m with you on the Tracer being the car to have, although that one is most likely saddled with a slushbox. It’s pity that you can’t get compact wagons in the US like that anymore, but…buyers have spoken and crossovers are what they want.
I had a few of these, a ’79 2 dr LTD, a ’90 F-150, a 2003 Blazer, and my wife had a ’95 V6 Contour. The F-150 was a great truck, until a tree branch(oak) crushed the cab. The V6 Contour had some weird issues, that Ford fixed, but you could hit 130 mph, without a problem. The LTD had that whacked out VV carb, but ran OK. The Blazer was great, too, except that it liked to eat wheel bearings.
Wow, you certainly live in Ford Country. As others, I salute the 2 door Vic. And you have now made me see something in the Mark VII that I cannot unsee.
I am amazed by how many of those 87-91 F series trucks I see that are still in gorgeous condition. It seems like about 20% of the ones I find. And I still cannot make myself stop to photograph one because they are nearly new.
Your Meijer is clearly in a nicer demographic area than my Meijer (which is still above average). I have found some of my scuzziest finds there.
Nice collection.
Mark V, not Mark IV.
Fixed – thanks!
This morning at the grocery store I saw a beautifully restored ’55 Chevy two-door wagon, solid turquoise, 210 trim. Sounded like six and Powerglide. Then I saw a rodded ’49 or so Chevy pickup. First sightings in many months, and two at once definitely improved my day!
I can’t share that sentiment with the Mark VII, to me the VIII is more applicable in its bloat, where the VII to me still looks fairly timeless. I do like the Mark V though, that design fixed virtually ill of the Mark IV and is one of the best looking luxury coupes ever IMO
That generation F series (I count 1980 to 1996 as the same generation, fight me) really might be the best truck ever at doing the intended task of being a truck. I always preferred the styling of Chevys in this period but your observation that these seem to outnumber them to date mirrors mine, they don’t seem to rust nearly as badly either.
I haven’t seen a Tracer in ages, and in fact I remember them always seeming kinda uncommon. I do remember the one my family rented one when we went to Disneyworld, it was a teal sedan(so 90s!). I saw the discussion in the comments the last few days with Daniel talking about the delegation where the Ford guy blocked any effort to mandate amber rear turn signals which is interesting on many levels, not the least of which where Ford ironically used them on much of their Ford branded lineup in the 80s and 90s(albiet sporadically), it was really Mercury that seemed to be devoid of amber rear turn signals save for the imported Capris, Villager and Merkur brand if that counts, perhaps the pushback was not only motivated by protectionism but also the ability to cheaply differentiate badge engineered cars like this Tracer.
Your knowledge of early 90’s Mercury Tracers is both impressive and frightening.
I can tell an ’88 Tracer from a ’89 (and from an ’89-1/2, the ones with the red stripe), which is even more frightening. But I owned an ’89 so I have an excuse…
My Google-Fu is strong.
Nice collection. I can’t decide between the Mark IV and the 2 dr crown vic, I didn’t know before that they existed.
The Blazer is a fine car too. But I was wondering about the “bubble” on the floor on the non drivers side. GM found no other way to place the catalytic converter I was told. Well, at least at german market cars. But I guess the domestic ones have it this way, too.
Great finds!
Your comments about the Mark VII really got me thinking about them, and to a certain extent I agree with you. Even though these were cars I really admired at the time, when I’ve come across them recently, I’m left feeling a bit bland. That’s odd, because I still think that the similar-era Thunderbirds are still outstanding looking. So maybe the Mark VII hasn’t aged well… maybe it’s just a bit bloated, or possibly its something else I’m not thinking of.
Regarding the Contour, it seemed that a few years ago there were places (like Central Virginia) that were still heavily populated with Contours, but now they’ve seemed to have disappeared from there too. As a former Contour owner, that saddens me, but then again, as a former Contour owner, I understand why they’re rare now.
And of all of these finds, if I had to pick one to stop and document, I think it would be the Tracer. A rare survivor, and when new it seemed to be an odd addition to the Mercury line. I can just picture the early-90s Mercury dealers groaning when they got a new Tracer in their inventory, and immediately relegating it to the back of the lot.
I’ll be another vote for the Tracer, but only for nostalgia’s sake. I owned a ’93 Escort wagon in silver for almost three years. In retrospect, it was a pretty bad example of a not-that-great car, but it was my daily driver when I was in my mid-20s, and I think a lot of people look back fondly at that time of their lives, even if there was the stress of low-paying jobs and trying to figure out where you’ll live.
It was a really practical car. I just kept the rear seats folded down and stored all kinds of stuff back there. The flat rear bumper held a cheap bike rack easily. It was perfect for going camping and carrying car parts.
I think they were Mazda 3’s deep down. The one such Escort I knew back then had very Mazda-like terrible (for pretty much very normal sized guy me anyway) front seats. The wagon body however was a very nice more linear scaled down Taurus. Cars today could use more Bauhaus-like styling, although I think that arbitrarily carved origami style has run its course. Toyota may disagree.
A ’93 Tracer sedan was my first new car (I was in college at the time). Great car…mostly Mazda engineering but at Ford prices and you’re right, they all rusted out. I’d swear on a stack of bibles that it had motorized seatbelts though so ’92 wasn’t the last year for them. All these years later I’d kill for a Tracer wagon with a 5-speed…nobody makes modestly sized wagons anymore. 🙁
I ended up giving the Tracer to my mom in ’96 or so when her car died and I ended up buying…a ’95 Ford Contour V6. That car I don’t miss…cramped interior, cramped engine compartment, hard to work on. That was the car that turned me off on Fords.
I did some Internet sleuthing to date that Tracer, and it’s not impossible that my sources were wrong about the mouse belts.
Thanks for t collection. I always liked those two-door full size Fords. A rare vehicle even in its time. It has a refined elegance to it.
What a nice bunch of oldies ! .
I don’t understand how they’re not all bubbly with rocker panel and door rust .
I never liked the early boxy Panthers but that one has good presence ~ it’s be easy to polish and wax up for a sharp weekend hobby cruiser .
-Nate
I don’t think the white paint does the Mark VII any favors. Have always liked them better in dark colors.
My favorite Meijer find is either the Model T roadster or the early ’50s Bentley.
My Meijer experience up til recently was back in the college days, mid 90s, off-campus in Champaign, IL (UIUC.) Our roommate with a car (and it was a very CC-appropriate bustleback Seville, silver with red leather interior. No, you can’t make this stuff up.) would drive us all, half-in-the-bag at 1 am to the Neil Street location, where we’d look at the hamsters and buy weird inappropriate shit that we’d regret, or forget, the next day.
I once bought one of those kid’s bike license plates with a bunch of stick on letters. The next day I proudly had an Illinois “PIGFUCKER” plate on the back of my crappy Champaign City Auction $5 bicycle. I would never leave the bike locked, as a bike lock cost more than the bike, and I didn’t have the $30 anyway. Someone stole the license plate off the bike one night, but left the unlocked bike in front of my apartment.
I was just reintroduced to Meijer 25 years later when we were at the Gingerman raceway a few weeks ago, and it was the closest big box store. It’s much nicer than I remember, and has some great food and beer selections. They didn’t have hamsters anymore though.
But did you take the opportunity to replace the license plate when you were there a few weeks ago? I can see the Buick Encore now…
I really should have gone through the kids section again. Missed opportunity…
Put me down as someone who doesn’t particularly like Meijer. For starters, the prices aren’t that great, and when they do have something on sale where you have to buy mulitples to get the sale price, they actually mean it. Other places you can buy less than the stated amount of product and still get the sale price. And on top of that, the multiples can be in strange amounts, like ‘buy 2, get 3 at half price’ or some such crap.
But the most interesting thing about Meijer is the ‘international’ feel of the place. Years ago, there used to be a store with a somewhat similar layout called ‘Biggs’ and it was ‘exactly’ like a store I visited while on R&R in Qatar. What was fascinating was that, even though the store had a large footprint, there wasn’t anything in the place worth buying! Just a random bunch of foreign goods that someone had shipped in and put on the store shelves. Meijer isn’t quite that bad, but it’s close.
I was so disappointed when I moved to Pittsburgh from Toledo in 2001 and found out that there was only Walmart and no Meijer’s.
Never been to a Meijer, but likewise, though I live in a different city (1-2 Million population) though it wasn’t nearly as populous as when I moved here almost 40 years ago (maybe 200k people then), the selection of stores is actually probably worse than when I moved here back then.
Yes, there are more total stores, but most are duplicates of the “big box” stores which have driven out many of the locals (especially hardware stores, but also dept stores). Many carry inventory that they can easily turn over, but sometimes I want something that other people don’t, and usually can’t find it (would be willing to pay more for slow turn stuff but they don’t stock it, due to needing to handle the volumes of stuff that does sell). I have to travel 30-40 miles to find an independent hardware store, they’re all gone. We lost KMart almost 20 years ago though we have several Walmarts (most super Walmarts that carry groceries, one of only 4 grocery chains left….we had 6 or 7 when I moved here). Of course the closure of Montgomery Wards (many years ago) and Sears (in the last few years…we have appliance one but no department store) has made things worse; guess I did much of my shopping there back then.
Likewise, the auto dealers don’t carry inventory for even stuff like brake pads…granted I do have a 21 year old car, but even 10-15 years ago they only had parts for cars serviced in their shop….I can go there to order parts, but then have to make a return trip to pick them up. It has gotten so that I self-stock some parts I know I’ll eventually use (like brake pads) but still stuff like hoses that can go bad unnoticed and are expensive aren’t in stock. So I order most stuff mail order.
Yes, I’m probably a complaining old codger, but I’ve gotten to ignore the “buy local” chants, since the stores seldom back me up, so I don’t feel I owe them loyalty (which is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy, that’s why I can’t find any local stock of what I want). To me I can most aid the environment by NOT buying a new vehicle, instead keeping my existing car on the road (takes lots of resources to make a new car) but I need parts stock to do that. I guess I’ll just order everything online that I can….maybe people are already doing so. They still charge local sales tax on online purchases, so the city probably doesn’t care where I buy stuff (only if enough people do this local businesses probably will shut their door. More stores often doesn’t equate to more selection, just more of the same for larger numbers of people moving in.
Can’t comment on Pittsburgh, lived their briefly (’60-’63) it has been a decade since I’ve last been through there, but sounds like it is like where I live.
Like the 2 door Panther, probably as scarce would be the two door GM A body, but 2 door cars. Seems like non-crew non-extended cab pickups are likewise becoming rare, though were originally the most common (or only) cab available.
I was at Meijer’s yesterday, and parked next to me was one of the “melty” F150’s, in silver and black two tone “Heritage Edition”, in near mint condition. I saw zero rust on it, and the interior looked great too. From what I saw when I looked for the pic, it’s a 2003 or 2004. It had just been washed and waxed, judging from the smell of it. By far the nicest one I’ve seen in many years.