The Ford Fox platform provided the basis for a number of FordMoCo products in the late-’70s and ’80s. From the basic Ford Fairmont like this one posted on the Cohort by williamrubano, to the sporty Mustang, and even the ritzy Lincoln Mark VII. But the wagon variants of the Fox are among the most curious. Why you ask? Because the same body shell lasted through a succession of three different Ford models, with only minimal exterior changes to the front of the vehicle. Talk about stretching your dollar.
The Ford Fairmont (and Mercury Zephyr) was introduced in 1978. Updated coupe and sedan models were introduced in 1981 and 1983, wearing altered sheet metal, different rooflines, and names new to the Fox (the 1981 Ford Granada and Mercury Cougar, and the 1983 Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis).
Yet, the wagons remained largely unchanged. The received the new front-end styling, interior updates, and new names, but were essentially rebadged versions of the same Fairmont wagon. Now the Big Three had been doing things like this to “maximize value” of their station wagons for decades. GM and Chrysler often used one single body shell for their full-size wagons across all divisions. Similarly, the only sheet metal differences were often the hood and fenders. Ford did this too, more recently with the Taurus and Escort wagons. When their sedan counterparts were redesigned, the wagons received only minimal forward sheet metal changes. But never throughout this practice has the same basic body shell changed names so frequently in so little time. So if you bought a new Fox-based wagon every two years in 1980, 1982, and 1984, you would’ve had the exact same car with three different names.
More woodies please (wall paper & real).
the Fairmont is OK but, uh….theres a 1969 Charger in front of it!
I believe that is actually a ’70 Charger. Note the larger side marker lamp. The ’69’s had a smaller reflector.
It’s got the separate taillights though, 70s were full width
I like the featured car: the original & best (styled IMO). It has simple clean square lines… and the Fairmont Script on the ‘gate is one of my favorite emblems for some odd reason. Most of the “F”s have broken off since they were just plastic & mounted with adhesive foam tape.
Can’t do a Cougar Villager though. Just because.
My favorite were the Granada wagons. I like the formal upright styling. The LTD’s “aero” front end just didn’t work on this car. Here’s a nice Granada on wikipedia.
Hunh. And I like the slanted LTD nose best.
‘Most of the “F”s have broken off…’
No no, JB, those were leftover nameplates from the unfortunately stillborn “airmont” convertibles.
You know…it took me a bit…..but I get it… “Airmont” Convertible. That is a true work of genious sir! 😛
The Fox & contemporary Escort wagons all look good.
Notice the missing backup-light lens. This was common; either Ford designers forgot that hatches get slammed a lot, or maybe the lens got brittle with age, which is why I dislike exterior plastics.
The Granada/Cougar actually launched in the 1981 model year. There was still a 1980 Granada/Zephyr.
Thanks, I fixed that.
The beige Marquis woody in the bottom right of the last picture is just like the 86 model I owned, except that mine had the fancier wire wheelcovers. I bought the car because it was cheap, but I actually liked the way it drove better than the Crown Victoria that I replaced it with.
The only really bad thing was these cars had a teeny-tiny gas tank, something like 12 or 13 gallons. That was not a lot of gasoline with a 3.8 V6 and no overdrive. Even on the highway, about 225 miles was its range.
I drove an LTD version of this wagon sometimes when I worked for a courier service. It handled way better than a Zephyr two-door than a buddy of mine had in college. Maybe the Zephyr was worn out, or maybe they did suspension improvements to the LTD, but the fact was the Zephyr was awful to drive and the LTD was competent for the time.
A check of some specs shows that the thing gained some 200 pounds in going from a Fairmont Futura wagon to a base LTD wagon. I suspect that most of it was sound deadening materials. I also remember an early 80s Zephyr sedan I drove as being much thinner and less substantial than my 86 Marquis wagon.
That’s how I like my Curbside Classics, faded, sans wheelcovers and with one eye missing. Great find.
Agreed. Give us your tired, your poor..
The old wagon body phenomena isn’t unique to the Foxes among Fords. The 77-79 LTD II and Cougar Villager wagons shared the same swoopy coke bottle body their 72-76 Torino/Montego predecessors had as well, despite the crisp folded paper styling the Coupes and sedans adopted. The 70/71s shared the basic 66-96 wagon body as well(although they did change the door sheet metal a bit).
I can’t believe there’s no mention of the 69 Charger in the background yet. Gotta love CC lol
I actually didn’t even see the Charger. It kinda blends in with the van.
I do like how the cars in that picture are organized. Beat up pre-’90s cars on one side, ’90s compacts on the other, and newer Acura and Lexus in the driveway.
The LTD II wagon and that Cougar were 1977 only – the Fox wagons replaced them as the midsize wagon offering (they had been barely smaller than the pre-79 full size wagon), although the Ranchero lasted until ’79 (and even though they had gotten away with using the ’72-76 Montego wagon rear fenders on the ’77 wagons, they seem to have tooled up new ones for the Ranchero to get rid of the prominent crease they had).
Yes, that means that there was a Mercury Cougar wagon for two non-consecutive years – the Torino-based one in 1977 and the Fox-body in 1981.
My aunt had a Fairmont wagon like this one, ’78 I believe, that succeeded her garish yellow (!) ’75 Grand Marquis coupe. She had two adolescent kids at home and the GM wasn’t very practical for toting my cousins around suburbia. Not to mention, its gas-guzzling ways were becoming a liability. So goodbye Mercury, hello Fairmont. Not sure what kind of experience she had, but it was the last Ford product she’s owned to date, as far as I know.
“Ford did this too, more recently with the Taurus and Escort wagons.”
That would be the Taurus & Sable wagons. When the body style changed for the 2000 model year, the front clips were different but the quarter panels and tailgate remained the same as that used on the immediately prior model years.
No, I meant what I wrote.
Ford did this with the Taurus/Sable and the Escort/Tracer wagons (I just only referred to the more common Ford versions to make it easier).
The 1992 Taurus/Sable wagons received new front clips, hoods, and fenders, but were essentially the same as the 1986s. This was done again for 2000 in relation to the 1996s (as you mentioned).
This was also done with the 1997 Escort and Tracer wagons. They shared most of their sheet metal with the 1991 models.
. . . or the Escort and Tracer wagons.
Think this was a Ioaccoca car? It seems very paralell to how he designed the K car.
I liked the Granadas, and LTDs they were a square deal.
I’ve hated these things, I had the very basic, read, GSA fleet sedan that it began life as (bought used from one such auction around 1982 by my Dad and became mine in ’87), a very basic 4 door sedan with the 200CID inline 6.
If it had the 4, it’d have handled corners MUCH better, but it had the 6 and it loved to plow at the slightest provocation, and was a slow as molasses.
I could not get it to move any faster than cold molasses, and it would NOT do a burnout if you tried. it was that bad, and ONLY got 13 city, maybe 18Hwy, well, according to Consumer reports, and I remember laughing when I read that as they said it was a fairly economical car! Baloney.
When I replaced it with the 1983 Honda Civic hatchback, it was good riddance and the Civic could run circles around it with all its 67HP too.
Funny thing is, these things are still around, ’83 Civics not so much. Which is a better car, tell me again??
What kind of queastion is that? I still stand my ground, the Fairmont is a POS, at least in their early years. I don’t see too many of them around anymore and I still see plenty of Civics, though the older carbed models, not so much. The biggest thing that took these older carbed Civics off the road were the miles and miles of tubing that went to the carb, that in hindsight were easier to replace than realized if one just slowed down and looked at a diagram, and the markings ON the hoses themselves, if that had happened, we’d see more of them still running 30 or so years later.
Still in all, the Civic was a MUCH more fun car than the Fairmont, hands down and if you’ve never driven one, you’re missing out on plenty. Around Seattle, they don’t rust like they did elsewhere where salt is used.
A buddy of mine had an 80 Civic, same trim as mine, but in the burgundy red, that came from Minisota and it was a rust bucket when he bought it in the mid to late 90’s. Finally had to dump it when it blew out both 4th and 5th gears one evening as we drove home from the mechanic whom could not replace the clutch due to the rusted bolts. That could be the same for the Fairmont too, given they were of more or less the same general vintage.
I never appreciated stuff like this till it was gone. Ran across a fairmont wagon with a straight six and three on the tree not long ago. Wife almost broke my arm keeping my hand off my wallet.
A neighbor of mine has a seafoam green Fairmont that’s very plain, no trim to speak of, dog dish wheel covers, brown vinyl seats. It’s his daily driver. There is also a 75 Impala sedan that is rust free in his carport.
Lee I. was fired around 1977, the time Fairmont was first sold, so he did have some fingerprints on the design.
These were good vehicles and Ford was running on vapors during this time. Ford had actually fallen to number four in sales and was behind Oldsmobile and Buick, as well as Chevrolet. It took them years to get back to number two.
So, by the end of the Henry Ford II reign, Ford was running on vapors. Fortunately, they had the Escort in the pipe for 1981 and this is another car that saved Ford until the Taurus finally assisted. Until 1986, however, Ford had to retire the obsolete American Granada and the obsolete Torino vehicle lines, leaving nothing to replace them except the Fox bodies.
Ford did with the Foxes what Chrysler did with the K cars – use them in many formats until they were no longer needed. As a matter of fact, the boxy T-Bird from 1980, and the next generation T-Bird, looked completely different, but rode the same Fox underpinings. In hindsight, that was pretty amazing. Ford was desperate, but Fox let them pull it off.
The Foxes were good vehicles – straight, plain, solid and easily mutatible into various guises. I had many Fox vehicles; a Fairmont, a Cougar, an LTD II, a Granada and enjoyed a buddy’s Fox Continental. They were all good cars.
These are decent wagons and were an excellent size for a family, but did need refueling often. The Fairmont was better with it’s smaller engine, but the LTDII was a regular visitor to the gas pump. I liked them all, even the Cougar.
The Taurus pushed these vehicles completely off stage when they arrived and exploded in success. But these pre-Taurus Ford mid-sizers shouldn’t be considered bad cars by any means.
Love these Foxes. Best cars to come off the Ford production line.
Fox sedans proliferated Miami during the 1980’s and 1990’s. They were everywhere and very popular especially with middle-age Cuban males.
Drove a 1982 Ford Granada from 1986 to 1988. Very nice and classy looking vehicle. Maroon above and silver below. Straight 6 engine, real easy to work on.
Bought a 1986 Baby Ford LTD (restyled Granada) in 1993 and have been driving it ever since. Very reliable daily driver. Parts and repairs are cheap. Just love my Baby Ford LTD.
Also drove some Fairmonts but never owned one.
The LTD seems more solid and sturdy than the Fairmont and Granada.