I didn’t really know what a “marquis” was until I looked up the definition. Why would or should I know this? There has never been any such title in the U.S., at least to my knowledge. Even though I did okay in subjects like social studies and world history, I’m pretty sure I’d lose all my money on “Final Jeopardy” if the question was on the subject of titles and rankings of nobility. Ask me what a “marquis” is, and I’ll tell you that it’s a title, but little else. If I was feeling smart or flip that day, I’d say a marquis was a big, old Mercury. I might even make reference to a kid in my second-grade class who had that name, though his was pronounced “Mar-KWEES”. (He was cool and I liked him.)
There are several definitions of marquis that I found online, and most generally center around it being a title given to a nobleman who ranks below a duke, but above a count or an earl. Being a nobleman is hereditary and based on your family of origin. This is a fitting name for a make and model that is below a Lincoln Continental or Town Car, but above an LTD or Crown Victoria. Indeed, the Grand Marquis was the “middle child” of Ford’s full-sized car rankings during its entire existence, in accordance with the Mercury mission. At certain points during its production run, the Marquis seemed like a genuinely unique product with a strong identity, citing the models of the early ’70s (expertly referenced by REDRAM back in 2016). With each successive generation, though, the Marquis progressively became more similar to its Ford counterpart, especially when the Panther platform arrived for ’79.
This does not mean I think the full-size, rear-drive Marquis was superfluous or unnecessary. I liked the LTD Crown Victoria of the ’80s by association with grandparents, who had owned an ’85, but the Grand Marquis always looked much nicer. My grandparents thought so, too, making the switch to Mercury next and staying with it until they had both passed. All the same basic qualities of the Ford were there: the stately, linear, blocky styling; the luxury appointments on the inside; standard V8 power; the availability of options that signaled traditional, U.S. luxury, like padded vinyl roofs and simulated wire wheel covers. It was the minor aesthetic touches of the Mercury, like the full-width taillamps, the more refined texture of the chrome grille, and other things that made the Grand Marquis look like it stood slightly more upright than the Ford.
If the marquis of FoMoCo’s full-sized cars ranked below the duke (the Lincoln Town Car), it certainly was no less important to Ford’s corporate monarchy. Its 1985 sales total of almost 161,300 cars accounted for almost 38.5% of Mercury’s sales total that year, outselling its next-most popular stablemates the Cougar (117,300), smaller Fox-platform Marquis (104,200), and Topaz (101,400) by a significant margin. The Ford LTD Crown Victoria barely outsold it that year with 173,500 cars sold, which represents just a 7.5% difference. It’s also notable that the base price of the Grand Marquis LS (about $12,900) was 17% more than that of the comparable Crown Victoria (~$11,000). It’s likely that the standard content of the Mercury was higher at this same, non-base tier, but many buyers appear to have been believers in the Grand Marquis’ value proposition.
This particular car had me a little confused. There’s an “LS” badge on the trunk, but my license plate search showed this car as not having the LS designation. This two-tone example doesn’t have the slightly extended, more “formal” roof extension on it like the brown car in the brochure pages shown above, so I thought that maybe the featured car wasn’t an LS and the trunk was just a replacement. (Who would buy an “LS” badge just to stick on their Grand Marquis? Not my grandpa.) Looking at examples of both LS and non-LS examples of ’85 Grand Marquises online, I found pictures of some clearly-labeled LS cars in preserved condition that had the same roofline as what the featured gray car has. Looking at the sales brochure pages I found online, I wasn’t able to confirm if the more formal roof was an LS standard, or what this option was called. I welcome your educative comments below.
With no disrespect to anyone born into such a system or who lives in a system of nobility, and within the context of my own life experiences, I’m glad I’m just a dude with no titles or obligatory expectations to live up to, with the freedom to fulfill my own potential and choose my own life’s course. As for the Grand Marquis, it served its make and parent company very well, lasting right up through the end of the Mercury marque for 2011. It was a full-sized, V8-powered cruiser that offered a touch more distinction than the comparable Ford, even if for a bit more premium. This one wears its vinyl roof cap like a crown, as it should.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, March 16, 2024.
Brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
That Silver/Gray finish was sure popular on the big Fords/Mercury’s in 1985. My vinyl roof originally matched the Silver, but when I replaced it, I plumped for the darker gray instead. Still not sure if I made the right move.
As always, great article!
Thanks, Dean. I think the darker color vinyl top provides a nice contrast to the silver paint. Either way would look great – beautiful car.
I’m looking for the obligatory hot dog stand outside of Cdn Tire. It must be just out of range.
Nice shot!
This was taken in Essex, Ontario last year…The only Hot-dogs around were all walking upright on two feet.
For years, C&D magazine had an ongoing joke that each year never brought out a “de Sade” option for the Marquis! LOL!! 🙂
I remember that joke! As a kid, I didn’t get it for a long time.
That one would have been wasted on me up to a certain age, as well!
For anyone that has one now.. it would make a great custom plate
Great insights, as always Joseph. Amazing how often we use words without actually knowing what they mean.
Thank you, Tom. Your comment now has me thinking about the names of not only other cars, but other household brands with names that, like “marquis”, I just wouldn’t think twice about.
Being a child who took many things too literally…and often misheard or misinterpreted words…I recall being quite baffled by just why a gigantic American car would be given a French title of nobility. There was nothing French about that Mercury. So it simply made no sense to me, and that bothered me.
On the other hand, I don’t recall being particularly bothered by its Ford near-twin being named after a nearly 100 year gone English queen.
I’ll venture a guess here as to the Mercury’s noble name. Back in 1967 when Mercury first introduced the Marquis nameplate, I’d suspect that many (possibly most?) Americans viewed the title in connection with the Marquis de Lafayette, who was a major figure in the American revolution, despite his noble blood. So the name was likely considered both patriotic and noble.
I used to live in a town named Lafayette (CA) and knew of General Lafayette before then and consider myself decently educated but had no idea he was actually the Marquis de Lafayette. Similarly I seriously doubt that many, let alone “most”, Americans knew this or even further even know of him as a General, even back in 1967. My guess is no more than 1 in a 100 currently knew or know this and I think I’m being generous with that percentage. Maybe there is an east cost/west coast split on this with the history being more local in the east? But yeah, as more than one commented has alluded to, the Marquis De Sade would be my pick as well for how the average American has heard of the title, even without the Car&Driver connection. Interestingly, the lifetimes of both Marquis’ did overlap significantly.
You are probably right about the lack of knowledge of most Americans in regard to the Marquis but back in the 60’s/70’s when I studied US history at university (as an undergraduate and graduate student) the Marquis de Lafayette’s published diary of his tour of of the 24 states in the United States in 1824-25 was required reading for many classes. He received a number of awards and honors during that visit and this diary alone is considered an invaluable and insightful first-person account of the United States during the era, to say nothing of the accounts of his long and distinguished military and political career in America and Europe. Eric, I like your theory; maybe someone at Lincoln-Mercury was a dedicated scholar of history. We anticipate a book review soon!
I’d have to vote that theory down, too. I think it more likely when Mercury was looking for an LTD/Caprice type brougham fighter, Marquis just sounded classy and started with an M as their large cars tended to at that time.
Well, I guess that theory fell flat! Guess I’ll just return to my history books. Turns out I have some good reading material right here on my shelf:
It wasn’t a big grown up “Lincoln Mark”, so it was called a “Marquis”.
Jeff, I love your thought process here… on everything. Haha! I also took many things at face value up to a certain age. I totally get this.
That is way over thinking it. It is far more likely that the name was picked in 1967 simply because it started with an “M”.Now I was 14 at the time, in high school with history classes and I never associated the name with Lafayette. One of the swimming pools I cleaned, the owner had a 67 red Marquis, and I washed it once or twice. This is the same guy who offered me a brand new 240Z if I sold off my 68 Cougar.
Mercury was big into the letter M for cars and I’d bet that is all that it is: M series trucks,Monterey, Montclair, Medalist, Meteor, Marauder, Montego, Monarch, Mystique, Mountaineer, and Milan. So Marquis fits right in. How many other brands did such a thing. Ford, Chevy, Olds, and so forth?
I still remember the time, must have been about 1975, when the local radio announcer mispronounced “marquis” on the air and my father (drunk) called in to correct him. As if drunk dialing a stranger with a pedantic correction was the lesser offense.
That is funny!
I applaud your father, and his exploiting the upside of reduced inhibitions.
This is my favorite.
What a funny comment!
I checked my 1985 price guide (Consumer Guide Auto ’85) and the “Formal Coach Vinyl Top” is listed as a $650 stand-alone option for both the base and LS Grand Marquis sedans.
Honestly, $650 for a restyled vinyl roof (that’s almost $2,000 in today’s dollars!) seems like an eye-popping waste of money, so I checked both the 1984 and ’86 price lists to be sure, and it’s listed on those too for a similar price. So I’m assuming that’s accurate, and it doesn’t appear to be included in some other option package, either. But I’d bet that most LS’s were ordered heavily optioned, including the formal roof. This example looks to me like a rare catch of a modestly-equipped LS.
Great catch, and write-up!
Eric, thank you so much for that bit of research and for clearing up the mystery! Now I know. Now we all do.
As for the price, I don’t know… a similar roof cap and treatment was visually transformative for both the ’79 Lincoln Versailles and Chrysler M-bodies of the ’80s. I might have been so tempted.
I remember the talk of closing out the Panther platform buy the early 80’s. I guess Ford/Lincoln/Mercury had the last laugh when they saw the GM C-bodies of ’85.
They surely did. I did like that the Chrysler M-bodies were repositioned in their marketing materials as full-sized cars, but we all knew the truth about them being midsized, even if I did like those Fifth Avenues. Ford and GM stuck it out with biggies and ended up selling a bunch of them.
The Austrian motorcycle company KTM has both a Duke, and a Super Duke in their lineup. The former available with several different engines from a 250 single through an 890 twin, while the Super Duke is quite super with a 1390cc engine. And of course there’s Chrysler’s LeBaron cars, with their legacy from LeBaron Carossiers. A completely made up name, French sounding but not French. Any other cars with names derived from noble titles? The closest I could think of was the King Midget … and of course there’s Harley Earl. And the Imperial.
Another that comes to mind is the Vauxhall Viscount. Which wins a prize in my mind for being both a noble name and an excellent alliteration.
True! Still not as cool as the Studebaker Dictator…
Good call on the Viscount.
I hadn’t even though of “LeBaron”. “French” for…um, “the baron”?
If Wikipedia is to be believed, the founders of Le Baron when it was a bodybuilder chose “invented a new name LeBaron, Carrossiers from a list of French words that could be easily pronounced but still sounded impressive”.
For a long time I confused “marquis” with “marquee”, and I thought the car’s name referenced a cinema’s flashy sign advertising the film playing there and its stars.
The car’s name triggered an annual joke in each year’s Car and Driver new car issue “charting the changes” for each year, remember that well as a teen who subscribed to it.
Did the LTD/Crown Vic offer the same interior shown upthread? That had a posher appearance than usually found in Fords; huge full-length door armrests were normally reserved for upmarket big sedans like the Lincoln Town Car, GM’s C body Electra and 98, and the last R-body Chrysler New Yorker/Fifth Avenue. The seats look a bit plusher than standard Ford/Chevy fare too. In all though, I’d prefer the Ford version without the needless extended front clip., plus other motorists would get out of my way thinking I’m a cop.
I really like the idea of “Marquee” as a proper car model name, along the lines of the “Premier” designation and model name of various Chrysler products throughout the years.
Looking again at the interior shot in the brochure photo, it does look a lot like the interior I remember from my grandparents’ Panther Crown Vic. The only really way to tell would be to compare brochures, which I admit I didn’t.
The Marquis is still with us sort of. It’s an electric Mustang called the Mach E. In a non rhotic New England accent they are pronounced the same. Good one Ford.
LOL..I never noticed that! I wonder if Ford noticed that?
We’ll know for sure if it was intentional when they come out with the “Grand Mach E” variation.
The three-row Mustang! That’ll make a few heads spin here. 🙂
Well, up here in New England, we’d probably appreciate it if they released a Lincoln version as the Mach E Mark.
Because we love our Wahlbergs. Funky bunch and all.
Pronunciation is everything! Ha!
The Marquis did indeed have a good run until it met the chop of the corporate guillotine…
I enjoyed your line: “…the availability of options that signaled traditional, U.S. luxury, like padded vinyl roofs and simulated wire wheel covers.” in other words, fake stuff that is put in place of the real thing but adds nothing of substance. 🙂
I think the biggest reason for its relative success was that it featured the attributes of the Ford version but wasn’t actually the version used by police forces and taxicab companies. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that usage but in line with the apparent desirability to some of the fake (and mostly optional) “luxury” described above, clearly those same buyers may have wanted to avoid that connection. Notably it seemed throughout at least the 1990s that if you had tried to rent a “full-size” Crown Vic it was FAR more likely that you’d end up with a Grand Marquis, which based on my own experience seemed to be the rental car fleet queen of the time, at least at Hertz, then (indirectly) owned by Ford.
Jim, excellent point about the added appeal of the Mercury, given that it didn’t share a basic appearance with police and livery vehicles. Factoring out those cars out of the Crown Vic’s and GM’s production total for ’85, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that more GMs went to private buyers than Crown Victorias.
Nice find! The car looks really primo apart from some rear bumper rust and, of course, the ugly aftermarket hubcaps. At least it has nice whitewalls present and accounted for. These had huge trunks, and I’m thinking there might be a couple bodies in there as it’s riding a little low. From my memory, the 80’s Panther bodies weren’t real rust-prone.
I think the Marquis is an example of successful badge engineering. It really didn’t offer much different at all than the Ford by this time, but many folks were willing to pay a bit more. I like Jim Klein’s theory above that a lot of people just wanted some psychic distance from a Ford and the Crown Vic police cars and taxis. Could the rental sales have been a big percentage of the surprisingly high sales numbers?
One of the few visual upgrades from the Ford that I remember was the gauge cluster. Mercurys had silver faces on their gauges that I always thought looked really good. It was superficial, but somehow it looked special and upscale to my eyes. Apart from this, the interiors were very similar. GM did a better job of having distinct dashes between different brands of the same platform.
The old joke is 4 bags of golf clubs or 4 bodies….
True also for Lincoln Town Cars.
Dave
Thanks, Jon. I can also get behind Jim’s (and your) theory about the distance the Mercury has from taxis and police cars. I can also attest to these having huge trunks, remembering everything my grandparents used to pack into their various Panther platform cars when snowbirding between Ohio and Florida for years.
And here’s hoping for better hubcaps as its owner can afford and source them.
Pop’s midlife crisis had made him buy a 1983 Camaro Z/28. He was over it by 1985, and got this same two-tone Grand Marquis for 1985.
The weirdness I recall was the first time I changed the oil. I pulled the plug and maybe a quart came out of the pan. Only after much confusion did I learn that the engine had TWO oil drain plugs!
My ’88 5.0LX T-Bird was the same way, except my first time changing the oil in that car, 4 quarts came out and then I noticed the other drain plug.
It was a weird set-up, and if IIRC, it was to clear some cross-member that would’ve interfered with the oil pan.
Sounds like someone messed up with their CAD model and decided to just go with it during the design phase.
My ’88 Turbo-Coupe was not afflicted with the same issue. 1/2 the cylinders, so 1/2 the drain plugs. LOL.
From Z28 to Grand Marquis – that’s quite the pivot!
In 1985, both of Cindy’s grandparents bought the smaller Marquis Brougham. Then one of our employees bought the small LTD, and one bought the small Marquis Brougham . Finally, one other employee bought the Grand Marquis! His was the LS model and it was a nice car. The only strange thing was that it came with the alloy wheels and he told the dealer to change them to steel wheels with wire hubcaps!!
I’d be interested to know the production difference between the GM and the Chrysler Fifth Avenue. They were both popular
According to one source I just asked, ’86 New Yorker Fifth Avenue production was about 104,700 cars. This is down a bit from the MGM’s 161,300 total that year.
I could see wanting the wire wheel covers, if that has been the idea of luxury one had grown up with and aspires toward. I did think the turbine fin alloys were a great looking design – I would have kept those, personally.
What the Marquis lost in 1979 that was an important styling point on the earlier generations was hidden headlamps. Ford ended hidden headlights on the Mercury and the Lincoln the following year. While the Panther cars were excellent vehicles, they didn’t have this styling touch, which made the Marquis immediately distinctive.
Another styling point lost was sequential tail lights. Mercury eluded to this with their tail light assembly design, but all Mercury vehicles needed to have sequential tail lights. This was a disctinctive trait that should not have been dropped.
When the Sable arrived – another distinctive Mercury style was launched – the light bar front end. It looked good. Unlike the Pontiac version, the Mercury version was better executed and classier. While it shouldn’t have been incorporated on the Marquis, it should have appeared across the model line and embraced.
The reason these little things were needed is because those little things gave the brand its recognizable signature. The hidden headlights, the sequential tail lights didn’t have to disappear with technology. While vinyl roofs, opera lights, and other Brougham cliches did date a Mercury, had Mercury kept those distinctive styling trademarks, those old Brougham cliches could be buried without harm.
Without those Mercury styling touches, the Panther Grand Marquis just looked like an upscale Crown Victoria. For a separate brand, that isn’t a good thing. This is why I believe the 1970s were Mercury’s best years.
I’d be curious to see what a photoshopped MGM with the hidden headlights would look like. At first I was wondering if any full-sized cars had hidden headlights into the eighties, and then I remembered (as two examples) Chrysler New Yorkers and Imperials. Some Lincolns had them, too.
On the surface I agree with you but in the grand scheme of things the pre-panther LTD and Ford Thunderbird had hidden headlights too… which the Mercury Cougar ironically did not. And as you mentioned Lincoln was a big purveyor of this look, which Ford and Mercury were largely cribbing the styling of with indistinguishable front ends with bladed turn signals, standup grilles and either covered or uncovered quad headlights. The 78 Marquis really wasn’t distinctive
To say the 70s was the high water mark for the Mercury brand I’ll give a solid raised eyebrow to, the 70s Marquis wasn’t any better executed from any big 60s mercury(way less so in my opinion), the Cougar originally very distinct from the Mustang which it was based was in the 70s a literal badge job of the regular old Mercury Montego, itself a light reskin of the Ford Torino, the Bobcat and Comet was a Pinto and Maverick respectively with formal grilles and the Zephyr was a Fairmont with 4 rather than 2 square headlights. Mercury has never had what I’d call a fully good decade, but I think I have to give it the 60s, the Comet was a brilliant retooling of the basic Falcon and in part sewed he seeds for the midsize midprice category, the styling was mostly nice and tasteful, the original Cougar was excellent and for fleeting moments Mercury even had its feet in the motorsport programs. Mercury’s biggest problem in the 60s was for as appealing as their products were the competition like Pontiac and Oldsmobile were better.
Second runner up peak for Mercury is the mid-80s to mid 90s, the Sable, the first Mazda based Tracer that blew the Escort out of the water, the small Nissan joint venture Villager Minivan, the advanced MN12 Cougar which had a better racing career than the original 67, winning the IMSA manufacturers championship twice in 89-90, and the aero Grand Marquis had a much more distinctive image from the Crown Vic until the bodies were merged in the 98 restyle. The only real sore spots in the lineup from roughly 86-95 was the dumpy Topaz and arguably the not-a-Miata-who-cares Capri roadster.
I had the Ford counterpart, and my son had a later MGM in a similar 2 tone gray. These things found lots of customers back then.
I think this silver and pewter color combination was very effective on these cars, which suited their “chiseled granite” styling very well.
A great read as always Joseph. Thank you! Very nice find, and pics as well.
Marquis de Montcalm is famous in Canada, as the losing commander in the Battle of Quebec. As Britain assumed control of Canada from France, under General James Wolfe. Wolfe died during the battle fought on the Plains of Abraham, outside Quebec City, as Montcalm passed away the following day.
The Canada only, late 1960’s Mercury Meteor Montcalm, payed tribute to the French Marquis.
Daniel, thank you for your kind words and also for this bit of history. Things I don’t remember learning in my U.S. classrooms.
Oddly enough, Americans learn very little about Canadian history, even though the two countries share a great deal of heritage. If you ask Americans where the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was located, most have no idea – or assume it took place during Biblical times. But it was actually one of the most defining battles in North American history (and strategically fascinating too). That’s actually one of my favorite random trivia questions – works every time.
As a Canadian going to school in the 50s and 60s, I am now surprised by how little American history we studied. It seems like we concentrated more on British and European history. I certainly knew about Montcalm and Wolfe, but I did not know that Montcalm was a Marquis.
I was always a big fan of Canadian and American history. And took advanced American history courses, whenever they were available.
Unfortunately, there is often bias in what we are taught. So, it is vital for individuals to explore topics, that may be concealing hidden truths. Truths, that textbooks don’t always tell.
This may be the weirdest CC Effect™ ever Joseph.
I was singing a song this morning (before knowing of your post) that was out when I was 2 years old!
A doo-wop song came into my head for some unknown reason.
The song? – Duke of Earl.
There may have been another odd reason for that other than the CC Effect™ however.
I was mixing up Mayo and Dijon mustard to go with my sandwich for lunch, and an obscure commercial popped into my head from 1993…
But I’ll call the CC Effect™ out every time I see it. It knows no bounds!
Ow, wow – I totally remember the Dijonnaise commercials and the Gene Chandler song tie-in! Makes me wonder why “Duke” was never selected by a mainstream car brand as a model name. “Dodge Duke”? Too much alliteration?
Dodge Duke? How about the Dodge Dude?
I totally forgot about these.
Well, now I know what song will be in my head for the next week or so…
It is kind of an ear-worm, but I like it.
My parents taught me to appreciate the music before my time.
Had one. The best riding most comfortable car I’ve ever had.
Miss that car
I’ll always have a soft spot for the Marquis. My late father owned a ’68, ’69, 76, 78, 85, 88, and ,93 so I grew up in them and took my driving test in the ’85. My sister had a ’77 and one of my first cars was a beater ’76 with a rod knock.
I like that your father was a Marquis loyalist, and that family connection you have with them. Your mention of your ’76 beater reminded me a little of Uncle Buck’s car.
So I notice that the ’88 Continental was almost exactly between the Sable/Grand Marquis in length and weight, with the FWD GM H-Bodies closer to but larger than Taurus/Sable, Did Ford plan Ford or Mercury variants of the ’88 Conti? On one hand, it made sense to truly differentiate mid/full size as GM was over-duplicating. But I would think Ford would have wanted to spread the cost over at least two carlines.
That’s a great question. In my mind, I have ways drawn the straight line between those Continentals and the Taurus / Sable, with the Continental’s presumed (and as it turns out, real) greater heft as just part of its being a Lincoln. My guess is that a bigger Taurus / Sable might have been too much overlap.
Great article, Joe.
Marquis may be a French word, but we got rid of those people a while ago. When I read “Mercury Marquis”, i get a different mental picture. One that might also be associated with… The MGs!
Tatra87, thank you so much. And I like both of these bands… had no idea they had collaborated at some point. It makes sense, since I’m 90% confident I have a compilation with both groups on it.
Those two tone paintworks seem to be a very “Murican” thing. Only remember o n e Euro Sedan with something like that. The MY 1979 special Ford Granada Sapphire * / Saphir.** Only available as a dark blue and silver combo.
* = UK and Ireland
** = The Continent
In the upside-down land of Oz where we are still technically ruled by royals – chafe, chafe, in the land called The Worker’s Paradise, world’s first 8 hr day & Labor govt, why the hell didn’t enough bastards vote for change in 1998, bring on the revolution comrades, off with their heads, but I have no strong feelings – that car you show is not a Marquis. The car below is a Marquis, admittedly of lowly descent from a humble peasant’s 1960 Falcon.
I’d swear on a stack of dead royals that, in true Oz fashion – where a coupe is a “coop”, and a Renault a “renolt”, etc ad nauseaum – the thing was marketed in ads as the Ford “markee”. It’s posh, you don’t pronounce the ‘s’, you know, just like the ‘s’ in Paris (or the silent laugh in “pretentious”).
Deary me, a noble thing it wasn’t by any meaning of the word. Handsome, maybe, but ill-handling, over-assisted, expensive, overweight, super-thirsty, dull, tufted – actually, hang on, maybe it really IS from the aristocracy….
Oh justy, I had one of those. As a young factory worker at the end of the 1970s I would enviously watch the bosses arrive at work in their big luxury Fords.
I promised myself , one day…
It was in about 1990 or so. I found one in a yard that looked exactly like Geoff Mullens Motors, A 78 model all shiny and well kept looking. For about a year it was a beautiful car smooth and powerful with it’s 351 4 barrel, then it turned on me, I have never owned a car where so many systems failed constantly, in the end it refused to run at all, no matter what myself or even real mechanics tried. I gave up and sold it for 800 bucks to someone who wanted the engine, and was happy to be rid of it.
But it had the most comfortable seats I have ever had in a car, of course they were stuck in one spot, as the power assist no longer worked.
In fairness the car was old and I should have known better, but at least I lived the my dream for a brief moment in time.
Nice! I may possibly have overstated the downsides of this ridiculously-named car – notice that that name never appeared again on any later Fairlanes – not that I would normally do such a thing.
In truth (shh!) I sort-of wanted one too, at times. I really liked the looks and the big V8-cruiser effect, but it was never going to be a realistic proposition at any point in my life for varying reasons of money, space and need. Sorry yours was a dud: I think they were mostly pretty robust old tanks.
uncle buck!
The Marquis and the Crown Victoria were almost identical by the end of their run. Locally I hear Grand Marquis referred to as Grand Mas, on some of the forums. Both cars occasionally end up as “Donks.”
Our family had a 1973 Mercury Marquis Brougham, and like the a lot of the previous commenters, I had a problem with the name. Not the “Marquis” part, but the “Brougham” part. What that meant, nobody seemed to know. Now that I look it up, it still doesn’t make much sense.
Up until the 1970s, the Seattle Post Intelligencer had a famous journalist named Royal Brougham, who now has a street named after him in the SODO district. Now that would have been a great name for a car.
@tbm3fan That seemed to be a thing at Chevy. In the 80s we had Citation, Cavalier, Chevette, Caprice, Camaro, Corvette, Corsica, Celebrity.
Ford tried this, but dropping the well known Taurus nameplate to call it a Five Hundred was a dumb move and didn’t last long.