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Junkyard Gem: 1971 Mercury Comet 2-Door Sedan

When Ford introduced the original Maverick for the 1970 model year, Dearborn tradition required that a Mercury-badged version be created. That car ended up being the Comet, built from the 1971 through 1977 model years. Here's one of those first-year Comets in rough but recognizable condition, found in a Denver self-service yard not long ago. The Comet name had spent the 1960s affixed to the flanks of Mercurized Ford Falcons (1960-1965) and Fairlanes (1966-1969). Since the Maverick was the successor of the Falcon — sales of which went into an irrecoverable downward spiral once its sportier Mustang first cousin hit the streets — it made sense to move the Comet name over to the Mercury version. Nearly every American Mercury model ever sold was a U.S.-market Ford model with a different name and some gingerbread slapped on. Notable exceptions to this tradition include the 1999-2002 Mercury Cougar (mechanically based on the Contour but with a unique body) and the 1991-1994 Mercury Capri (an Australian-built mashup of Mazda components borrowed from the Ford Laser). The Comet was by far the cheapest Mercury model available in 1971, though it was considered more prestigious than its Maverick counterpart. The price tag on the '71 Comet two-door sedan started at $2,217 (about $16,505 in 2022 dollars), while the '71 Maverick two-door sedan cost $2,175 ($16,193 today). Meanwhile, AMC would sell you a new Hornet two-door sedan for one dollar less than a Maverick, Chevrolet had the Nova coupe for a dollar more than the Maverick, and Plymouth offered the Valiant Duster for $2,313 ($17,220 now). Toyota had a Maverick competitor as well that year, with the Corona at $2,150 for the sedan and $2,310 for the coupe. Having driven every one of the aforementioned models, I'd take the Duster if I went back in time and had to choose one (as a 1969 Corona owner, I'm not a fan of the 1971 facelift, though the Corona's build quality beats the Duster's). The build sticker on this car tells us that it was built at the Kansas City Assembly Plant (where Transits and F-150s are made today) and sold through the Los Angeles district sales office (there was a DSO in Denver, so it's a near-certainty that this car didn't start out in Colorado). The paint started out as Bright Blue Metallic (it's neither bright nor metallic 51 years down the road) and the interior was done up in Medium Blue Cloth & Vinyl.

Junkyard Gem: 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid

Once hybrid vehicles from Honda and Toyota proved to work well in the real world of American streets during the early 2000s, other U.S.-market manufacturers climbed aboard the gasoline-electric bandwagon. Ford introduced the Escape Hybrid for the 2005 model year and sales proved quite strong; its Mercury-badged sibling, the Mariner Hybrid, appeared the following year. The Mariner Hybrid never induced many vehicle shoppers to sign on the line which is dotted, despite gasoline prices going absolutely ape in 2008, though it remained available all the way through the Mercury brand's 2010 demise. Here's one of those rare trucks, found in a Denver-area yard last month. The Escape/Mariner Hybrids got amazing fuel economy for tall, truck-shaped machines, though the serious penny-pinchers with long commutes skipped anything built in the 21st century and began driving up the prices of the once-scorned Geo Metro XFi, gas-sipping champion of the previous decade. The Mercury brand was on the ropes by this time, with not much to distinguish the once-distinctive Mercury machines from their near-identical Ford counterparts. The 1999-2002 Cougar was the last Mercury sold here with no twin brothers over in the Ford showrooms. I do see the occasional Escape Hybrid in places like this, though such gas-saving small SUVs tend to retain their value well enough that it takes a crash to retire one. This Mariner Hybrid hit something hard and either flipped on its side or scraped a guardrail for some distance. The airbags deployed and, presumably, spared the occupants from serious injury. That's the good news. The bad news is that fixing this kind of damage to a 13-year-old vehicle made by a defunct brand just isn't worth it to insurance companies, hybrid-electric powertrain or not. We can assume that the battery pack lives on in another Escape/Mariner. Navigation, Bluetooth, and other features that were considered pretty slick in 2007. This truck was in pretty good shape until the very end. Jill Wagner proved that you can bury a Mercury emblem in volcanic soil and it will grow into a brand-new Mariner Hybrid. That's how science works! You can go to the same field and tap on a Mercury emblem, if you want to get a regular gasoline Mariner. Featured Gallery Junked 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid View 20 Photos Auto News Green Mercury Automotive History Crossover SUV Hybrid mercury mariner mercury mariner hybrid Junkyard Gems

Junkyard Gem: 1979 Mercury Marquis 2-Door Sedan

As the creator of the now-much-overused term "Malaise Era" (which I say started in 1973 and ended in 1983, full stop), I have a certain affection for the big two-door Detroit cars of the late 1970s. When such a car is built on the very first model year of Ford's long-lived Panther platform and I find one in a junkyard, I must document it. The 1979 Mercury Marquis is such a car, and this one was found in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard last month. Since Ford built the Grand Marquis all the way through the demise of the Panther platform— and Mercury itself— in 2011, it's easy for us to forget that the model name started out as just the plain old Marquis, back in the 1967 model year, with the Grand appellation used for the car's top trim level. While today's Junkyard Gem has some of the features of the Grand Marquis and Marquis Brougham trim levels for 1979 (notably the padded vinyl landau roof and power windows), it lacks the huge chrome lower-body moldings of those cars. Instead, it's a regular Marquis 2-door sedan with a big load of expensive options. That landau roof has suffered greatly from its decades beneath the vinyl-disintegrating California sun. The Panther platform was a big technological upgrade from the late-1950s-vintage chassis technology of full-sized Fords of the 1960s and 1970s, and it stayed in front-line service in much the same form through 2011. Though its ride and handling were much improved, the 1979 Marquis was quite a bit smaller than its predecessors, and that caused some grumbling among Mercury shoppers. Some ham-handed junkyard shoppers really tore up the interior of this car while extracting a few bits and pieces, but we can still admire the Pine Green pleather of the glorious Twin Comfort Lounge front seats. You had two engine choices when buying a new '79 Marquis: the base 302-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) Windsor V8 making 129 horsepower or the optional 351-cubic-inch (5.8-liter) Windsor V8 rated at 138 horsepower. This one appears to be the 351, the same engine as had been swapped into the pizza-delivery Mercury I drove in the middle 1980s. New cars sold in California around this time had these giant emissions-numbers stickers on the side glass. Later, they went on the underside of the hood.