1954 Mercury Monterey

When I was in the army, 1953-1956, I thought the 1954 Mercury up hrough the 1956 Mercury was the best looking cars on the road. When I got out of the army in 1956 I was dating a girl in Phenix City, Alabame and we were talking about marriage and I had in mind to buy a 1956 Mercury Monterey for a wedding present for her. As it turned out we split up and didn't get married so I didn't buy the car. I guess that was best anyway since I later met and married my wife and we have now been together for 52 years and still together now. Anyway here is a little information about the car for you to read and ponder about.

The Mercury Monterey is a full-size car model introduced by the Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company in 1952. It would later share the same body style with the slightly more upscale Marquis, and the Park Lane and Montclair until the latter two were extinguished after the 1968 model year. The Marquis-Monterey body was, built on a longer wheelbase and had a longer body than the Ford LTD, Ford Galaxie, and Ford Custom. During its production the car served as the high-end, mid-range, and entry-level fullsize Mercury at various times throughout its run. It was the only Mercury to be in continuous production throughout the 1960s.[1] The Monterey was discontinued after 1974.

In 2004, Mercury resurrected the Monterey nameplate for a minivan, essentially a re-badged Ford Freestar with added features and modified cosmetic details.
Early History

The Monterey (model 72C) was introduced in 1950 as a high-end two-door coupe as part of the Mercury Eight series in the same vein as the Ford Crestliner, the Lincoln Lido coupe and the Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri coupe in order to compete with the hardtop coupes General Motors had introduced the previous model year. Montereys had either a canvas covered top for $2146 or vinyl for $2157. Standard features included leather faced seats, simulated leather headliner, wool carpets, chrome-plated interior garnish moldings, two-toned dashboard, special black steering wheel, fender skirts, dual outside rearview mirrors, full wheelcovers & gold winged hood ornament. For $10 more all leather seats were an option. Two special colors were offered, Turquoise Blue with dark blue top and Cortaro Red metallic with black top. Black with yellow top was also available. Few Montereys were sold.
1952-1954
Mercury got a styling and engineering redesign for 1952, such at 18% more window area.[2][4] Monterey became a separate series and Mercury's top model line, a convertible and four-door sedan were included in the new series lineup. The heater and vent controls where changed to levers and placed on a plane set perpendicular to the dash behind the steering wheel.[5] A station wagon bowed for 1953, the same year a Siren Red Monterey Convertible became Ford's forty-millionth car produced.[6] 1954 saw the introduction of the new 161 hp (120 kW) overhead valve Ford Y-block V8, as well as the bubble-top Monterey Sun Valley, which had a Plexiglas front half roof which was similar to that of the Ford Crestline Skyliner.[2] The 1954 Montereys also received other alterations, such as new, lower taillights.