It’s not too often I go looking for a Mercury online. Not that I don’t like them, I just don’t think about a Mercury product too often, and it’s even rarer that I’m hunting for anything other than a Cougar when I do. And that’s a pretty big oversight…Mercury might have spent most of it’s time as a slightly dolled-up Ford, but they usually brought their own style to the table that separated themselves from their Ford twins. Case in point: this 1971 Mercury Marquis two-door. I love the looks of Ford’s big cars from the early 1970s…they have the right kind of curvy shape, their dimensions are just right for a full-size, and they had great engine choices. A neighbor who lived a few houses down from me when I resided in Arizona had a baby-blue one that he maintained fastidiously and every day I saw it I appreciated it more and more.

What I really dig about full-size cars from this time period is that unlike most of the mid-size cars, these were pricey pieces off of the lot. They weren’t taken out and thrashed within an inch of their lives…or, if they were beat on, were robust enough to handle the abuse fairly well. While not perfect by any measure, this green Mercury looks to have weathered time nicely, surviving the years relatively unscathed and unmolested. The interior is as stuffed and as green as you’d expect, the running gear is the trusty 429 and automatic, both the heater and the air conditioning work, and the stereo is new. What more could you want?

Lots of people still have their sights set on the well-known names in the musclecar world. But if you are willing to look past that, this Marquis will scratch an itch you didn’t even know you had. It’s got the look, it’s got the feel, and it’s got the power. And it won’t break your bank account by any measure to get into it.

eBay Link: 1971 Mercury Marquis Brougham