Good morning! We’re starting the week off with a couple of big old American rides with low miles. What they lack in fuel economy and handling, they make up for in comfort and presence. And just to keep things interesting, I’ve picked two from less-common brands.
We finished up last week with two super-clean Japanese sedans. I thought the Mitsubishi Galant’s higher price might hurt it, and a few of you did comment on it, but its higher specification made it seem worth it to the majority of you. The Mazda 323 had its fans, but the lack of air conditioning hurt it.
Despite the low spec, I think the Mazda would be my choice. I am a big fan of the brand, and that 323 is the great-grandmother of the Protege that I liked so much. The three-speed auto is a bummer, but I could live with it.
For decades, nearly all full-sized American cars followed the same basic pattern: a big V8 up front, a solid axle in the rear, and a pair of bench seats in between. If you have a sedan, you have a huge trunk hanging out behind the rear axle, and if you have a wagon, you got some extra seats in the back. The sedans are long gone, and the wagons morphed into SUVs long ago. Today, we’re going to look at one sedan and one wagon, from different eras, but cut from the same cloth.
1976 Pontiac Catalina – $5,000
Engine/drivetrain: 350 cubic inch OHV V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Glenford, OH
Odometer reading: 22,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The 1970s were hard on traditional American cars. Between gas shortages, new environmental regulations, and changing tastes, cars like this Pontiac Catalina were a hard sell. This was the last year before GM’s full-sized B-body shrunk by more than a foot and lost several hundred pounds. It represents the end of an era; whether that’s a good thing or not depends on what you think of these old dinosaurs.
The Catalina was Pontiac’s entry-level full-size sedan, sitting below the Bonneville in the model lineup, similar to the Impala in Chevy’s lineup. It’s powered by Pontiac’s own V8, displacing 350 cubic inches, and a Turbo-Hydramatic 400 automatic transmission. The seller says it runs great. It includes a new set of shocks that need to be installed, which is a fairly easy job on these cars, as long as the bolts aren’t too rusty.
The interior isn’t as fancy as a Bonneville, but it looks plenty comfortable. It’s in good condition, too; all I see wrong with it is a crack in the dashboard. The floor mats are a little grubby, but you could just throw those out and get new ones.
It’s in good but not great condition outside. There isn’t any rust showing, except for some surface rust on the rear bumper. The paint is shiny, but unevenly faded. It’s a great color, though.
1991 Mercury Colony Park GS – $5,500
Engine/drivetrain: 302 cubic inch OHV V8, four-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Tacoma, WA
Odometer reading: 37,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Ford’s Panther platform underwent a serious downsizing in the late 1970s as well. This car’s basic design dates back to 1979, with a styling refresh in 1988 that rounded off some of the sharp edges. This 1991 model was one of the last Grand Marquis Colony Park wagons; the next generation of Grand Marquis didn’t include a wagon variant.
Like most Panthers of this era, it’s powered by a five-liter V8 backed by an AOD overdrive automatic. By 1991, it had multi-port fuel injection and was more or less bulletproof. It runs and drives well, and if that mileage is original, it should continue to do so for a long time. By the way, do yourself a favor and read the ad for this car; it’s hilarious. (The link, as always, is the header above.)
Inside, it’s in nice shape, with a 50:50 split bench in the front and inward-facing “way back” seats in the back. The air conditioning doesn’t work; the seller, in their own roundabout way, says it “just needs a charge.” Of course it does.
It looks good outside at first glance, but if you look closer, you start to see a few flaws. It’s missing the trim around the woodgrain on the right front fender, and the woodgrain itself is a bit faded overall. But it’s not rusty or beat-up.
This style of car gave way to front-wheel-drive, V6 engines, and even smaller footprints. Those smaller cars are nice and all, but there is something to be said for these body-on-frame dinosaurs. They may not be all that practical, or fun to drive in the traditional sense, but they are comfortable, and they’re so mechanically simple that there’s not a lot to go wrong. As long as you have a place to park one of them, they could be good weekend cruisers. Which one better matches your style?
Like more than two out of there voters so far, I picked the Mercury. I might have gone the other way if the alternative had been a Safari equivalent of the pretty loaded ’76 Custom Cruiser my mom had, all black with Di-Noc woodgrain sides and perforated burgundy vinyl.
My uncle had the Ford version of the wagon. It ran somewhere past 400k miles, and decades of use. But that Pontiac looks pretty sweet too, as a weekend ride.
I have an ’89 Ford wagon version of that Colony Park and it’s a great car that soaks up miles on the interstate. The biggest downside (or upside depending on how you look at it) is the 90-91 Panthers had a redesigned dashboard that gave them airbags in the steering wheel and passenger dash. This was at the expense of losing the TripMinder computer system in the dash if-so-equipped. The only thing I am bummed about not getting that they got as well is the 3 point seatbelts in the rear instead of just lap belts. That being said I just can’t say no to that green!
The Catalina would be good for a lowrider project. It definitely has the presence. However, my vote has to go the the Merc. Wagons and all that. The inward-facing way back seats are awesome (as long as I don’t have to ride in them).
My dad had four Country Squires that looked just like that Colony Park…knowing how durable they were, he could probably have cut that number in half.
But I find it humorous squaring off the Family Truckster vs. the Catalina in metallic pea.
Both is good.
I’m pretty sure the average of these two cars is a wagon queen family truckster.
you think you hate it now, wait ’til you drive it!
Ok, wagon, but really it’s “neither” for me. I can’t see any use for these things either as people- or stuff-haulers, not at these prices anyway.
My father was a salesman, and his company gave him a new Catalina every two years for his company car. I’ve been yelled at more time than I care to remember in a Catalina. You’d think for that reason alone I’d go for the wagon, but no. That fake wood on the outside is one of the worst design trends to ever be forced on American consumers.
A more even (and therefore difficult).pick would be between two fake wood paneling full sized wagons. This Mercury against a Caprice wagon would be interesting.
For this vote the Mercury wagon all the way. A good friend from HS drove a similar one so there are definitely some nostalgia going in to my vote. That said I agree being over a decade newer and with fuel injection, it should gulp the fuel a bit less and I dont know about this one, but I think posi-traction was pretty common on these helping in low traction situations. Plus of course the ability to carry 8 people or 3 people and many 4×8 sheets of whatever you want & tow a boat or small trailer…
A: Wagon
B: Panther
See?
Car ads are so frustrating. Just put the darn shocks on and do a quick vacuum run over the interior FFS. Or at least just dump the floor mats.
this is an either or, but I grew up for a while in a similar 70’s Catalina. it is more nostalgia for me. I would maybe only go the wagon route to make a Griswald special out of it.
As a kid during the 70s, I recall nearly every car model getting square headlamps for the 1976 model year. So much that the date is permanently seared into my brain.
I guess Pontiac decided the last year of the budget-minded Catalina wasn’t worth the cost of retooling.
I remember it as well, and I thought “Holy cow! This is the coolest thing that I have ever seen!!!”
I did a double-take on that as well. From what I read, the Bonneville and the fancier trim levels of Catalina got square lights, but the base model (which I guess this is) stuck with round lights until the downsizing.
Correct – Catalina Custom got the rectangular headlamps and integrated turn signals (which were introduced for 1975 on the GrandVille and Bonneville)
Base Catalina got the old round-headlamp front end.
Oh wow these are 15 years apart. Sometimes I forget how the quintessential American Car look lasted into the 90s. I chose the Mercury, because of course I did – pitting a mid 70s land yatch against a similarly-priced early 90s station wagon is kind of unfair – but it’s amazing how outdated the Mercury looks for a 91 car. I daily drive a Renault 4 from the same year, so it’s not like outdated designs sold new in the 90s is at all a foreign concept to me, but in such an upscale car… It would be as if Renault kept building the Renault 20/30 for another 8 years instead of replacing it with the 25 in 1983. By 1991, the facelifted 25 was three years old and about to be replaced by the Safrane.
It’s not like Americans couldn’t build a more modern looking vehicle back then. It’s just that these vehicles were targeted to the Greatest Generation and Silent Generations. For them, old fashioned land yachts were appealing as that’s what they drove (or aimed for) most of their lives. They wouldn’t buy a much more avantgarde-looking Sable or Cougar from the same Lincoln-Mercury dealer.
Sure, this kind of design kept selling well in a demographic that had a lot of disposable income. It made sense to keep some older platforms in production well into the 90s, retaining a somewhat outdated style, since it was still profitable to do so.
The Mercury is better in every way for me except color. Damn I love the look of that Catalina. Voted for the wagon anyways.
Ellen Griswold and I have to take the whole tribe across the country. The Mercury is our car. Also, awesome wheel covers!
Neither car will ever be a true great, but there’s a big difference in build quality and economy between the early malaise era and the early ’90s. I picked the Mercury.
I voted for the Mercury just for the ad alone.
But I adore the rubishness of the Pontiac
Panther wagon for me please.!!
I do really like both of these but gotta go Pontiac, which I miss. That Catalina is so awesome and looks like a blast to drive…plus it’s in great shape and a great deal! I would buy it right now if I could. Yeah, that ad for the Mercury is hilarious… it’s hard to believe that’s a 1991 model
OOOH – a Plywood Pleasure Palace! After hand-me-down Volvo wagons, these things reigned supreme in my ’80s high school parking lot. This one is a tad too new, but not like they changed them much. Or got any less terrible to drive, but something to be said for a wagon that will hold ALL your friends or a 4×8 sheet of plywood.
Looks pretty nice for the price too! People usually seem to try to get stupid money for low milage examples of these. Must have been Gramp’s last ride. I’d hit that.
Green Pontiac, but only for the nostalgia-adjacent feeling. Mom and Dad had a green (not the same green, and with woodgrain) 73 Pontiac Catalina Safari wagon with the 400 that I remember fondly as the first new car they bought when I was a kid. It was also the car where I learned the lesson about playing with the door handle – the lesson being that you can fall out of the car onto a gravel road if you do such a thing. Looking back, of course, I wonder how the hell I survived the first 10 years of my life!
Man oh man. This is a tough one. I want both. But I also like a practical vehicle, and am glad they’re both not wagons. I pick the Mercury by a hair.
I wanted to vote for the Pontiac, but the ’76 is an ugly duckling generation to me. The Mercury wagon is pretty good, though that missing fender trim would bug me. Still better than a crossover!