Vintage Road Test: 1971 Mercury Marquis, Get Your Dramamine Ready!

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

YouTube user Bajabusta has done us quite a service by uploading so many old Car & Track road tests from the late 1960s and early 1970s. We watched the ’72 Volkswagen 412 exhibit some scary trailing throttle oversteer last week, and now it’s time to watch a classic Detroit land yacht make its stately way around a test track.


As the C&T testers found, the ’71 Marquis was a dream during long highway drives, but totally out of its element when called upon to heave its vast bulk around a turn. Since this review was done before the 1973 OPEC embargo, no mention was made of the car’s no-doubt-execrable fuel economy.

Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

More by Murilee Martin

Comments
Join the conversation
9 of 73 comments
  • Nick Nick on Mar 21, 2011

    What the hell was up with car colours in the 70s anyway?

    • See 3 previous
    • 86er 86er on Mar 28, 2011

      Dan and Sajeev, The closest I ever saw to colour variety in the 70s tradition was green/green '97 Marquis I saw for sale last year. Quite the thing to see.

  • Supremebrougham Supremebrougham on Mar 28, 2011

    @86er Sounds to me like you saw the offered-for-1997-only Vermont Green. It could be had with the Willow Green interior. Can you tell I worked at an L-M dealer back then??? :)

    • 86er 86er on Mar 28, 2011

      Hi Richard, It was spectacular, especially because it seemed so out of place in 1997, when everything was moving inexorably towards the monochromatic Borg. Ah well, I've got my anachronistic exterior and interior chromatic schemes for my respective vehicles, will wait out the storm. Maybe the Return of Colour was heralded by the choices you see in the Malibu; or maybe it's a false dawn.

  • LandShark LandShark on Aug 31, 2011

    I remember whan I was about 5 my Dad, who was a police officer, had a city take home car. It was a 1975 Dodge Monaco four door with a 440. It was brown with white painted top. I'll never forget the joy of climbing onto that brown vinyl bench seat in the summer only to end up with third degree burns on my thighs. Or the absolute awesome growl as the secondaries on the four barrel would open up at full throttle. This early experience had it's affect on me. In high school I drove a 1969 four door Malibu light green with green vinyl interrior. I currently own a 1971 Mercury Marquis like the one above, only mine is a two door, brown with brown vinyl top and parchment brown interrior. The 429 is a beast of a motor and I am currently in the process of installing an intake, cam, and 770 holley carb. I love the stares I get when cruising down the freeway. I think the best feature of the car is the '70s Dukes of Hazard style CB antenna on the trunk. It really compliments the 800 pounds of factory chrome.

  • Hotrodjon_1 Hotrodjon_1 on Aug 17, 2015

    I know this is an old post but I have to throw my 2 cents worth in as I sit here watching the Blues Brothers. I grew up around old Galaxie's and LTD's and hated them, then in the mid eighties I got my first taste of real power in the form of a 73 Merc Monterey, (former Iowa state trooper car, 429 Interceptor) what an awesome car - cop motor, cop suspension - you get it!!! Fast forward many years and I get the chance to buy a super clean plain 72 Merc Marquis 2 door. What an awesome car, yes by today's standards the handling sucks but think about it they all sucked back then compared to today, a new Corvette and a 2nd gen f body were top notch and today they are highly modified to handle. The 72 Marquis 2dr hrdtp cool factor is off the charts in green on green on green, that's right green paint, green top, green interior. No it's not going to burn through the quarter or the slalom but parked next to a Scaremaro, Mustang, or numerous other (rare, quote-unquote) rides it blows them away, oh and cruising down the highway where belongs brings constant thumbs up from euro luxury car drivers. Enough said.

Next