Junkyard Find: 1973 Mercury Montego MX Brougham

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

We’re on a 1973 roll here in Junkyard Find land, with a ’73 Luxury LeMans yesterday and a ’73 Super Beetle the day before, so I’m going to keep it going with another car from the year everything went to hell. The Montego was the blinged-out, gingerbread-encrusted sibling of the Ford Torino during this era, so it made sense that Mercury would sell a Brougham edition.

As can be seen from this car’s surroundings, I shot these photos at the Brain Melting Colorado Yard.

This car was locked, so I couldn’t open the hood and take a look at the engine. This car could be purchased with a 92-horsepower 250 L6, a 137-horsepower 302 V8, and an assortment of 351C, 400M, and 429 V8s with distressingly low power ratings and OPEC-gratifying thirst.

Still, I think these things are cool. I’m sure Sajeev agrees.





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.

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  • Gkhize Gkhize on Jul 23, 2012

    Love it, like others said, looks ready for the road. Drove a Pea Green version of this with a white vinyl top for a while. The drivers seat springs were shot so you sat low and could barely see out over that long hood. Would love to get my hands on that '66 Merc coupe sitting next to it too.

  • Laserwizard Laserwizard on Dec 28, 2015

    What goes unreported on this rag of a site is that the 250 inline six was really rated at 150 plus horsepower before 1972 - afterwards the entire industry was operating under new SAE horsepower reporting standards. I can attest that in a 1969 Mustang, a 250 six-cylinder was no slug. Once more this site is less about truth and more about someone's ego.

  • EBFlex China can F right off.
  • MrIcky And tbh, this is why I don't mind a little subsidization of our battery industry. If the American or at least free trade companies don't get some sort of good start, they'll never be able to float long enough to become competitive.
  • SCE to AUX Does the WTO have any teeth? Seems like countries just flail it at each other like a soft rubber stick for internal political purposes.
  • Peter You know we’ve entered the age of self driving vehicles When KIAs go from being stolen to rolling away by themselves.
  • Analoggrotto TTAC is full of drug addicts with short memories. Just beside this article is another very beautiful article about how the EV9 was internationally voted by a renowned board of automotive experts who are no doubt highly educated, wealthy and affluent; the best vehicle in entire world. That's planet earth for you numbskulls. Let me repeat: the best vehicle in the world is the Kia EV9. Voted, and sealed, and if you try to deny it Fanny Willis is ready to prosecute you; but she will send her boyfriend instead because she is busy.
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