Junkyard Find: 1982 Ford LTD Country Squire

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Before Real American Families drove SUVs and minivans, they drove full-sized Detroit station wagons.

I’m not a wagon fanatic and it doesn’t break my heart that wagons are no longer mainstream (although it does break my heart that Chrysler didn’t bring back wagons with huge tailfins instead of the PT Cruiser), but I recognize that the archetypal Detroit wagon of the 1960s and 1970s was the Ford Country Squire. I can’t resist photographing a junked Squire when I see one in the junkyard, and so here’s a Late Malaise Era Country Squire I spotted in a San Francisco Bay area wrecking yard.

So far in this series, we have seen this ’75, this ’76, this ’77, this ’86, and this ’87 (plus this bonus ’72). Nearly all of them had not-even-trying-to-look-real fake wood “paneling” and “trim” on their flanks, like today’s car.

For the 1979 model year, the Country Squire (badged as an LTD Country Squire, which remained the case even after the LTD itself moved to the Fox platform later) would go onto the Panther platform. This made it smaller than the dreadnought Squires that preceded it, but still big enough for large families and their gear. My own family had an extremely practical and stylish 1973 Chevrolet Sportvan Beauville during this era, which may be the main reason I’m not nostalgic about enormous LBJ-Nixon-Ford-Carter-era station wagons or the slightly smaller Reagan-era wagons.

The first owner of this wagon kept maintenance records using Dymo labels on the striker surface of the driver’s door. It appears that only 27,440 miles were put on the clock during this Squire’s first decade.

Under the hood, a 255-cubic-inch Windsor V8 made a grim 122 horsepower. The 255 was a very rare and very loathed engine, and it was used only for the 1980 through 1982 model years. I’ve seen two of these engines swapped into 24 Hours of LeMons Mustangs after 302 obliteration, because they were the only Windsor engines available for cheap on Craigslist late on a Saturday night and the teams were desperate to resume racing on Sunday.

Look out world! Here comes Ford!

[Images: © 2016 Murilee Martin/The Truth About Cars]








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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  • New2000car New2000car on Mar 10, 2017

    Compare this 82 Ford in the junkyard to the 2004 Suzuki Verona also in the junkyard. In 79 this car line underwent a major weight loss (like Chevy did in 77 with the Caprice). It was like 700 lbs, and a huge improvement. They were so much lighter and better than their predecessors. This car lasted 22 years longer than the Verona, and the K cars. That 82 Granada that was in the junkyard, notice how the rear end accident totaled it after it was 30 years old? The same damage would have totaled a K car after it was 6 years old! I remember in the 90s there were plenty of 80s K cars in the junkyard. The 80s Fords were still driving around, taking people places.

  • 8T9WOOD 8T9WOOD on Apr 03, 2022

    Resurrecting a really old post, I know- but can anyone share exactly where this wagon is located?? I need parts! Thank you! Bill

  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
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