Junkyard Find: 1976 Ford LTD Country Squire
The perceived usefulness of full-sized station wagons of the Malaise Era dropped down to about zero when minivans and SUVs became mainstream family-hauler options in the late 1980s. You see a few wagon freaks restoring these things nowadays, but for every Country Squire that gets restored (or even preserved), a hundred others get sent to the knackers. Here’s a well-worn ’76 that I spotted in Denver a couple weeks back.
We saw a ’75 Country Squire in this series last fall, but big Detroit wagons have become very rare sights in junkyards during the last half-decade or so.
Growing up a Malaise Era kid, just about every family had a Country Squire or its GM or Chrysler counterpart; these cars were the Voyager and Explorer of their time. My family had a Chevy Beauville van instead (bought new for a Minnesota-to-California move), but the idea was the same: rear-wheel-drive, body-on-frame construction, big V8, kid-barf-proof cloth or vinyl interior.
This is the 460-cubic-inch big-block, good for 202 horsepower and 352 foot-pounds of torque… and about 9 MPG on the highway. Yes, the horsepower number is depressingly low, but torque was what mattered with these cars.
The faux-wood trim succumbed to the Colorado sun decades ago.
After 37 years, this car has been used up.
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My wife bought a '75 version of this LTD wagon. 460, C6, Puke (avacado) green with faux wood trim. When it died , it was replaced with a series of 5 Grand Wagoneers. Faux wood til the end.
Growing up in Northeast Denver(Montbello) in the 80's and 90's, I still saw a good amount of these cars on the blocks of the neighborhood. When I was really small, my parents had a 1976 Grand Marquis Sedan. I loved that car. Cant remember if it was some type of brougham sedan or not. I love your features M.M. Keep em coming.