Junkyard Find: 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis LS Colony Park Station Wagon

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The popularity of the full-size station wagon went into steep decline during the course of the 1980s, thanks to competition from minivans and less truck-ish SUVs, and there wasn’t a particularly compelling reason to get a Mercury wagon instead of its near-identical, cheaper Ford sibling, so the 1979-1991 Mercury Grand Marquis Colony Park wagon was uncommon then and near-extinct now. I do see some Ford LTD Country Squires in wrecking yards nowadays— this ’86 woodie and this ’87 woodie, for example— but this Colony Park is the first I’ve seen in at least a decade.

This generation of Colony Park wasn’t quite as majestic as its 1950s and 1960s predecessors, but it also got about twice as many miles per gallon as those barges.

The good old familiar 302-cubic-inch Windsor V8, still fitted with a carburetor in 1985, powered this wagon.

Opera lights!

This fender trim has a very maze-like shape.

Are there little speakers in the steering wheel, or are those holes merely decorative?

The Colorado sun has not been kind to these leather seats.


The Grand Marquis kicked some Buick and Oldsmobile butt, to hear Mercury tell it.










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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  • Chicagoland Chicagoland on Nov 14, 2014

    With the towing package and Trac Loc rear axle, these drove like sport sedans. I had two of these as project cars, '87 and '90 and they drove better than average full sizers. But rust, gas prices, and unemployment killed the dream of keeping them longer.

    • Ponchoman49 Ponchoman49 on Nov 21, 2014

      Any Panther with this upgrade handled considerably better and was basically a must. GM B- bodies also required the F-41 upgrade for any kind of handling ability and an upgraded rear end and limited slip were also nice upgrades worth seeking out. My buddy had a 1986 Caprice coupe equipped with F-41, gauge package, 305 4BBL, larger P225 tires, limited slip 2.73 rear end and plenty of other goodies and that car drove really well and had enough power to effortlessly keep up with fast pace traffic.

  • Sarah Sarah on Nov 21, 2023

    Where was this.. I need that back seat lol

  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
  • Merc190 I test drive one of these back in the day with an automatic, just to drive an Alfa, with a Busso no less. Didn't care for the dash design, would be a fun adventure to find some scrapped Lancia Themas or Saab 900's and do some swapping to make car even sweeter. But definitely lose the ground effects.
  • MRF 95 T-Bird These 164s, as documented by its owner have to be constantly sorted, as they say. They are nice drivers. I’d rather find a, under the 25 year rule nice and easier to deal with Type 916 Alfa Romeo GTV/Spyder.
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