5k: 1973 Mercury Comet – Survivor
The Mercury Comet in its early years was a rebadged Ford Falcon – but by the 70s the Falcon had its wings clipped, so Mercury switched the Comet to the new Maverick platform – still just a rebadge. This 1973 Mercury Comet is in original condition with a claimed 41k miles on the odo and is for sale in Warrenton, MO for $6200 via craigslist. Thanks to tip from DT reader/commenter Scot!
This Comet is only an afro away from being a member of the Bee Gees. It really has that 70s style down to a tee – classy bland paint color, contrasting vinyl top, pin striping, shag carpet inside. The paint is presumably original (always a plus in our book) and was “Ziebarted” when new. Ziebart is a company that provides a comprehensive rust preventive treatment for automobiles and if the sales literature is correct it would make this car much better preserved than the average 40 year old car.
This Comet is powered by the venerable Ford 302, a 5.0 liter pushrod V8 that puts out about 138 smog throttled horsepower (it was also one year after US automakers started reporting power figures in Net instead of Gross horsepower (in gross hp this would have been closer to 200).) It does have enough torque to push the light (2900 lb) Maverick/Falcon/Mustang/Fairlane chassis around with some vigor. It is mated to a column shifted slushbox automatic, so just enjoy the low end torque and comfy ride, don’t try to drive it like a sports car – it won’t impress anyone.
It really looks and feels like studio 54 inside this thing and we would put a disco ball hanging from the rear view mirror if it were legal in our home state. The interior looks great, dash is nice, door cards and trim pieces look nice, which is important, because you aren’t going to be able to get many of those pieces from your local Autozone. You will however be able to get cheap mechanical (engine/trans/brakes/suspension) parts for this car because of the platform sharing with other Ford products.
The rear end has tail lights shared with Montego and Cyclone models, and today look cooler than the simple Maverick pieces. Overall if this car has had excellent maintenance and is as advertised, this could be a great car to drive everyday and take it to car shows on the weekends. With any luck, in a few years Barrett-Jackson regulars will have tired of the big block ’60s muscle cars and bidders will be in a frenzy for vinyl topped Brougham-esque cars such as this model and you can sell it and retire a millionaire. That probably won’t happen, but you’d enjoy cruising around in this car more than a ’90s Accord and it won’t have all the electrical gremlins that the 2001 Audi you’ve been looking at does.
See another low mile retro-ride for sale? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
~when this extra-clean little Mercury (Ford) popped up on craigslist my thought was not 'how much do you suppose this would bring at Barrett-Jackson?', however it's a mighty nice 40 year old car. it ought to be driven and carefully maintained in which case it will always be worth the $6200 asking price. paint looks quite nice, non-dealer Ziebart undercoat treatment was a good investment, and 302ci V8 adds power over 170 or 200 I6 motor.
DT mentions, 'the rear end has tail lights shared with Montego and Cyclone models' let us not forget these tail lights, of all the millions of tail lights in all the hundreds of thousands of automotive recycling centers across the land, these are the same ones chosen for the Bat-Javelin.
dailyturismo.com/2012/08/5k-1972-amc-javelin-batmobile-riddler.html#more
in case any one missed it.