I had a $400 76 Granada in 1988 and drove it until 2001 when someone ran a red light. Insurance gave me $2500. That was a great car especially with that 250 6cyl
That wood grain appliqué really wowed me! Understated elegance! Precise body alignment...strong and quiet. Hot melt insulation! Wow! I wish Ford still sold these...
Wow, this video portrays this car as a fancy and elegant car for wealthy people. I used to see so many rusted out examples of this Monarch and the Ford Granada clone that the brand new car featured seems incomplete and unfinished. (Somehow, the rust protection touted in this video didn't work so well in the real world.)
we had a 78 ford Granada with straight inline 6 cyl, was a good car, and my brotherinlaw had a 77 Granada gia coupe, with a 302 v-8 rode even better than ours and had more power of course, long gone and you don't see many even at car shows today, thanks for the video
I bought a 76 Granada in 1985, red with a white vinyl top 6 cylinder with A/C for like $700. I sold it a year later for about the same price. Mine was a little worn with 85K had some minor rust and a rip on the driver seat. I never thought it was that bad of a car.
Don't forget that the Monarch featured that odd mid-'70s molded plastic interior that magically turned crumbly and then white and flaky after 3 years of California sun. I was always fascinated to ride in my friend's dad's Monarch, to see how much of the interior b-post and armrest surround had melted away. Upon entering, Mr. Dad always cautioned everybody aboard not to pick at, rub or even touch anything that had once been red and plastic.
Yes there was some odd plastic going round the automotive industry in the mid-late 70s. My dad's Granada held up ok but my aunt had a Pontiac Sunbird (decendent of the Vega) and one of my friends had a Chevette that had the desintegrating plastic interior. It was so messy and odd that it only seemed to afflict certain vehicles
@@LearnAboutFlow i meant the plastic junk cars are constructed of on the outside. How dare you make fun of that luxurious plastic baby burl wood inside the vehicle. LoL.
From 1976 to 1980 my father drove a mercury monarch ghia with the legendary dearborn 5,8 litre V8. Only a few more than fifty monarchs were sold in germany. Was such a great car!🎉
I ran across and bought one of these back in 1987 and mine had the 302 V8 in it it was a ghia and had the cloth seats and was a four dour it rode like a limosine and had one of the Best Air Conditioners I ever experianced in a car. The radio was also really nice sure miss having cars like these I paid $200 for it cant rember how many miles it had on it wish I could run across one like that again
Loaded with details like the best quality European cars, aaah! Those luxury wind-down windows, non-servo assist brakes, rear drums, fablon wood-effect dash accents and vinyl seats guaranteed to make the back of your shirt tick with seat after 5 minutes on a warm day. Plus a mind blowing 145 horsepower on tap. No wonder Jaguar and Mercedes had such a foothold in the American market.
Its an insult putting mercedes in the same category as jaguar. Jaguar was pos british junk. Rust prone with lucas electrics Anything fomoco produced in the 70s was more reliable than a jaguar.
Mercedes of that era also had fake wood, low HP, crank windows (power was optional) but cost way way more than this Mercury. Learn some automotive history, mate.
David Hunt....How much more was the Mercedes and Jaguar compared to the Monarch? Everything is optional on European vehicles unlike American vehicles that have many standard features. Ford products were much more reliable and dependable compared to Jaguar's persistent electrical malfunctions and Mercedes outrageous price noisey sluggish smoky diesel engines rock hard seats skimpy carpeting just to name few back in the seventies.
David Hunt....How much more was the Mercedes and Jaguar compared to the Monarch? Everything is optional on European vehicles unlike like American vehicles that have many standard features.
my very first car a 1976 monarch coupe with the week nowadays but nice 302 for then. my dad spotted it since he owned a 1977 for the family. i payer 500 $ for the car in 1992. wish I still had it. I wrecked it on a snowy curve when I was 17. man I wish i still had it though.
6:11 ....in other words Falcon unibody that had been around since 1960. Used in Falcon , Comet , Mustang Cougar, Ranchero, Granada , Maverick....etc....
A friend’s mom in high school had a 2 tone grey/silver 2 dr. Monarch Ghia with red leather and alloy wheels. The paint was fading by the mid 80’s so they had it repainted in solid metallic grey. It looked sharp. She traded in in ‘87 for a silver Chrysler Conquest ESI. Silver with red leather. Now THAT was a nice car.
Well, cars in the '70's weren't very powerful because of crude emissions equipment, so, they started advertising them based on "luxury". It was actually a pretty nice thing. The cars were very comfortable. We had a '77 Monarch two door, and it was a decent car, and comfortable, but pretty slow. But it didn't matter since the speed limit was 55.
also since the power cars had back in the 60s and now 70s had less due to emissions the car makers Had to come up with new ideas to draw buyers Hence in my opinion all the extra options you could get like consoles console shifts the luxery decor optoin that gave you under dash courtsey lights glove box lights and duel beam overhead maplights
My father has a minty low mile 77 Monarch Ghia 4 dr with pretty much every option available including the 4-wheel disc brakes from the Lincoln Versailles. It's even a nice shade of dark blue, not an awful colour like so many 70s cars got painted.
my first actually purchased car payment car(1981). 77 two door brown automatic. later determined it was a "planned obsolescence" car. all american mfgs seemed to be doing that in the late 70s. 3rd gear & reverse went out about time it was paid off. learned to park when only facing uphill. while i did not take great care of it, still wasn't type of driver that stressed it very much. could haul bunches of friends. spent a lot of time parked in front of house; awaiting repairs. got around in the snow ok. junked it about 87. all that and this video made me long for it again. ha.
My first car was a '77 Monarch my grandfather gave us in '88 when he bought a new car. By the time we got it, it was badly rusted. Rode like a truck and had a dangerous steering system design that fortunately only made itself known when I was pulling out of a parking spot and not driving on the road. The red vinyl interior was brutal in the summer. It was, however, my first car and part of me still misses it
The Ford Granada had the same identical interior choices as the Monarch. For that matter, these cars could be had with front bench seats - I'm not sure if they weren't offered at launch or they were just only showing buckets for some random reason in this vid.
lawnmowermanTX It looks like Thousand Oaks or Westlake Village area of Southern Cal. Probably some upscale neighborhoods or country club settings were used.
My brothers 1977 Trans-Am had a red interior, when he bought it well used in 1997 it had turned almost pink, the carpet was no longer red either. This was a northern Illinois car..
I'm a Chevy man myself. But my first car, at 16yrs old was a 1976 Mercury Monarch, back in 1983. Some of you guys are putting this car down. To tell ya the truth, I would gladly take this car right now over alot of this CRAP they are putting out today.
European styled, look of precision, supple, inviting, harmonizing...bullshit buzz words. I do love these presentations how they spend so much time telling you nothing about the car such as power, handling and mileage. I guess if they were honest, they would never sell cars. Vague steering, slow acceleration, rattling interior trim and dull, orange peel paint finish is never going to sell a car.
By 1975, the Dark Ages that lasted from 1974 to 1990 had set in. Horrible emission controls and low compression engines and lean carburetors and fugly styling. These were bad years.
R Curtis I know, right, seats of 100% Nylon with the look and feel of cashmere (which was meaningless to people mostly wearing Dacron polyester at the time).
Never in a million years could the Ford Granada or Mercury Monarch compete against Mercedes Benz product. It was an american compact competing against the likes of the Dodge Dart, Plymouth Valiant, Chevrolet Nova (to include the LN) Oldsmobile Omega, Pontiac Ventura, Buick Apollo and the venerable AMC Hornet. Certainly the Ghia models were plush and the size right, but the goal post was to make compacts acceptable to drivers of full size american sedans like LTD, Impala and the stable of offerings from Chrysler. No Benz driver or prospective driver was ever going to step down to a compact from Ford, of premium european metal would ever have taken the Granada or Monarch seriously as a contender. Unfortunately, things remain the same with Benz, BMW, Audi and Porsche leading pack of contenders for the serious buyers of premium motorcars, joined by Lexus, Infiniti and Tesla. Cadillac, sadly, is hardly even in the race, unless you are a buyer over 70 and from Florida.
The Mercedes comparisons were more of a marketing gimmick than a serious attempt at competition. The quietness and smoothness about which Ford was bragging were not even top priorities for Mercedes buyers or engineers and the crisp handling and steering for which Mercedes was known were nowhere to be found in these Ford cars. I suspect that many Granada and Monarch buyers would actually have preferred their smooth, quiet, somewhat clumsy $5,000 Fords to a crisp-handling $20,000 slow-as-molasses 240D with its supportive-but-firm (eh, hard) seats and lousy air conditioning. Crisp handling and a solid feel cost a lot, but not everyone is willing to give up comfort, quiet, a modicum of power (even in smog-strangled 1975) and $15,000 to get them.
Yes, they were meant to compete with Mercedes Benz, a more affordable option though. What people don't understand is when the narrator brings up "European styling design" that's what he's talking about, competing against imports such as Mercedes-Benz. @ 8:10 it even resembled a Mercedes at this angle. Also the people resemble well off suburban white folk and that's who it was marketed towards.
@@alexanderblack2869 You're confusing FoMoCo's intent with the actual result. And no, this was not aimed at the Chrysler A-bodies. Not by a damn sight.
"The Mercury Monarch was meticulously designed and made for the car-buyer, who under no circumstances, whatsoever in any possible conceivable scenario, that anyone would dare imagine in their wildest dreams, would just assume rather be caught dead in, even if they got for free, let alone pay for, a Ford Granada."
I think the Mercury version looked far better and more refined elegant than the Ford Granada. The Granada grille was just "too busy". The Monarch definitely had the better-designed hood ornament. No thought at all went into that Granada hood ornament. But on both, the rear end design fell well short of being stylish or memorable. The rear design of both cars looked old and dated even brand new. I wonder how many people realized that these cars were just reskinned Comets and Mavericks still being sold? EXACT 109" WB platform that actually came from the 1960 Ford Falcon. Which also gave us the original 1965 Mustang. Also brought us the 109" WB, $12,000.00 Lincoln Versailles. My great uncle's sold the Monarch and Versailles. They did not dare put a Monarch and Versailles together in the showroom. No one could justify the price of two Monarchs for the price of one Versailles I had the opportunity to drive both the Monarch and Versailles. They both drove and rode far better than any Comet they were based upon. However, the Versailles was far superior to the Monarch in engineering and build quality.
We’ll call it a “Video Network.” We can Post and share videos that will be both educational and entertaining. 🤣 Anyway they were really trying to align with the MB 240/300 series.
In the 70s, corporate America was convinced it could sell any piece of shit with the right marketing pitch. Nothing has changed. To be fair to them, hipsters today bought the new Fiat 500!
I think the color combinations were prettier 20 and 30 years ago. Silver and greys with black interiors are the standard today. Without question, the lowest budget, cheapest combo money can buy. Bad Enough Silver, gray and black are not colors first of all, and ugly to the max. I look at silver and gray and black combinations and I see and 1940s black and white television set..
Trim pieces added on to an already ugly car constituted "luxury" back then? People truly were more gullible then. As a child I remember these mostly off the road after 8 years.
Mercury Monarch, Ford Granada, Lincoln Versailles...three flavors of the identical cheap plastic disposable POS. The most expensive Lincolns in this era were just as awful and they were the absolute best that FMC could do. Just cringe-worthy.
Yep, compared to the G.M. equivalent, much better ride, better running, better handling. My dad was a Ford man all his life, and I don't know why. You should have heard him when I told him I was a Chevy, or G.M. man. Oh he loved that! him..> 🤬 me..> 😖
The Versailles had posi rear end with rear disc brakes that fit into 67-70 mustang. I fitted my 68 cougar with the Lincoln rear end and people were amazed.
It's hard to believe that Ford tried to sell a car that was a miniature version of the Marquis. They could have at least had Power Windows, Cruise Control and leather interior as standard equipment, instead of vinyl. Ford made some bad decisions in the late 1970's and early 1980's. GM didn't downsize as much as Ford did, at least not until the mid-80's. Btw, background music sucks. Typical elevator music of the 1970's.
Nothing about this car is attractive. Nothing. The body lines, stance, headlights, grille, trunk, hubcaps...all gross. My grandpa had a 1977 and I thought it was ugly when I was 5. Hard to believe people bought this shit back in the day. If I recall correctly it was a piece of shit, too.
And they tried comparing to to a Benz. The Benz has trim, flowing lines and the bumpers intergrate well into the body. The Granada's are bulky and look like they're added on. The chunky, boxy lines don't work well with the smaller body. All the interior was plastic and imitation everything. Its funny if you look you can see how they recycled the inside door handle releases from the Falcon and Maverick, which this car is derived from.
Background music is awesome. Typical beautiful music of 1970s
Did Hank the deuce (Henry Ford II) sign off on the music?
Totally agree with you! Lovely ambiance indeed.
Totally agree!
Orchestra 😊
Damn they knew how to sell vehicles back in my day!
Years ago I bought a 1980 mercury monarch for $100 and fixed the carb and drove it for years. It had the 250 inline 6. Great car.
That's awesome. Yeah, those straight 6's were tough engines man. Actually.. pretty hard to kill.
I had a $400 76 Granada in 1988 and drove it until 2001 when someone ran a red light. Insurance gave me $2500. That was a great car especially with that 250 6cyl
@@Dino-fz6ub I had one for 11 years (1980 Monarch 2-door, 250 six engine) when I was in the Army, never had to do anything but change oil/plugs...
good find and those inline sixes were Really reliable sturdy engines
That wood grain appliqué really wowed me! Understated elegance! Precise body alignment...strong and quiet. Hot melt insulation! Wow! I wish Ford still sold these...
Wow, this video portrays this car as a fancy and elegant car for wealthy people. I used to see so many rusted out examples of this Monarch and the Ford Granada clone that the brand new car featured seems incomplete and unfinished. (Somehow, the rust protection touted in this video didn't work so well in the real world.)
Beautiful Mercury styling. Loved the Monarch
we had a 78 ford Granada with straight inline 6 cyl, was a good car, and my brotherinlaw had a 77 Granada gia coupe, with a 302 v-8 rode even better than ours and had more power of course, long gone and you don't see many even at car shows today, thanks for the video
thomas ankner
There was also the larger 351 (5.8-liter) version of the Windsor V8.
I bought a 76 Granada in 1985, red with a white vinyl top 6 cylinder with A/C for like $700. I sold it a year later for about the same price. Mine was a little worn with 85K had some minor rust and a rip on the driver seat. I never thought it was that bad of a car.
I'm gonna run down to my local Ford dealer and pick one up today!
Don't forget that the Monarch featured that odd mid-'70s molded plastic interior that magically turned crumbly and then white and flaky after 3 years of California sun. I was always fascinated to ride in my friend's dad's Monarch, to see how much of the interior b-post and armrest surround had melted away. Upon entering, Mr. Dad always cautioned everybody aboard not to pick at, rub or even touch anything that had once been red and plastic.
Surprisingly my 76 2 dr. Ghia w 351w V8 came from California but must of sat in a garage. Nothing melted or crumbled on mine
President Jimmy Carter had one of these back in the day.
Yes there was some odd plastic going round the automotive industry in the mid-late 70s. My dad's Granada held up ok but my aunt had a Pontiac Sunbird (decendent of the Vega) and one of my friends had a Chevette that had the desintegrating plastic interior. It was so messy and odd that it only seemed to afflict certain vehicles
My neighbor had a 1981 Mustang in Québec with a blue interior. The top of the dash completely warped, cracked, and turned green.
I has a 78 camaro red interior. Had red plastic and remember it flaking into white dust
Oh I wish I could go back in time to 1975. Such style and comfort. Elegance. Not like today's plastic junk.
Yes, no plastic junk with that simulated burl wood applique
@@LearnAboutFlow i meant the plastic junk cars are constructed of on the outside. How dare you make fun of that luxurious plastic baby burl wood inside the vehicle. LoL.
You had me at luxury wood applique and fake wheel covers.
From 1976 to 1980 my father drove a mercury monarch ghia with the legendary dearborn 5,8 litre V8. Only a few more than fifty monarchs were sold in germany. Was such a great car!🎉
I ran across and bought one of these back in 1987 and mine had the 302 V8 in it it was a ghia and had the cloth seats and was a four dour it rode like a limosine and had one of the Best Air Conditioners I ever experianced in a car. The radio was also really nice sure miss having cars like these I paid $200 for it cant rember how many miles it had on it wish I could run across one like that again
They really knew how to stretch reality and the use of euphemisms!
Dad's dove grey 79 Granada Ghia was so much fun to drive ....even with the lowly 6...many great memories!
Great car. Great manufacturer.
Loaded with details like the best quality European cars, aaah! Those luxury wind-down windows, non-servo assist brakes, rear drums, fablon wood-effect dash accents and vinyl seats guaranteed to make the back of your shirt tick with seat after 5 minutes on a warm day. Plus a mind blowing 145 horsepower on tap. No wonder Jaguar and Mercedes had such a foothold in the American market.
oh please dont compare the monarch to a pos jaguar it was a 100 times more reliable than that Teaaboo junk
Its an insult putting mercedes in the same category as jaguar. Jaguar was pos british junk. Rust prone with lucas electrics Anything fomoco produced in the 70s was more reliable than a jaguar.
Mercedes of that era also had fake wood, low HP, crank windows (power was optional) but cost way way more than this Mercury. Learn some automotive history, mate.
David Hunt....How much more was the Mercedes and Jaguar compared to the Monarch?
Everything is optional on European vehicles unlike American vehicles that have many standard features.
Ford products were much more reliable and dependable compared to Jaguar's persistent electrical malfunctions and Mercedes outrageous price noisey sluggish smoky diesel engines rock hard seats skimpy carpeting just to name few back in the seventies.
David Hunt....How much more was the Mercedes and Jaguar compared to the Monarch?
Everything is optional on European vehicles unlike like American vehicles that have many standard features.
Maravillosos años,cuando los coches eran coches y la vida más amable.
Terrific ad. My favorite is the black Ghia coupe with red leather at the very end.
I had a 78 Granada, the Ford twin of the Monarch. Second best car I ever had and it's why I drove a Ford (2015 Focus) today.
my very first car a 1976 monarch coupe with the week nowadays but nice 302 for then. my dad spotted it since he owned a 1977 for the family. i payer 500 $ for the car in 1992. wish I still had it. I wrecked it on a snowy curve when I was 17. man I wish i still had it though.
“Rear seat passengers can get in and out of the car with surprising ease and convenience.” 10:45 Especially if they’re children!
Ford and the Chevy Nova had horrid space utilization
6:11 ....in other words Falcon unibody that had been around since 1960. Used in Falcon , Comet , Mustang Cougar, Ranchero, Granada , Maverick....etc....
A friend’s mom in high school had a 2 tone grey/silver 2 dr. Monarch Ghia with red leather and alloy wheels. The paint was fading by the mid 80’s so they had it repainted in solid metallic grey. It looked sharp. She traded in in ‘87 for a silver Chrysler Conquest ESI. Silver with red leather. Now THAT was a nice car.
I know someone who had a light blue '76 Monarch two door. Most of the body panels rusted through by the time it was 5 years old...
Tengo uno de éstos acá en Ecuador, que belleza de auto
Well, cars in the '70's weren't very powerful because of crude emissions equipment, so, they started advertising them based on "luxury". It was actually a pretty nice thing. The cars were very comfortable. We had a '77 Monarch two door, and it was a decent car, and comfortable, but pretty slow. But it didn't matter since the speed limit was 55.
Yep you summed it up exactly. The powerful engines were all smog choked and the engineers tried to top one another with luxury.
also since the power cars had back in the 60s and now 70s had less due to emissions the car makers Had to come up with new ideas to draw buyers Hence in my opinion all the extra options you could get like consoles console shifts the luxery decor optoin that gave you under dash courtsey lights glove box lights and duel beam overhead maplights
My father has a minty low mile 77 Monarch Ghia 4 dr with pretty much every option available including the 4-wheel disc brakes from the Lincoln Versailles. It's even a nice shade of dark blue, not an awful colour like so many 70s cars got painted.
Yield Sign Yellow was my favorite 70s car color lol
my first actually purchased car payment car(1981). 77 two door brown automatic. later determined it was a "planned obsolescence" car. all american mfgs seemed to be doing that in the late 70s. 3rd gear & reverse went out about time it was paid off. learned to park when only facing uphill. while i did not take great care of it, still wasn't type of driver that stressed it very much. could haul bunches of friends. spent a lot of time parked in front of house; awaiting repairs. got around in the snow ok. junked it about 87. all that and this video made me long for it again. ha.
'The look of' precision craftsmanship. Cool, thanks for that. LOL
I love how much they hyped up cars
My first car was a 77' Granada with 4 doors 250 6 with Jatco Auto matic 3 speed for my high school car.
When I was growing up, my parents had a brown four door Monarch....... But, damn, the 2-door is actually sexy as hell!!
I used to drive one for a couple of times, back in the 90s , the v8 engine sounded great
All that luxury, and you didn't get power brakes or power steering as standard equipment?
Optional power steering? In a Mercury?
My great uncle sonny had a 4 door monarch it was a nice car
My first car was a '77 Monarch my grandfather gave us in '88 when he bought a new car. By the time we got it, it was badly rusted. Rode like a truck and had a dangerous steering system design that fortunately only made itself known when I was pulling out of a parking spot and not driving on the road. The red vinyl interior was brutal in the summer. It was, however, my first car and part of me still misses it
That 'cl-unk' when he shut the door haha
I miss my 75 Quiet and smooth.
Luxury built on the venerable Maverick frame
I miss my 75. It was easy to work on and did not have as much federally regulated crap as the new ones do now. Thanks for the video .👍
It's funny that later Fords had cloth that nice as the standard material with optional leather.
The Ford Granada had the same identical interior choices as the Monarch. For that matter, these cars could be had with front bench seats - I'm not sure if they weren't offered at launch or they were just only showing buckets for some random reason in this vid.
A landau-type vinyl roof would have been a nice touch on the two-door Monarch, especially on the Ghia.
My 1st car 🚗 was a 1977 Mercury monarch😍
my parents had a 2 door, nice car
Was a six-cylinder really standard in this car?
Michael Bacon Yes.
I love to know where this was filmed at? The place looks futuristic.. Almost like an elegant office complex? What town, state this was at?
lawnmowermanTX It looks like Thousand Oaks or Westlake Village area of Southern Cal. Probably some upscale neighborhoods or country club settings were used.
My brothers 1977 Trans-Am had a red interior, when he bought it well used in 1997 it had turned almost pink, the carpet was no longer red either. This was a northern Illinois car..
I'm a Chevy man myself.
But my first car, at 16yrs old was a 1976 Mercury Monarch, back in 1983.
Some of you guys are putting this car down. To tell ya the truth, I would gladly take this car right now over alot of this CRAP they are putting out today.
By "European-style tricolor tail lights", he meant taillights with red(brake and tail),amber(turn signal) and white(backup)lenses.
Anyone know the name of the announcer?
So in the 1980s and 1990s did they use this frame for the down sized Lincoln?
Ì had a79 monarch. Transmission problems. Bought a 80 Malibu
European styled, look of precision, supple, inviting, harmonizing...bullshit buzz words. I do love these presentations how they spend so much time telling you nothing about the car such as power, handling and mileage.
I guess if they were honest, they would never sell cars. Vague steering, slow acceleration, rattling interior trim and dull, orange peel paint finish is never going to sell a car.
By 1975, the Dark Ages that lasted from 1974 to 1990 had set in. Horrible emission controls and low compression engines and lean carburetors and fugly styling. These were bad years.
Harry. B. Renner. jr. Tell us more!
Mom and Dad buckle up. The kids in the back seat go "phooey"...
No one noticed, the guy couldn't fit in the car. He sat with his leg's outside of the car. I liked these cars (Granada more).
Wring another hundred horsepower out of the stock V8, and it wouldn't be a bad car.
It was the 70's. Technology had not caught up with emission demands yet. But ya 130hp 302 is pretty bad.
High Pile Carpet... Wood " Appliques" Accents... Vinyl Seating???? Sign Me Up!!!!
R Curtis I know, right, seats of 100% Nylon with the look and feel of cashmere (which was meaningless to people mostly wearing Dacron polyester at the time).
Don't forget the fine digital clock!!!!!
Fantastic car this Monarch Ghia Coupe, I will take three. Does it come in blue?
what's the music used?
1970's your eyes out!
These made a lot of money being sold to fleet car companies. Most succumbed to rust. Drainage was poor. Great 70s music halfway in this, however.
My dad had one that was tuned
These things -- and the Ford Granada -- were built to compete against Mercedes-Benz, specifically..
Never in a million years could the Ford Granada or Mercury Monarch compete against Mercedes Benz product. It was an american compact competing against the likes of the Dodge Dart, Plymouth Valiant, Chevrolet Nova (to include the LN) Oldsmobile Omega, Pontiac Ventura, Buick Apollo and the venerable AMC Hornet. Certainly the Ghia models were plush and the size right, but the goal post was to make compacts acceptable to drivers of full size american sedans like LTD, Impala and the stable of offerings from Chrysler. No Benz driver or prospective driver was ever going to step down to a compact from Ford, of premium european metal would ever have taken the Granada or Monarch seriously as a contender. Unfortunately, things remain the same with Benz, BMW, Audi and Porsche leading pack of contenders for the serious buyers of premium motorcars, joined by Lexus, Infiniti and Tesla. Cadillac, sadly, is hardly even in the race, unless you are a buyer over 70 and from Florida.
The Mercedes comparisons were more of a marketing gimmick than a serious attempt at competition. The quietness and smoothness about which Ford was bragging were not even top priorities for Mercedes buyers or engineers and the crisp handling and steering for which Mercedes was known were nowhere to be found in these Ford cars. I suspect that many Granada and Monarch buyers would actually have preferred their smooth, quiet, somewhat clumsy $5,000 Fords to a crisp-handling $20,000 slow-as-molasses 240D with its supportive-but-firm (eh, hard) seats and lousy air conditioning. Crisp handling and a solid feel cost a lot, but not everyone is willing to give up comfort, quiet, a modicum of power (even in smog-strangled 1975) and $15,000 to get them.
Yes, they were meant to compete with Mercedes Benz, a more affordable option though. What people don't understand is when the narrator brings up "European styling design" that's what he's talking about, competing against imports such as Mercedes-Benz. @ 8:10 it even resembled a Mercedes at this angle. Also the people resemble well off suburban white folk and that's who it was marketed towards.
@@alexanderblack2869 You're confusing FoMoCo's intent with the actual result. And no, this was not aimed at the Chrysler A-bodies. Not by a damn sight.
"The Mercury Monarch was meticulously designed and made for the car-buyer, who under no circumstances, whatsoever in any possible conceivable scenario, that anyone would dare imagine in their wildest dreams, would just assume rather be caught dead in, even if they got for free, let alone pay for, a Ford Granada."
Fine video
Narrator must be 7 feet tall. Towers over the car.
Yes... but does it have *PRECISION?!*
I think the Mercury version looked far better and more refined elegant than the Ford Granada. The Granada grille was just "too busy". The Monarch definitely had the better-designed hood ornament. No thought at all went into that Granada hood ornament. But on both, the rear end design fell well short of being stylish or memorable. The rear design of both cars looked old and dated even brand new. I wonder how many people realized that these cars were just reskinned Comets and Mavericks still being sold? EXACT 109" WB platform that actually came from the 1960 Ford Falcon. Which also gave us the original 1965 Mustang. Also brought us the 109" WB, $12,000.00 Lincoln Versailles.
My great uncle's sold the Monarch and Versailles. They did not dare put a Monarch and Versailles together in the showroom. No one could justify the price of two Monarchs for the price of one Versailles
I had the opportunity to drive both the Monarch and Versailles. They both drove and rode far better than any Comet they were based upon. However, the Versailles was far superior to the Monarch in engineering and build quality.
10:48 probably no seatbelts in the back. 😑
Required by federal regulations front and back since the late 60s.
We’ll call it a “Video Network.” We can Post and share videos that will be both educational and entertaining. 🤣 Anyway they were really trying to align with the MB 240/300 series.
In the 70s, corporate America was convinced it could sell any piece of shit with the right marketing pitch. Nothing has changed. To be fair to them, hipsters today bought the new Fiat 500!
Hmmm The Mighty Mercury Monarch
nice car.
By any may-sure
I think the color combinations were prettier 20 and 30 years ago. Silver and greys with black interiors are the standard today. Without question, the lowest budget, cheapest combo money can buy. Bad Enough Silver, gray and black are not colors first of all, and ugly to the max. I look at silver and gray and black combinations and I see and 1940s black and white television set..
Granada´s Brother
Elegance and opera windows ....mmmmm
man, did they put a lot of lipstick on that pig or what....
Крутяк =)
Wheel covers. Hub caps.
Trim pieces added on to an already ugly car constituted "luxury" back then? People truly were more gullible then. As a child I remember these mostly off the road after 8 years.
Had one of these back in the day, what a POS
Supple Vinyl??...lol
A PERFECT CAR FOR THE WANNA BE MECHANIC!
Genuine SIMULATED wood applique and nylon seat covers ..... LOL
A ford granada
"Walnut applique." Applique = plastic.
Luxury vinyl....and faux burl applique..... LOL
supple vinyl lol
I wish Ford would build better quality cars
Took driver's Ed in high-school in these ,donated by Sachs and Sons in Downey , really lame boring cars !
Mercury Monarch, Ford Granada, Lincoln Versailles...three flavors of the identical cheap plastic disposable POS. The most expensive Lincolns in this era were just as awful and they were the absolute best that FMC could do. Just cringe-worthy.
Built on the Maverick frame no less!
Yep, compared to the G.M. equivalent, much better ride, better running, better handling.
My dad was a Ford man all his life, and I don't know why. You should have heard him when I told him I was a Chevy, or G.M. man. Oh he loved that! him..> 🤬 me..> 😖
The Versailles had posi rear end with rear disc brakes that fit into 67-70 mustang. I fitted my 68 cougar with the Lincoln rear end and people were amazed.
Ugly cars 🚗! 😑
Hideous car, looks geriatric and lazy !
It's hard to believe that Ford tried to sell a car that was a miniature version of the Marquis. They could have at least had Power Windows, Cruise Control and leather interior as standard equipment, instead of vinyl. Ford made some bad decisions in the late 1970's and early 1980's. GM didn't downsize as much as Ford did, at least not until the mid-80's. Btw, background music sucks. Typical elevator music of the 1970's.
Late 70s crap ..80s .junk
Nothing about this car is attractive. Nothing. The body lines, stance, headlights, grille, trunk, hubcaps...all gross. My grandpa had a 1977 and I thought it was ugly when I was 5. Hard to believe people bought this shit back in the day. If I recall correctly it was a piece of shit, too.
And they tried comparing to to a Benz. The Benz has trim, flowing lines and the bumpers intergrate well into the body. The Granada's are bulky and look like they're added on. The chunky, boxy lines don't work well with the smaller body. All the interior was plastic and imitation everything. Its funny if you look you can see how they recycled the inside door handle releases from the Falcon and Maverick, which this car is derived from.