That’s because he’s not trying to make a living on RU-vid. Adam is clearly doing this simply for fun, and any money he makes is a bonus for him. The guys trying to make a living on RU-vid overproduce their videos.
@@joe6096 yeah I understand that, even if he tried to make a living off it, its nothing wrong with it. I wouldnt mind Advertisement either but I just like the fact that there is no long introduction like "hey guys, welcome to my channel bla bla, today Im gonna show you/talk about bla bla.. Stay tuned" - then comes the introduction of the channel usually together with very loud dubstep music and then again "hey guys like I said, welcome to my channel and today Im gonna show you/talk about bla bla.." Well just START YOUR CONTENT bro!! I mean my God, and I guess thats what you mean when you say that they overproduce the video!
What's better than having a Mercury Marquis??? Having a Marquis base coupe, a Marquis Brougham 4 door hardtop, a Marquis Brougham pillared hardtop & a Colony Park wagon!!! Wow Adam, you have more Mercury's than Hawaii 50!!! 👍👍😲
Love this kind of video. As a kid (born in ‘61) I was fascinated with cars and all the little subleties btw the models and across the brands. Dad was a Mercury man so I have a soft spot for the brand❤️
I was so lucky and fortunate to own a '74 Mercury Grand Marquis Brougham Coupe with oval windows on the C pillar, in ivory with beige top. What a wonderfully driving automobile it was. Thank you Adam, once again.
I've always thought the heavy hitters from most auto makers (esp. FoMoCo, Mopar and Cadillac) look better as 4-door hardtops, such as that Brougham, and ESPECIALLY the Mopar Fuselage cars. Fantastic cars here.
No one owns the word quirk ! It certainly applies here and you are much easier to listen to, and you know a lot more about these cars! Use the words you think fit, your natural delivery is what makes these videos so entertaining and informative to listen to!
Adam ... you officially have the coolest auto collection in America. Thank you for sharing them and the wealth of knowledge you have in keeping them going as well as your time 'in the belly of the beast' at GM.
I'm slowly warming up to these majestic beasts thanks to your channel. The referenced classic SNL skit was brilliant with Garrett Morris as the nervous driver. 😆
Trust me Adam, you’re much more knowledgeable about cars than that other quirky fellow….. I watch him simply for entertainment. I watch you for serious car-guy knowledge and information.
So, the rabbi doing the briss in the back seat of the car, that SNL skit, was titled Royal Deluxe II. The vehicle used was a 77 or 78 4-door Mercury Cougar.
These really are time machines. Born in 61, I was an early teen and rode in these cars when new. That fabric, while not my favorite, is such a tactile memory for me. Great cars. In the early ‘00s I had a lime green colony park with the 429.
Adam - Thanks for sharing. I was a kid when the 1974 models came out in the fall of ‘73. When I accompanied my father to pick up his new Buick company car, the salesman mentioned to my father he wouldn’t have to worry about the seatbelt interlock system as the manager had a standing order to disable them the same day new cars came off the carrier.
For those of us whose age and/or infirmities make getting in and out from behind the wheel, adjusting the tilt wheel every time is a matter of necessity. I owned a '78 Country Squire for a number of years (almost 20) and in 233,000 miles I never had a problem with the tilt lever (unlike my '85, that came apart twice in 190,000).
Before I came across your channell Adam, as a European, Mercury was virtually unknown to me. Thank you for owning and showing us these elegant, beautiful cars, which we never had in Europe. Being born in the ´60´s these car´s would be considered Luxury cars to me. As a hint to where I lived and the ´normal´ cars seen on the road back then, my Dad owned a few Ford´s; Ford Anglia 105e, Ford Zodiac Mk 2, Cortina Mk 2, Ford Consul/Granada (1970´s) and Cortina Mk4. So a long way off the quality and Luxury of your Mercury Marquis´. Brougham or not.
The jacket and watch really give the impression that it's sometime in the 80s and these aren't 50 year old cars... but rather ten or 15 years old. They're certainly super nice! I can't wait for the inevitable family photo/video of the entire 74 lineup. Going to try to find a Monterey to complete the full size models? They seem even more rare than the already scare marquis. A cougar and montego would be neat additions too! I'd love to get the full size vs intermediate comparison like you briefly did for the 73 cutlass vs 75 88, but for ford.
It'd also be cool to see the Mercury compacts and subcompacts of the era, the Comet, Capri, and Bobcat. As recently as the 1990s where I lived in the US, there was a guy with an orange mid-seventies Mercury Bobcat hatchback, in perfect condition.
At the T intersection of Touhy Ave & Cumberland Ave in ParkRidge Illinois there was a Napleton Mercury Lincoln dealership maybe that’s where this car was purchased new ???
Another incredible time travel experience especially for those of us who recall these cars when brand new! Unless I missed it Adam, you overlooked the door courtesy/warning lights at the base of each door of the brougham. When I was a kid, I always thought those were a luxury touch for sure. Unfortunately, GM was less generous than Ford with that feature and even our ‘73 Buick Electra Linited did not include them. Thanks again!
Great video! I'm partial to the '76-'78 years. My second car was a '76 Grand Marquis Brougham 4 door. BEAST of a car! I had a '78 Grand Marquis 2 door and then after the platform change, a '83 Grand Marquis coupe, '87 Colony Park and a '90 LS Sedan. My current driver is an '09 LS Ultimate Park Lane. Could kick myself for not keeping them all.
When I was a kid in the late 70's there was a wedding at the church a block away from my house. Both sides of the street in front of church were full of parallel parked cars effectively leaving only a centre lane. Anyways a squarebody pickup packed with young wedding guest/party people flew towards me past the church and proceeded to plow into the front passenger side quarter a mint 74' or 75' green 4 door Marquis. Grampa and Grama were leaving the wedding and pulled out from a perpendicular side road directly in front of the squarebody which was doing at least 40mph. Both vehicles bounced off other parked vehicles. I was about 50 feet away on my bicycle & watched the whole thing as the pickup was pinned and honking it's horn, hands waving at all the wedding guests. No one was killed but the Marquis was done for. Thanks for the memories.
It has been enlightening to see the variety of interiors under the Marquis name. My previous view of the full size Mercury was of one baseline interior each for the Monterey and Marquis, with intra-model variation involving mainly upholstery and front seat configuration. Instead there are myriad differences, with the Brougham seeming particularly compelling. It would be interesting to know if sound deadening measures varied as well.
Thanks for a fun video. I liked the basic AC control on the black car where in cursive it states "Air Conditioning". I had some Ford product that had that same control, I think maybe a 78 F150. It is definitely a quirky item. Much like the early sixties where they stated "Select-Aire".
My 74 Charger has that same seat belt interlock. Disconnecting the harness under the front seat is all that’s needed to defeat it. At that point you the seat belt light and buzzer don’t work but it starts up without having to buckle up. Government engineering at its finest….
Saw a drunk here who had to blow into a breath alyzer to start his truck. I was proud that MO. was on the cutting edge of drunk technology. I think hes since cleaned up.
Love the old marquis, had a 74 in like 1989.. black w green interior.. was such a smooth driving and running car . I was such a dumb kid that didn't respect the value of old cars like this and is one of my biggest regrets.. was smoother cruiser than my 754 Lincoln Mark V, that I also owned at the same time frame.. love to have another Marquis. Mine was the vinyl roof as well.
If I recall the Marquis Brougham had 7 ash trays, one of which had a capacity of about a pint. You could get a lot of smoking done in that car! We need an ash tray count on these old cars! The pneumatic steering wheel rim horn switch was certainly a quirk! This car had pneumatic door locks as well, must have had a half mile of air tubing in the car; as you noted the hidden headlight doors were pneumatic. The interval windshield wipers were a pneumatic adjustable delay too. The noise of the automatic door locks was remarkably loud. The optional stereo was very good for its day. The power bench seat could recline to near-bed proportions, and the adjustable steering wheel would go up to a ridiculously high position. My dad had one of these when I was 16. Great car for a date....
You are a very nice guy! You are also so lucky to have the resources to buy these wonderful cars. I can only dream! Thank you for sharing these with us.
The 1974 Grand Marquis option presaged the shift away from brocade fabrics to corduroy and velour type fabrics in higher-end cars. Materials like this became prevalent as the 70s wore on.
Adam, when the car show season returns in 2023 you need to let us loyal viewers know if, where, and when you are going to display any of your amazing collection. Cheers! 👍👍👍
Hey, Adam, what a great video comparing these two cars. A couple of clarifications: there was no power window delete option for Broughams after '72. Also, there were four possible interior choices for the standard Marquis: cloth (like your car) or vinyl bench, and cloth or vinyl Twin Comfort Lounge Seat. So I"m guessing of the 80 black 2-door hardtops, a few had one of the other choices. Rare by all accounts!
Thanks for referencing the best SNL ad parody of all time...the "Royal Deluxe" My favorite part of it was Garrett Morris, as the chauffeur, peering over his shoulder, and the car going all over the road. And the tagline. The mohel looks earnestly at the camera and says, "That's a beautiful car!"
For your collection, don't forget the 3 Monterey body styles. If memory serves, Monterey was 2 door hardtop, 4 door sedan, and station wagon, possibly badged as a Commuter. If you want to get into the very rare, there is the Canadian Market Meteor, which used the Mercury body with a slightly gussied up Ford interior.
It’s funny how things go around in circles. Block lettering is very much back in fashion on the rear of U.K./euro cars. I’ve always been a fan of this.
Wonderful memories here 1977 I drove a metallic light blue with dark blue vynal top marquis brougham Fully loaded with every option I had the B pillar model Always wanted the hardtop Mine also had the trailer tow package with short gears in the diff and heavy duty cooling etc Great car Could hardly afford the gas then Huge trunk Great ride and handling But am I envious of your marquis Surprised your sedan doesn’t have cruise control or 8 track Nice video As always thanks
Great side by side comparison, Adam. As someone who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s after experiencing the interiors and now looking back at them, I think leather (as todays upgraded option) is much overrated. Lol.
Personally I think - like a lot of comparisons old & new - the switch to leather from vinyl was a good one. Today's leather is also quite a bit "better" wear-wise than the sixties and seventies stuff you used to get. I have an almost 10 year old Navigator with LOTS of use and with barely any visible wear except a crack on the side of the driver's seat. You wouldn't get anywhere near that kind of service from a '70s vintage car.
Another great video from Adam, as usual. My uncle ordered two new Mercurys...a '73 Marquis Brougham followed up by a '78 Grand Marquis. Both had the automatic temperature control system, although he later ordered an 85 Grand Marquis with the manual control system. His oldest son told me that there were issues with the automatic system in the earlier cars that prompted him to ultimately choose the alternative. I always wondered what they were. During those years, we had a '75 LTD Landau with the tilt column. In '79 we bought a Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham which had the tilt and telescope column. After driving the LTD for four years, my dad needed to re-train his muscle memory to recognize the dedicated pull-toward-you tilt lever on the Cadillac. Shortly after purchase, the turn signal lever broke off due to metal fatigue; it could only handle so many instances of being pushed toward the dash (and restoratively pulled back) in Ford fashion!
Hi Adam: You probably have seen it already, but there's an interesting post from BOCCA BROTHERS on the Marquis---whose site I'm not a big fan of since it's often full of errors.
My Dad had a 74 Brougham W the Grand Marquis trim option (reall nice leather seats w suede like seating surface) Only complaint about the 73 to 76 full size Mercurys... prone to door dings til the 75 Grand Marquis introduced effective body side molding
I'm sorry I ditched my white belts and polyester leisure slacks. Still have my punk rock albums though. Recently uncovered about 50 8 tracks and a working player.
Auto makers probably bought headliner by the train load. What ever was cheap and decent. There was a vinyl supplier in KC I have been to which no doubt supplied the factories here. Also have been to a local contractor that made seats and door cards for the factories. Down in the west bottoms by Kemper in some old partially vacant industrial building. It had a 6 story freight elevator shaft with no elevator or any gate to keep you from taking a long fall. Don't like heigths.
That car sure looks classy in black. I remember those seat belts in 74. Most people would just buckle the seatbelt behind them and leave them that way. Very few people wore seat belts in 1974. You didn't mention it but it appears that the back glass is different between these vehicles? Maybe because one is a 4 door and the other is a 2 door.
@@pcno2832 Yeah my situation was atypical. My parents did'nt use them as I recall. My TR 6 was one of the few cars at the time which had inertia reels which of course were far superior. My little group of friends though belts were the only intelligent option. So we all wore them and very quickly it just became a habit. Even my friend with the boat tail Riviera used those clunky GM belts but he was in the car that rolled and he was terrified. Never heard of cars that would'nt start unless buckled.
It is amazing that the door pull handles and the dome light with spots are identical to these same parts on my two late eighties and early nineties Crown Victoria's and my 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis. I guess Ford never redesigned these parts as if they worked why fix them.
Thankfully that base model has the bumper protection option, they look cheap without that option by just having bare bumpers with 2 small bumps rubbers.
Awesome Mercs. I prefer the looks of the base coupe except for the rear windshield design, that is nicer in the four door brougham. Both fantastic cars. Please keep buyin' and showin' FoMoCo stuff!! (and of course GM, Chrysler and American Motors as well).
I really love the black base coupe, even with its crank windows. I probably would have opted for the "grande Marquis" interior though, really dislike the fabric in these two cars. Funny you should mention the AC control on the GM models. I remember my parents returning the Caprice for repair when they inadvertently moved the temp slide all the way to cold and turned on the AC, fan only ran at full speed. Dealer explained how it worked when they returned it, but this info probably could have been found in the owner's manual. The beauty of the GM system is that the recirc/full AC was only needed for minutes, even on the hottest of days, then the system could be returned to normal mode to avoid being frozen out.
I would like to be able to get the two door base model with all the Brougham features minus the trim that you didn't like. I had a 74 Brougham with factory 8 track, never knew about the tilt wheel, probably a good thing as it would have gotten broken,LoL.
That old tilt wheel design for Ford is STILL better than that “quirky” - read stupid - design they went to in ‘79 with the lever on the right that literally only tilted the steering wheel and not the column.
@@pcno2832 My Dad was an 80s Ford guy. Had a ‘79 LTD Country Squire wagon for work and his personal cars were a ‘79 Mustang straight 6 and then an ‘88 Thunderbird LX 5.0. All with tilt wheel and cruise control. He seemed to be ok with that stupid wheel. Myself I was always a GM guy, and even as a kid I thought that Ford tilt wheel was an awful design, especially to GM’s Saginaw columns.
Confused. The Alternator belt is off the crank pulley, not the fan. Why would you need to be concerned about the fan? Sure, you need to take the other belts off. But the size of the alternator belt seems irrelevant. Confused with that complaint.
It's interesting that they don't have the same backlight; the 4-door has a V affair while the 2-door's looks flat, almost concave from the rear. It looks like they share a trunklid and C-pillar, I'm surprised the bean counters didn't make them share a backlight. What would Mark's take on that be? 🤔
I prefer the Marquis with the "Grand" interior option because of the three-spoke steering wheel! That two-spoke wheel is in every Ford from a Pinto to a Lincoln whatever. Then in '75 or '76 everything changed to that sort of "c" shaped center spoke. I am so amazed by your collection of these vehicles, Adam. I'm curious if you do this all yourself or do you employ somebody to help you with all these cars??
Ahoy Captian Adam, I'm surprised that your wife doesn't want to drive at least a few of these beauties.... Sounds like someone needs to get their Super Yacht license & set sail !!!!
They had that done light in cars and trucks for many years. My dad's 1990 f150 had the same one. Little tid bit. Also my 1988 f150 had the same told wheel and so did my friends truck. They feel like they want to break but iv never seen it done.
As always, a great video. I didn't know about the turn signal lever operation to tilt the wheel. Seems as "quirky" as hiding the gas filler on GM cars of the 1950s. I wonder if my 1976 Ford LTD Brougham had a tilt wheel and I never knew it! Were the fender skirts standard on these Mercurys (except wagons)?
