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2025 Car Mileage with the Best Gas MileageThe Mercury Montclair was Totally Mid
The Mercury Montclair was dead center in Ford’s lineup, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t get a chance to distinguish itself from the crowd.How the Montclair Defines Mercury
By the time my dad was buying a Mercury Mountaineer in the mid-1990s, the mid-tier brand was indistinguishable from Fords that sat ostensibly below. Mercury, once a cut above, was in its final years merely adjacent to Ford, just a badge swap away from the Blue Oval. The obvious question was: why does Ford bother with a brand like Mercury, with little identity or customer loyalty? Ford was asking the same questions in 2011 when they finally discontinued the Mercury line after a 72-year run.
But turn the clock back to the 1950s and you’ll find a Mercury brand that was distinct and often closer to its upscale Lincoln cousins than they were to Fords. No car better illustrates the Mercury brand than the Montclair, their top full-size offering debuting in 1955. In its first year, the Montclair was Mercury’s premier model, but as newer, glitzier nameplates were added to the lineup, the Montclair migrated to mid-tier status, ensconcing itself firmly in the middle of the middle.
The Mercury Montclair was produced from 1955 through 1960 with a four-year hiatus before returning for another five-year stint from 1964 through 1968. In that time, the Montclair saw five distinct generations that included numerous mechanical and aesthetic changes. Though it sat in the very middle of Ford’s expansive list of offerings, the Montclair did manage a few notable highlights.
Montclair Sun Valley
One such highlight was the Montclair Sun Valley. The Sun Valley was an early example of a panoramic sunroof, deployed a year earlier (1954), on the Mercury Monterey. The Sun Valley’s large Plexiglass roof panel provided an airy, fishbowl-like cabin. Of course, all that light it let in meant a lot of heat built up on sunny summer days, days before air conditioning as standard equipment. Because the Sun Valley variant lasted only through the 1956 model year, with just 1,787 built.
The Montclair Ran Big V8s
The first generation of Mercury Montclair was a fairly ordinary full-size car for the mid-1950s. Its sizeable chrome bumper and two-tone paint schemes were par for the course, as were its hardtop (two- and four-door) and sedan (four-door) body styles. The Montclair ran a pair of V8s, a 292 V8 making 195 horsepower and a larger 312 Y-block V8 with 225 horsepower and an optional four-barrel iteration that made up to 260 horsepower.
New engine offerings arrived, coinciding with generational turnover. The second-generation Montclair added a new 368 cu.-in. V8 good for 290 horsepower and in 1958, a 383 V8 (making 330 horsepower) came in to replace the standard 318. A special order 430 Super Marauder V8 could up power for the Montclair all the way to 400 horse. The third-generation Montclair winnowed options back down to just the 383 V8 for 1959, but added the 430 Super Marauder back for 1960, now as the Montclair’s standard engine and de-tuned to a more sensible 310 horsepower.
The Montclair was discontinued between 1961 and ’63, returning for 1964 with a new pair of powerplants. The new standard engine was a 390 V8 making between 266 and 330 horsepower, depending on the configuration. A new 427 V8 was also on tap and boasting between 410 and 425 horsepower. A major redesign for 1965 ushered in new 410 and 428 V8s, while the 427 V8 was dropped. Horsepower now maxed out with the 428 V8 at 345 ponies.
These were the days of V8s as standard fair in American cars, and the Montclair shared its engines with other Mercuries like the Park Lane and Fords like the Galaxie 500. While horsepower was plentiful, the full-size Montclair was a heavy car that grew in length from generation to generation.
Montclair’s Unique Styling Sets It Apart
The Montclair’s succession of consistently powerful V8s don’t properly illustrate the vast changes the car underwent as it spanned two unique eras in automotive styling. The chrome and fins of the 1950s lent the early Montclair its ornate front end, with its chrome bumper and those deeply set headlamps and their arching brows. The Montclair’s two-tone paint scheme was echoed in the car’s interior which was a clear cut above in fit, finish, and material quality over those seen in contemporary Fords.
The second-generation Montclair (1957 and ’58 models) were wider, lower, and longer. New trims like the Phaeton and Turnpike Cruiser were added. One of Mercury’s signature design elements at the time was a scalloped body trim above the rear fender that terminated in wrapping, triangular taillights. The Montclair’s headlight brows improbably arched to an even greater degree and for the 1958 version were cast over a new set of quad headlamps. The rear scallop trim got even bigger in ’58, now stretching as far forward as the rear door handle.
The Montclair was moved to an even longer platform for its third generation, now stretching to a 126-inch wheelbase. Changes were more subtle for 1959 with the introduction of a new grille design and a new, even more curved wrap-around windshield. 1960 saw a more significant visual update. The front end was completely redone, the scallop trims design was greatly simplified, and a new set of semi-vertical taillights were introduced.
Was the ’65 Montclair the Boxiest Car of the 60s?
After a brief absence, the Montclair returned in 1964 with another redesign. The car was flatter, with a new “Breezeway” roof design for the four-door versions, and a jutting front end similar to that of the Thunderbird. By the mid 1960s, boxy designs were in. The more right angles the better and while many Fords of the time ascribed to this design language, none matched the 1965 Mercury Montclair. The ’65 Montclair’s front end was a masterpiece of straight lines, with a tight lattice work of horizontal strakes to the grille and a set of dual headlamps all bookended with a pair of vertical turn signals.
The 1967 Montclair relented on the brutish rectilinear front end by adding a new tri-level grille. Rather than flat, the grille now recessed on the right and left, and the marker lights shifted to the front fenders. The car’s final iteration, in 1968, was perhaps its most regal in over a decade. The front end married the prior two designs with new side marker lights, more horizontal lines to the grille, and more prominent recessing. The pillar-less four door design with landau roof and wire spoke hub caps looked every bit a step above its Ford analogue, the full-size Galaxie.
