1976 Mercury Monarch

Photo credit: oldiesfan67@canalblog.com

Eric-o-meter: 4/10

We upgraded our Ford Granada to almost exactly the same car, but this time with 4 doors.

This is the car I learned to drive on in 1988. It had a V8 that guzzled gas and had all the power of a modern day lawnmower. 3 speed automatic, shifter on the steering column, and a floor mounted emergency brake that I left on one too many times. The genuine vinyl bench seat was cold in winter and hot in summer, leaving little marks on your legs as you sweated it out in shorts. One fun thing I remember was using the floor mounted high beam switch and the nostalgic smell of burning oil as you went down the road.

My mother let me drive whenever I wanted. I got lots of miles in driving to church on Sundays in Riverdale. My mother commuted about 50 miles a day in this car back and forth to downtown Atlanta. This was one of the many cars that got stuck on the side of the road in the 1982 "SnowJam" in Atlanta. My mother had to park the car on I85 and walk toward Hwy 29 to meet my step father who drove up to get her in his pickup truck.

I was stoked to find this picture in the same color scheme as our car. It had painted mag wheels. Sorry, I couldn't find a picture. I'm grateful for this car; it was a great car to learn to drive on. But honestly, not a pinnacle of engineering.

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