The '57 Colony Park's party trick — a tailgate with a power-retractable rear window — was such a good idea Mercury reused the hardware for the Turnpike Cruiser's famous 'Breezeway' window.
Lead trim: Colony Park 368 cu in Lincoln Y-block V8 (290 hp, 1957) · up to 400 hp
Mercury Colony Park1957–1958
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FactThe '57 Colony Park's party trick — a tailgate with a power-retractable rear window — was such a good idea Mercury reused the hardware for the Turnpike Cruiser's famous 'Breezeway' window.
The Mercury Colony Park is an American luxury full-size station wagon marketed by Mercury between 1957 and 1991, distinguished by its simulated wood-grain paneling and, through 1991, the counterpart of the Ford Country Squire. For 1957 Mercury released it as its flagship station wagon line: offered only as a four-door hardtop wagon, sharing its body with the four-door Commuter and Voyager and its front bodywork with the Turnpike Cruiser, with simulated mahogany exterior paneling and maple trim as on the preceding Monterey wagon. It was among the first station wagons to offer a tailgate with a retractable rear window (optionally power-operated), with nine-passenger seating (two or three rows: a flat-folding second row and a removable third row). Options that appeared in rudimentary form included automatic climate control, power seat memory, a signal-seeking radio, power windows (including the tailgate window) and, for 1958, a driver-operated speed-limit warning system. Dimensions: 122.0 in wheelbase, 211.1 in long in 1957 and 214.2 in in 1958, 79.1 in wide, 58.3 in high. For 1957 the Colony Park had a 290 hp 368 cubic-inch Lincoln Y-Block V8; for 1958 the Y-block was replaced by the Ford MEL, the first "big-block" Ford V8, with a 330 hp 383 cubic-inch "Marauder" V8 standard and a 430 cubic-inch "Super Marauder" optional (triple two-barrel carburetors, 400 hp, the first mass-produced American engine rated at 400 hp). A three-speed manual was standard (a 4-speed manual optional) and the 3-speed Merc-O-Matic used "Keyboard Control" pushbuttons, revised for 1958 with an optional "Multi-Drive" version (the only transmission paired with the Super Marauder). The 1957 Colony Park listed at US$3,677 and 7,386 were built (4,474 in 1958).
Collectors Spotted in the Mercury Colony Park Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Mercury Colony Park yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
3 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colony Park 368 cu in Lincoln Y-block V8 (290 hp, 1957) | 1957–1957 | 6.0 L V8 | 290 hp | 405 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Colony Park 383 cu in Marauder V8 (330 hp, 1958) | 1958–1958 | 6.3 L V8 | 330 hp | 425 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Colony Park 430 cu in Super Marauder V8 (400 hp, 1958 option) | 1958–1958 | 7.0 L V8 | 400 hp | 500 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
For 1981 the Colony Park wagon picked up fuel injection and a 4-speed overdrive automatic shared with the Lincoln Continental — the first transmission of its kind fitted to any American full-size car.
Counterintuitively, the big Colony Park wagon actually rode a shorter wheelbase than the Marquis sedans it was built alongside.
The 1966 Colony Park debuted Ford's two-way "Magic Doorgate" — a tailgate that could fold down like normal or swing open sideways like a door.
This Colony Park redesign actually shrank the car — about five inches shorter, six inches less wheelbase, and 500 fewer pounds than the 1960 model — and sales went up anyway.
The 1959 Colony Park only got its own exclusive chassis because Ford killed off the Edsel Corsair and Citation it was built to share with -- a platform by accident, not design.
The '57 Colony Park's party trick — a tailgate with a power-retractable rear window — was such a good idea Mercury reused the hardware for the Turnpike Cruiser's famous 'Breezeway' window.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Cooling the C6 RS6’s twin-turbo V10 took seven separate radiators and four electric fans under the bonnet.
The original RS6 debuted Audi's clever hydraulic Dynamic Ride Control suspension — and enough owners got tired of its leaking dampers that they ripped the whole system out for plain coilovers.
The C7-generation RS6 Avant never officially reached America at all — buyers there got the RS7 Sportback instead, running the exact same engine and platform in a different body.
For a few years, this Outback's six-cylinder trim came with genuine McIntosh audio — the same esteemed hi-fi name found in home theaters, one of the only cars ever to get it from the factory.
Subaru didn't have the budget for an all-new SUV, so it dressed up a Legacy wagon instead. A Subaru of America executive later put it bluntly: "[the Outback] saved our company."
The new Outback's full-width tail light bar has a 2 ft ruler built in, for measuring whatever you are about to load.
This Outback shared Top Gear's Car of the Year crown — an unusual honor for a jacked-up wagon to split with the Ford Mondeo in 2007.
A wagon beat the SUVs at their own game: this Outback generation won Motor Trend's Sport/Utility of the Year award for 2010.