In 1955 the Monterey borrowed its engine straight from Ford's own halo car — the same 292 Y-block V8 doing duty under the hood of the new Thunderbird.
Lead trim: Monterey 292 cu in Y-block V8 (188 hp, standard transmission) · up to 235 hp
Mercury Monterey1955–1956
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Mercury Monterey yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactIn 1955 the Monterey borrowed its engine straight from Ford's own halo car — the same 292 Y-block V8 doing duty under the hood of the new Thunderbird.
For 1955 the Monterey lost its status as Mercury's top model to the Montclair and was positioned above the base Custom series; all Mercurys offered a canted hood over the headlights introduced on the 1954 XM-800 concept, and the car used independent ball-joint front suspension with larger brakes (119.0 in wheelbase, 118.0 in for wagons; 206.3 in long, 76.4 in wide, 62.4 in high). It gained the 292 cu in (4.8 L) Y-block from the Thunderbird, producing 188 hp with the standard transmission or 198 hp with the Merc-O-Matic; a dual four-barrel carburetor setup providing 260 hp was optional starting in 1956. 1956 brought the 312 cu in engine (given as 235 hp in one place on the page and 225 hp in another, so no rating is entered) and an exterior revision trading the crest for a "Big M" emblem, "Flo-tone" paint, a 12-volt electric system enabling power accessories, standard dual exhaust and Mercury's own version of the Ford Lifeguard safety system; the Monterey Phaeton four-door hardtop replaced the pillared Sport Sedan during the model year.
Collectors Spotted in the Mercury Monterey Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Mercury Monterey 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monterey 292 cu in Y-block V8 (188 hp, standard transmission) | 1955–1955 | 4.8 L V8 | 188 hp | 272 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Monterey 292 cu in Y-block V8 (198 hp, Merc-O-Matic) | 1955–1955 | 4.8 L V8 | 198 hp | 282 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Monterey 312 cu in Y-block V8 (1956) | 1956–1956 | 5.1 L V8 | 235 hp | — | — | 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
The Monterey Premier's heated AND cooled front seats were a segment first — rivals from Honda and Toyota had nothing like it.
By 1972 the Monterey had quietly become a different kind of car — for the first time, automatic transmission, power steering, and power brakes all came standard rather than optional.
Mercury dressed this Monterey to borrow Lincoln's prestige, right down to four horizontal headlamps — the whole lineup was marketed as styled 'in the Lincoln Continental tradition.'
For 1963, every non-convertible Monterey came standard with a power-retracting rear window nicknamed 'Breezeway' — its mechanism borrowed straight from Mercury's station wagon line.
This Monterey was drawn up as a maybe-Edsel before Mercury claimed it — so the design it ended up wearing was never meant to be a Mercury at all.
Chrysler debuted pushbutton shifting first, so for 1957 Mercury fired back with its own mechanical pushbutton transmission controls to compete head-on.
In 1955 the Monterey borrowed its engine straight from Ford's own halo car — the same 292 Y-block V8 doing duty under the hood of the new Thunderbird.
This Monterey's heater controls weren't styled like a car's at all — Mercury set them on levers angled like an airliner's flight deck, straight jet-age styling behind the wheel.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
This Presage minivan shares its underlying platform with the Teana sedan and the North American Murano crossover — one architecture doing three very different jobs.
Subaru's family-hauling Exiga got an unlikely STi treatment in 2009 — front spoiler, sport muffler, tighter suspension and a leather Momo wheel — but only 300 were ever built.
YRV stands for Young Recreational Vehicle, a mini MPV built to out-handle its own segment rivals.
The Terraza was Buick's first-ever minivan for the North American market - a badge-engineered cousin of the Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6, and Saturn Relay.
The restyled 1994 Lumina Minivan quietly made American automotive history: it was the first minivan sold in the US with a power sliding door you could open by remote.
The first-generation Lumina APV minivan was nicknamed the "Dustbuster" by the press for its sharply sloped windshield, which pushed the dashboard far forward of the driver.
Its steeply sloped windshield gave the Lumina APV one of the deepest dashboards ever fitted to a mass-produced car.
The first Presage wasn't really its own car underneath — most of its parts came straight from the Nissan R'nessa, with more shared with its platform twin, the Bassara.