I ran across an interesting item on ebay a couple weeks ago and bought it on the spot. It is an article from Motor Trend Magazine comparing the Mercury Monterey to the Buick Centurion in 1971. Cool reading!! Enjoy.. http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/centurion/centurion_mag.htm :beer
Man! somebody please put some air in those Buick Centurion tires :spank: . The front right tire is really folded over, somehow it on the rim ou: .
The author found that the Monterey had better handling than the Centurion even if the Centurion was fitted with the heavy duty suspension. I have read articles in the "1970 Guide De L'auto" (a book that is still published here in Quebec) of a Mercury Marquis and a Buick Wildcat and the Buick was clearly prefered by the test driver (Jacques Duval, an import car fan who raced Porshes was later a spokesperson for Ford in Quebec) and he clearly prefered the Wildcat and praised it's great handling. He found that the Mercury was a good boulevard cruiser but he wasn't impressed by it's handling...
cool article! Always liked the Moneterys as well (sorry, its a Ferd I know) but those '71, '72 models are IMHO nice looking.
Yeah, even some of the trees in the background are leaning... Interesting read - could the author BE more anti-big car??? And it says a lot about the "Marketing" departments of the day that they apparently didn't care that much about providing examples of their respective products. Buick should have sent over a Stage 1 2-door, and F*rd should have slipped in a 460! Still, fun seeing that front tire all wrapped over on the side... But dang, that Monterey is ugly! 40+ inches of front overhang?!?!?!
Yeah, I guess the guy who wrote it drives a Honda or something. Some of the copy is just his ranting about political correctness in the motor industry. I hate when people do that (still) If I'm reading a review of a Monetery vs a Centurion it stands I'm probably in the market for a big car and no amount of whining from some limpwrist who can't handle a full size auto is going to make me say "Gee what I really want to shift my wife, 3 kids and huge pile of luggage on our annual road trip is a 1 liter Civic or something!" :rant: I get the same agravation when they road tested the Chrysler 300C over here and spent half the review going on how its ugly and American looking and the dash isn't very European looking. No kidding, like I couldn't have worked that out by looking at it for like 2 seconds and hay maybe I like the car because it doesn't look European and booring. Stick to telling me the options, dealer discounts and what it does to the gallon. leave aethetic judgements up to me. :rant: (again, sorry!) yeah, the Merc is an ugly brute but I like that in a car sometimes. Buick cars of that period are always very tastefully styled so its something different. I nearly bought a '72 Monterey a couple of years back, but got the '86 Fifth Avenue instead as the Merc sold before I got to it. I guess neither is a sensible daily driver in England but I'm a big car guy :beer
Daily driver at the moment is the '86 Chrysler Fifth Avenue, but I'm putting 60 (about $110) fuel in it and lasting 6 days running. Fuel prices are through the roof right now and the traffic is snarled right up so my MPG fell from 16 to 12 commuting... I'm selling out and running a British car until I'm in better financial shape or fuel prices/local traffic gets fixed. I used to daily drive my '66 LeSabre with "Wildcat 375" 340 and "Custom 400" and low gears. The car is now in early stages of a minor restoration. both these are left hand drive as we say "just as God and Detroit intended". My Sport Fury is LHD also. The only Right hand drive American auto I have owned is my '67 Rambler Ambassador 'vert which was supplied new to the UK like that. I find it more difficult driving a RHD american car than a LHD one now I have got used to it!
LOL! Yeah, I thought the same thing. That poor tire looks like it escaped from a lava lamp! :laugh: Very cool article though. Thanks. 455 obviously kicked a$$. :Smarty:
