Mercury Monarch: grandeur out of a crisis

By Martin Buckley

| 26 Mar 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Mercury Monarch: grandeur out of a crisis

Released concurrently in the autumn of 1974, the mechanically identical Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch were born into a nation that, by Federal decree, had suddenly decided that anything to do with performance was both figuratively and literally toxic.

It was a world in which luxury, economy and perceptions of status trumped all notions of excitement and driver appeal.

The pair were hundreds of pounds lighter and two or three feet shorter than most full-sized domestic models, and nobody cared that the base, straight-six-engined Granada and Monarch set the power-to-weight/bhp-per-litre equation back decades, despite upgrades that included electronic ignition on all versions.

The Mercury Monarch’s hood ornament

You had to dig deep in the literature to discover that the ‘sixes’, festooned with newfangled catalytic converters, heat sensors, positive crankcase ventilation and exhaust-gas recirculation systems, made just 75 and 97bhp from their 3.3 and 4.1 litres.

Even the largest of the two V8 motors available produced a mere 140bhp from almost 5.8 litres.

Ford was not exactly shouting about 0-60mph times from the rooftops, either (the base ‘six’ took 23 secs), but it was keen to point out that these new, more responsibly sized cars were almost as roomy as the full-size offerings, while getting economy in the 16-31mpg range.

Yet, as miserable as they appear, these were extraordinarily successful products, selling to the tune of two million units and bearing all the hallmarks of cars conceived in the agile mind of marketing whizzkid Lee Iacocca.

The Mercury Monarch’s green trim won’t be for everyone, but it’s well finished

After the success of the Ford Mustang and the ‘personal luxury’ Lincoln Continental MkIII, it was sales genius Iacocca who realised that profit margins in the mid-1970s lay not with traditional, massive sedans or (in effect) outlawed muscle cars, but with a slimmed-down automobile that amounted to a US take on the European luxury/sports saloon.

Even before the 1973 Fuel Crisis, Iacocca had correctly predicted that a car built in the size and idiom of the increasingly popular compact Mercedes-Benz saloon – but to Ford standards of finish, engineering and price structure – could not fail to get a positive reception among buyers who wanted big-car luxury in a smaller package.

The idea was that you could trade down without feeling that you were opting for second best or being reduced to driving a penny-pinching compact.

Enthusiastic country-wide customer clinics suggested his hunch was spot-on: the Granada would go on to become the fastest-selling new model for 1975.

The Mercury Monarch’s walnut-look veneer is a touch gaudy

Its success was boosted by an aggressive marketing campaign that made flattering comparisons with the Mercedes-Benz W114 and W116 models – ‘Can you tell the difference between these two cars?’ – and even suggested that when valet parking your new Ford Granada or Mercury Monarch, you might be handed the keys to a Cadillac by mistake.

‘Priced like a VW Rabbit,’ claimed the ad, ‘but styled like a Cadillac.’

What it didn’t say was that they had about the same power as the Volkswagen and were slower to 60mph than a Mercedes diesel.

Customer-clinic techniques were applied to advertising campaigns in which it was claimed that a cross-section of random individuals considered the Mercury Monarch to be quieter and smoother than a Mercedes, and an all-round better drive on American roads.

The Mercury Monarch rides firmly, but it’s comfortable and quiet, and it steers with disinterested compliance, if little else

Ford had not responded as quickly or keenly as General Motors and others when North American buyers turned to smaller cars – many of them foreign – from the early 1970s onwards.

But, having successfully introduced the Pinto (and cut the Mustang down to size in 1973), the introduction of a European-sized mainstream sedan looked inevitable.

It would be codenamed Maverick X, based on the floorpan of a 1970 Ford Maverick (which was really a restyled 1960 Ford Falcon) and launched for 1975 as the ‘precision-sized’ Ford Granada and nearly identical – but marginally more expensive – Mercury Monarch.

In both cases, opera-window coupe versions and Ghia trim packages were offered, and the cars would be produced alongside the Maverick/Comet at four different assembly plants.

Mercury Monarchs had round headlights up to 1978, when they switched to square items

Running a 110in wheelbase, the new car was still bigger than a Volvo 164 or BMW Bavaria/E3 saloon, but, at less than $4000 in base Granada form, rather cheaper than the foreign opposition.

Slotting in below the Torino and Marquis, the Granada/Monarch was created to replace the Falcon/Comet range, but ended up supplementing them while using a mildly refined version of the same unibody structure and suspension: front coils and wishbones (with a 2in-wider track) and a live rear axle, but with more rubber bushing for the leaf-spring shackles to give a ‘full-size’-type ride.

Brazenly benchmarked against (and visually imitative of) the Mercedes-Benz 280E W114, the Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch derived their luxury status from what the copywriters called a ‘fine grille’ and ‘European-style’ wraparound tail-light clusters (with amber indicators), along with interiors as superficially plush as anything you would find in their full-size cousins.

The Mercury Monarch’s 4.1-litre straight-six engine makes just 97bhp

The top-spec Ghia versions featured nylon ‘cashmere’ cloth seats, pinstriping and grained-vinyl body mouldings to match the C-pillar trim.

The options list was enormous, and alongside leather seats, air-con and alloy wheels, it even featured the possibility of four-wheel disc brakes with an anti-lock system run off the pressurised hydraulics: in other words, the brakes were boosted by the power-steering pump rather than by vacuum.

A fully optioned Grand Marquis was later offered and, from 1977, rebranded as the Lincoln Versailles in an effort to curb the success of the new compact Cadillac Seville.

The Ghia badge indicates this Mercury Monarch is a top-spec model

A 1978 facelift brought rectangular headlights (with the indicators repositioned underneath) and the European Sports Sedan (ESS) option with blacked-out trim, a floor-mounted gearlever, bucket seats and, on the coupe, Mercedes SLC-style louvres for the opera windows.

To give the right air of Euro sophistication, French actress Catherine Deneuve was even hired for the TV adverts.

Ford briefly contemplated importing the European Granada as its domestic luxury compact, but rejected the idea on cost grounds.

Instead, the Monarch came to Europe via Ford’s imported-cars operation.

The Mercury Monarch Ghia’s vinyl trim package extends to the rear panel

In the UK, alongside Australian Ford Falcons and the newly minted Mustang II (and even the Lincoln Continental MkIV for those budding Frank Cannons), the Mercury Monarch Ghia was sold in converted right-hand-drive form with the 302cu in V8.

Autocar road tested a Hodec-converted right-hooker Monarch Coupe in early 1977, extracting exactly 100mph, 0-60mph in 11.6 secs and 12mpg from a car its importer hoped would attract the attention of Volvo 164, Renault 30 and even Jaguar XJ6 buyers.

Available in two- and four-door form, the UK-bound Monarch Ghias came with electric windows, reclining ‘bucket’ seats and a floor-shift auto as standard, plus all the necessary lighting modifications for local compliance.

It’s not known how many found UK homes, but they were not a common sight, if memory serves.

The Mercury Monarch’s kerbside lamps

I can only assume that British buyers tended to want the road theatre of a full-sized barge (or the tyre-smoking drama of a proper muscle car), rather than this trimmed-down impersonation of a German taxi.

The passage of time lends a cheesy charm to the Mercury Monarch Ghia.

The truth of the car is that, even in this full-malaise, 4.1-litre, straight-six form, it is a surprisingly acceptable mode of transport.

This 1978 model, imported more than 20 years ago by the founder of the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum for wedding-car duties, glides along undemandingly.

The Mercury Monarch’s eight-track AM radio sits behind the column-change gearlever

Wide-opening doors give access to a plush cabin that is hardly a model of packaging given the substantial outer dimensions, but which still offers luxury for four and comfort for up to five, plus a giant boot.

In terms of fit and finish it is no Mercedes-Benz, but the Monarch feels reasonably solid, robust and rattle-free, suggesting that efforts to get on top of the quality issues Ford was suffering in the late ’60s and early ’70s were at last taking effect.

Had the exhaust manifold gasket not been chuffing, the engine would be almost silent – perhaps the Mercury Monarch really was quieter than a Mercedes – and the car is nothing if not comfortable.

Its firmly bolstered seats feature green nylon trim that does a surprisingly convincing impression of West of England cloth, but I doubt any of the Ghia package veneer has ever been near a tree.

Conceived to comply with a post-Fuel Crisis 55mph blanket speed limit, the Mercury Monarch prioritises smoothness over power

The instrumentation set into it is boiled down to the bare minimum: speedometer and fuel levels are supplemented by idiot lights for everything else.

The air-conditioning controls are handy – and the system appears to work – but it seems odd the original buyer did not deem that electric windows were a must-have in a supposed luxury car.

Winding your own in a Yank just doesn’t feel right, somehow.

You could get three-on-the-tree manuals, but most, as here, had Ford’s three-speed auto. Super-smooth in operation, it gets into top at the first opportunity.

The Mercury Monarch’s plush front chairs

There is sufficient torque to mean the acceleration feels reasonably brisk from low speed, although kickdown only raises noise levels rather than giving a meaningful increase in velocity.

All indications are that it would run out of steam at around 90-95mph in 4.1-litre form (power was up to 97bhp by this stage), but it was designed around the idea that, with the 55mph speed limit tightly enforced, few drivers would go over 60mph.

A plaque on the fake-walnut-trimmed fascia claims the ride has been ‘precision tuned’ by Lincoln-Mercury: it is surprisingly firm, but quiet and comfortable.

I would almost have been disappointed if the Monarch’s power steering had feel.

The Mercury Monarch has a roomy rear

In fairness, it is marginally more interested in changing direction without written warning than many of its ilk.

However, while not especially wobbly, it threatens to become luridly conspicuous if driven at anything beyond a brisk trot.

It would, of course, be extremely easy to be very rude about the 1974-’80 Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch.

Of cynically engineered, generic mid-’70s American luxury compacts with ideas way above their station, it would be hard to think of two finer examples.

The Mercury Monarch has wired hubcaps on steel wheels

I can’t claim to have coined the ‘malaise’ catch-all title for this sub-genre of post-Fuel Crisis mini-barge, but I’m confident that no other automobile more perfectly encapsulated the sense of panic and confusion experienced by the once mighty Detroit in the face of government legislation and changing customer tastes of the mid-1970s.

For that, at least, it deserves to be remembered.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Paul Ellis of the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum; Bowood House

Factfile

Mercury Monarch

Sold/number built 1974-’80/575,567
Construction steel monocoque
Engine all-iron, ohv 4097cc straight-six, single Carter carburettor
Max power 97bhp @ 3200rpm (1978)
Max torque 210lb ft @ 1700rpm
Transmission three-speed automatic, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar rear live axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs; telescopic dampers f/r
Steering recirculating ball, optional power assistance
Brakes discs front, drums rear, optional servo
Length 16ft 8in (5080mm)
Width 6ft 2in (1880mm)
Height 4ft 5in (1346mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 2in (2794mm)
Weight 3500lb (1588kg)
Mpg 14-26
0-60mph 17 secs (est)
Top speed 93mph
Price new $4855
Price now £5000*