Going, as it does, all the way back to 1967, the Mercury Grand Marquis is one of the longest running model names in automotive history. Originating as a trim package for the 1967 Mercury Monterey, the Mercury Marquis became the “Grand Marquis” in 1975. By then, the Mercury Monterey had been discontinued and the Mercury Marquis was granted a model range all unto itself — complete with its own trim packages.
In 1975, Mercury’s Marquis was available in three states of trim; Marquis, Marquis Brougham, and Grand Marquis. This lineup ran unfettered until 1983, when the bottom two trim levels were dropped and the model became known solely as the Mercury Grand Marquis.
Those of us of a certain age recall a Ford model known as the “LTD”. This car eventually became known as the Crown Victoria and shared its body-on-frame, rear-drive platform with both the Lincoln Town Car and the Mercury Grand Marquis.
While the Mercury Marquis name ran for some 44 years, the Grand Marquis name ran for 36 years — fully half the lifetime of the Mercury nameplate, making it easily the longest running Mercury model (as well as one of the longest continually running model names in automotive history).
In fact, when Ford finally killed Mercury off in 2010, the last car Ford badged a Mercury to be built was the Grand Marquis. Interestingly, even though the Mercury brand was discontinued in 2010, the last Grand Marquis was actually built in January of 2011.
Another interesting fact about the Grand Marquis was how infrequently the model was redesigned over its lifetime. From 1975 to 2011, when the last Grand Marquis rolled off the assembly line, there were but four generations of the car offered.
This article picks up in the car’s third generation, with the 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis.
