1987 Mercury Grand Marquis “Mae”

Owned 2001-07.

The big Mercury was something of a family heirloom, and named after the great-aunt who originally purchased her new (with a check!) in 1987.  She passed through a few family members’ hands before ending up in mine, with barely 64,000 miles on the clock.

That said, the little-old-lady life had not treated Mae well.  Within a year I had replaced the transmission, fuel pump and battery, so that I could roll in big, old-school American comfort when the mood struck.  And I did just that.  Mae was a capable, if somewhat fuelish, road-tripper, though she never did shake her recurring transmission issues, thanks to a incompetent rebuild followed by seals that never really did.

Mae was a victim of tightening finances; I had to be pragmatic when the economy slowed down, and as she didn’t really have a place in the fleet once the Suburban arrived she was passed on to a very young driver, who probably blew her transmission up not long after taking possession.  But hey, I warned both him and his father that the gearbox wasn’t right.  Caveat emptor.