Thanks to Pat L. for sending in this great tip! This is a 1975 Mercury Bobcat Villager, basically a nicer, fancier Ford Pinto Squire wagon. This wood-grain-wonder is listed on Hemmings with a very reasonable asking price of $1,999! You know you’ve always wanted one, here’s your chance. NADA has an average retail value for a 1975 Mercury Bobcat Villager as being $3,825.
The Bobcat was Mercury’s first compact car and it debuted, for some reason, in Canada in 1974 and finally made it to the US in 1975. Canada had those great Mercury pickups, maybe it had something to do with their dealer network. One of you will know why. This car looks good to me although, dang, those bumpers are ‘UGE! You could set up a three-bedroom condo on that thing. There was no way to avoid those types of things in that era, though. Just like lots of cars from the 1990/1991/1992 era had those #$% automatic seatbelts!
Bobcat buyers could choose from either a wagon, a Villager in Mercury’s case, or hatchback body style, the same as a Ford Pinto, but they had a unique grille and trim compared to the Pinto. The wood-grain DI-NOC vinyl could use some updating, or not. And, there are a few things that could use some help, but overall this car looks like it’s in nice condition.
That’s a great-looking interior! This car is located in California which may explain the apparent lack of visible body rust and the faded wood-grain paneling, I mean, wood-grain sticker. You can replace that, of course. The interior looks really nice other than a broken driver’s side window crank. For those of you under age 40, back in the early-stone age (pre-2000) people used to actually have to manually, physically, and literally turn a crank to open and close the side windows on vehicles! I know, right?! No fancy power windows on a Merc ‘Cat, no, sir. The seats look absolutely like new. Fabric inserts could be had and those would be preferable for sure, at least for me they would be. But the quality and preservation of this interior can’t be argued against too harshly.
Unfortunately, there are no engine photos and even more unfortunate is that the seller says the 2.8L, 97 hp V6 engine has a knock. I read one forum that said it could be as simple as being out of time, or another problem with the distributor. Hopefully it isn’t a huge deal to track down the cause. Have any of you owned a Mercury Bobcat? I know there are a lot of former and present Pinto owners out there!
Source: barnfinds.com
