Mercury Monarch

Mercury introduced the Monarch as an upscale twin to the Ford Granada in 1975, differing mainly in grilles, taillights and having slightly fancier trim. It was offered as a 2-door coupe or a 4-door sedan - no wagon bodystyle was offered. Drivetrain choices were also the same as the Granada. There were base, Ghia and Grand Monarch Ghia models - the latter model was dropped in 1977 to make way for the new Lincoln Versailles, which was introduced as Ford's answer to the Cadillac Seville. Monarchs got a small facelift in 1978 that included rectangular headlights but were otherwise largely unchanged. The Monarch was sold through the 1980 model year when it was replaced by an all-new Fox-body Cougar in 1981.

The Mercury Grand Monarch Ghia was a luxury automobile built only in 1975 and 1976. Based on the successful Mercury Monarch platform, the Mercury Grand Monarch Ghia had four-wheel, disc brakes with a sophisticated central hydraulic power system as standard equipment.

Other standard luxury features include:


 * Genuine leather seating surfaces
 * Thickly padded handcrafted vinyl roof
 * Quartz crystal digital timepiece
 * Leather-wrapped luxury steering wheel
 * Power steering
 * Dual beam map-reading lamp
 * Illuminated visor vanity mirror (passenger side)
 * 14 inch, cast-alluminum spoke wheels
 * Solid-state ignition
 * White sidewall steel-belted radial tires
 * Fully reclining bucket seats with matching map pockets
 * Deep carpeted interior and luggage compartment
 * Deluxe sound and ride package
 * Wide color-keyed bodyside molding.

According to the May 1976 edition of Car and Driver, Henry Ford II and three out of five of Ford’s top executives used the Mercury Grand Monarch Ghia as their personal car.

Grand Monarch Migrated to Lincoln Versailles
In the spring of 1977, Lincoln introduced a new model the Versailles, based on the Monarch platform. The Versailles had many of the same luxury features as the Mercury Grand Monarch Ghia -- four-wheel, power disc brakes, fully-padded vinyl roof, Normande rear window, and lighted visor vanity mirror.

See separate Ford Granada entry for more information about the Mercury Monarch.