The Mercury Division couldn't do a whole lot to de-Maverickize the Comet, but they were able to get these distinctive taillights on the car. Sure, they hurt your eyes even after 35 years, but they're definitely of their time. I found this car less than a block from the '65 IHC Travelall.


The '73 Comet 2-door listed at $2,432, which was 102 bucks more than the equivalent Maverick (and $55 more than a 2-door base Chevy Nova). The 200-cubic-inch inline six engine was standard, but you could upgrade to the 250 six or even the (138 horsepower) 302. Now if I could only find a Comet GT!

We've already seen a 1965 Comet in Alameda (the Bechtle Mercury), but that was a bottom-of-line 202. The Caliente, on the other hand, was the luxury version of the Comet, selling for $2,352 versus the $2,108 that penny-pinchers shelled out for the 202. Keep in mind, however, that the mechanically identical Ford Falcon coupe was just $1,977. The real dilemma facing car shoppers looking at a small Dearborn product back then was this: the '65 Mustang coupe sold for $2,372, nearly identical to the Caliente's price tag. Which would you have purchased?


Standard engine on the Comet was the slow-but-dependable 200-cube inline six. Give the Mercury dealer some extra cash and you'd roar out of the showroom with a 225-horse Super Cyclone 289 in your Comet Caliente, and of course it goes without saying that you'd want the 4-speed as well.

I've talked to the owner of this car a few times (we were neighbors for a couple years in the late 1990s) and he's extremely proud of his wheels. As I recall, he's either the original owner or the second owner, and he has plans to get the body and paint done... someday.


There's some rust-through on the hood, but you figure it took 44 years to get this bad... plenty of time to fix the body!

The Cyclone name was later applied to a separate Mercury model (the Merc version of the Fairlane/Torino), but in '64 it was the high-performance package for Mercury's Falcon clone. You got the 210-horse 289, some racy-looking emblems, and bucket seats when you opted for the '64 Comet Cyclone.


I'm puzzled by this car's vanity plate. There was a slot-car shop in town for a while, so perhaps the Cyclone's owner was the owner.

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And believe me, Alameda has plenty of DOTSworthy cars parked tantalizingly out of reach in driveways. Say, this Volvo Bertone, not to mention a 50s Land Rover, several Barracudas, a showroom-condition big-block '65 Impala, and... well, you get the idea. But never mind that- let's look at this fairly solid Comet, which is fair game for the roving DOTS camera!


Charles Bukowski drove a Comet, though his was a few years older than this one. Still, that bestows some literary cachet upon the little Mercury.


The '65 Comet 202 2-door listed at $2,108, which was $131 more than the mechanically identical 2-door Ford Falcon. What were you paying for when you got the Merc? Well, mostly you got a nameplate with more status than Henry's surname. But you also got some handsome styling touches, such as these taillights.


Not only did you get snazzified styling when you got Mercury's version of the Falcon, you got images of the Roman god of profit all over the car!

Even though I grew up worshiping 60s Detroit muscle cars, I'm left a little cold by the tedious sameness of the ones I spot on the street today. If it's not a '66 Mustang or '69 Camaro, it's gonna be a '68-'72 GM A-Body or maybe a Mopar E-Body. Most of the Javelins, Dart GTs, and the like have been crushed by now, with the few nice survivors living (if you can call it that) in a gilded-cage world of car shows and nostalgia cruises. So it was quite a treat when I spied this clean '66 Mercury Comet Cyclone parked on the street in Denver last weekend...

Hell yes, it's a big-block car! Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night (nor April snow) will stay this Mercury from its appointed rounds. It takes a real man (or woman) to drive a rear-drive V8 here in Subaru country, and we at Jalopnik applaud heartily. – Murilee Martin

The '66 Comet was based on the Fairlane, rather than the Falcon of previous years, so it was a bit bigger and the FE big-block (mostly 390s, but the 427 found its way into a few cars) wasn't quite as much a shoehorn job to fit the engine compartment. And how can you not like those mean-looking (yet tasteful) dual hood scoops?

Comet East [cometeastcarclub.org]

Related:
Forgotten Mercury of the Day: 1974 Comet GT [internal]

For today's Forgotten Mercury, let's look at one that maybe shouldn't have been forgotten: the Comet GT. Like so many Mercuries, the Comet was a hasty badge-engineering exercise performed on various Fords; first the Falcon, then the Torino, and finally the Maverick. The first-generation Comet gets some coolness points for being the car Bukowski owned when writing Post Office, but let's not overlook the Malaise Era third-gen Comet. Specifically, the Comet GT. The GT package got you pretty much the same thing you got on the Maverick Grabber (i.e., hood scoop, tape stripes), only the hood scoop had more muscle-carness and less nostrilism than the Grabber. With a 302 and a floor-shift three-speed (sorry, Californians, automatics only), the '71-'75 Comet GT looked pretty good and was somewhat quick. And that's enough. – Murilee Martin

Maverick Grabber / Comet GT Information Site [maverick.to]

Related:
Eh, Forget Hale-Bopp: Comet Villager Wagon! [internal]

Let us put it this way. We are not nostalgic for the Sixties. The only three reasons that decade was rad were free love, some seriously kickass music, and a whole lotta strife that jumpstarted the way we live today for better or for worse. Oh, and there were rad cars. Not necessarily incredibly across-the-board great cars, but revolutionary ones; charming ones. And this '65 Mercury Comet Villager is one of them. Plus, it's super-rare; auction customers care more and more about rarity and we've seen some pedestrian crap in good shape go for outsized numbers simply because the numbers matched and it's old. But really? Screw those guys — this is simply a cool car, nostalgia or geek-factor be damned.

1965 Mercury Comet Villager - Wagon Train [Mustang & Fords]

Related:
The Forgotten Squire: The Ford Country Sedan [Internal]