1978 Mercury Zephyr Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Judy's First Brand New Car - Cream in and out. 6 cyl 200CI auto trans. We ordered it at the dealer and paid about $7k for this thing. It had adequate performance, handling, etc. We had the 2-door Z-7 Coupe and it looked pretty good. Unfortunately it was not easy to get the kids in and out of the back seat. After about 7 years, the starter went out for the first time in November. I tackled it myself and had it replaced in about three hours. The next November, same thing and had it replaced in about two hours. I had to do that every year until we traded it in. Funny - We put about 100,000 miles on it til it started to realy fall apart (exhaust system, front end, etc.). Traded in for Judy's next car which had to be another Mercury. Mar 28, 2010

1978 Mercury Zephyr XR7 with a sport suspension packager, 302 V8. Grey on Charcoal paint. It was not a bad car...paint quality very poor...had to get the dealer to repaint it 2x to get it right. The 302 was awesome, and I drove it from Oklahom and up the Rockies from Sante Fe to Calgary, Alberta several times and lived with it for a while in Riverton, WY.Mar 06, 2009

Firstly, this is a s/w so intrinsically she ain't gorjuss. But as they say 'Beauty comes from within!!' She's done well over 500k miles is very worn, has a worn out 302 motor, worn out interior, worn out paint, but always starts and never lets me down, and I love her for that. The running costs are cheap in the greater scheme of things.. Loves drinking petrol, and oil but maintenance wise is very cheap and other then brakes and tyres and a replacement motor 230k miles ago[replaced the Tired 6 for a tired V8 for towing] nothing else has broken or fallen off. Even though its worn it'll still do skids and still tow my big trailer although these days it does rattle a lot more then it used to when under load. Next year is birthday time. I've scheduled a mjor rebuild with late model Mustang running gear and suspension and a retrim on the inside. Paint will probably go to a satin finish Black or white. Haven't decided yet.Nov 26, 2008

It goes and goes and has been abused constantly over the past 14 years. It has dragged trailers around, been offroading, towed a large boat, been street raced, [looked good but went quite sadly] The interior has all fallen apart the bonnet flew up and nuked the cowl but it keeps going. The 302 has probably done over 400k and has had numerous additions to speed its demise but it's still rattling away. Unfortunately there is sentimental value in the decision making now and logic says 'Bin It' but hey, it won't happen..Sep 10, 2008