Last of the breed Mercury Woody

How many of you remember that the main characters in the TV show “Mod Squad” drove a Mercury Wagon like this one? I certainly didn’t.
This is a rare 1951 Mercury “Woody” station wagon with 3-row seats. Found in Mexico and brought north, the car is well preserved and amazingly complete. The original sales slip with the car provides some clues on how the car may have spent most of its useful life with a wealthy Mexican family.

History of 51MEX11161M

Sold new in Mexico in September 1951, little is known of the day-to-day life of this car prior to its discovery. The car remained in Mexico until approximately 3 years ago. Clearly the dry climate helped to preserve the car, as it appears to retain all of its original metal work with no evidence of accidents or rust.

The post-WWII Station Wagon Story

The first all new post-war Mercury’s were introduced to the public on April 29, 1948 as 1949 models. The styling would prove to be one of the most iconic post war creations. The three-year run of these body styles would be immortalized when James Dean drove a 2-door coupe version in the movie, “Rebel Without a Cause.” The 1951 models would prove the most popular with over 300,000 cars sold. The station wagon was a 2-door style with real wood affixed to a metal substructure. This would be the last Ford produced station wagon that would qualify as a real “Woody”. Only 3,812 of these Mercury wagons were produced in 1951. The engine was the most powerful variant of the classic Ford flat head V8 to date, displacing 255.4 cubic inches and producing 112 horsepower. The Mercury variation offered higher performance than its Ford brethren and made these engines very popular with the hot rodding community.

Restoration

The car has an amateur restoration that includes an engine rebuild, new chrome and interior and total re-spray in maroon. It suffers from a less than show quality attempt at a cosmetic restoration of the wood. But, the car retains a tremendous proportion of its originality and is complete right down the rare third row seat.

Market Trends

These Mercury Wagons are scarce and do not appear often at auction. It’s easier to find a pre-war Woody at auction than a post-war version such as this. Consequently the market is hard to gauge. Like so many post-war cars, values peaked before the economic crash of 2008. Values recovered in the years immediately after the crash but not all the way to peak levels. Sales results and price guides would lead one to believe that the values have remained steady to slowly rising over the past several years. The most recent sales appear to match or exceed pre-crash peak numbers for similar cars. In general, station wagons have become a serious subset of the car collector world and interest continues to grow. Values of all station wagons have been showing strength, especially Woody versions.

Summary

"Whether your interest is living out your fantasy of having a “Woody” with a surfboard sticking out the rear gate or you are looking for the prefect candidate to restore to concours level, this is a rare opportunity to acquire a last of the breed Mercury Station Wagon."
Jed Rapoport; Life long old car nut, collector, writer, historian, advisor and lover of almost all things automotive.