This 1951 Mercury Eight Coupe Is a Heart-Melting Story of Dedication to the Brand

The car was bought new in the closing days of 1951 – the final year the Eight rolled off the assembly line – and it continued an ownership nostalgia for the brand. The purchaser – a marque fan since 1939 – traded in her 11,000-mile-old ’39 Merc for a brand-new Eight. So, the first model year for the last model year - this is an eerie coincidence.

Slash to 2018, and the woman’s granddaughter puts a “for sale” sticker on the vehicle’s window at a one-day car show. Fate will have that a curios piston addict saw the Eight and fell for it – despite being a GM worshiper of Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs. It took the man four whole months to decide to call the owner and strike a deal. Finally, he bought the car and is now putting it on the market again.

In all fairness, this Mercury Eight had a good life – owned by the same family for 67 years and adequately cared for with the kind of attention only blessed hearts can commit to. One close look will reveal that the car never had any sort of body mishaps. The belt line trim is factory-straight, and the rubber trim wrapping the windows appears as original as the bumper jack (which still sits neatly in its authentic burlap bag).

Two details reveal that this Mercury Eight is the late-1951 model: the red wheels and black wall tires. The elegant whitewalls succumbed to the Korean War shortages, and tires came in all-black garments. To keep the chromatic contrasts, Ford retorted to painting the wheels red.

The second war-derived change was the replacement of the aluminum doors sills - the metal went to the war effort – with more profane rubber ones. These particularities only add to the overall appeal of this Eight Coupe, which has retained its original class thanks to beautiful restoration work.

Largely considered to be the handsome Mercury of the third generation, the 1951 – just like its older model-year brothers – also became a favorite of the custom culture. This means many cars from that era have seen the axe and other cosmetic and mechanical instruments of alteration.

However, this Mercury Eight made it unscathed. Its engine – of which the true mileage is unknown – runs smooth and discrete – listen to it in the video. The 255-CID (4.2-liter) flathead V8 put out 111 hp (113 PS) and 206 lb-ft (279 Nm). Not very impressive, but in 1951, the compression ratio was a lowly 6.8:1, and the downdraft carburetor did its best.

Probably that’s why the engine still runs impressively clean – and the 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) on the odometers might as well be all the road experience this car has. The three pedals have no wear and tear scars on them. What they do indicate, however, is that this Eight coupe had a three-speed manual (column-shifted) coupled to a Touch-o-Drive overdrive.

“The carburetor was tuned in August 2022,” claims the seller. The Sheffield Green livery - a very popular color for 1951 Mercs – was also refreshed before he acquired the car in 2018. There are minor dents – nothing unpleasant, just regular signs of road life. The tires – 215/75 R15 – are new, and the drum brakes can put them to work if needs be.

Overall, some 309,000 Mercury Eights were sold in 1951 – an impressive number, by all accounts – and here are two fun facts about them. They came from the factory with alcohol in the radiators – and the dealers would have to drain them and fill them up with coolant. Also, the warranty for a new Mercury Eight was a solid 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers), or ninety days, whichever came first.

To put it in perspective, amenities of the era included a radio, a heater – which cost $82.90 back in the day – bumper guards, undercoating, fender shields, or curb moldings. This Mercury Eight had a list price of $2,324.60, and with all the options, the grand total would spell $2,732.80. In 2023 money, that’s some $31,200.

For that money, the buyer got bench seats, four lap seatbelts, vent windows, a ton of chrome, no side mirrors, a hood ornament, and a steering wheel the size of a basketball rim. Additionally, dealers would often install their own emblems around the Mercury badges – and this car has the “Belmond Auto Company” decal on the deck lid, surrounding the Gods’ Messenger insignia.

This beautifully preserved Mercury Eight Coupe is for sale – and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to buy it. It comes accompanied by a solid file of original documents, a lovely story of dedicated ownership, and a forgiving seven-decade-long road record.