Fairmont & Zephyr: The First of Many 'Foxy' Cars

Welcome to Auto Chatter. Todays tale is on the Fairmont and Zephyr! Sure they were boxy, but boxy was in and due to the economy, cars like this had their day in the sun from the late 70s untill the early 80's. Join me for their story if you would!

[P_RO_]

The "Slowmobile" was already named when I got it from a friend, and appropriately so. A 2.3 with a 4-speed, it got good fuel mileage but a mailed letter would arrive before you did if the A/C was on. It fell into my hands when my old van dropped a piston skirt when the job I was on was an hour away and I was nearly broke. $200 now and $200 more in two weeks I couldn't complain. Driving on the highway uphill was losing speed in 4th, shifting to 3rd till it was screaming, then shifting back to 4th to slow down and do it all over again. Of course I lived in the hills; fate never misses with me. One day on the way to work the shifter locked up between gears, so I got it towed it to my manual trans expert, I told him what happened and he replied with one word- "Dagenham". I said "What?" clearly not understanding, and then he explained. Ford used different 4 speeds with these and the one I had was from the Dagenham England Ford plant. They wore the shift forks and bushings quickly and hung up between gears."Piece of sh!+" he said. "Bring $40 and come pick it up tomorrow near closing, I'll have it ready". And he did. He told me to shift gently and precisely to prevent a recurrence but two weeks later it was back. I asked about putting in new parts but he said they would be just as bad in a few months then showed me howto fix it from inside with just few tools. From that point on that handful of tools lived on the passenger floor and got used regularly, a 3-4 minute job from stopping to rolling again. Sold it to a friend for $400 with the tools included and showing how to fix it himself after about a year so I didn't do too bad I guess.

These weren't bad cars overall; just a reflection of the times they were built in where folks didn't have a lot of money and fuel economy was a big issue, Decent handling, good looking, spacious enough with a decent ride they were everywhere for several years, then they kind of faded away without anyone noticing the loss, same as almost all the cars of that era did. The engines were emissions-choked old designs which were overdue for replacement and the 'safety-bumper' look had gotten old too. As you mentioned a lot of these ended up on a dragstrip where the light weight and longish wheelbase launched well off the line- especially the wagons. That's the last place I saw one and that was about ten years ago.

[J_J_Ander]

My Aunt had one of these with a manual. Well throttle cable broke at the pedal and we were in the middle of no where. We'll i pulled the cable up past the hood over the cowl and operated the throttle with a pair of pliers to get us home. Oh ya thank you for all these videos, so many of them bring back memories!!!

[AndreChavesDamasio]

Hey, Mr Chatter, congrats on getting noticed, you absolutely deserve it!
On my side I have been enjoying being put to sleep with your tales for some days now, just start a shuffled playlist and go to bed...
thanks to all your great content.
One point I would like to discuss with you are the many (very relevant pictures) on the thumbnails. While the titles are always on the spot I realized tha images tend to blend, so it's not that easy to tell them apart.
Just a maybe, but perhaps only for the sake of making it an easier sell just one image with your creative backgrounds would be an improvement.
Anyhow, I remain a very grateful fan of your work!
To many more chats and detailed history lessons

[apossum]

I love it when people make videos about these! My mother had a lot of these from the early 90's to the early 2000's, a neighbor of hers got a Futura model when she was a kid in 1979 and it got her into cars. A few years ago she ended up getting more into the Challengers and sold me her 93k mile '83 Futura with the original 200 I6

[doug]

6:58 - Always heard "Futura" pronounced like "future-uh" 'til now.

[jriley]

A new Auto Chatter video! A good way to end the night! 😊

[RisoSystems]

I did a bit of business travel in the early 80's, and was always glad when the rental car assigned to me was a Fairmont. It was spacious, easy to drive, relatively easy to park in urban areas, and had a clear and easy to use instrument panel and control layout. Sure beat the cheap imports I'd get as an alternative.

[brandbryce]

you have a really good natural narration voice. thanks!!

[PaulR]

My late wife (then my fiancee) bought a 1978 Mercury Zephyr 4 door in 1983 from the original owner. We have owned it now 42 years.

[juelzm]

Learned a lot on this chatter! Looking forward to a Tempo chatter in future! Cheers

[lvsqcsl]

IIRC the Fox-body LTD/Marquis came out the last year of the Fairmont/Zephyr and was essentially the same car with a facelifted nose and tail and the 1982-87 Lincoln Continental that rode the same platform with a longer wheelbase. The LTD/Marquis used the 3.3 liter "Falcon" six as an option that came out in 1963 and was later upgraded to 7 main bearings in 1965 and continued to be used in the LTD/Marquis until 1984 when the 3.8 liter V-6 replaced it entirely. Then, of course, the Fox-body Mustang/Capri/Mark VII used the fox platform and lastly, after 1993, the platform was redesignated the "Fox-4." That lasted until 2004 when the D2C platform was derived from the DEW-98 chassis. Don't hold me to this, I think that platform still underpins the current Mustang with the addition of independent rear suspension. GREAT VIDEO!

[v-vr-rotatev-vy_vx]

Back in the day worked at a Ford dealer, , Two bolts the entire bumper assembly with come off the Fairmont, , well engineered simplicity on the entire car

[therealuncleroadkill]

I remember reading in either Car Craft or Hot Rod back in the early '90s that they did an engine swap to a Fairmont and discoverd that a 460 would fit with barely one inch of clearance all around.

[scottbeegle]

My parents had a 1980 Zephyr. It was brown with a tan interior. It lasted until 1989. Rust is what eventually killed it. It was traded in on an S10 blazer that was a pile of junk. My grandparents had a Fairmont. So I have a fondness for these cars.

[weegeemike]

Dont forget that Hal Sperlich was heavily involved in the development of the Chrysler minivans! In fact, he had come up with the idea at Ford, and they laughed him out of the building. Thankfully for Chrysler, he and Iacocca were fired from Ford around the same time, and Chrysler didn't hesitate hiring them.

[tomh]

Good video. I just picked up an 84 LTD, the foxbody midsize sedan that replaced the Granada until the arrival of the Taurus. Mine is an LX, the even shorter-lived 5.0 H.O V8 powered Mustang in disguise. I'm gonna 5-speed swap it with the many foxbody parts that'll bolt right in.

[doug]

Ha! A Monza persuaded my grandparents to give up on GM. They replaced it with a Fairmont. The Fairmont persuaded my grandparents to give up on U.S. vehicles. Subaru & Nissan is all they bought after the early 80s.

[AAB]

In November 1984, I bought an 83 Fairmount Futura on the used car lot of a Toyota dealership in Dallas, TX. It was white with the 6 cylinder with AC. It was a reliable car with just basic maintained I preformed..
I moved to Phoenix AZ in October, 1986 and within two weeks, the car was totaled in a rear end collision by an uninsured motorist. RIP to the Futura

[theturtle]

I had a 1983 brown Fairmount four door with the straight six.

[donaldwilson]

The Ford "Fox" Body. The platform that keeps on giving. Exept for the full-size "Panther" cars and the trucks, it was used on pretty much every RWD North American Ford in the 80s and lasted until 2004 when a modified version was used for the 1994-2004 SN95 Mustang. The only Ford platform that lasted longer was the full-size "Panther" platform, which was used from 1979-2011.