Since we’re on a Country Squire Junkyard Find roll, with a ’76 Squire on Wednesday and a ’77 Squire yesterday, let’s take a look at a Panther Squire today. Yes, Panther Love even extends to Reagan-era woodie wagons!
The 1979-91 Panther-based Country Squire was much smaller than the dreadnaught that preceded it, but it still had room to haul a family of six in relative comfort.
Thanks to the lightweight Panther chassis and electronic fuel injection (starting in the 1983 model year), owners of 1980s Country Squires were able to crack the magical 20 highway MPG fuel-economy barrier. The mid-70s Squires were lucky to get double-digit fuel economy (downhill, drafting 18″ behind a semi).
It’s hard to imagine phony wood paneling worse than the stuff used by Ford in the 1970s, but the bean counters managed to find an even cheaper source for the stuff by the 1980s.
These were pretty good wagons, in spite of the archaic 60s-flashback decorative touches, and you still see quite a few on the street today.
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Ah, the Family Truckster.
You think you hate it now, but just wait until you drive it.
Make that the WAGON QUEEN Family Truckster.
Aaahhhh… my fondest memories from being a youngster are littered with rememberances of driving from New York to Orlando, FL (Disney Land) with my grandparents. They owned a 1991 and my cousin and I LOVED sitting in the “way back” lateral facing jump seats. Probably not the safest place to be looking back on it now.
Bucky Covington said it best “Different World”:
“We were born to mothers who smoked and drank
Our cribs were covered in lead based paint
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved
Had three TV channels you got up to change
No video games and no satellite
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside
[Chorus]
It was a different life
When we were boys and girls
Not just a different time
It was a different world
School always started the same every day
The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray
Not every kid made the team when they tried
We got disappointed and that was all right, we turned out all right
[Chorus]
Bridge
No bottled water, we drank from a garden hose
And every Sunday, all the stores were closed
It was a different world.”
Great song.
Yep!
“We were born to mothers who smoked and drank
(Mom drank, but never smoked)
Our cribs were covered in lead based paint
(More than likely)
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars
(Yup)
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are
(True)
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved
(He used an open hand)
Had three TV channels you got up to change
(Lived in the NYC area had something like two dozen UHF included )
No video games and no satellite
(We had Pong)
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside
(Outside was where it was at)
[Chorus]
It was a different life
When we were boys and girls
Not just a different time
It was a different world
School always started the same every day
The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray
(No praying where I was)
Not every kid made the team when they tried
(True)
We got disappointed and that was all right, we turned out all right
[Chorus]
Bridge
No bottled water, we drank from a garden hose
(We had those little Miller “nip” bottles)
And every Sunday, all the stores were closed
(They still are closed on Sunday in Bergen County)
It was a different world.”
(Yup, and some of it was better)
As a child of the 80s, we grew up with one of these until ford axed it and we moved on to Volvo wagons. I have many fond memories, mostly of playing Game-boy in the back seat on road trips. Ours was a color that my parents would lovingly refer to as ‘baby-shit brown’ with the wood panes, and I want to say brown corduroy-ish seats. Great car.
The Ford Panther wagons were indeed “Country Squares” as appropriately indicated in grease pencil on the tailgate by that junkyard worker.
I’m enjoying Country Squire week on TTAC.
What, no Pinto Squire wagons to be found ?. How about a 70-71 Buick Sportwagon, or an Olds Vista Cruiser ?.
I had a 74 Pinto wagon, but not the woodie version, mine was the plain base model. I decided one day the exterior needed spiced up a little so I went to K-Mart and got a bunch of Krylon spray cans, might’ve used some Rustoleum too. Since I was into Porsche racing cars at the time I did the only sensible thing I could think of, I gave the Pinto a full Martini Racing livery complete with the multi colored stripes and the red meatball on the doors. It looked like a Porsche 935 when I got done with it. If you can picture a Pinto wagon done up in this paint scheme, that’s what I had: http://heritagemotorwerks.net/communities/0/004/007/325/930/images/4530163416.jpg
In hindsight the Martini colors really didn’t make sense on a Pinto wagon, the Gulf Wyer colors would have probably been more historically accurate.
I believe the Pinto wagons with the fake wood on the side were called, “Country Squirts”.
IF it was brown, would it be a Hershey Squirt?
Careful now, this is a car enthusiast site, not a German scheisse porn site.
I remember them being called Pinto Squires.
I drove a Panther like this one once, though it was a sedan Marquis.
It certainly did a good job of isolating the road from me and the steering wheel, these truly are “yachts” in that respect, but the seating position and interior layout felt like they were meant for little people.
A past owner goofed with the engine a bit so now the car was way too responsive to touching the gas pedal, while touching the brakes yielded the slightest decrease in movement.
It would’ve made for a nice $1000 beater had it not been tinkered with, but I decided to go with a low mileage Volvo instead.
Sure looks a LOT like the 1980 model used in Terminator 2:
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_2879-Ford-LTD-Country-Squire-1980.html
One of my all time fav movies!
If 80s cars ever end up smog exempt in CA, I’ll be scoping one (or more) up.
Strip the wood, drop in the best Ford Racing smallblock you can afford, and roast the tires all the way to Lowes and back.
Stop this! you’re going to make me cry if you post another Country Squire.
Every week should be Country Squire week. Or at least wood paneling week.
Next week is woodie PT Cruiser week.
MORE WAGONS ! .
Too bad all those big old mid 1950’s Buick Wagons I remember all all long gone , crushed for scrap in the 60’s because they ‘ looked old fashioned ‘ .
I get a kick out of all the fuel economy whining , all you needs do is : SLOW DOWN to 55 MPH and VIOLA ! 20 MPG’s easy .
There’s this thing called ” Aerodynamics ” and when you take a big aerodynamic brick and add wheels , fake wood and a V-ate engine with slushbox tranny , the results ain’t pretty unless you’re a child or own Getty Oil .
Sadly , I’m rather fond of Land Yachts , my $50 ’68 Chrysler Wagon in 1975 was a fine car as long as the road was straight ~ I didn’t care about the mileage with .32 CENTS Powerine regular leaded Gasoline .
Sports cars are always better but for hauling people , beer , tools , beer , boats , beer , motion picture cameras , beer , Horse Tack and maybe a cooler or three full of ice and BEER , they’re just right .
I spent many thousands of miles in Suburbans in the 1960’s too , those are also good Family Trucksters as were the late 1950’s & early 1960’s IHC Travelalls .
-Nate
Why always the Plastowood pseudo siding? We had an Aries K SW with it. Hideous stuff. I like the original Woody wagons, but everything after that was just ugly. Was there some secret contract between the Big 3 that said “X% of all station wagons must be sold with fake wood applique”? Really, did that many people want it, or was it just an accepted norm?
As Grandpa Simpson would say, “…as was the style at the time”.
Avocado refrigerators were ‘in’ at one point too, as were Aerostars with splooge graphics on the sides.
I always found the wood trimmed radios and game systems of the time to be sillier.
My family trucksters growing up were a 59 Buick LeSabre wagon and a 64 Impala 9 passenger wagon. Murilee I would appreciate it if you could find either one or both of these in your junkyard tours.
I think I’m going to adopt the title “Country Squire.” Maybe I’ll put it on my business cards.
Excellent.
I have adopted “Uppity Serf”.
I’m sure that 5.0 will be yanked for someones Mustang or other Fox body.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s for some reason these were quite popular with orthodox jews in NYC.
It’s a “Lo-Po” 5.0, roughly 150 hp. Growing up in GM family in retrospect I’m pissed it took the General so long to actually adopt fuel injection on it’s mainstream V8s.
Nobody is yanking that for a Fox ‘Stang, Hi Po 5.0 was around 200 hp in this time frame.
I never understood that as well. G-bodies through the 80’s up until the last 1988 Cutlass Supreme and Chevy Monte Carlo never offered FI or even TBI. Yet F-Bodies had FI from the lowly Iron Duke TBI to the Tuned Port Injection on the IROC and TA.
I took my driver’s test in a car identical to this. This was my families first normal looking car. We had such Junkers until this one. We were so proud of it. We took our first vacation in it…I learned to drive in it. My dad wrecked it three times and I, once. A head on collision, a pole, the next one I hit the windshield, then I fishtailed on a dirt road and took the rear bumper off. So many stories. I won’t bore the best and brightest for now
I was spared the horror of Plastiwood trim with my Crown Vic, but my ’84 sedan had the half-vinyl roof and fake wire hubcaps. It was a gloriously extravagant luxury ride after spending the first 12 years of my life riding in a Chevette and a 3-on-the-tree Chevy 1/2 ton.
The overdrive gear was so absurdly tall that you had to be doing about 85 to get any throttle response out of it. Seats 4 in the front, 6 in the back, and 4 in the trunk. It did its cop-car heritage proud by blasting down a nearby country road at 120, it’s speedometer pegged so far to the right it might as well dug a tunnel to China.
A great car – I miss it dearly.
I am restoring a 1986 Ford Country Squire that has been in my family since it was new! Where is the junk yard where this one is located? I need some spare parts! Thanks!