Find or Sell Used Cars, Trucks, and SUVs in USA

1976 Mercury Capri Base Coupe 2-door 2.8l on 2040-cars

Year:1976 Mileage:98000
Location:

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Condition: Fair, needs work.

Features: Adjustable Map Light

History: Second Owner - since 2005.

Shipping:  Will need to come pick up car (in Mount Pleasant, Washington DC)

Payment: Will accept Cash, Check, or possibly an online payment (must discuss in person - may require coverage of any transaction fees)

This is a posting for a 1976 Mercury (Ford) Capri II 2.8V6 manual 4-speed. It was once pretty common, but is now extremely rare.

Not to be confused with the giant boat of a ‘Caprice’, this is the ‘Sexy European’ (imported from Ford’s German factory): a lean 2-dr hatchback version of the Mustang for that year (which is why Ford sold it under the Mercury label - to try to cover more market appeal).

As featured in Prince of Petworth’s ‘Sweet City Ride’ find:

http://www.popville.com/2013/02/sweet-city-ride-ford-capri/


I am the second owner (it was garage kept for many years, then bought off an estate sale), and it has just under 100K on it - though I've driven it to Iowa and all over the East coast in the past 7 years.


I love this car, and don't want to sell it. So why am I selling it? Well, easy answer: I had two kids. We live in the city (DC), with no parking, no place to work on it, and no time left to do that even if I did. We're still a couple years or more from moving (and hopefully getting that garage I've been dreaming of) - so if it can find it a good home, I'm willing to (begrudgingly) wish it well.


The car needs a lot of work (starting with a leaking headgasket - so yes, real work), and shouldn't be considered by anyone who isn't either mechanically jazzed by the opportunity, or doesn't have the money to pay someone who is jazzed (and capable) to make this car the awesome vehicle it’s been waiting to be.

I will be very upfront about what needs to be done, and give you my contacts (parts are pretty hard to come by), but I will only entertain offers that make it worth parting with a car that is pretty kickass - and will be completely awesome once a little time and money go into restoring it (otherwise I'll just happily drag it along until I get that chance myself).


Thanks, let me know if you're interested.


- Vegas


Auto Services in District Of Columbia

Premier Motors Service & Auto Body ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service, Automobile Body Repairing & Painting, Used Car Dealers
Address: 309 Howard Ave Ste G, Chevy-Chase
Phone: (301) 340-2130

One Way Auto Service Center ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service
Address: 3011 Hubbard Rd, Chevy-Chase
Phone: (301) 322-5673

Moore Automotive Tops & Upholstery ★★★★★

Auto Repair & Service, Automobile Parts & Supplies, Automobile Inspection Stations & Services
Address: 9776 Lee Hwy, Fort-Mcnair
Phone: (703) 352-3535

Gls Auto Body ★★★★★

Automobile Body Repairing & Painting
Address: 1627 E Gude Dr, Chevy-Chase
Phone: (301) 279-2410

G & S Auto Dynamics ★★★★★

Automobile Parts & Supplies, Auto Body Parts
Address: 4607 Madison St, Chevy-Chase
Phone: (866) 595-6470

Auto Glass Experts ★★★★★

Automobile Parts & Supplies, Automobile Accessories
Address: 4927 Elm St, Chevy-Chase
Phone: (301) 208-0072

Auto blog

Junkyard Gem: 1995 Mercury Tracer Trio

Sat, Feb 5 2022

With the rise of Radwood, cars with exaggerated characteristics associated with the 1980s and 1990s are cool again. That means some combination of pastel and/or neon colors, squiggly squeezed-from-toothpaste-tube graphics, nonfunctional decklid spoilers, giant TURBO badging, and kicky youth-centric nomenclature are required if you want your wheels to be considered in compliance with the sacred tenets of Radism. I do my best to find rad machinery while crawling around in car graveyards, and since I came of driving age in 1982 I know a bit about the subject. Today's rare Junkyard Gem shows us the Mercury Division's belated attempt to sell fun cars to rad-leaning youngsters: a Tracer Trio, found in a Denver yard a few weeks back. The Trio package added 310 bucks to the cost of the $11,280 base Tracer sedan (that's about $575 on a $20,925 car in 2022 dollars), and it got the hip-and-trendy young buyer a leather-wrapped steering wheel, seven-spoke wheels, a decklid spoiler and these rad fender badges. I'm going to say that the much louder graphics and candy-cane-colored displacement badges on the Pontiac Sunbird W25 out-radded the Tracer Trio by a mile, but then Pontiac generally out-radded everyone in those days. Even Plymouth got into the act with such radness as the Breeze Expresso and Sundance Duster (we'll overlook the anti-rad Horizon Miser here). Perhaps tellingly, Mercury, Pontiac and Plymouth all got the "Old Yeller" treatment not long after the Rad Era ended. The Tracer name always went on Mercuries built on Mazda platforms, starting with the Australia-built, Ford Laser-based 1987-1989 cars and then continuing with Mexico-assembled, Ford Escort-based 1991-1996 cars. That generation of Escort/Tracer was mechanical twins with the Mazda Protege, itself the bridge between the 323 and the Mazda3. Some Tracers got the a 1.8-liter Mazda engine that was related to the Miata's engine, but this one has the pure-Detroit CVH 1.9. You're looking at 88 horsepower right here; the Mazda 1.8 offered 127 horses. At least the original buyer of this car got the base five-speed manual transmission instead of forking over $815 extra (about $1,510 today) for the four-speed slushbox. As a 29-year-old slacker living in San Francisco's Mission District and driving a hooptie '65 Chevy Impala sedan at the time, I would have taken the manual transmission without the Trio package, had I been forced to buy a new Tracer.

Automakers tussle over owners of 'orphan' makes

Thu, 10 May 2012

When General Motors put down several of its brands in recent years, it also let loose thousands of brand-loyal customers who will eventually need another car.
R.L. Polk Associates estimates there are more than 18 million cars from 16 discontinued makes on the road today. Those "orphan owners" have sales-hungry competitors seeing dollar signs. GM is offering Saturn owners $1,000 cash toward a Chevy Cruze, Cadillac CTS or a GMC Acadia. Ford is giving its Mercury lease customers a chance to get out of their contracts with no early-termination penalty and offering to waive six remaining payments if they drive off in a Ford or Lincoln.
Edmunds.com research shows the efforts are paying off somewhat for GM, with 39 percent of Pontiac owners, 37 percent of Hummer owners and 31 percent of Saturn owners taking delivery of another GM-branded vehicle. But that leaves as much as 69 percent of owners going elsewhere. Ford, Honda and Toyota seem to be attracting many former GM owners.

Ford's J Mays feels vindicated by Fusion reception

Tue, 25 Sep 2012

It's hard to think back now, but the same man overseeing the design of the 2013 Ford Fusion also presided over a rather lackluster period in Ford design, highlighted by vehicles like the Five Hundred and Freestyle. With the redesigned Fusion receiving high praise, J Mays tells Automotive News that he feels vindicated from criticisms suggesting he's not a daring enough designer.
When Mays took over as lead of design in 1997, he admits to having quite an ego ("My head would barely fit through the door some days. I've long since gotten over myself") and the workload to match. With the Blue Oval's portfolio full of premium brands like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo at that point, along with the bread-and-butter Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, Mays certainly had quite the challenge.
It was in the mid-2000s that Mays took over just the premium brands, and took on the new title of Chief Creative Officer. At the time, Mays endured some criticism for looking backwards to retro styling, rather than setting a new standard for American car design - criticism that Mays says he is free from with the all-new Fusion.