Mercury Topaz – A Personal Memoir, Part 1
The life and times of a guy from New Jersey, and his 1994 Mercury Topaz.
This story does not take place in the 90′s, but 2002. I was a student halfway through my junior year at Kean University. It’s a commuter school, with barely any dorms to speak of. There’s plenty of parking (nowadays, when I was there you had to fight for a spot).
The school’s location right off The Garden State Parkway and Route 82 in Union, NJ made it a breeze to get to (off rush hour, at least).
Not my actual Topaz, but a close twin
So there I was, commuting 30-40 minutes up and down the parkway each day. My beater mid-80′s Non-Ford could only take so much punishment. One day, I turned on the car and its engine fell out through the bottom. I needed a new ride, ASAP. Midterms were coming up, not one class could be missed in preparation.
My father happened to be off early from work that day. As I sat home, pouting over the lack of an automobile in the suburbs, dad called me from our family mechanic. He found a car that was only described as “Like a Mercury Cougar, but with 4-doors.” I was very excited, a 90′s Cougar?! What a find! For $2200 with low mileage.
When I arrived, it wasn’t a Cougar, but a Topaz. Disappointment settled in slightly, but I was relieved I could buy something that needed little work and not kill my insignificant savings.
There were little remainders of Ford influences on the vehicle, aside from the fact that Topaz was really a rebranded Ford Tempo. The tape deck (yeah I said tape deck), front and rear light covers, and floor mats all featured that oval logo. But the mighty Mercury symbol across its plastic grille, along with its V6 ‘America’ (Canadian) engine under its hood.
I sat in the driver’s seat, closed to door, and those noisy automatic seat belts slid across my shoulder. You remember, the ones attached to the doors in all 90′s Fords. It had automatic everything, in fact. There was even cruise control. Like any used car with power windows, at least one of those didn’t work, the same with one of the power locks. You could only open the rear drivers side door from the inside. It was nice to be driving again, so I didn’t care much.
But there was plenty more to come from my Mercury experience: date nights, college graduation, prowling the streets of New York City, moving to Philadelphia – where the car eventually met its demise. Stay tuned, if you’d like.
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