Many of us have fond childhood memories of the ol’ station wagons. These family haulers served us well for decades before anyone ever uttered the words SUV. Who doesn’t remember trips to the beach, grandma’s house, or the local hangout riding in the back of a station wagon facing rearward. Your kid brother poking you in the ribs the whole trip, and your baby sister screaming “he’s looking at me!” All the while your parents were making idle threats to turn this car around, hoping you’d all take them seriously and behave.

Seriously though, this 1954 Mercury Monterey station wagon is a perfect example from the glory days of the wagon and it’s up for grabs on eBay in what appears to be excellent and very drivable original condition. In fact, with the exception of a crack in one of the rear sliding windows we couldn’t find a single flaw on the car.

The chrome appears to be in very good condition, the body does not have any major flaws and appears to be straight. They have also included pictures of the car on a hoist to show that the undercarriage is rust free. The seller has included a video walk around with the car idling smoothly and does make mention of the damaged glass. He also tells us this car is an older restoration.

Outfitted with it’s original 256 Y-block V-8 and three-speed column shifted manual transmission, this old wagon could get the family to the next cruise night in style.  The original interior is all there done beautifully in turquoise and white. The exterior is a white color with wood trim. This is not a real wood body but rather it has real wood trim. The tailgate is the split design, with the rear hatch opening independently of the lower gate. So in theory, you could stuff surfboards in the trunk and have them hang out the back window if you wanted to.

The owner has set a buy it now price of $24,700 or best offer. The car is located in Chesterton, IN. We don’t think it would be possible to restore one of these classic Monterey wagons to this level for less money than what is being asked here. We’d love to have it, load up the family and head down to the coast for a weekend of fun and sun. What would you do with it?