It was the Merkur XR4Ti that caught my eye as I drove past the Haggen (former Albertson’s and soon to be Albertson’s again – don’t ask) market parking lot. Haven’t seen one of those for a few years. As I swung in to get a shot, I noticed two other vintage red cars in close proximity.
Since it was rather early yet, and the cars were parked some distance from the market, these may well belong to some employees. And maybe that’s why they hang out together.
This is an ‘899, the last year for the ill-fated XR4Ti, which explains the more modest single-plane rear spoiler. William Stopford did the full story on the Sierra-turned-Merkur here.
The dash was a little hard plastic box, but the seats in these were quite nice for the times.
Gen2 Camrys are still very prolific here, and this one is rather unusually crappy looking, due to its fading paint and peeling clear coat. Odd, since I was quite sure that Toyota was still using a conventional non-clear-coat red at the time, as in this similar-vintage MR2.
The Saab’s paint is still in pretty good shape, but then it is the youngster in the trio.
This is 1997 9000CSE Turbo, which makes it a second-to-last year model. Brendan Saur did a CC on a same-year 9000 Aero here. The CSE had the full-pressure turbo, making 200 hp.
The EWOP sticker intrigued me: Everything is Working Out Perfectly. Good to know.
Nice grouping. That early 2000’s red Prelude in the corner of the first shot will be ready for its day in the sun soon, they aren’t getting any more plentiful either…
Coincidentally I saw a black Merkur in traffic here a couple of days ago and thought to myself that it was becoming rare as well. Predictive CC effect maybe?
The Albertson’s here in Tigard became a Haggen, and a mere 7 months later they closed it.
Exact same thing happened to the Albertsons in Keizer.
Albertsons bought Safeway. Government regulators forced the combined entity to divest stores (for anti-trust). Albertsons chose to keep the Safeway stores and sell most of the competing Albertsons. Haggen bought many of the Albertsons, greatly expanded its size but suffered terrible indigestion shortly afterwards …
That Haggen-Albertson’s has been there since at least the early ’60s. I’m glad they’re coming back, Haggen seemed somewhat expensive. For you Eugene-o-Philes, the vacant land adjacent the store used to be part of the Eugene Municipal Airport. It’s hard to believe that was actually the “edge” of the city.
Same thing happened to the Safeway last year forcibly sold to Haggens about a mile from our home in Tucson because of a nearby Albertson’s; it folded in about 6 mos. & is now Safeway again. Monumental stupidity: there was never a lack of alternatives to Safeway here.
Haggens had good meats & veggies but poor selection & high prices; they were very mistaken if they imagined we were a bunch of well-heeled Northwest yuppies here.
Toyotas of the ’80’s and ’90’s seemed to have serious paint peel problems in certain colors, whether clear coat or not. Even the non-metallic dark blue pickups started showing those symptoms in the mid-80’s, when they were definitely Japanese-made, and probably not yet using water-base paint. BTW I just got back from a few days in Oregon; lots of great CC’s on the road, including three ’63 and ’64 Chevies spotted separately along I-5 within a 30 mile range of Eugene, just after the ’64 was featured on CC, and a Citroen GS and DS parked together in SE Portland.
Ah yes, those Citroens are a landmark in Portland. They’ve been there quite a few years.
For a while there was an old Citroen van running around in Portland. Haven’t seen it in a while. I see occasional 2 CVs.
Dark green ’96 Tercel family member owns looks as bad as the pictured Camry. It did come from sun baked Southern California.
Being exposed to 20+ years of weather is rough on paint. I’d be more worried about the large rust hole in the rear fender/quarter panel
The sight of that Saab practically brings a tear to my eye. That exact car in exactly that color (Imola Red is the official Saab hue) was my all-time favorite COAL. Bought used in 2001, I literally shed a tear when I had to have it flatbedded away in 2004 with 364,XXX miles on the odometer. Wonderful car. So comfortable, so agile for its size, and quick to boot. Sigh. EWOP, Indeed.
364,000 miles. Amazing. Was that with the original engine/transmission? What finally did it in?
Haggen’s tried moving into Arizona, and they opened a few stores here in former Albertson’s and Safeway stores. In very short order, Haggen’s closed, and eventually those locations reopened as either Albertson’s or Safeway.
Paul: Were you still living here during the eighties when these Merkurs were popular? It seemed that every time you heard about a Car-B-Que on the Baltimore Beltway, when you rolled up on the scene, it was a Merkur that was on fire. Perhaps my 3-decade old memories of these cars are a bit fuzzy, but I do recall one such Vehicle Flambe’ on the Outer Loop of 695 near Providence Road in Towson that had traffic backed up all the way back to Rosedale. The flames were 20 feet in the air! Were these cars prone to catching on fire? Or was I traumatized into giving them a reputation in my mind having seen several of them on fire in the eighties?
Anyway, just to let you know, the word “here” below the third picture down is not a link to take you to William Stopford’s article. I’m sure you’ll fix it like you always do! ;o)
No. I never heard of these being self-igniters.
Link now fixed!
Self-Igniters… love the term, Paul. My sister had one of those. It was a boxy looking Toronado Diesel, third generation I think. It spontaneously combusted one day sitting in her driveway. She wasn’t even driving it at the time. The engine caught on fire for no apparent reason. I would imagine she had just finished driving it and something went wrong after she shut it down.
As to the link, sorry to bother you again, but now it links to a COAL by Matt Spencer about his 1976 Chevy Caprice… https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/coal-capsule/coal-1976-chevy-caprice-classic-coupe-cheap-transportation/
I think the link you wanted was this one, if my search of the CC site kicked back the correct article…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1985-89-merkur-xr4ti-too-close-to-the-sun/
Didn’t Fieros have fire problems because of broken rods flying around?
According to this they did, Guy…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Fiero#Engine_fire_reputation
I remember seeing a bulletin from Pontiac for ’84 Fiero only having a lifetime engine replacement safety recall if the rods started knocking. This was in 1989.
Toyota didn’t use clear on black or red, but probably did on maroon.
The Merkurs are an interesting story. Bringing over a European car and trying to sell it through an American dealer network generally hasn’t been too successful. Especially if the Marque is unknown and more expensive than it’s domestic siblings. I always liked the Merkurs, I just didn’t get the statement I would be making by driving one. On the other hand you can always drive a BMW, everyone understands that.
What’s worse is they gave it a name that the average American can’t, and won’t, be bothered to pronounce correctly. Then the Model is an xr4ti. The stupid auto correct on this computer won’t even let me capitalize the X, r or t so that I can spell it right. The whole idea had to have been hatched at a corporate orgy.
XR4Ti was a bastardization of the Sierra XR4i in Europe.
The whole shebang was a Lutz folly.
Has anyone else noticed the camry has hood pins? Am i seeing that right?
Perhaps that Camry’s a sleeper… with a tricked out Supra engine under the hood!
I wonder if those are real, or (more likely) stick on fake ones, from the rack next to the ventiports at the chain auto parts store.
http://www.americanmuscle.com/mustang-hood-pin-install.html
The best part is where they suggest you scew the cable to the bottom of the hood so you don’t have to disconnect it, with this caveat:
Note:Be careful not to drill through the top of the hood.
Also note the anti-theft device on the steering wheel
I see Merkurs on Craigslist every few months but never actually see them on the road….I guess I need to get to a few Cars and Coffee ? The only one of these 3 that I would be interested in owning.
A
Sierrauh Merkur, and in magenta like my glorious Sierra! #soinloveThat XR4ti is a nice find, to be sure. I can only recall seeing two in the past 5+ years. The SAAB is nice as well; they got a lot of mileage out of that 9000 shape, albeit with some freshening over the years.