(first posted 5/26/2016) True story: I’ve never been more dumbfounded at finding a Curbside Classic than I was when I spotted this Merkur Scorpio two weeks ago. Ever since I learned of this car over a decade ago, I’ve made it my great quest to find one. Unfortunately, selling just over 22,000 examples in North America, now almost three decades ago, the chances of finding one in existence, in any condition, are slim to none.
I did manage to spot this one out in the CC-rich climate of northern California three years ago. Unfortunately, I was a passenger in a moving vehicle coming back from a tour wine country, so this was the best picture I could get, and as a result, it doesn’t really count for me.
Yet in an odd twist of fate, I was recently lost in the appropriately-named “Quiet Corner” of Connecticut. A result of the usually accurate navigation app, Waze, taking me off Interstate 395 to the wrong address on a street that didn’t exist, I came to find that there was no southbound re-entry to the highway. Begrudgingly trusting Waze again to take me back to the interstate, I was shocked when on the horizon I spotted this distinctive hatchback shape aside the rural country road I was traveling on, for it was indeed a Merkur Scorpio!
So what’s so special about the Merkur (pronounced “Maer-koor”) Scorpio? Well, it was Ford’s most serious attempt at making a European sports sedan for the North American market. By the 1980s, with an ever-growing population of upwardly-mobile buyers flocking to European import brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Saab, and Volvo, American car companies slowly began introducing models aimed at these buyers who preferred the tighter handling, driving dynamics, and understated appearance of most European cars.
Typically, these European-inspired sports sedans were limited to trim levels on existing mid-size vehicles, differentiated by blacked-out exterior trim, alloy wheels, stiffer suspension, an interior with different trim and bucket seats, and if lucky, upgraded powertrain. Examples of this included the Dodge 600 ES, Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera ES, Pontiac 6000 STE, and Ford’s own 1984 LTD LX.
The Merkur Scorpio, however, was a totally different approach, and arguably the most legitimate domestic “European sports sedan” of the Eighties. This is because the Scorpio was in fact a born and bred European executive car, developed and built in Köln (English spelling: Cologne), West Germany, and sold across continental Europe as the Ford Scorpio. In Ireland and the U.K., the car was still called “Granada”, retaining the name of its predecessor.
With rear-wheel drive, a choice of 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic, a host of gasoline or diesel inline-4s and gasoline V6s, and numerous available luxury features, the European Ford Scorpio was positioned as a legitimate alternative to cars such as the 5-Series and E-Class, much as the Merkur version would be when imported to North America.
In a bold move, Ford chose to offer the Scorpio only as a 5-door hatchback, a decision that somewhat limited the car’s appeal, especially when it came to America. A somewhat angular Taurus-styled 4-door sedan and a 5-door wagon were eventually added, though by this point the Scorpio’s short stint in the States was over.
The Scorpio hatchback was clearly the looker of the lineup, boasting a sleek, aerodynamic silhouette. With steeply-raked front fascia, front windshield, and rear hatch windshield with wraparound rear glass, the car was a compelling, futuristic shape even in Europe where aero designs were already common.
Keeping that praise in mind, the Scorpio design did have its flaws. Despite being rear-wheel drive, the Scorpio featured an uncharacteristically short and tall hoodline, for a somewhat less elegant look than competitors such as the drop-dead gorgeous BMW E34 5-Series. More noteworthy, was that the tall rear roofline and expansive glass hatch tended to give the car an un-sporty, top heavy look from some angles, in addition to making the car look externally larger than it really was.
Regardless, the Scorpio was a hit in Europe, becoming one of the best-selling cars in its class, and receiving numerous praise and awards, including European Car of the Year in 1986. By the time it arrived in North America as the second (and ultimately, final) vehicle added to the new Merkur marque, the Scorpio had a stellar reputation to back its market positioning.
Predictably, the Merkur version was only sold with the top engine available on the European model, a 2.9-liter version of the Cologne V6. Engineers completely redesigned this engine over the older 2.8-liter version, with improvements including a lengthened stroke, stiffer engine block, and a dual manifold arrangement, all made to achieve a more favorable torque curve. Rated at 144 horsepower and 162 pound-feet torque (slightly less than in Europe), this engine was capable of achieving over 90 percent of peak torque between 1800 and 5200 rpm.
The Scorpio was one of the first production vehicles to feature four-wheel disc anti-lock brakes as standard equipment. Suspension was fully independent, consisting of MacPherson struts, anti-roll bar and coil springs up front, and semi-trailing arms, anti-roll bar and coil springs in the rear. The Scorpio also came with power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering and at least in North America, was fitted with 15-inch cast aluminum wheels wrapped in low-profile Pirelli all-seasons.
Contemporary reviews of the Scorpio’s handling were typically positive, with ride quality, braking, and the expected tight Germanic steering praised. What most reviewers felt lacking though was acceleration. Although the Scorpio felt confident and composed at triple-digit speeds (top speed was 117 mph), getting there was a bit leisurely, with a zero-to-sixty time of around 10 seconds. In 1987, Car and Driver ran the Scorpio up against the Saab 9000 Turbo, Acura Legend, and Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan, with the Saab and Acura requiring nearly 2 full seconds less to get to sixty mph.
In that same June 1987 issue, Car and Driver summed up the Scorpio as a “model of equanimity”, offering a idealistic balance of handling and comfort. C&D went on to say that in the Scorpio “you feel exceptional poise rather than sportiness”. If there was any question about the Scorpio’s sports sedan claims, there was none whatsoever on its claims of luxury, which most agreed was the car’s most endearing quality.
Uncharacteristic of most German cars, the Scorpio featured thickly padded yet still highly supportive seats, for maximum long-haul comfort. Front buckets were 16-way power adjustable, although the unsightly squeezable lumbar support inflators tended to conjure images of a blood pressure monitor, or worse. In any event, rear passengers were treated to limousine-line legroom, and rear seatbacks could even recline nearly 20 degrees at the touch of a button — one of the car’s most unique features.
Standard on all Merkur Scorpios were the expected power windows, power locks, power mirrors, tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, and cruise control, to name a few. An overhead console with information center and automatic climate control were both standard, and heated front seats were added to 1989 models. The available Touring package (which most Scorpios seem to have been equipped with) added leather seats, power moonroof, and an electronic fuel computer.
The Scorpio’s interior was well-laid out, with clear analogue gauges and controls positioned within easy driver reach and view. Despite their easy accessibility, some controls and switches were criticized for being confusing to use. Additionally, though it featured high-quality materials and fit-and-finish, the Scorpio’s interior came across as more Mercury Sable than Mercedes-Benz.
Regardless of any subjective qualities, from an objective standpoint, the Merkur Scorpio had many strengths making it a competitive car up against other premium imports. It certainly embodied most of the qualities buyers in this class wanted. Yet despite modest sales projections of 15,000 units per year, why did the Scorpio only manage to sell just over 22,000 in the nearly three years it was sold in North America? If there is one undisputed answer to this question, it is poor marketing.
If it wasn’t bad enough that the Scorpio was sold under a brand that was absolutely meaningless to most people, as few had heard of it and even fewer knew how to pronounce, it was that this BMW/Mercedes/Audi/Saab/Volvo/Acura-alternative brand was sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers, and only select ones at that. Merkur was targeted to a completely different demographic of buyer than the typical Lincoln-Mercury clientele, making it virtually impossible for the Scorpio and XR4Ti to score any sales or even interest from Lincoln-Mercury owners and shoppers.
On that same note, it was highly unlikely that anyone shopping for an import sports-luxury sedan would consider visiting their local Lincoln-Mercury dealer. Other new brands in this segment such as Acura did not encounter these same problems, as the brand was sold through an exclusive dealer network and had a large customer base of current Honda owners looking to trade up.
Then of course, there was also the Mercury Sable and Ford Taurus. Sure they were front-wheel drive and offered a less invigorating driving experience, but they sure looked an awful lot like the Scorpio, boasted greater interior width, and cost nearly half as much, even fully optioned. While it’s probable that almost nobody was cross-shopping Mercedes-Benzes with Taurus and Sables, it is equally unlikely that anyone looking at the Taurus and Sable was allured by the Scorpio. Furthermore, any performance deficiencies were largely nullified by the 1989 Taurus SHO.
As a matter of fact, in more ways than one, the Merkur Scorpio draws parallels to the Eagle Premier. While not necessarily positioned as a premium “European sports sedan”, the Premier was a similarly-sized car, owing much of its mechanics to a European vehicle, and one of the most technologically-advanced cars available in the U.S. at the time. Much like the Scorpio, the Premier was a sales flop, largely a result of its poor marketing under a newly-created “import fighter” brand that failed to resonate with buyers. But that’s a story to revisit for another time.
Ultimately, selling European Fords under the Merkur brand in North America was a failed venture, and one that still raises as many questions today as it did in the 1980s. On the one hand, selling genuinely European engineered and built cars with all the characteristics import buyers demanded for a lower cost than other German cars sounded totally ingenious.
Yet at the end of the day, who exactly was Merkur supposed to appeal to? And I mean no shame at all, but it’s no secret that a large majority of European luxury car purchases were and still are today image-driven. Those looking to shell out big bucks for the prestige of a Bimmer or Benz were not likely to be swayed by some no-name Ford product, even if it was from Germany. Likewise, Japanese luxury brands such as Acura and later, Lexus, appealed to those who once drove more pedestrian Hondas and Toyotas. Any extra conquests they picked up along the way were additional profit.
The idea, execution, and general goals of Merkur still raise many obscurities, which will likely never be fully understood. Merkur disappeared just as quietly as it arrived, seeing less than five years of existence — a period of time significantly less than the time it took me to find one. The Ford Sierra (basis for the Merkur XR4Ti) and Scorpio continued in Europe, fully living out their design cycles, before being replaced. As for the North American market, Ford largely gave up on trying to sell upscale Euro sports sedan fighters, making the whole Merkur story all the more bizarre.
Related Reading:
1988 Merkur Scorpio (Curbside Classic)
1988 Merkur Scorpio (Vintage Road Test)
1985 Merkur XR4Ti (Curbside Classic)
When you saw one of these in the UK, you could be pretty much certain it was a company car, purchased for the management layer slightly below the top dogs (who generally got Jags). Competent and comfortable, but not a particularly good looking car. I always thought the previous generation of Granda was a handsome beast with proper presence, and this generation was just a bit bland in comparison. However, certainly better looking than the generation that followed. The US can be truly grateful they didn’t have to look at that nasty face….
“Company cars” don’t really exist in America; even high-level executives buy their own cars privately. Unless your job revolves around driving (such as a courier), you don’t drive a company car.
I did see that ugly new face in the U.S. though only because British car mags are widely sold here.
la673: What you said about company cars is simply not true. I’ve had them, I know many people who do, and the esteemed founder of this site has had a few, which he’s written about.
What part of the country do you live in Mike? Location may have something to do with how prevalent this practice is. Having worked in the Pacific Northwest for 30+ years for a smattering of employers, I’m not aware of any that provide company-owned cars to executives (now monthly car allowances, yes) outside of car dealerships.
redmondjp: I’ve lived out West all my life (60 years). California, Nevada, Arizona, then back to California. I’ve known people who get company-leased vehicles in all three states…and as I mentioned in my post, Curbside Classic’s founder, Paul Niedermeyer (chime in anytime, Paul) has had and has written about his company cars.
Are they a common perk…as in does some person on every block drive a company car? No. But that’s not the same as “don’t really exist in America.” A link from last summer for background…a survey of American businesses and their car perk programs, which found 66 percent of the companies surveyed do offer company cars for the business and private use of executives and other talent they want to attract and/or retain:
https://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/articles/pages/vehicle-benefits.aspx
Out of curiosity I’d like to hear of an example. In Britain at least, the “executive saloon” is their way of compensating managers in lieu of a much higher salary which would run afoul of punitive income taxes (maybe I’m oversimplifying here).
Otherwise I have to agree with “la673” & “redmondjp:” only Americans who drive as part of their daily jobs or work in the car biz are likely to get company vehicles, & usually not fancy ones. Here, managers get the big bucks so they can go buy their own fancy cars & houses.
Neil: It would appear from this UK article published just last year that you are oversimplifying:
http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/business/finance-strategy/are-company-cars-really-dying
An “executive summary,” please, for I don’t get how that article refutes my point.
Neil:
I’m sorry. That particular article doesn’t. But the article I posted in response to redmondjp does. There is still a significant percentage of American corporations that offer vehicles as perks to executives and to attract and retain workers.
Hundreds of thousands of people drive company cars. They are called law enforcement.
Or taxi cabs
The Taurus and Tempo were wildly successful. When you’ve got a good thing going, you don’t spoil it by bringing out a similar-looking product with a name that sounds like a counterfeit knockoff. GM wasn’t bringing in Opel Monzas and calling them Kadillaks.
No, they called their Opel imports Cateras….
… And they were based on the Opel Omega model ! (“The Caddy that zigs!” … Um, no, although a pretty good attempt, it was actually the Caddy that sags…in the sales dept.)
..or as we used to call them when I worked at Techline Customer Support Center, “Caterribles”……
Excellent article, Brendan!
I don’t like the full-width reflectors at the rear and I’m struck by how large the typeface is for the badges!
I didn’t know these were so luxurious inside! That makes these even more appealing to me. The mid-size hatchback needs to make a return: the current Fusion and Regal both have almost identical-looking hatchback variants in Europe. Bring them here!
They don’t because hatchbacks don’t have much of a market here, which obviously makes good business sense. I know I surely wouldn’t want one.
Just curious, why wouldn’t you want one? Particularly if they look almost identical to the sedan (for example, compare the Fusion sedan with the Mondeo hatch).
They are just vastly more practical at the expense of, what, a slight amount more interior noise?
Outside of Citroens, I don’t think there have been any successful hatchbacks in the D-E segment (as per the model code), which could possibly even be interpreted as there haven’t been any successful hatchbacks – ie how well did Citroen do from their big cars?
No successful hatchbacks? Seriously? How then can you explain the success of the Toyota Prius hatchback? Particularly here in North America?
The Prius is not a large/executive type car like the Scorpio or Citroen XM, the hatchback is more popular as the car gets smaller.
Perhaps the other candidate I didn’t think of earlier is the Saab 9000.
The Renault 25 was a very successful E-segment hatchback. The later Renault Laguna (D-segment) ditto.
But we’re talking about the past and Europe only. Currently the Skoda Superb and the DS5 are offered as hatchbacks only. Although the Skoda is available as a very roomy wagon too.
Fair comment about the Renaults, they sold some of those here too.
Skoda is still getting off the ground here really, averaging <500 Superb sales per year, Citroen <100 DS5's.
Respectfully, there is a presumption of truth that ‘hatchbacks don’t have much of a market here’. This is incorrect. The Prius models are all hatchbacks and sell in the 100s of thousands. Same with MINIs (except the convertibles), GTIs, Subaru Impreza/Crosstrek, Most Mazda3s sold are hatch and you could say the same about the Ford Focus. The numbers are there yet it’s somehow incorrectly told that they don’t sell. If anything, sedans are getting the colder shoulder sales-wise, of late
I have to agree. Although I’ve never driven a Toyota Prius, but I have ridden in a couple, and contrary to popular belief, I believe that there is a market for hatchback cars. They may not be *as popular as* sedans are, but so what? I see more Prius hatchbacks than Prius sedans.
Quite a few of these were sold here in the Land of Steady Habits (CT) and there is a local guy who has a few of them and services these and XR4Tis. They really are the upscale sedan version of the XRs and the V6 is a much better powerplant. Interior is quite luxurious. Too bad they were poorly marketed.
If you mean Jeff in Plainville…yes, I bought my second Scorpio from him. There were more than a few dealers in CT. Brendan, where in the Quiet Corner did you find this one? (I’m in Windham, but my two Scorpios are plated, and different colors.)
Ah, the Mercury Scorpion… or “Scorpion Mercury” if you read the rear deck hatch lid correctly. 😉
When the Merkur XR4Ti came to market in Canada, my friends mocked it. They thought it was Ford’s bad attempt to produce a German car wannabe. “How do you pronounce Mercury in Deutsch? Merkur! Ya vol!” If you could look past the odd styling… a strange crib of the Tempos, Topazes, Tauruses, and Sables in showrooms at that time… you would have found a very competent automobile. But the marketing failed. Badly. No other car in the Ford lineup had an alphabet soup CamelCase +1 digit name like that. What exactly did “XR4Ti” mean? The brain hurt contemplating that answer. Move on…
It did not bode well if twenty-something car nuts were dismissing the Merkur marque. The introduction of the Scorpio made things worse. What happened to the odd naming convention? Shouldn’t it be an “XRMoreTi”? Ford’s marketing slip was showing. My buddies were more interested in reading about the missteps than the attributes, which also were the subject of senior-teen derision. Obviously, the “squeezable lumbar support inflator” was fish-in-a-barrel fair game to make fun of.
My speculation to a few of your questions.
Ford did like doing nameplate on the left, marque on the right in the late 1980s-1990s. I think it was their idea that doing this would bring more equity to the model. And I think XR4Ti was some attempt at copying the Cougar’s XR7 sport model. Other makers have used “Ti” on turbo models, likely for turbo-intercooler. But agreed, weird names.
The sporting model of the Sierra in Europe was the XR4i. It used the 2.8 V6, so since the Merkur version got the turbo 4 instead, the “T” was added to denote its turbo-ness. Which all makes sense. Except that in Europe it was a trim level to the Sierra model, as opposed to the entire model name in the USA.
Much of Ford’s European line at the time had XR sporty models. There was also the Fiesta XR2 and Escort XR3/XR3i.
One downside vs. the prestige German brands was the engine; while the Cologne V6 was decent, it or the buzzy, blown Lima 4 would hardly impress the Audi/Benz/BMW crowd. This was where Ford’s neglect of small six development hurt them, on both sides of the Atlantic.
If you don’t have finesse, then at least have the power. Did the 302 fit in the Sierra. or would its weight upset roadholding anyway?
Yes the 302 fit. Ford South Africa did it.
If I remember correctly, it was XR for Rally Cross, 4Ti denoted 4 cylinder turbo, intercooled.
“i” stands for injection
Argh, the headlight cover discoloration continues. It is a shame to see more and more vehicles “of a certain vintage” plagued with this issue, domestic and foreign. I saw a vintage Lexus LS 400 a week ago with a wide expanse of sculpted headlight cover that was completely yellowed. This car was otherwise in mint condition. There doesn’t seem to be a way to prevent it. Is there a restoration solution?
Well, nowadays every car has plastic instead of glass headlight covers, so it´s a very common problem. “Yellowing” can be eliminated sanding and polishing. After that it´s important to spray the covers with lacquer, otherwise they will be yellow again in a few months.
Clearcoat helps but it too can/will yellow. Best option I’ve seen was in the forum I moderate where they’re using UV resistant clearcoat for sign painting, not sold in stores.
Yet somehow the second generation Acura Legend never had this problem with its plastic lenses. Time to ring up Acura engineers from the ’90s and ask fo them what kind of plastic they used back then that would last nearly 30 years (so far) without yellowing.
Fine sanding with 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000 grit abrasive cloth followed by a good quality polish does the trick. It needs to be redone every two years or so.
Brasso does an excellent job on polycarbonate headlights I did my Citroen yesterday.
Oddly enough Colgate toothpaste(the original), a bucket of water and a few rags and that will get rid of the yellow. I was very skeptical about this until I tried it on my Volvo 240 and sure enough it worked. I did not keep the car much longer so I don’t know how long it took to yellow again.
It really depends on the kind of plastic. I tried this on my car’s lights and it had no discernible effect, nor did a commercial headlight cover polish (I think by Turtle Wax, although I don’t remember for sure).
It’s not a certain vintage issue, most 2016s will look the same way several years from now, I see quite a few circa 2010s lately with cataracts this bad already
Agreed, newer cars don’t seem to be as bad but their headlights are still yellowing as they age.
That’s odd about the Lexus. I have a ’92 and the paint is gone, but the front end looks brand new. The headlight and fogs are glass, with only the sidelights being composite. When I detailed it a few years ago, even the composite had minimal yellowing.
“Jaundiced eyes” on a car irrationally irritate me, so it’s either cleaning and polishing semi-annually (Lincoln Mark VII) or the preferred glass units (Saab and Lexus).
Rather popular “executive” cars in Europe in the ´80s, thanks to modern styling, great interior space, and standard ABS brakes across the range since its introduction in 1985. But engines were poor (except the 24 valve, 200 bhp Cosworth), interior styling was not exactly “executive”, and people was already starting to reject brands like Ford, Opel, Renault, Peugeot et al to buy their luxury cars from Mercedes, BMW and Audi.
That huge rear reflector and big headlamps in the U.S. cars ruined the looks, too.
Although not a car without merit, it´s very hard to think that the Scorpio could be successful in U.S. What was Ford thinking?
they were available in a tax break 1.8 petrol as well. I remember being impressed by the 4 speed auto though. My Dad had one – was like sitting in a bath.
Another brand contemporary with Merkur is Sterling. Basically a luxury sedan with an Acura engine and British styling and luxury. I think these are much rarer to find today than Merkur. CC has only done two stories on the Sterling in the US. Like the Merkur they were more popular in Europe
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1987-sterling-825-sl-turkey-in-the-grass/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/moving-target-look-a-running-sterling/
The Sterling also had great styling (better even than the Scorpio in my opinion) and a classically British luxury interior as you stated. Sadly, it also had classically British unreliability. Leave it to the British to make a Honda unreliable…
The Civic 5-door hatch arriving soon in the U.S. will be built exclusively in the UK. The reliability of previous cars from Honda’s Swindon plant have been up to Honda’s usual standards, so Honda can build a reliable Hondas in Britain even if Rover couldn’t.
LOL!
I really wanted a Scorpio in the early 90’s and there was one at a public auction in Virginia that I went to buy/ bid on. It went over what I was willing to pay and I ended up coming home with an ’89 Sterling 827 SLi (Rover Vitesse) that served me well until it was totaled/ rear ended 7 years later.
The Scorpio seemed bloated in comparison to the leaner, sportier Sterling. Bonus was that since it was a 5 door hatchback, insurance considered it a “wagon” and was dirt cheap to insure for something “exotic”/ generally unseen. I never had any reliability problems with it, only stupid (typical British charm) electrical gremlins or trim parts just giving up on life and falling off. Loved the way it drove and the hatchback utility as well as some sportiness and luxury.
Found an old scanned pic of “Vita” from when I took her to Carlisle Import in 1996 (I think). 1989 Rover Sterling 827 SLi Vitesse- For comparison to the Merkur
I didn’t even know they sold the hatchback version in this country. I’ve never seen one on the road (while I haven’t seen a sedan in a while either, they used to be around). Great looker, shame it was totaled!
+1 I have never seen a Sterling hatchback. I lusted after the sedan in high school…but I haven’t seen one probably since the early 90’s. I still see Merkurs around here once in a while.
I saw a few hatchbacks years ago but its been years since I saw one. They were first sold two years after the sedan arrived, and only in Vitesse sporty trim at first if I recall correctly, which didn’t suit the car’s character IMO. Their looks did recall the SD1 to some extent.
There was a new coupe version for 1992 onwards that was designed specifically to appeal to Americans, but by the time it arrived they were no longer selling them there. Even if they had I doubt it would have helped sales much, given that big coupes were fast declining in popularity at that time.
I have only seen one Sterling hatch in the wild. I attended a Lincoln Tech (vocational school) open house in 1999 and saw one in the lot. It was one of the cars that was donated to them for the program they had where they repaired cars to give to needy families. It was white with a cream interior. It looked great. I am thinking the owner died and their children donated it.
Definitely better styling, much tighter and leaner. The high cowl of the Scorpio makes it seem bloated in comparison.
I found a guy who fixes and sells them. He has one for sale with 210,000 miles
http://sterlingfixer.com
When I bought my house in 1994, the previous owners had his and hers Merkur Scorpios in the garage–the first time I’d ever seen two together outside a dealership.
Brendan, congratulations on your find! Great write-up here, too.
I like the Scorpio, because it was the intersection of two types of vehicles I’ve always had a fondness for: 1) Large European sedans, and 2) Sporty American sedans. When these were new, though, I wasn’t the target market for these cars, since I was only 15. However, my father, who was 50 at the time, was. And I talked him into test-driving one.
My father, unlike me, loathed American cars. He drove a Saab 900 at the time, but I still managed to talk him into some interesting test drives, and this was one of them. Amazingly, he liked the Scorpio… it drove very well, the hatch was useful (remember, he was a Saab owner), the seats were comfortable, and it was available with a manual transmission. My father was a very picky, import-minded buyer, and the fact that he actually liked this car speaks volumes about its abilities.
However, if he had actually been in the market for a new car then, I’m not sure he would have bought one because he was concerned about resale value. That, of course, wound up being a valid concern, and I wonder how many other potential buyers were turned off because their appetite for risk (in buying an unheard-of car) was too low.
Thanks for the good read this morning.
Thanks Eric.
The way in which you describe your father’s feelings and reservations of the Scorpio is probably how most consumers potential in the Scorpio’s target market felt. I feel like many of those who actually purchased a Scorpio were probably upwardly mobile buyers who had never owned an import car nor a luxury car before, and were enticed by the Merkur’s value and that it was sold by a domestic automaker. I’m willing to bet that most of Merkur’s conquest buyers came from Ford. Buyers like your father, who already had owned European imports may have taken interest, but probably stuck to their established European brands.
Not sure if you and your father ever were offered this (I’d assume it was only offered to serious buyers to sweeten the deal), but interestingly enough, according to this video, Ford guaranteed Scoprio buyers the same residual value as the Mercedes 190E up to four years, and if not, would write a check to the buyer for the difference.
That’s interesting — I don’t remember that, but clearly Ford was aware of buyers’ resale-value hesitancy.
I wonder what the fine print was on that deal? My guess is that you had trade in your Scorpio on another Ford product, and within 48 months of purchasing it. But even if it would apply to only a small number of cases, it was still smart for them to promote this program, since it may have planted in some people’s minds that Merkur is sticking around for a while. Sometimes it’s better to stick with your instincts, though…
I owned a Scorpio bought it new. The program was if you kept it for 2 years Ford guaranteed resale value based on Mercedes 190. When I traded mine in after 2 years I was given a trade in value over 18,000.00 on a Mercury XR7. It was one of the best cars I ever owned.
A friend of a friend had one, a single guy, mid twenties. He didn’t seem to fit the profile of a Scorpio owner. I rode in it once, and it was very roomy and comfortable. I owned a Fiesta and my sister a Cortina, and by the time the Merkurs arrived, I was quite cynical about captive imports from Ford, or others for that matter. Fine cars, but destined to be orphans. Australian Capris (and Pontiacs), Cadillac Catera, Daewoo LeMans, the last generation of Saturns … the list goes on.
+1 on the congrats for the find.
The article’s summary, which emphasizes poor marketing and lack of brand equity is spot on, from my perspective as a car geek “Of a Certain Age”, meaning that I was of recent driving age when these came on the scene. The XR4Ti made a ripple, if not a splash on the scene among younger performance minded drivers, and in my (then) area of Northern NJ where image, status and prestige were in their full yuppified glory at the time, they were seen with some regularity. The Scorpio, on the other hand was a rare sight on the leafy streets of even Bergen County’s poshest suburbs. Brendan’s assessment makes perfect sense: If you’re keeping up with the Joneses and they’re driving a 5-series you’re going to shop Mercedes and Audi long before going to a Lincoln-Mercury dealer.
By most accounts these were viable and competitive cars in their intended niche, but for all the reasons cited in the text above you were far more likely to see a very heavily loaded Taurus or Sable, perhaps even a 6000STE or Lebaron GTS driven by the customers these were aimed at. Additionally, any of these “eurofied” versions of more traditional domestics were arguably much more attractively styled. The Scorpio’s most equally-matched competition when looking squarely at size, configuration and content, was probably the Saab 9000, which already had a pretty fair stronghold on the market for that somewhat quirky buyer of well-equipped higher end-yet conservatively styled 5-door “Executive Sedans”.
Thanks MTN. I actually completely forgot about the LeBaron GTS, which could be seen as a sort-of budget Scorpio. Interesting to note that the XR4Ti was actually a half-regular sight in your area when new.
People seem not to notice the refinements of design that differentiate the Merkur from the Taurus. The Merkur’s panels have more depth and the shutlines are more carefully arranged and radiused to avoid gaps at junctions. The car was more thoughtfully resolved than the US Fords to which it bore a superficial resemblance.
The US Taurus and Australian EA Falcon designs evolved from the European Ford as it appeared first, the Taurus seems to have been better than the Australian effort which was plagued with reliability issues from being rushed into production due to the unexpected early release of the Buick powered Catera from Holden. I see a few Ford Scorpios here in NZ the UK version of this Merkur.
While probably true, unfortunately most buyers only notice the styling, features, brand prestige, and price.
I worked with a guy who owned an XR4ti….and the whole experience was a disaster which I think was probably pretty stereotypical. First, he was a big guy who had been used to buying roomy comfortable Gran Marquis’, and went back to them after his ‘wild-years’ flirtation with Merkur. He bought the XR4ti for two reasons – first he’d spent a few years in our German operation and wanted that German-car experience again. Second though and most important, was that he was a peculiar combination of status-seeking and thrifty. He’d often point out that he was driving his Gran Marquis for no more than a Ford would have cost him. So what really lured him into the XR4ti was that the dealer was dumping them for silly prices.
He didn’t really like the car after the thrill of zooming around on turbo-boost wore off. He was a big guy in a small car in Dallas rush-hour traffic. No wiggle-butt room, and an air conditioner designed by a German who calculated the temperature of Hell about 20 degrees cooler than a Dallas summer day. Uncomfortable was the word, and the only excitement in driving in rush-hour traffic came from watching the temp gauge go into the red zone. The car didn’t like that kind of driving and was generally unhappy lugging along.
The real catch was though that the turbo engines in those days were unreliable -lots of trouble with oil coking destroying the bearings- and that the only Merkur-trained mechanic at his Dallas dealership hated the cars. After years of only doing plugs and oil on big V-8’s, he actually had to diagnosis using translated manuals and then make best guess repairs using those odd weirdly numbered metric tools. The mechanic lost money every time he worked on the cars because he could never make book hours on a job. So….he put off the jobs till he got yelled at and quit working on it the minute he hit book hours. Take it somewhere else you say? No one would touch them especially mechanics at other Merkur dealers. Who wants to lose more money working on them?
So, within two years and two turbos, the European experiment was over, culminated by an August hour spent in the center median of a Dallas expressway two days after a shop visit. The dealer essentially gave my friend a Marquis to get that car out of the dealer’s life.
I suspect that while the details differed, the essential story was pretty much similar at every Mercury/Merkur dealership in the country. Everytime the dealer sold one of them furrein kars he sold himself a headache.
Given the XR4ti experience, and the contemporaneous popularity of the Taurus/Sable twins, I would speculate that Mercury Dealers were hiding their Scorpios out in a back lot somewhere and offering big big discounts on Sables to any customer who demanded to see a Scorpio.
“The only Merkur-trained mechanic” sounds like “the guy who knows Renault” at my local AMC dealership. It must have been a law back then that every dealer only had one guy who was able to work on the imported stuff!
As somebody who briefly owned a 198x Renault Alliance, I feel that mechanic’s pain. Example: the French, in their stubborn need to do things differently from everybody else, numbered the cylinders starting from the flywheel end of the engine. The Haynes manual had the pictorial firing order wrong in two places. Only in the text, read carefully, would you learn which cylinder was #1.
Oh, and they sync’d the ignition off of different-width steel blocks welded to the torque converter. Meaning that if you separated the torque converter from the flex plate without marking them beforehand, you had a one out of three chance afterwards of having the engine start. Which is why I got the car for free in the first place!
A Merkur-trained mechanic who hated the cars – sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Very interesting account on an actual Merkur owner, and thanks for sharing! I’ll second what others have replied with, that most service technicians probably hated working on these finicky German-made cars that were very different to what usually came into the shop. And service advisors probably hated having to deal with the aggravation of upset Merkur owners who were likely in with issues frequently.
And yes, the Germans still haven’t fully perfected air conditioners for American summers. The A/C in my mom’s ’07 BMW sucked, and though the one in her ’13 Mercedes will blow ice cold, it takes a while to reach that point. Meanwhile I’m freezing in my Acura with it blowing below 70 degrees after 5 minutes.
I’ve owned three XRs and one Scorpio. Right now, I own an XR with 263,000 miles on it, albeit one that had some significant upgrades to the drivetrain @ 220,000 miles (aluminum head, T3/T4 turbo, Sierra LSD, world class ZT5 transmission, custom radiator/intercooler, ported everything, Superchip for the ECM, big VAM. I put 150,000 on my first one bought new before giving in to the changes in family requiring a larger car. Still had the original clutch with the weak T9 transmission. The second one had the awful C3 auto which needed rebuilt after only 60k on it.
After owning and working on a few cars before I got the XR, I can see clearly why mechanics of the day didn’t want to work on it. It was complicated, not like the big V-8s at the time. The suspension had a lot less leeway for errors re-assembling it after repairs/maintenance.
The A/C? Average at best. Even worse when converted to R134. But it does cool. For those with the high temps on the gauge, two that I owned never had that problem. The only one that did was the auto. It had less cooling area as the transmission cooler was built into the radiator.
The simplest thing to do to increase the longevity of the 80s turbo Fords, was to not shut off the engine immediately after using the boost. I always let it have the time to let the oil cool off as much as possible before shutting it off. Never had a turbo problem. Translated manuals? I had my first shop manual for my 86 XR in 87. It wasn’t translated, it is just a shop manual.
The XR got a bad rap from lazy mechanics and some issues in the early run of them. The Scorpio? It was scheduled to get a significant update to the engine, transmission, interior quality and air bags in 1990. I’ve seen dealer literature highlighting the new in 90 changes. Now there’s a car I want to find, a 1990 Scorpio (no Merkur, just like the Capri in the 70s).
Nice find.
Used to be one in my neighborhood, but the woman finally sold it.
I liked these quite a bit when new, and if it had had a more potent engine, it would have been on my radar at the time as a possible acquisition. Well, the dash was a bit cheap looking too. But they had a fine ride and wonderful leg room.
Paul-
I had one as a daily driver back in the early 2000’s, and you’ve hit it right on the head- Great leg room (front and rear) along with a solid chassis and tremendous brakes (for the time).
Brendan:
Nice piece!
I got a Scorpio as a renter for a week in Washington, D.C. in 1987, when Budget was featuring Lincoln-Mercury vehicles. Had a couple of xr4tis in Los Angeles during that period, too. I’m betting Ford moved a chunk of both models into fleets, which probably partially accounts for their low survival rates.
The Scorpio was nice, but I’d driven a few BMWs by that point in my life, and it wasn’t a BMW by any means.
Why didn’t they sell? Apart from the reasons you cited, there was the typical disconnect between the Lincoln-Mercury dealer and customer base and the foreigner with the funny name. Ford did this once before by trying to sell the DeTomaso Pantera from the same showroom floor as Grand Marquis sedans and Colony Park wagons. It was a miracle they sold as many European Ford Capris (1971-77) as they did.
When the Merkur Scorpio was introduced, Mercury’s buyer base was solidly in its late 50s, the Lincoln buyers older than that and the typical L-M salesman was clueless about the new product.
The other problem was price. Most of the ones sent over here had the Touring Package, and those started at about $27,000. That put it squarely against a BMW 528e and an extra six grand would buy a 535i. Meantime, an Acura Legend cost less.
So there wasn’t much to sway an import buyer.
As for pulling folks over from Lincoln or Mercury to Merkur? Tough sell when Town Cars and Continentals were going for about the same money as the Scorpio and there’s a fully-loaded Sable on the same showroom floor for under $20,000.
Yup, a Lincoln-Mercury showroom was probably a rather confusing place in the late ’80’s, for customers as well as staff. The vehicles on offer varied pretty considerably, and yet the “average” customer was a 50-something middle-america type. It’s a wonder they even sold as many of those new-fangled-looking Sables as they did. I can recall as an example a family friend who traded an ’84 Grand Marquis for an ’87 Mark VII LSC. She was a 55-ish mother of three girls, 2 of which had left for college. We all joked that Sandy must have been having a mid-life crisis, but it became clear later that she had gotten overwhelmed when looking at the selection at the same dealership she’d bought several Mercurys from over the years and gotten “sold” on something out of character. By ’89 she was driving a Sable, as the “euro” LSC was viewed as a failed experiment by her. I suspect that a lot of Lincoln-Mercury buyers at the time were lured into uncharacteristic purchases that were lamented in the long run. It’s interesting that by the mid-90’s those dealerships were selling mostly more conservative “American Styled” cars again.
Nobody has mentioned the breathtaking depreciation these things had.
I remember near the end they announced a “guaranteed resale” program.
Well, that should raise a flag right there. If you have to bring up the topic in the first place, there’s an issue. It’s like a 60s cigarette ad. Our cigarettes won’t kill you. Uh huh.
I remember reading about these in Car and Driver. From the ‘unfortunate’ name to the Lincoln-Mercury showrooms – I got the feeling from half a world away that this wasn’t going to end well.
I remember both th Merkur XR4ti and the Scorpio. I remember hoping it was going to replace, or at least supplant the Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis. Sadly, that didn’t happen.
I bought one that was like brand new when it was about 3 or 4 yrs old. Long said story short – I have owned well over 100 cars, and this one was the worse car I ever owned, as far as things breaking and high cost to repair.
Wow, that TV advert doesn’t even mention “Merkur”, which tells you all you need to know. Can you imagine a 535i commercial that didn’t mention it was a BMW? An E-Class commercial that made no mention of it being a Mercedes-Benz?
Also, was this the only car ever with squeeze bulbs?
I think some of the higher-end Japanese models ran these as well – my memory keeps saying Supra….
I seem to remember Ford using these type inflators on some of their cars during this period. I believe they used them in the early run Mustang SVO’s and possibly in some early Fox-body Turbo-Coupes/XR7’s.
That BMW has the ugliest style of alloy I’ve ever seen. It looks like it has whitewalls.
Those are actually hubcaps covering the alloy wheel underneath – and yes, they’re hideous. I believe they were supposed to direct air into the brakes to cool them, but BMW switched to a much more attractive 5-spoke cover later on.
Nice looking car even today. The hatch makes it very practical, perfect for today’s Costco runs (back then maybe the local Pak ‘n Save). This was in an era when the Big 3 were trying to Euro-fy their cars, such as with blackout trim and amber rear turn signals. Remember the Delta 88 with big amber turn signals? Even Cadillac got into that game. This was also a time when many cars still had sealed beams and not composite headlamps, so seeing anything like the Scorpio on the road stuck out.
I think it was just a combination of currency exchange and the name that turned off buyers. Plus I think most dealers weren’t interested in selling them.
That’s a shame. I’ve never understood why dealers weren’t interested in selling them. I found them more attractive than the American versions.
“… a miracle they sold as many European Ford Capris (1971-77) as they did. ”
The marketing was way better and it hit a sweet spot of market. Same bracket as Celica. Its success led to Ford deciding to downsize the Mustang for ’74.
What also helped was no attempt at a separate brand name. Was sold as “Capri imported for Lincoln-Mercury”, but commonly called Mercury Capri.
Nice find, it has been a while since I saw a Ford Scorpio.
Its direct competitors, built by other mainstream automakers, were cars like the Renault 25, Peugeot 605 and Fiat Croma. And above all, the very successful Opel Omega.
The Benz W124 was in another galaxy, in all aspects.
Both the Ford and the Opel were also available as a wagon, the others I mentioned were not.
I read (somewhere) that as part of the Mercury marketing plan, Ford was going to guarantee the Scorpio trade-in value to match BMW and other high end makes.
Does anyone know if this was indeed the case??
Okay- I found it!!
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/20/business/at-ford-a-resale-guarantee.html
Here’s a video that mentions it:
I still refuse to group the LTD LX with the likes of Eurosports, there’s really nothing about it that screams “euro”, I mean blacked-out exterior trim, alloy wheels, stiffer suspension, an interior with different trim and bucket seats could describe a 70s Trans Am. In fact I’d put the LX much closer to whatever segment the Buick Grand National/ T-type occupied.
I never understood all the flat-black paint applied to “Euro” style American cars in the ’80s. Real European cars weren’t all blacked out and usually had chrome window frames and wood trim on the dash .
Agreed, especially in the Mercedes Benz sense. I think most of those traits simply typified “sporty” across the board, and for quite some time(as I said, most of that was pretty par for the course by the tail end of the Muscle car era), GM tagging their sporty cars literally with “Euro” in the names is where that association comes from IMO, and cars like the LTD LX just got sucked into the vortex because it simply existed at the same time. How else would they have made the LTD look more sporty circa 1983? It was a 4 door Mustang GT in essence, inside and out, featuring similar dressup vs. the lesser models
Maybe it’s just me, but i’ve always felt LTD LX is an awful name. Why WOULD anyone think its sporty? The LTD name pretty much meant luxury Ford, and LX at the time was Ford’s luxury trim level, so to me the name translated into Luxury Ford Luxury. Well, at least they didn’t call it LTD GT.
Maybe it’s just me, but i’ve always felt LTD LX is an awful name. I mean, why WOULD anyone think the car is sporty? The LTD name was mostly associated with luxury Ford, and LX was at the time Fords luxury trim level. So to me, the name translates to Luxury Ford Luxury.
Agreed.
At least with the Mustang, it made sense. It was more “elegant” looking than the GT, even if mechanically they may have been the same. On the LTD, as the performance flagship? Baffling name choice. They should have gone with SHO or something.
They confused me right away. A misspelled Mercury Scorpio? Or spell it German: Merkur Skorpion. It looked like a Mercury Sable. Then I learned the beast has RWD. What an odd thing.
Really? Ford had trouble since the beginning giving Mercury a distinct image as a semi luxury brand. Then they used that same name with odd for Americans spelling to create an upmarket brand with cars that look like Ford/ Mercury bread and butter cars and expect it to succeed? How many people thought of it as just another Ford and didn’t even look at the specs?
What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and expecting different results.
It made for a great CC article though!
I remember thinking ‘why?’ when these came out. Others’ opinions may vary, but these aren’t very good-looking cars in my mind.
Those interiors – wow! I like the leather one pictured here.
I’d bet a bunch of dealers were PO’d when all that signage they bought for their dealerships was no good after 2 years.
Great find, Brendan, and a good review of the car.
In Europe, these were always sold with the Ford badge (Granada or Scorpio, depending on market and version) and were judged as a competitor for the Rover SD1/800 (in the UK only really), Renault 25, Opel Omega/Vauxhall Carlton, Fiat Croma, Peugoet 605, Citroen XM etc rather than truly against a 5 series, Mercedes E class, Audi 100 etc. Price wise, they were closer to a Mercedes 190 than an E Class, an Audi 80 rather than 100.
Yes, big, spacious, comfy and practical, but the hatchback was a brave call in that market. The interior had all the features but not the great materials of a BMW or an Audi, the individuality of a SAAB, or the resilience of a Volvo. Taxi and police use was common, as was the daily rental market.
Ford brought out the bulky looking saloon in 1988, effectively admitting that the hatch was the wrong option, as it was predicted to outsell the hatch by 70/30 IIRC
There was a major facelift in 1994, adding possibly the ugliest front ever to a car, and a bulbous rear end with thin strip taillghts, all sitting uneasily around an unchanged saloon only center section. That died in 1998, and was not replaced, though arguably the Mondeo has grown to fill the slot.
I am glad fate (or Waze) took you to this car–it is a great find and incredibly rare. I don’t think this car had a chance in the U.S., given how similar it seemed to the Taurus/Sable, but it was a nice package. Too bad FoMoCo didn’t invest in all-new sheet metal and an even more upscale interior–as such it could have made a great little Lincoln.
One more thing…here’s something to show that putting blacked out trim and new wheels on your old merchandise and selling it as the latest thing (like that LTD ad,) wasn’t just an American thing:
My friend & I used to joke that Europe discovered that black trim made a car go faster. Now I’m averse to it after noting how poorly this holds up after years of UV exposure. Example: after 6 yrs., my Civic’s driver-side door paint is deteriorating, & that plastic windshield base filler doesn’t look good on any car of moderate age.
I often see a silver Merkur Scorpio parked on the street on my way to work. Looks like someone in the Milwaukee area still drives one of these on a nearly daily basis. I’ve always been fond of these cars, in addition to the 5-door SAAB 9000 Turbos.
I remember being hopeful about these cars chances for decent sales but, there was that lump of an engine. Please, do not get me wrong, I love a good Iron block engine. I largely lament their passing. However, Why would Ford try to market a car that they must have thought would appeal to the cognicenti with a two valve, pushrod V6 ( that was not a GM 3800). If you were buying a European import of the time,(and paying that kind of money), you expected an engine with at least four valves per cylinder and even double overhead cams. I think that a showcase standard engine would have increased the stateside streetcred of these cars. They had a lot going for them. I think that, even with the inept marketing, if they had developed a word of mouth rep for performance, things might not have been so bleak.
Ford’s whole lineup in the ’80s cried out for better engines than most of the available options. The choices in Europe were the very old Kent/Valencia pushrod fours, the nearly as old 1.6- and 2.0-liter Pinto OHC fours, the newer but none too pleasant CVH family, and the Cologne V-6 (which even after its makeover wasn’t all that powerful or that refined compared to newer sixes). The U.S. options were not a whole lot better for the most part other than the V-8s, which were decent in the Fox cars, but not ideal for the Panthers.
The iron block was pretty far down the list of the Cologne engine’s shortcomings by ’80s standards. A lot of German and Japanese engines of the time still had iron blocks, and the Cologne V-6 isn’t all that heavy for a six. It’s just that it wasn’t especially powerful, especially for its displacement, and it was far from slick.
1988 was a bit early for that, both M-B and BMW still had SOHC 2-valve 6-cyl engines at the time, except the M5.
I wonder if this is the same car you saw in Norcal. This was sighted back in April 2012 in Berkeley.
Ripple: I was able to blow up Brendan’s blurry photo enough to tell that the plate on that car began with “2PPP”. Yours in “2HSC”. Both plate sequences are correct for the late 80s in California, so it looks like there may be at least two roaming NorCal.
Brendan, where was that photo taken? It looks almost like San Francisco’s Marina District.
I honestly don’t remember. I don’t think it was in the Marina District, as I recall it was at the top of a hill. But don’t go by that. It was three years ago and I had just been to several wine tastings that day already haha.
I’m 99% sure I spotted that same white Scorpio in San Francisco several years ago and posted it to the Cohort. I distinctly remember it having a yellow parking permit stuck to the rear bumper like the one in William’s photo.
I guess no Curbivore can resist photographing a Merkur.
Nice find, haven’t seen one of those in a long time
If I saw one on the street, I probably wouldn`t even notice it. Looks too much like a Sable or Taurus to even shoot it a second glance. The hatchback was probably not a great idea, too many people at the time equated it with an economy sub compact, not a European “executive” sedan. An interesting failure at best, definately not one of Ford`s “better ideas”.
I think the most off-putting thing about the Scorpio was the name. ‘Merkur’ was odd and foreign, not easily pronounced. If they had sold it under an existing brand (Mercury), it might have received more commercial appeal.
Mechanicals aside, it seemed to be an unfortunate victim of poor marketing than anything else.
I have to agree. I remember when I first heard the name “Merkur”. While I liked the styling of the XR4ti and the Scorpio, I had a hell of a time pronouncing the name for quite some time. I don’t know why it was called the Merkur in the first place. If it were sold at Mercury dealers, why weren’t they called Mercury?
I guess they had to give it some cachet-or “snob appeal” to pitch it and cater it to the affluent, suburban German import car buyer they were shooting for. God awful name, sounds like “worker”.
I know. I’ve never liked the name. I think “Mercury” would’ve sounded better than “Merkur.” It’s no wonder the cars didn’t sell well.
A friend in my car model club-mostly middle age guys who grew up with the hobby -sold Mercuries in the late `80s when this car was introduced. They sold so poorly that the dealership owner offered a 500.00 bonus to any salesman who could unload….err sell somebody one. He said his dealership in North Jersey sold only 8 or 9 of them before they dropped them totally.
Why did they sell so poorly? What was it about the cars that people hated so much that they just didn’t buy them?
Car Nut Guy-He said that nobody was able to figure that out. People probably realized that for the extra cash, it was probably better to go with a Mercedes because people knew the name, but a Merkur? A Merkur? How do you explain that ? What `s a Merkur? They were not exactly hated, but at the time it was an unknown name that needed an identity, which it just didn`t have .I think they call it “brand equity” or “branding” or something like that today.
I know. When I first heard of the Merkur, I remember asking “what the hell is a Merkur? Is that some German name? If it is, what does it mean?”
I agree the Merkur name was terrible. I’m sure in North Jersey at the time no one wanted to explain what they bought to their friends and neighbors–especially when there would have been no questions asked about a Mercedes or BMW.
Also, in the Lincoln Mercury dealerships at the time, a buyer could choose from the new Sable, which was less expensive than the Scorpio, or they could go with the all-new Lincoln Continental, from a luxury brand name that people would at least recognize.
I agree. If nothing else, name raecognition is the key to a car’s success. Most Americans know what Mercury is. Most Americans probably wouldn’t know what a Merkur is. I remember when the Merkur first premiered on the US market. I remember admiring the cars styling, but I couldn’t make out the name: Merkur. Huh? What the hell is a Merkur?
A cousin of mine had a Merkur XR4ti. While I loved its appearance, I wished that the Scorpio had the same front end styling as the XR4ti, I didn’t care for the name “Merkur”, and I couldn’t help but wonder “What the hell was Ford marketing thinking when they decided to use that name on its imported cars?”
Regardless of the questionable North American market strategy, I always liked these cars just for the unique design (I was 9 years old in 1988 and I remember some of these adverts etc). I remember that I only had the opportunity to sit/ride in one once when they were new, but I liked it A LOT. Later, I had the chance to get a decent one when I was a young broke Airman in the UK in 2002, and I took it. My particular one was ice-blue with the same blue interior shown in the pictures here, but an early and loaded one – 1986 model, branded as “Ford Granada Scorpio 4X4”. Yes- all wheel drive, 5-speed manual, loaded to the gills with every option available save leather – and almost everything worked, even for having a load of miles. (The A/C was a bit temperamental, but rarely.) Altogether, I fondly remember cruising in that big barge.
The 2.8 Köln V-6 provided sufficient power, although it sounded like a bit like a thresher. It leaked oil like a sieve, though. I kept it full, so it didn’t matter much to me, and even though I WARNED the (other broke Airman) I sold it to about this, I shortly thereafter saw her aboard a rollback, never to be seen again. I can only surmise that he or his very idiot wife ran it out and locked it up.
While I was digging for a photo to share, I’ve just noticed a scar on my hand from when I stabbed myself with a Stanley knife while replacing an upper coolant hose on that car. Happy days.
I’ve always liked them for the European Ford design. By the 70s and 80s I’ve found them more attractive than anything produced today.
Really? How’s that?
Funny to come across this CC post today. Just yesterday morning I spotted a Merkur Scorpio getting onto Lake Shore Drive in Chicago at Belmont. I was gobsmacked to see one in the wild anywhere, let alone here in the upper Midwest. It was in decent shape, but certainly not a perfect time capsule. The driver looked like he could have been the original owner, perhaps age 65 or 70 now. I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve seen one on the road — maybe 10 years? I almost said something to the guy standing next to me at the bus stop, but… well… what are you really going to say in that circumstance?
The marketing failure of Merkur mimics that of the Edsel, except the styling of the Merkur models weren’t anywhere near as polarizing. It also highlights how difficult it is to introduce a completely new brand, particularly when it is on the upscale end of the spectrum. The Japanese have a much better success rate (although Scion seems to be a goner).
Ironically the Ford Scorpio was never on the upscale end of the spectrum. It was just Ford’s biggest Euro-model, its competition came from other European mainstream automakers. Like the Opel Omega, for example.
But Opel also offered the Senator models from the late seventies to the early nineties. And those came much closer to the contemporary Mercedes and BMW midsizers.
Below the second gen Opel Senator, based on the Omega model.
one can’t help and this is based on the Ford Version had they gone this way for the Falcon replacement for the late eighties in Australia.The EA was a dog and they would have been better off sourcing The Scorpio/Granada from Europe and the later US Taurus for 1988-1995 and 1996 onwards.I read somewhere they almost went with the MAZDA 929 as the basis of Falcon but after that car went upmarket they had no choice but to settle for their own European/US equivalents.
I think that the reason the Merkur didn’t sell very well is that people couldn’t pronounce the name very well. I would think that if they were sold under the “Mercury” name, or under the “Ford” name, people would’ve recognised the name, and possibly bought them.
I owned an 88,We got it half price in 89. It was owned by Fomoco in LA. had just over 14000 miles on it. When I sold it it had over 200,000. wish I had kept it. I’ve owned a lot of cars foreign and domestic. That was my favorite by far.
My first car was a 1991 Eagle Premier and it was super rare in 2016 when I bought mine after graduating high school and I never saw one prior. I remember I was pulling up in it and next to me was in fact a Merkur Scorpio, another car I never seen before despite seeing the other Merkur, the XR4Ti during my toddler years. Its a shame that both cars never took off at all with poor sales strategies and supposedly poor reliability. My Eagle though was very reliable and super clean for the price I paid which was less than a grand for the car and title transferring.
I know this is an old article, but there’s someone who lives pretty close to where I work who has FOUR Scorpios sitting out in front of his house. I know at least one of them runs and drives because I’ve seen it out and about a couple times, but this one also has part of the back sawed off for kind of a mini car-truck thing.
if Ford Tempo / Mercury Topaz were clearly the notchback derivatives of German Ford Sierra fastbacks (the Merkur XR4) why not suspected the succesful Ford Taurus/Sable are the notchback’s sons of any other massive German hatchback as the Ford Mondeo of those years ?
Yeah I guess if you disregard the whole FWD and RWD thing, and the fact that they share absolutely nothing besides a common parent company.
I have one, 1988 Merkur Scorpio, still starts without fail even when it is -5 degrees F, needs a transmission, tho. Would like to find a buyer.
What a great rerun! And six years later, I doubt there are more than a handful of these still in driveable condition.
And I’ve learned so much from CC over the years, particularly about the choppy nature of Ford (and also GM) history of bringing their European cars to the US.
In the late 50s and early 60s, there were “English Ford” dealers. Some were incorporated with Ford dealers, others not. There were also a tiny quantity of German Taunus models imported. And then nothing until the early 70s introduction of the Capri – and the Pantera, which was “sort of” a European Ford. And then nothing again, until the introduction of the Merkur cars. A similar tale can be told about GM and their importation of various Opel and Vauxhall models in the 50s-70s, followed by the Catera and late-stage Saturns that were slightly modified European cars.
Very well written article.
When these were out and in more numbers on the roads, it always seemed that these were the cars that people drove as if they owned the road. My memory of these cars was being cut off, no signals used to indicate left or right turns, and U-turns in traffic. Also taking two spots in the parking lot if there was one there.
I guess you can’t blame the car for that, but it sure left a lasting impression on this driver.
I see what Ford was trying to do, but they may have attracted more sales under a more well understood name like Mercury. Maybe they thought they needed another brand moniker to take away sales from Saturn.
I’m with you on “Merkur” being a thoughtless, tonedeaf choice of brand name, but I don’t think Saturn had much of anything to do with it. Merkurs were sold from ’85 to ’89; Saturns from ’90 to ’10.
I agree with you regarding the “Merkur” name. Although I found the cars attractive and cars I might drive and possibly enjoy driving them, I don’t get why the name was chosen.
In my high school photography class I submitted a photo to the weekly contest that wasn’t bad, but wasn’t exceptional. I gave it a clever title, thinking that’d surely carry some weight. It didn’t.
We’re talking about the car company who thought their Five Hundred wasn’t selling because it wasn’t called the Taurus, so my guess is this was like that. Americans didn’t know what to make of this sudden weirdly-named brand they mispronounced in an unfortunate but entirely natural way (“MURKer”). I think they’d’ve done better to sell the Exrati…oops, ‘scuze me, the XR4Ti and the Scorpio as Fords.
Yea… it seemed a blunt force approach to making sure customers KNEW that this was a real EUROPEAN car, not some truncated Lincoln Log or rehashed Tempaz like what’s sitting across the showroom. No-sir-ree! Comes from the same place those cars that the upwardly mobile types been buying for awhile now. It’s IMPORTED from GERMANY… has a name that’s exotic enough that we’ll have to tell you how to pronounce it correctly. Pretty special, huh?
It’s one of those things that sometimes happens when a whole bunch of people fluent in “marketese” gather ’round a table to process information gleaned from focus groups and surveys and market research and predictions and statistics, then add a pinch of voodoo… and out pops the perfect name. A Mongoose Civique for the 1980’s, if you will.
P.S. @Daniel Stern Looking at the first picture of our featured car… Is this Ford’s approach to those yellow headlamps you’ve been speaking of?! ;-)P
I agree. What I don’t get is why these Euro Fords were never popular in the USA. Back in the 1970s, there was the Ford (Mercury) Capri, and that didn’t last on the market.
Yes, actually. These were Ford’s “Better Idea” for 1983; the main system design priorities were (1) cheap; (2) funnel bulb business to Sylvania; (3) funnel plastics business to GE, and (4) cheap. NHTSA bought Ford’s steaming pile of bulk wrap about how excellent and durable and superior this kind of headlamps would be—why, they’d be the bestest ones ever in the whole wide world!—and rubberstamped it: sure, fine, whatever, go’head.
Pedestrians die as a direct result.
I saw one of these driving here in Tucson last month..2nd time that I’ve seen it. I seem to recall reading in R&T when they were new that Ford was promising Skorpio buyers free future upgrades to current model standards as they came along..?
Excellent article as usual Brendan. Very well researched, combined with your well-informed opinions.
I think both the Taurus and Sable were significantly better looking cars. Based upon styling alone, I’d think the Sable was the premium car. They were cleaner and more original designs, The glass C pillar being the one genuinely unique and notably distinct exterior design feature on the Scorpio. The too tall and massive taillight lens area looks contrived. Between the Taurus, Sable, XR4Ti and Scorpio, the Scorpio was easily the most conservative design.
IMO, the Taurus SHO had it all over the Scorpio. If perhaps less refined, and luxury-oriented.
The Sable had the glass C pillar too, which is one reason they look so much alike.
In some markets (Central or South America, or Mexico, can’t remember which), the Taurus had the wraparound-look glass C pillar too. It was basically a Taurus front and side sheetmetal with a Sable rear.
Car and Driver had a long road test when these were introduced. At first I was intrigued. I had found the BMW Bavaria and Audi Fox to be quite attractive and desirable. I was thinking seriously about late model Mercedes and Bimmers. The Scorpio reminds me of the Cadillac Catera that the dealership gave me as a loaner when I took my STS in for warranty service. I really wanted to like that Catera, it was German after all! But it didn’t impress as a German Opel and it didn’t impress as a Cadillac either. My ’94 Seville was better in every way. That 5 series BMW pictured in the post, now that, was a car to lust after! Everbody KNEW what that said about the owner. The Merkur might have impressed an enthusiast, but your neighbors and co workers would have thought that it was just an odd duck. Why would you pay extra for that? An expensive car without the prestige of a luxury legacy? Lexus was able to pull that off, based on the strength of the Toyota corporation behind them, and decades of loyal buyers.
The last time I saw a Merkur was sitting on the side of a dirt road of a campground. The weeds had taken over and the paint badly faded. I would imagine the owner didn’t want to pay for a new turbo or couldn’t find repair parts; therefore, just abandon in place.
I get the impression the same scenario was encountered by the blue Merkur next to the blue building in the first few photos. Could not source parts or didn’t want to pay a premium for parts to keep the Scorpio running.
That makes no sense whatsoever. If you’re going to sell cars to any given country, don’t you think it’d be best to offer parts to keep a car running? I don’t get why they don’t do that. It’s no wonder certain cars aren’t sold here in the USA. Parts aren’t easy to source.
I bought an XR4Ti new. Parts are easier to get now, with the exception of some of the interior parts, than they were new.
Most likely it was the transmission that failed. Even the detuned 2.3 stressed it.
Fords advertising dept was totally out to lunch. The LTD LX ad, “special” sealing head gaskets? “Premium” exhaust valves? Double roller timing chain? No, sorry sir, I prefer the standard head gasket that doesn’t seal, regular exhaust valves will do just fine and who needs a “double” roller timing chain? Hey hon, just picked up a new car on the way home from the market, guess what, its got a double row roller timing chain!!!!!!!!! The wife responds, “Does it have solid rollers or split rollers?”
So lets import an expensive European Ford sedan, give it a weird name and …………………. sell it thru select Mercury dealers.
One other note, I think this article is the most press these vehicles ever got!
As for the only mechanic trained on a particular vehicle it was a fairly common practice to be specialized in the work you did. The chances you could make book time was much better if you worked on the stuff every day. There was the “front end man” that did most of the alignments. The “automatic transmission guy” that did most of the transmission work. I was the Isuzu guy when GMC started selling the Isuzu medium duty trucks. There were times being “The guy” was a good thing and of course there was times you wished you had never heard of the damn things.
It’s interesting that Ford and GM took so many turns to not make their European cars successful in the US. It seems both Companies feared that even more than the Japanese and BMW & Mercedes competition. Making its global products also in US would solve the costs problem as Honda and Toyota did with their best sellers.
Right? I don’t understand why that’s the case.
There were unfortunate political and economic considerations (see below). I also would not be shocked to be shown evidence that at least some of the overseas-model failures in the U.S. market were deliberately engineered to provide ballast for the automakers’ to go “See? Toldjya: Americans don’t like European cars” and keep selling Cavaliers and Tempos and other suchlike.
Here is what a Ford engineer told me in 2004, in the same conversation wherein he told me the North American plants were not capable of putting together the Australian Falcon, and went into credible detail about it (and he said, probably correctly, that Ford were not about to piss off the UAW by importing Falcons):
“In ’98-’99, Ford considered bringing the Australian Falcon XR8 over to the US to sell as a luxury/sport car. I was between “jobs,” as it were, and a friend of mine in Product Development got me assigned to the crack team of engineers assembled to evaluate the feasibility of federalizing a Falcon. Of course, I was involved in chassis evaluation. That was an awesome car (and the BA is even better). It used what at the time was the Explorer 5.0, so it had a strong bottom-end, but also had good-breathing GT-40P heads. I think it made about 250 hp, and I think like 305 lb·ft, or close to it; bottom line: the car was all torque, with a nice helping of horsepower, but it had a hard time putting that power down ’cause it was relatively light. The AU platform used an evolution of Ford’s “Control Blade” IRS originally developed for the Ford Sierra (aka Merkur XR4ti in the US) that did an excellent job of controlling geometry, but lacked the ability to really control the torque loads delivered by the engine, so wheel hop and suspension wind-up were really a problem. To try and counter that, Ford (but mostly Tickford) had compensated with stiffer springs and a thicker rear antiroll bar, which made it ride “hard” and oversteer (but I thought it rode and handled as a car such as that should, even though about 80% of Americans would disagree). Wasn’t a whole lot we could do. It takes a concentrated driver to handle a car with those characteristics, which Australians can and most Americans could not, so that presented a litigation issue and a definite vehicle dynamics obstacle. Plus it is a dedicated RHD car, so there’d be a number of low-volume, custom parts to be made to convert it to LHD, not to mention a specialized conversion line/facility to accommodate it.
“Plus the bonehead powertrain engineers wanted to replace the sublimely good BTR automatic with a 4R70W to reduce [mainly] service costs, which would’ve completely killed the car’s performance; the 4R70W is NOT a performance-oriented transmission; it is better suited for use as a boat anchor. And work on the “clean sheet” DEW98 platform (LS, S-Type) was already underway at Jaguar, and it’s approximately the same size car and configuration. The XR8 was a sedan that would run with a Mustang GT, but it would’ve retailed for about $50,000-$60,000. A great car indeed, but not $50,000 great. Sadly there really was no place in the market for it at that time in this country. So Ford bailed.
“The Falcon 6 would have less tendency to understeer than the V8, but both cars have remarkably tuned dynamics. The BA (and especially the BA Mark II) in general is better balanced than any evolution of the AU chassis (the AUIII was close). Still uses an iteration of the old “Control Blade” IRS, but with slightly different geometry that helps keep the rear from winding-up when it gets smacked with [up to] 405 lb·ft of torque—that torque figure is from the F6 Typhoon and Tornado (ute), the latest offerings from FPV that hold the title of producing the most torque of any Australian-made car/ute, which features a turbo intercooled 365 hp version of the humble but capable Barra 182 4.0L 24v Six.
“The interesting thing about the Falcon and the Commodore is that in addition to being very nimble and stable, they also ride very smoothly. This is mostly due to the fact that the majority of Australia’s secondary roads are clay/crushed gravel, so kinda like secondary roads in Michigan during winter, they can get rough during the wet season, and the suspensions of cars there have to be able to take the ruts and holes without beating the occupants to death. American cars have traditionally been sprung to handle rough terrain with perfect smoothness, but that tuning becomes detrimental when you have to do anything other than go completely straight. American “performance” suspensions, therefore, have simply consisted of higher-rate springs to control body motion, which has the negative effect of translating the impact of every pebble or pavement crack you run over, and beats your kidneys to death.
“How the Australians get their cars to absorb a potted dirt road and handle the turns of a road course all in one tuning is quite remarkable, really. It has a lot to do with the configuration of the suspensions themselves, but the real trick is in how they match spring and damping rates. The problem with American cars is that they’re made so blasted cheaply, and their structures are so flimsy, that you really have little to work with if you’re trying to stabilize a car and improve ride quality, so everything they routinely do in Europe and Australia, we can’t do here.
Forget trying to incorporate an “expensive” double wishbone front suspension or IRS rear drive; its all cheap MacPherson struts and trailing links to get the job done. The best thing Ford had years ago was the MN12 platform, but they wanted it soft. So it was soft and heavy and expensive to make. Now the DEW98 has taken its place, but is severely underutilized and cheaply-made.”
I had two Merkur Scorpios in the late ’80s/early ’90s., I liked them so much. They were wonderful cars with some hiccups. The interior of this car was among the most luxurious and comfortable of any car I have ever seen for both front and rear passengers with the electric rear reclining seats and the enormous amount of legroom. Ford had a stupid habit of burying high quality European cars at Lincoln/Mercury dealers whose sales people had no idea about what to do with them. I had a German Capri in 1973, 2 Scorpios in 1989 and 1990, and have owned and still own a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera, so I’ve done my share of sampling them.