Jose Luis Herrera sent me this shot of two old Fords caught together in Argentina. He left a comment with more info on them both:
Hi Curbside
this pic is spontaneous , left a Ford Taunus 2.3 GXL 1978 in mint condition.
Right : a 1982 Ford Falcon 3.6 /221 in” in damaged state . These vehicles were built at the local Ford Motor Argentina and were sold simultaneously at the official Ford dealers ’til 1991 , then replaced by Ford Sierra, Ford Galaxy 2.0 (a rebadged Volkswagen Santana ) and Ford Mondeo . But never again local Ford was as successful as It was under the venerable duo Taunus-Falcon production’s lines lap .
I assume these photos were taken in the same location as the photo in the post below, and the Taunus is the same car the cat is sitting on in the photo in that post:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/spotted-in-argentina-1971-dodge-d100-still-hard-at-work-cat-is-worried-about-that-dog/
Swap the grille and lights on the Taunus and its the facelift MK3 Cortina so common once over here replaced by the MK4 then MK5 then Sierra and later Mondeo along with the Japanese Telstar Ford NZ had a complicated range inNZ we got nearly everything, The Falcon is the version we got untill 66 when XR came out.
Sure looks different without the hip in the rear door too.
The Cortina Mk.3 had different body panels and, at least initially, different engines though both were based on the same RWD underpinnings. The Mk.4 was really an update of the German Taunus Mk.3 equivalent shown here, hence the less curvy waistline and squarer back. Other differences include non-wrapround rear lights, narrower centre section on the grille and the slightly higher and stepped line between the wheel arches (on the Cortina the surface of the centre section came down lower to meet the tumbleunder with a fold line, not a raised crease). Both originally had pressed metal grilles replaced by plastic ones in 1973.
Then you get Cortinas like mine – I accidentally ‘reshaped’ one rear door turning into the (wooden) garage a bit sharply one day. After a cut and polish, it blended seamlessly from foldline to raised crease about two-thirds of the way along the door!
Oh yes, but nothing you can’t put right with a hammer, a tube of Plastic Padding and some sandpaper!
That poor Falcon needs a good home. Send ‘er to me, I’ll take care of her.
Lucky Argentinians got the Taunus, Brazilians got the silly Maverick with an old Willys F-head engine – ok, Ford cleanead up its act with a modern 4-cylinder a couple of years after the Maverick’s introduction, but it was too late, and Brazilians paid back in kind by refraining to buy a mediocre product – it sold poorly and its production run was short. By comparison, its competitor, the Opel Rekord C derived Chevrolet Opala had a production run of almost 24 years. Before it all started there was a survey – behind closed doors – among 1300 invited guests that were shown a Taunus, a Cortina and a Maverick, and the choice was overwhelmingly in favor of the Taunus, but Ford thought it could cheat the market and it got all the scorn it deserved.
Ford Taunus was the first Ford’s mid-size car (for Argentinean standards at that time) in order to face Peugeot 404/504, Fiat 125, etc., strong competitors of that segment in those days. But, the most important was that this started (1974) a the progressive Europeanization of the Ford range for Argentina, followed by Taunus MK V, Sierra, Escort, etc. In 1987, Ford and Volkswagen joined in Autolatina, launching “hybrids” between these two brands in Argentinean and Brazilian markets. An example of that was the Ford Galaxy (Volkswagen Santana rebrand) launched in 1992, which was the replacement of Sierra and Falcon in a some way, too. Autolatina was dissolved in In 1995 and, the two brands, started with their own operations again. Now, the Ford’s offer in Argentina (excepting Ranger and F4000) is European or a few Brazilian developments.
The Taunus, started it.
Interesting. That Falcon really doesn’t carry the “modernized” look very well. Looks like a 60s car with square headlights and black plastic instead of chrome.
I wonder why they never gave it a truly new body. A Neo-Falcon in the boxy idiom of the late-70s, with an injected Ford six, but no other mechanical changes save for maybe brakes would be my personal dream car.
Great stuff, every time these come up I regret not spending more time there when I worked in Chubut province for a couple of months around 1994. Who knew that would be the first, last, and only time I would go there?
Wow. Ford cars. RIP in the U.S.
When I was in Germany in the late 70’s, these Taunus’ and Granadas were the main line Ford family cars. We had nothing like this in the States, except for the USDM Granada which was of course a riff off of the old Falcon.
These cars seemed so right to replace the Falcon clones had they done it in 1974 or earlier instead of rebooting the platform once again with the USDM Granada. The wait for the Fox bodies in 1978 was a stretch, but better to be good and late, than early and bad (X-bodies, I’m looking at you)…