From 1985-1989, the Merkur brand was used by Ford Motor Company specifically to target European luxury car shoppers in America. The Blue Oval chose to adapt some of its existing European models for that purpose – the XR4Ti and Scorpio, which featured some changes designed to enable them to meet U.S. safety regulations. Unfortunately, Merkur didn’t hang around in the states for long, though there are still quite a few on U.S. roads – and some folks dedicated to keeping them alive. In this recent video from Hagerty, we get a pretty solid yet simple explanation of why Americans didn’t gravitate toward the XR4Ti hot hatch.
The Merkur XR4Ti was an award-winning machine in Europe, and it certainly seemed to be in line to replicate that success in America, given the fact that it was a futuristically-styled, rear-wheel drive, sporty coupe with a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder powerplant offering up strong performance. In fact, it outperformed many of its German rivals of that era, including the E30 BMW 3-Series, Audi 4000, and W201 Mercedes-Benz 190E – and was even quicker than the Ferrari 308 GTB Quattrovalvole.
Thus, no one other than the legendary Bob Lutz came up with a great idea – why not bring the XR4Ti to America, where Europeans were doing quite well with those models? Things got off to a splendid start as the XR4Ti received glowing reviews from the press, and Lutz envisioned the cars being sold as Merkurs via small, independent luxury specialty dealers that were used to selling such things.
Trouble is, Ford chose not to listen to Lutz and opted to entrust its Lincoln-Mercury dealers to sell the Merkur, who simply weren’t prepared or seemingly interesting in doing so. That poor dealer experience ultimately proved to be a major turn-off for buyers, as the luxury brands simply didn’t understand what they were selling – rather, they were more interested in moving larger models that produced bigger commissions, and sadly, that’s what ultimately led to slow sales for Merkur – as well as its rapid demise in America.
Comments
Identity crisis, too…”Merkur” is German for “Mercury.” Ironic that Ford was developing its Premier automotive group (Jaguar, Volvo, etc.) at about the same time, and Merkur would have fit right in with the group’s intentions…
Probably the fact that it was so ugly caused it to fail!
This. It was just ugly.
Yes. Thank you. I’m old enough to not fall for the attempt at revisionist history.
Regardless of what the Europeans might have thought, this thing was “point and laugh” ugly, and people did. It was up there with the Buttless Cutlass.
Futuristic looking? Maybe if it were launched in 1979.
Recall how Toyota started in the US? Darn ugly cars that were seldom purchased. The difference is Toyota didn’t fold up their tent and go home after a couple years.
Loved my Scorpio. Did everything I expected and more. Biggest problem was our roads were too slow slow.
Loved my Scorpio. Did all I asked of it. Biggest problem was that our roads were too slow!
I loved my XR4Ti. Comfortable, powerful for its day and pretty nice interior. I was worried about parts and service availability when the division folded, so I moved on. Never had a day’s trouble with it.
I had a XR4Ti. It was a great driving car, fairly quick and comfortable. Electrical systems in them were shit though.
It was a crappy name. Mercury would have been a much better name for the USA.
First, I strongly object to the dissing of Lincoln- Mercury dealers. Because I was one of them.
Second, and more important, the car didn’t have enough power to pull the skin off a rice pudding!!! I drove the European version in Zurich in 1983, actually the European Managing Director’s personal driver, and I was ecstatic about it. Three liter V/6 with a 5 speed and bad fast. What we got was basically the motor out of the gutless Mustang SVO. It did NOT work in the Mustang and it did not work in the XR4 Ti.
3liter V6? GTFO!! What a dumb comment and comparison. Dunmmy!