Rare Rides: This Merkur XR4Ti From 1989 Is Pristine
Imagine you’re an American auto executive in the 1980s, looking on in desperation as all the youthful and wealthy customers head almost solely to BMW showrooms for their sports-oriented sedans and coupes.
Now imagine you work at Ford, and you’ve decided to do something about it. By the way, you’re Bob Lutz right now.
It’s Merkur time.
The story began with the European market Ford Sierra, which was the company’s large-ish family car for the constrained confines of crowded Europe. Developed while Bob Lutz was in charge of Ford’s European arm, the smooth Sierra was a success as soon as it became available as replacement to the boxy Cortina in 1982.
Available in several body styles, the sporty version was the three-door liftback in XR4i trim. Mr. Lutz had Texas-sized ideas for this one, and set about convincing other Ford executives it should come to the United States. He was successful.
The Sierra would need to undergo a bit of alteration to meet federal regulations in the United States. Ford’s engineers had instructions to make the car U.S.-compliant, but to leave the Sierra’s character unchanged. Catalytic converters were added to the XR4i, as well as side impact protection beams. At the front and rear, bumpers were stretched to meet impact standards. While European Sierras gained their powered by a 2.8-liter Cologne V6, this engine was chucked for the American XR4. Instead, Ford used a 2.3-liter inline-four Lima engine, fitted with a turbocharger. That’s why the T was added to the badge on the back.
All American-bound XR4Ti units were built by Karmann at their factory in Osnabruck, Germany.
Ford’s American CEO, Donald Petersen, mandated that this new, hot Sierra and its eventual Scorpio sibling (future Rare Rides) must not be sold with the common Blue Oval. Instead, the cars would be badged with a new name — Merkur. Say it out loud, “Mare-KOOR!” Select Lincoln-Mercury dealers would shift Merkur units, and 800 signed up for the task.
The XR4Ti not-Ford went on sale in 1985, and almost immediately failed to meet sales expectations. Customers largely continued to purchase the European cars they would’ve bought anyway, leaving Ford with a headache. The company also had to contend with an unfavorable exchange rate with the Deutschmark, as well as new safety regulations approaching at the end of the decade. The whole experiment was over after 1989. Sad!
Today’s Rare Ride is stunning in white over tan, featuring some choice lace alloys to complete the package. The original customer clearly chose luxury over driving enjoyment, selecting the automatic transmission option. That means the five-speed manual is gone, and the C3 three-speed auto from the Pinto is in its place. The sparkling white package is yours for $5,100.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Way back in the 90s, my buddy owned a black one of these, gray leather, stick, also an '89 with these sweet wheels. He was ROUGH on it so had some issues, despite it having only 60k miles. I was not overly impressed with the interior quality back then, which you can take however you like realizing I was coming from new at the time Grand Ams and Grand Prixs. I thought they were better built, which through the perspective of history (and since owning several Lexuses) is sort of amusing :)
I had a 1985, with the twin whaletail. I loved the very different looks of the car, and it was pretty fast. Stability at speed is what was amazing. I remember driving along in traffic, asking myself why everyone was driving so slow...a quick check of my speed showed I was doing 65 in a 35 zone. 90 mph on the interstate (speed limit was 55 back then) felt like 55. There were some issues: the engine computer went bad. leaving me stranded. $400 for the part. Also, the brake rotors would warp. I read that the Euro version of the car placed the calipers differently than the US version and rotor heat build up was the result. Another issue was Mercury abandoning Merkur, and refusing to have anything to do with it. Mercury had this history: they also brought in the German Capri ( I had 3) and once most of the bugs were worked out, Mercury would give up. By the way,IMO a '76 Capri was better than any 'Merican built small car at the time. My XR4Ti was dark blue, and the interior matched. Very comfortable seats but after a while I swore I'd never have a blue interior in a car again.