Junkyard Find: 1989 Merkur Scorpio Touring Edition
Now here’s a rare one: a 1989 Merkur Scorpio. While the Merkur XR4Ti (a rebadged Ford Sierra XR4i) sold well enough that most of us have seen one, the other Merkur— a rebadged Ford Scorpio— flopped miserably and sank without leaving much of a trace. This ’89, which I found on Half Price Day in a Denver yard, is the first Scorpio I’ve seen anywhere in at least five years.
Nearly 100,000 miles on the odometer.
The leather is a bit cracked, but otherwise the interior is in nice shape.
I couldn’t get the hood open, but the sight of a Cologne V6 is nothing to get excited over.
This is the 209th Touring Edition.
Lots of good stuff left on this car, but will there be any parts bought before the car gets crushed?
I think the Scorpio would have sold better in America if Ford had used this song in the advertising.
Instead, they had Jackie Stewart reclining in the rear seat.
In Taiwan, the Scorpio got hooned a bit more in the ads.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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The Scorpio seats are indeed one of the most comfortable car seats I've ever sat in. I considered putting a pair in my 2002 Audi. A Scorpio rear seat I acquired from a junkyard has been been repurposed into home furniture - a short sofa with shoebox underneath. Murilee, regarding this comment... "This is the 209th Touring Edition." Was the plaque actually individually numbered? The 30th anniversary of the Merkur will be celebrated at Carlisle this year. Details here... http://merkurclub.com/carlisle2015/carlisle2015.htm
Nice cars these, & I remember being very excited about them when they came out. Had I seen this a few months ago I would have felt a tinge of jealousy: I got the idea to find a rear seat from one of these to put in my van, but I soon found that none of the self service yards on the west coast have one, and I think the first generation Infiniti Q45 seats I ended up with were an even better score.