It Came From Planet Mercury 

Everything I feature is in a working salvage yard and though I'm not in the chain of ownership or a flipper in this role, one can always call Classic Heaven / One Stop Towing 413/245-0901) to ask about buying this XR4Ti. Ask for Dave, who owns the business. Thanks for watching and writing, Steve Magnante

@@SteveMagnante Thank you for posting this. I missed a lot about the XR because of the Valiant in the background. Now I know who to call....

@@SteveMagnante Thank you Steve for the answer. Sadly I was just dreaming. I live on the other side of the world. :(

Are in Hungary , Lazlo? I just arrived here to work 2 months ago and the surname made me wonder.

@@roger628 Yes, I am in Paks, Hungary. :)

Daniel my Brother (sorry about that Elton John reference...) I'll tell you that IFFFF I find a Yugo in the boneyard I WILL BE SURE to make a video about this amazing little import. As you may know, Malcolm Bricklin (the man behind the Bricklin Safety Car of the mid-1970's) was the guy who brokered the dealership deal to import Yugos! He made out pretty well even if the Yugo franchise eventually fizzled. But there's GOOD NEWS!!! I have it on good authority that Yugo is returning to America!!! This time it's a FOUR-DOOR! To better describe the car, the name is being altered to WE-GO!!! (get it? get it? get it?) Thanks for watching and writing, Steve Magnante

@@SteveMagnante are they bringing the motorcycle also, the I GO. LOL

That is one rare car !

I worked with a guy who ran dirt track with a 2.3. He said it was the one part that never broke.

Hey Rick! Thanks for writing (and watching!). We shot a bunch of new videos yesterday. Including one on a TRACTOR???? But it isn't just any tractor....It helped end the problem of farmers getting crushed by their tractors as the towed implement stopped suddenly on a rock or stump - causing a deadly wheelie with the old low-single-hitch mounts of the day. This new setup opened the door to safer farming. And yes, the object came from (sort of) the same outfit that produced the Merkur!!! Thanks again for watching Rick, Steve Magnante

I remember seeing one on a lot while driving by with 440 cubic inch motor. Gas prices, although expensive, were not prohibitive. What you saw was an economy car, that was ugly, expensive, and likely fully equipped with unobtainable parts. If they built it to use as much gas as possible in the pursuit of ultimate power, perhaps you could of sold more?

Oh yeah. A definite upgrade on these things is to swap a T5 in them. Other than that though, these are gnarly machines. You can squeeze a bunch of power out of that tiny 2.3 pinto engine.

Did they have transmission problems?

@@williamgolden839 neither of the two automatics could handle any extra torque and horsepower above stock. The A4LD was basically a C3 with an overdrive slapped on. The T9 5 speed was the Pinto 4 speed with an overdrive also slapped on. It was a little better at handling extra torque and horsepower, but not by much. If I remember correctly, the TurboCoupes and SVOs manual cars came with the T5.

I had one, auto, third went out, replaced it twice with trannys from the yard within a month. Finally swapped it for the t9 and discovered how weak that thing was, found out a t5 would bolt up a couple months later and was quite unhappy. I spent too much time and money on that, something was always broken. Driveshaft rubber joint (guibo), ignition control modules cooked, wastegate, ridiculous shaped cat went out, electrical gremlins....Fun while it lasted, motor was solid and sounded nice with exhaust mods.

@@informativeandstimulating8582 Maybe the problem was you were moding a car that couldn't handle the power. All these boy racers around here taking great cars from the 80's and 90's especially and putting stupid body kits on that don't fit, and put-put exhausts and "cold air" intakes and a ridiculously small steering wheel, than slamming it to the ground to the point it can't go over parking lot speed humps. While having permanent pre-paint on the body because they ran out of money to actually paint the car. Ruining all the cars of my youth, they can't not not mod them or do something, way too tempting. Don't appreciate stock, and how they came from the factory of that era and enjoy it for what it was then. Nope, gotta do something stupid cuss all his buddy's are doing silly mods to their 90's cars.. sigh.. All those cars will soon be blown, or caught on the wrong side of a hedge. I liked the European styling of the XR4Ti, reminded me of cars I saw when I was in Germany in the early 80's. After all it's a Ford Sierra that we never got, but as stated in this video with 900 changes to meet the U.S. standards. Now makes it clear why we never got more direct European models, just too many changes had to be made to meet U.S. standards. Heck only a year earlier composite headlamps were finally allowed, when the Europeans had them for many many years by that point. It's odd what requirements had to be met, and what was allowed on either side of the pond.

I almost forgot about Omni / horizon I think they invented the hatchback body type?

COZZYYY!!

And yes we all know about the cosworth. But the superior American market never got that car so...

Sorry, Sierra Cosworth was never available in Australia, not in normal Cosworth RS form or RS500 form or even in base form. RS500s were raced here in Group A for 4 years but thats it.

@@rodmyob i must say I hated that era in Australia.

At least nissan released the r32 gtr in Australia, in limited numbers.

All those Sierras were returned to the UK and Sweden where the company who built DJR's and others were based. Today they are valued in the millions.

@@Mercmad So were they only leased or some such by Dick Johnson?

Scorpio was a great name too!

You seem to have forgotten the xr4i , also the pinto engine was never used in Canada , USA etc.

Not true all Sierras with 4wd had V6. There was also the one with the 2 litre DOCH engine. The first 4wd V6 cars had the 2.8, later the 2.9. Sierra in Europe was available with engine sizes from 1.3 to 2.9 There was also two more engines in V6 format (non 4wd), 2.0 and 2.3. I think beside the Sierra, Capri had more engine choices to choose from (15 from factory 69-86)

@@MrCaprinut You are incorrect, there were many 2.0 4 cylinder 4x4 sierras and 2wd v6’s and 2wd v8.

@@scottyg7284 No there was not! Only Sierra Cosworth which is pinto based engine and the xr4x4 2.0 which had the DOCH engine. The regular pinto and 2.0 V6 never came with 4wd.

@@MrCaprinut That’s what I said, not sure why arguing, you need to read properly.

I've only seen one ever.

Yeah ford......🤣

A little lubricant on the latch assembly once in awhile would keep things operating easily. Otherwise, the force needed to unlatch the hood would eventually cause failure. Just pull with more and more force. The weak link would reveal itself. After the plastic ‘T’ handle broke (under the dash), pliers could be used to grab the stub - maybe even Vise-Grips. But don’t anyone dare to lubricate the latch assembly! Ha!

Galaxie 500