They were a sweet car! Fun to drive. I worked at a GM dealer in Michigan (Grew up there) they took one in on trade in 1991. Me, I drove a 88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe 5 spd.
There was a big Lincoln/Mercury dealer in Wayne N.J. at that time. They had a full row of these across the front of the lot. Every color etc. I looked at all of them. I thought the styling and bi- plane spoiler were awesome! Like nothing else on the road. Unfortunately my budget was more Ford Escort at the time. I'm excited you featured this car as it would have been mine if I could have managed to purchase one. Anyway Thanks for the memory Stay well
Great video Tony thank you for sharing! I grew up around 80s icons like the Ford Sierra and owned a few over the years. The Sierras always felt lighter in the chassis (and doors) than the XR4Ti and had tighter suspension, though the Merkur had a different personality with forced induction. Even the XR4i I had with the Cologne 2.8 didn't have the torque of the 2.3T I believe there was an experimental XR8i with a 302 in S. Africa. Always a fan of Ford's XR series, I've owned a few over the years but there's not much out there about them. Favorites are the XR2 Fiesta, XR3 Lynx, XR4, XR5 Topaz, and classic XR7. Would love to learn any info you have on Ford's XR series. Keep up the great work 👍
Thank you for the kind words. I might dig into the XR series of cars but we will have to see how this video does and go from there. Thanks for watching!
I actually drove one for a bit and it was a fantastic experience. Lutz said it right. He wanted a separate dealership network because he knew Lincoln Mercury had no idea how to sell this sort of car. Those sales people only knew how to sell Town Cars and Continentals. When it came to selling something sporty, they rather sell a Fox Body Capri versus the XR4Ti. So sad for a really great car.
You do realize that the L-M dealerships were the sales outlets for the Merkur brand? They had to pay for the signage and sales training and for some service tools and technical training to repair them.
@scottbrown7415 not all of them. Only about 800 in 1985. 100 of those dropped the brand a year later. They were kind of like dealers that aren't totally committed to EVs today. Only a few of them are truly committed to doing it right. The service department at the dealership I bought mine from tried to convince me the shimmy I had while braking was from the ABS. This was before the Scorpio came out, so it couldn't even be a brain fart of confusing the two. They were absolutely clueless on how to work on the car. I imagine the Scorpio was even worse with all of the early luxury features common today, practically unheard of then. Trip computer, electronic automatic AC, rear wiper turning on in reverse when the front wiper was on, power reclining rear seats, and yes, ABS. The exchange rate hurt Merkur. The dealers finished it off.
The Sierra was a stop gap measure for Ford in Europe and the UK. Ford didn’t have the money to design an all new platform. But, they did have enough money to reskin the existing platform with an aerodynamic design that made it look more modern. Enter Lutz. He envisioned a mid range sport sedan and a new nameplate. The idea had merit but the execution of the concept was not as good. The market research on the product feature content was very wrong. Buyer’s expectations were for leather seat upholstery and more powerful engines than what was being produced and put on the sales lots. The cloth seating material was a rather loud plaid pattern that was not very appealing to U.S. consumers. There were a number of other things that didn’t suit the consumer such as awkward entry into the rear seat, no available 4 door models, a decidedly non luxury feel to the instrument panel and door panels and control buttons and switches that felt very cheap. From a technician’s perspective the engine was not only underpowered but it was difficult to service because many sensors were actually “hardwired “ into the harness of the car! Changing an oxygen sensor was a little consuming task. The car had very small and narrow wheels and tires. Compared to the v8 Mustang which had wide tires and 15 inch wheels, merkur was seriously lacking. Replacement parts were very expensive. BMW expensive. All of us in the dealership service department were in agreement that they should have put the then current roller cam 5.0 H.O engine in it and upgraded the driveline and suspension and brakes at the very least to make it more acceptable for what it cost.
I was a fan of this car, in 1992 my brother owned a white 89 XR4TI with tan leather had a crank sunroof, automatic trans, was no tire burner , but was fast once rolling, Ford claimed 130mph... We hit just over 140 a few times when racing against my Turbo Coupe we could never pass one another... Was nice that it had a 150 speedo, my 85 Bird would just pin against the trip reset after the 85 mark lol.. Looking back probably not the smartest thing, but it was a good time!.. Fun car... Great video Tony!
A few things held back the Merkur. First, the name. Many people didn't know how to pronounce it and it was kind of off putting. Just calling it a Mercury from the start would have been better. Second, the 2.3 Turbo Lima. It was a decent engine, robust and reliable enough and with boost it made really good useable horse power while retaining the ability to get good gas mileage. But was not smooth. Trying to go up against the BMW, Audi, Saab and Volvo with that motor was a grave mistake. It needed DOHC and balance shafts to get the yuppies in the seat. Third, it had teething issues. There was a recall on the leather seats, the AC was cold enough to frost the windshield on a 98 degree summer day...when it actually worked, and it ate power window switches like M&M's...by the handful. If Ford had done just a bit more durability testing these would have been ironed out before 1987 but the reputation was already there. Fourth, the Salesmen at Lincoln Mercury dealerships would rather sit around and wait for an old couple to come in looking for the next Grand Marquis or Town Car than try to get young people into the brand. Same thing that is happening with Harley Davidson right now. When you cater to old people and they die off, you missed a generation or two of young people and now they are fans of something else. But it was a nice car. A really nice car. I ran mine from Virginia Beach to the Poconos every weekend at 80 mph minimum on I 64/I 95/I 270/I 81 and averaged 36 mpg or better every weekend. It would get to 130 mph easily and run with the 944's, 900 Turbo's, Z28's Starions. All of them. It was just not pleasant doing so with the sounds from that Lima. I had an '86 5spd and loved it. At 130k miles I started having engine issues, Turbo problems but back in the eighties and early nineties anything past 100k was a gift in almost any car. I tried to find another one and would have bought one if I could have found one with decent mileage back then. My only regret was not stiffening up the suspension with some Rapido parts. Unfortunately, Ford has a history of good ideas with European Fords imported and then left to die on the vine with no improvements or updates. The Pantera, the Capri, the Merkurs (both), Even the Lincoln LS which was a Jag S-Type sister. One update and then a fine car left to die. FWIW, mine was Grey paint over grey body cladding with the reddish stripe in the rub strip. And Grey leather interior. It had huge legroom in the back seat and could fit 4 normal adults easily. IRS gave it a good ride and decent handling. If I could find one in a barn today with a decent interior, I would buy it and do a 2.3 ecoboost swap in a heart beat and instantly go back to enjoying mpg in the high 30's with the power for some fun whenever I wanted. Thanks Tony. Another great video.
Fun story. I went to a dealer for service on my Escort, and the service writer told me a story about a customer coming in with their car for an issue. The customer brought in an XR4TI claiming a wobble or vibration in the front end above 120 MPH. He told me that to verify the issue and repair, they had to put the car on a dyno like machine for liability purposes.
@@yankeetraveler1118 it was a tube chassis race car that bore little resemblance to the street version. My experience with the actual XR4Ti was considerably less impressive
@@scottbrown7415 My reply was to jimlafreeda43. I understand that the Trans Am racers of the eighties bore very little resemblance to their street bred parent models. Body, chassis and engine. For a while the Roush XR4Ti's were 4 cylinder turbo, probably carried over from the Zakespeed/Roush Mustang days, but he then switched them to V8's.
A couple of corrections. The 89 had some major changes in the cooling system moving parts away from the turbo. And they always had the Merkur nameplate. The marketing for the 1990 Scorpio, which only got to test mules with some nice updates,, got rid of the name Merkur. Ford tested a 16 valve dohc engine with 250+ hp in 1987 for the 1989 model year with an intercooler which might have also been part of the reason of the cooling system redesign. I imagine the fact it would have smoked the Mustang and the additional cost to an already expensive car kept that from happening.
Another fun car my mom had one me and my brother flogged the daylights out of it. It was a good handling car comfortable..well,i had been driving a maverick with drum brakes,no power steering nose heavy with a 302..so anything mightve been better But the merkur was a nice car
@AngelinaJolie734 just my opinion in this case the Cosworth DOHC head engines would have cost too much to produce (and later repair). A lot can be done with a turbo Lima engine. I remember some XR4Ti spinning over 600 HP in the early 2000s.
I never gave much attention to even look at these when they were new. It would seem they were pretty good cars with good horsepower and creature comforts. Oh, and having a 15" wheel tire was a bit uncommon in those days for a smaller car like those. I think I actually would have enjoyed having one had I not been stuck in my opinion of a V-8 or nothing.
@@yankeetraveler1118 The t-bird had some really healthy sales numbers but it offered the luxury of the XR4Ti and the performance of the SVO for roughly $2,500 dollars less. It think both the XR4Ti and the SVO were held back because they were priced too high. IF Ford could build a T-bird Turbo coupe for 13,500 to 14,000 they should have been able to do the same for either of those cars.
Being a 2-door really limited its' market, with the 4-door option (yes, even "only" as a 5-door hatchback) it would've probably hit the 25k/year mark at least the first few years.
That Karmann assembly was bad decision for sure. US also never got XR4Ti with restyled Sierra front end, which could've helped sales. And the name - why not just call it Ford Rhein or Ford Sapphire?
This and along with the Merkur (Ford) Scorpio, was just a weird car to be sold in the US in the first place. I didn't see the point. It looked nothing like any other Ford product sold in the US, but the fact they went to all that trouble at creating a completely different brand just to sell the vehicle, and a weird brand name at that, just seemed lost on me. Even if it was sold with a Ford or Mercury badge, it still wouldn't have fitted into either of their lineups. And then you had to go to a Mercury-Lincoln dealer to buy one?? Maybe they should've just sold it through Ford dealers?? Yes, these were assembled in New Zealand, but only in the wagon body style, as there was no wagon available in the New Zealand Ford Telstar range until later. This meant that New Zealand was the only market in the world where the Sierra and Telstar were sold alongside one another. Wagons were very popular in the New Zealand market, so it filled a gap in the local Ford lineup for a few years, until eventually a Telstar wagon became available. The Ford Sierra was never sold in Australia, as Ford was already assembling and selling the similar sized Ford Telstar (rebadged and restyled Mazda 626) in 4dr sedan and 5dr hatch and because Ford Australia already had the Ford Laser wagon (Mazda 323) and Ford Falcon wagon, they didn't see the need to sell the Ford Sierra wagon here, even though they were being assembled 'over the ditch' in New Zealand. The Ford Telstar wagon was also never sold in Australia either, because of the Laser and Falcon wagons., they were only sold in New Zealand and Japan. While the Ford Sierra was never sold in Australia, the Sierra (RS500 Cosworth guise) is legendary here as they were raced in the Australian Touring Car Championships in the late 80' to the early 90's. Another great clip! Thanks mate!
Thank you for watching and for your comment. I came across a lot of information on the Laser while looking into this story. As an American that nameplate was unknown to me and one I need to look into at some point down the road.
Bmw, audi, etc sell primarily because of brand value and prestige, not necessarily numbers, stats, actual performance. Mercury had zero brand awareness. Coupled with high price and it's not difficult to see why it didn't sell better. It takes many many years to build brand loyalty and brand name equity unless the actual car is so far above the competition. People in that market want to own a car that will impress their neighbors. Xr4ti, didn't do that at all except to loyalists in the know.
It doesn't make sense to me that these European design cars that are supposedly so much more expensive to build that they would "never make sense for the US market," make sense for say the South American market. I mean, what? Or say, 2007ish when you could go to Mexico and buy the 2nd gen European Focus, while here in the US we got a slightly warmed over 1st gen. I can't wrap my head around that.
To me… the XR4Ti “Zerati” was ugly then and ugly now but innovative. I know of an intact one sitting in the woods that I’ll probably snag to upgrade a Bobcat I have.
The Escort platform was completely different. Nobody wanted to work on them because parts were hard to get, meaning things took longer to fix and they were relatively complicated for time.
Ford needs Lutz so badly today. That wanna be “car guy” Foley doesn’t have a clue. Quality went to crap during his watch. Ford can’t build a car. Their SUVs and pickups are over priced. Ford has to charge extra because they need to cover recalls, warranty repairs and multiple class action suits. The only area that Ford is first in is record recalls. They are #1.
It wouldn't hurt having a guy like Lutz at Ford today. He oversaw the development of the Sierra in Europe and that's why he felt it could do well here. By the time it got here it was a slightly different car and that didn't help it's sales numbers either.
