Absolutely brilliant video. I owned and cherished, for many years, a 1990 XR4i in radiant red. G606 XNE. ❤️ It was the 2.0 DOHC and was a great car. It should have produced 125BHP, as per the standard range and is listed on Wikipedia as ‘just a badging exercise with a 4x4 body kit’, but when I took it to a rolling road, it was actually 150BHP. It wasn’t chipped (chips were only just becoming mainstream, back then) and had no other mods. I have a theory that it wasn’t “just a badging exercise” but the engineers had eaked out some more power for it. The MT75 gearbox was brilliant and I remember the gearbox oil, from Ford, was expensive and almost like auto ‘box fluid.
Great video... my 1988 is pretty much like this. With a 1987 rear hatch with the double wing spoiler. Just a note though. The Merkur XR4Ti ran until 1989, not 1988 as indicated in the video... it was a full five model years for the US.
Thank you for watching! I was really referring to the last full model year. The 1989s were so rare and the few changes made so minor thetvo didn’t refer to it, especially as the model was withdrawn just a couple of months into 1989, with the Scorpio following later that year. What’s interesting is to whether production stopped as Ford had ran out of the pre-1987 body panels to supply to Karmann as has been suggested. A 1990 Scorpio was specced and planned, even down to promotional material, with a number of improvements but ultimately never produced.
One other thing that sticks in my memory- the stereo had a joystick to control the balance left to right and the fade front to rear. Seems silly to recall that detail all these years later, but I was amused to hear the sound swoop around the cabin as I moved the joystick.
I remember those joystick balance/fade controls...most European Fords in the 80s had them...I had a 1984 Ford Orion Ghia(sedan/saloon version of the European Escort) that had a joystick...& manual lumbar support seat adjustment...
I still remember the Merkur commercials, I think James Earle Jones provided the voice. I was blown away and thought they were really cool! A friend had one in NC. Americans had finally accepted that turbo fours were actually cool performance machines, thanks to Chrysler which was turbocharging everything at the time. Although, they still were not our beloved V8s, but turbo fours were selling well at the time. The jellybean styling was already a hit here after the successful introduction of the Tempo/Topaz. European car brands, from Porche to BMW, Meredes, Volvo, VW and Jaquar were selling well then. Even the French (Peugeot and Renault) were in the US at the time! So why wasn't there room for these cool cars in the US at the time? My guess is poor marketing. They probably should've just been called Fords or perhaps Mercury, rather than Merkur, which constantly had to be explained. That may have made all the difference in the world.
I miss my 86 every day. One day I'll buy another. Perhaps you can answer one question. Why are so many Merkurs found in Minnesota? I found several Scorpios and Xr4ti there over the years.
My sales job had me fly to Tennessee, rent a car, and drive the length of the state west to east, with sales presentations in Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville. The company always reserved Lincoln Town Cars for the salespeople to take clients to nice restaurants in luxury. Ha! I always asked at the car rental counter what else they had. It wouldn’t cost extra because the Town Car was already the most expensive class of car at this rental chain. I was surprised when they offered me a Merkur XR4TI. I think Ford may have had too many and made a deal with the car rental company to move some units. It had an automatic transmission, but the turbocharged engine seemed to be well suited to the torque characteristics. And unlike a manual, you could just keep the accelerator down and it would shift up without losing momentum. It was very stable on cloverleaf ramps (I don’t know if you have these in the UK and I don’t want to sound condescending, so suffice it to say it handled well in fairly long, extended sweeping corners. Lots of fun. It also got a lot of quizzical looks in Tennessee. That biplane spoiler on the rear window for a lot of attention. I saw a few XRTI4’s from time to time, but never very many. Then years later I went to Watkins Glen in upstate New York to see some friends race Minis, and there were a bunch of XR4Ti’s scattered throughout the parking areas. Figures that SCCA road race enthusiasts were giving them good homes .
