Ford’s Merkur brand was one of the shortest-lived North American marques of the late 20th century, existing for just the 1985 through 1989 model years and comprising just two models: the XR4Ti and the Scorpio
was sold in North America through Mercury dealers (though with neither Ford nor Mercury badging) for the 1970 through 1977 model years, followed by the equally West German Ford Fiesta for 1978 through 1981.
American car shoppers became increasingly enthusi astic about sporty European machinery during the first half of the 1980s, and Detroit attempted to push some of its models in a more European direction during that time. Ford was already a sales behemoth in Western Europe and had been so for decades, though, so why not bring over actual
Euro-market machines from the Blue Oval Empire? Thus was the Merkur (the German word for Mercury, pronounced “mare-KOOR”) brand born.
The engine in the Scorpio was the good old Cologne pushrod V6, in this case a 2.9-liter rated at 144 horsepower and 162 pound-feet. Members of the Cologne family went into everything from Pintos
to Mustangs to Rangers in North America over the decades, but had a much wider range of applications in Europe.
A five-speed manual was base equipment, but this car has the $550 optional four-speed automatic ($1,427 in 2024 dollars). This is the fourth discarded Scorpio I’ve documented, and all have been two-pedal cars.
The MSRP for this car was $25,167, or about $62,292 after inflation. That was cheaper than the smaller BMW 325i four-door for 1989 ($25,450) and much cheaper than the $37,000 525i sedan. The 1989 Volvo 740 GLE sedan with automatic transmission listed at $25,045, while the Mercedes-Benz 190 sedan started at $31,840.
Despite being a decent deal for a European rear-wheel-drive sedan, not many American car shoppers wanted a new Scorpio; it was available for just the 1988 and 1989 model years.
This one just barely squeezed past the 100,000-mile mark during its life.
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Jackie Stewart liked the comfy back seat.
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.
It learned to run in the Black Forest of Germany.
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Go ahead, drive a Ford Scorpio from Germany to Paris!
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