A buddy of mine had one and it broke down on a regular basis but it had been rode hard. I never really thought it was anything other than a poor mans Saab.
Merkur XR4Ti
- Thread starter kebabaluba
- Start date
In what way ? I grew up in Lima and knew the Ford engine plant fairly well. Plenty of friends growing up had relatives that worked there at one time or another - up to 2500 employees at the peak, but today they produce a lot more engines daily with probably half the workforce).
A friend had a Merkur (non-turbo version, maybe ??) (her dad worked at the engine plant) and I knew the turbo versions were supposed to be quite quick. What I do remember, or thought, was that these had metric wheels, as in not 14" or 15" but 35cm or 38cm and tires weren't really available. Is that not correct ? I remember they needed new tires and said they were either impossible to find or very, very expensive.
Seems like the OG link to YT video was removed due to profanity so if anyone want to watch whole video might need to search YT.
It's like the guy with 5 ex wives, it might not be the wives, same deal, when you basically cant post a you tube video at all even from someone like Haggerty or Ford, the problem is BITOG and a puritanical rule not the video, but i digress.
I agree the problem was Mercury dealers, they should have sold that car through SVO dealers IMO, it would have sold. The 2.3 turbo is a good engine too. i was at the time, the market for that car, it was a good driving car. I did like the SVO Mustang a little better though. And BMWs so i guess that in a nutshell was the problem. However if it hade been sold at SVO certified dealers it would have had a fighting chance.
Neighbor had one for a while. I don't recall what happened to it or why he got rid of it.
Seemed a nice enough car and it is too bad that Ford's efforts to offer its Euro cars in this country never saw much success.
Probably should have been badged as it was in Europe and not given some silly made up moniker.
Whats a "Merkur" after all?
Seemed a nice enough car and it is too bad that Ford's efforts to offer its Euro cars in this country never saw much success.
Probably should have been badged as it was in Europe and not given some silly made up moniker.
Whats a "Merkur" after all?
Never had an issue finding tires. Commonly found 14 and 15" sizes worked just fine. In fact, I've never heard of a "metric tire".
I don't believe that a non-turbo version was available. These came from Germany as I recall, but had a Garrett high pressure turbo on them. In fact, one of the hot upgrades back then was to get the MAF (vane unit) from a Thunderbird, and possibly an intercooler from the same vehicle. Added quite a few HP, but not sure how much.
A website used to exist that all of us Merkur enthusiasts would visit for tips and tricks. Mine was an automatic, but the manual trans versions had about 25 more hp.
There are still a few around for sale, but for the most part, the drop downs on car search sites have removed the car altogether.
Merkur is German for the fleet footed Mercury of Greek gods!
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The styling was ubiquitous in Europe but jarring in the US. That wing was a bit much everywhere.
Once we lived in Europe for a while and came to appreciate Ford's continental styling. Ford and Opel were on top of their games.
Once we lived in Europe for a while and came to appreciate Ford's continental styling. Ford and Opel were on top of their games.
My Contour SVT / Merkur overlap was a Merkur owner wanted to see if my SVT wheels fit his Merkur. I offered to let him test fit some wheels I had from my SVT Contour in exchange for a drive of his car.
The wheels wouldn't work for him and I wasn't really impressed with the car. I'm sure it handled nicely, but time and turbo lag were not kind to his example.
Great video. Loved these. A v. nice one on FB Marketplace not far from me in the mid-Atlantic region.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1NpmrQzN3U/
https://www.facebook.com/share/1NpmrQzN3U/
My grandparents had one, a turbo in dark red with grey lower cladding. I drove it several times, and it was a revelation compared to the Chevy Caprice I owned then.
It was a good car for them, they had it several years. Grandpa was meticulous with maintenance.
It was a good car for them, they had it several years. Grandpa was meticulous with maintenance.
My wife bought a CPO Scorpio back in 1987. It was a nice car and reliability was decent but parts and service were more expensive than similar items on my E28 535is.
The buying "experience" was interesting since Lincoln-Mercury dealers weren't used to dealing with customers who had all their own teeth, didn't wear white shoes with a matching belt, and weren't receiving SSI.
The buying "experience" was interesting since Lincoln-Mercury dealers weren't used to dealing with customers who had all their own teeth, didn't wear white shoes with a matching belt, and weren't receiving SSI.
Michelin TRX from the early 80's... quite a few Fords had them, but I don't know about the Merkur: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_TRX
Ford has definitely had some off-the-wall offerings that were worthy of the cult-like following they created. It’s a shame they clearly have lost their way of making future classics.
Maximum Bob Lutz brought a lot of nice choices for us car buyers over the years...
Bill
Bill
Yes, that could be what I remembered. I mean, I was a teenager and had ZERO thoughts about buying car tires back then ! I definitely remember the tires were Michelin though.
That's laughable.
It's a link to YT, not an image or text hosted here on this site.
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Short of maniacal nitpicking, it could be something as simple as an automated rating check.That's laughable.
If Haggerty have rated their video with a profanity rating (which, as a serious channel, I'd expect them to do) - this rating would appear, and the forum software might be able to weed it out automatically.
Or it could be YT did rate it automatically, because of Camissa's single f-bomb in the video (which BTW wasn't needed, he's good and family-friendly enough without that).
