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Cheap Oddity: 1985 Merkur XR4Ti

If you want to bring this cheap Merkur XR4Ti home, you better bring a battery with you – the seller isn’t including one for the cheap offer price of $1,200. If you’re even more budget minded, he’ll keep the wheels and sell it to you for $1,000 even. That’s a fair deal for a running, turbocharged Merkur, with the preferred manual transmission. Find it here on eBay and located in Suffolk, Virginia. 

Battery or not, this is a good deal for a desirable Merkur. The bi-plane wing is a feature I’d want to have if I owned one of these, and it looks sharp on this example. The factory badges and rear wiper remain in place, and all glass looks good. The seller notes that the previous owner was enlisted with the Navy and couldn’t get the car to run before shipping out (literally); with a replacement relay and fresh battery (not included, remember), it fired right up.

Surprisingly, many of these Merkurs were optioned with the automatic transmission, which sucks away a lot of the fun. This one has the 5-speed manual which is the ideal dance partner for the 2.3L turbocharged “Lima” four-cylinder motor. The interior is pretty basic and the seats aren’t perfect, but I’d yank those out in favor of some period Recaros anyway. The dash doesn’t appear to be cracked but it still looks a bit warped to me.

The seller says the engine still requires a tune up but doesn’t elaborate further. Although an accident is noted on the vehicle history report, the fenders are the original panels and the always-missing fender liners are still present. The seller wants to be out of the hot hatch Ford business, so there’s a good reason for the fire sale price, but I think including the battery would go a long way towards getting a deal done.

Comments

  1. Avatar poseur Member

    Deals are all over today!
    Can’t recall the last time I saw one of these actually moving….twenty years maybe?
    Then again rarity doesn’t necessarily equate to desirable or valuable, does it?
    Still they are sharp & decent handlers while being practical & economical although the non-intercooled 2.3 Turbo definitely could have issues when neglected or abused.
    Way too nice to part or crush so hopefully it’s
    Gonna make a nice start for a hobbyist somewhere.

    Like 9
    • Avatar scottymac

      Go to the Ford Carlisle show in June and you’ll easily see 40-50 XR4Tis.

      Like 2
  2. Avatar Chris Hahn

    I had a red one, why I got rid of it I’ll never know, a fun little car

    Like 4
  3. Avatar DETROIT LAND YACHT

    I’m gonna buy it…and gift it to Jim Rome…as-is.

    Like 6
  4. Avatar CanuckCarGuy

    Always liked these, and always keep an eye out for one in my neck of the woods…they are indeed a rare commodity. Looks to be in decent shape and these 2.3 turbo motors are great to hammer on…other than head gaskets if you go crazy on the boost, pretty bulletproof set up. Hope someone gets it on the road, and keeps it stock.

    Like 3
  5. Avatar Joe

    They are not that rare. There is a Merkur Club of America and many people own one, or more than one. The problem with this one will be rust on the pinch welds and all the things that are not working.

    Like 2
  6. Avatar Jim

    * comes with factory Recaros… they would have been “Blue Oxford Cloth” in this one.. a checker patterned deal. These look like seat covers.

    I’ve been driving them over 20 years now… best kept secret, ever!

    Like 2
  7. Avatar Tim

    Wasn’t a european variant of this known as a Ford Sierra Cosworth. A car I recall could top out at 200mph

    Like 0
    • Avatar Neil

      No. Although the RS Cosworth and Cosworth 500 used a 3 door shell there was not a lot else in common. Engines were unique to the models and developed by Cosworth Engineering, not sure about the boxes. Seating was Recaro. Again – alloys were unique to the model.
      Performance was in a whole different league to the XR4i.

      Like 1
  8. Avatar Bear

    I drove the European Equivalent of these (“Ford Sierra RS Cosworth”?) during a month-long business trip to Scotland back in approx ’88 or ’89.
    It was a rental car that I picked up at the Glasgow airport, & (to be honest) I was at first somewhat intimidated by the task of having to sit on the right, shift with my left, AND also remember to drive on the left side of the road! BUT after a few days of “trail by fire” commuting to the client’s office (RollsRoyce in EastKilbride) I was surprisingly quite comfortable with driving that car.
    It was a FUN & Quick car in the European (lighter) trim. Handling was great, ride was comfortable, & over one long “bank-holiday” weekend I drove that car through a good portion of northern Scotland (EastKilbride>FortWilliam>IsleOfSkye>LochNess>Aberdeen>Dundee>Edinburgh>EastKilbride).
    After a month of good times in that car I was kinda sad to drop it off at the rental car return. & upon returning to the US, I had to readapt my brain to driving on the right (& sitting on the left, etc.). But the biggest noticeable change that I had to adapt to was the lower performance of my much heavier (& under-powered) Toyota that was my daily driver back in those days on the streets of SanDiego. It was hard to compare most any 80’s 4-cyl car to those available in Europe at the time. Maybe that’s what made these Merkurs a popular choice back in the day?

    Like 2
  9. Avatar Eric_10cars Member

    This is one for Wheeler Dealers. Back in the late 80s, I worked with a guy who had one of these turbo/5speed Merkurs and he loved it. He said it was fast and handled really well. Suffolk is not that far from me (3 hours), but it’s just not a very pretty car. Perhaps one could tart it up some, but even then, while better than lipstick on a pig, it just doesn’t have charisma…to me. Mike and Ant might be able to make some thing on this. Not me.

    Like 1
  10. Avatar TimM

    I raced one of these with my 69 Ford Econoline van back in the 80’s and blew it away!! My van was built a little but I left the 3 on the tree!! If that was any indication of what kind of car it is,you can keep it!!

    Like 0
  11. Avatar Joe

    This is what a good one should look like.

    Like 0
  12. Avatar Neil

    European ones were badged as “Sierra XR4i” and had the 2.8 injection V6 mated to a 5 speed box. Rear quarterlights were overprinted with the XR4i logo – if that was missing it was odds on it was not a real XR4i but a 3 door bodyshell cosmetically altered to look like an XR4i (Genk built a 2.0 S pack in 3 door form that was not sold in the UK) – as the shell was common it was, relatively, easy to alter from LHD to RHD. The alloys were unique to the XR4i too.
    For a Sierra they were fast and handled well whilst being comfortable rides although in the back the suspension could feel a bit hard. The bi-planar had a downside in that it was so heavy they used to eat the struts that hold the hatch up. I think there was a firm doing a nice business in replacement, upgraded struts in their heyday.
    Was that 2.3l turbo’d straight 4 a standard fitment in the US market? If so – why?? The Cologne 2.8 V6, whilst not being as good as the Essex 3.0 V6 for power, was a nice reliable lump.

    The RS Cosworth was a different beast altogether,, Culminating in the RS500. We had one at Dunton for a while as a pool car – until two US executives took it out. The crash scene investigators estimated they were doing over 100 mph when they hit the roundabout with a sharp right turn to leave the site, got airborne and travelled over 200m in the air before wrapping around a National Grid pylon. Neither one survived.

    Like 1
  13. Avatar Germanfordguy

    I’ve had 2, both 5speeds thankfully. Those are not OEM wheels, though not a deal breaker. OEM seats, cloth or leather are fantastically comfortable, leather is know for seem splitting, cloth too, but less so. The dash is absolutely warped and cracked, will be hard to find one that is not. Motor’s are generally rock solid with lots of room for performance additions. Niggling other issues (leaky tail lights, a transmission vibration ring, AC lines that need better protection from heat, batteries subject to the same heat issues), and the turbo can be peaky, but they are a blast to drive! Miss mine still.

    Like 1
  14. Avatar PRA4SNW

    A buddy had a blue one like this, rare, and I had a silver one. These were available used for a song after just a few years of life.

    Mine had all sorts of transmission issues – rebuilt or replaced several – and when I got rid of it a couple of years later, every electronic gizmo was failing.

    Like 0
  15. Avatar Paul

    I rented the Ford Sierra when I was in Belgium in 1985. I had asked for a standard shift since that is what was the most common in Europe at the time but for some reason they gave me an automatic with less than 100 kilo on it (maybe because I was an American). I had it for 3 days, drove it to Paris and back on the Autoroute traveling at 120 to 140 k per hour. By the time I got back into Belgium it would not shift out of first gear. I limped it back to the rental place and told them I wanted a stick shift. They finally gave me one to use for the next 10 days I was in Europe.

    Like 1
  16. Avatar Jay Bambrook

    Awesome cars badged up as the Ford Sierra XR4i in the Uk with a 2.8 V6 Cologne engine, this was the most stolen car in the 80’s over here
    Later on we got the Sierra XR4x4 and absolutely mental Sierra RS500 Cosworth

    Like 0
  17. Avatar Miguel

    The engine should be harvested and pout into something interesting that won’t fall apart around it.

    Like 0

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