One of the more unusual parts of Ford’s history is the appearance of the Merkur brand of automobiles in Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. Plucked from Ford’s European offerings, the Merkur coupe and sedan were intended to compete with the offerings of BMW and Mercedes Benz. That plan didn’t work as intended. It did, however, give birth to a small community of Merkur enthusiasts who still sing the praises of these European oddities. This 1988 Merkur XR4Ti for sale on Craigslist in Franklin Square, New York is one of the best-preserved examples we have featured on Barn Finds. With just 88,000 miles on the odometer, a five-speed transmission, and a leather interior, this Merkur is being offered at $10,900. Is that price in line with other Merkurs, or is it too early for these cars to hit five figures? Thanks to Tony P. for the tip!
In the eighties, BMW was making a load of money in the American market with their three series cars. Other European makers such as Mercedes Benz and Audi weren’t far behind. American makers were seemingly aghast that a person with disposable income didn’t seem to want a rolling road pillow of a luxury car. Who knew upwardly mobile customers liked taut handling and cars that looked at home on the Autobahn? Bob Lutz had just transferred to Ford’s North American operations after championing the new Sierra line at Ford’s European operations. He encouraged Ford to import what would become the XR4Ti and the Scorpio four-door sedan.
The decision was made to sell the cars through the Lincoln-Mercury dealer network under the German name for Mercury. Thus, the Merkur nameplate was born. While Lutz insisted that the car be as undiluted by the bean counters as possible, the European V-6 was jettisoned for a turbocharged version of the Lima 2.3 liter inline four-cylinder engine. This was not a bad idea, as the engine already had a home in the Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and the Mustang SVO. Plans were for sales to hover around 20-25,000 units per year. The cars did meet those goals early on, but unfavorable exchange rates caused prices to go up. You also had the unspoken issue of Lincoln Mercury dealers selling a European sports sedan.
Production ran from 1985 through 1989. By that time, sales had stagnated to the point that Merkur dealers were guaranteeing the value of used Merkurs traded in on new ones using the depreciation rates of the car’s competition. The thought that it put in prospective buyers’ minds didn’t work out very well. There was also the issue that the current body would not be able to meet Federal regulations in the immediate future. The decision was made to pull the plug on what had been a promising project spoiled by poor planning and a lack of commitment to the idea.
Despite their quirky looks and Lincoln-Mercury dealers doing everything they could to abandon the Merkur debacle and the customers they had sold the cars to, these jellybean-shaped cars developed a cult following. Much like the efforts of fans of the Weird Al Yankovic movie “UHF,” Merkur aficionados have managed to keep these cult classics from fading away. Parts are out there if you find a good one and want to keep it running and on the road. Another plus is the Lima engine. Most folks don’t know that the Lima Four is one of the most popular engines in amateur racing. You can build up one amazing engine and turn the biplane spoilered Merkur into an absolute rocket ship. The good handling is just a bonus.
The Merkur you see here has managed to escape the hazards of New York state winters. The seller has taken great pains to document the condition of the car with photographs and videos linked in the ad. This 1988-produced XR4Ti is surprisingly stock except for a custom aluminum radiator. It even has the original radio, but the speakers have been replaced. The usual Merkur issues with wiring and the battery tray are described as not an issue in this car. The seller has also had a fair amount of work done recently including a new T3 turbo, brakes, secondary ignition tune-up, tires, and other minor items. Perhaps the best news is that this five-speed equipped car has no rust.
While the $10,900 asking price seems a bit steep, this is likely the going rate for a very good car with just 88,000 miles on the odometer. You can find examples for less, but the cost to bring them back to an equivalent condition would likely exceed the asking price on this Merkur. It is a shame that Ford didn’t continue with the development of the Merkur. It was a car line with promise. Hopefully, this one will find a good home and be displayed occasionally at shows. The Merkur story is an interesting one.
Were you ever tempted to purchase a Merkur? Do you think Ford made a mistake by discontinuing these interesting vehicles? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I always thought these were really weird looking cars, especially with the double wing design on the back. Not sure who the intended market was in North America.
I had one of these, really a fine car. Good in the snow,too! But it (they)had its issues. Changed front end bushings almost regularly, which led to brake issues. But, man, this car could give any 3 series a run for its money. Mine had the snowflake wheels.
For such a clean low mileage car,I don’t think that is a bad deal.When you consider prices on new cars these days.
She’s a beauty but I think she’s already been featured here?
Down $1K from a month ago…
https://barnfinds.com/mercury-in-german-1988-merkur-xr4ti/
At one point I had two XR4Ti’s and a Scorpio. Both of the XR’s were 5 speeds, and all of them were awesome cars. Comfortable, relatively quick (at least the XR’s) and distinctive. I still have dreams of finding one of each in good shape and grabbing them.
The Sierra (which these were based on) were a very popular car which used to be EVERYWHERE!
We got them in 3- and 5-door hatches, 4-door saloons (sedan) 5-door estates (wagons) with 1.3, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.3, 2.8 and 2.9 litre engines (some naturally aspirated, some fuel injected and some turbocharged – those just being the petrol engines as we had diesels as well!) and some even with four wheel drive!
With so many body styles, engines, trim options, colour choices and never-ending special editions, even when new you would have trouble finding two totally identical cars!
Unfortunately most were killed off with various scrappage schemes encouraging people to replace them with lower-emission vehicles (in the UK, anyway).
I was in the market for a brand new car in 1985. BMW were marketing the eta cars so, looking around at the offerings, I was debating between a turbo Saab or this new turbo ride. We had a Ford Sierra rental in Europe in 1984, had driven it across Germany from the Alsace to Hungary and back and it was a great offering from Hertz. Ford shortfalls: choosing Mercury dealers who did not want to bother to educate sales people, only one tech trained on it, Karmann’s poor assembly quality, and other parts qualities like the transmission: they took the Capri 4 speed and tacked a fifth gear overdrive on the back. it could not handle the torque and only changing it over to a BW T-5 fixed that issue. The car was a blast to drive after you learned to deal with TTO and a laggy turbo. I will spare you the next couple of paragraphs of issues, but the leather interior was really nice and parts access was helped when Russ and Renata Harness of Rapido Group offered parts and support.
As a car kid in the late 80’s, and then into my adult life in the late 90’s, I remember our neighbors across the street in good ol Livingston, Montana, daily driving an XR4Ti sometime around 1997. It was all black and I remember taking a liking to it because I had never seen one before…….still don’t think I’ve seen another Merkur since then. 🤣
I was working as a salesman at a Lincoln Mercury dealership when these came out. I took a fellow salesman out with me for a ride, because he couldn’t drive manual. We just got on the highway when a Mazda RX-7 challenged us, that Merkur was pretty fast. The poor salesman ruined a perfectly good pair of underwear that day!
I still have one in my back yard. Sold it to a woman who failed payments. Took back and standing since. I had just redone the engine. Thinking of putting engine in my Dad 72 Mercedes 250 which lost its oil.
The engine on these cars is basically the Pinto 2.3 engine. Everybody hated the Pinto but had that great engine. Add a blower to a cast iron engine and it flew even with an auto.
Any recommendations to transplant the engine or restore a very tired looking XR74TI?
The engine is very similar to the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and the Mustang SVO engine ( without the intercooler).
Maybe its my imagination but when I was in Europe, the cars just seemed better in every way, Fords, VW’s, whatever.
You said it david. Imagination.
Of course the Sierra was replaced by the Mondeo in the 90’s which ultimately found it’s way back to the USA as the last generation Fusion.
And the first generation Contour
I think these are cool, but man $10k buys me a REALLY nice TurboCoupe, which is a much nicer car.
That said, I want to swap a 2.3 EcoBoost into a TurboCoupe, and that would also be a cool idea for one of these Merkurs. Same spirit with a turbo four, but a hell of a lot faster.
This very same car was featured here on Nov. 20.
I was tempted to buy one that came up on CL locally for about $4k a few years ago, but while I was mulling it over, a flipper nabbed it and promptly put it on eBay, where IIRC it went for nearly double the local ask, likely helped by its appearance here:
https://barnfinds.com/unmodified-survivor-1988-merkur-xr4ti/
In hindsight, Ford probably should have just canceled or renamed the Fox-body Mercury Capri, so they could revive using Capri as a well-recognized submarque for sporty imported Euro Fords sold through Mercury dealers, rather than inventing the hard-to-pronounce Merkur brand with zero name recognition. They could even use the same Lincoln-esque logo they designed for Merkur and have it simply say Capri instead.
Then, as with the original Capri models, this model would have started out badged as simply “Capri” (no other marque or model), then later they might give it more specific model designation (maybe just XR4, as XR4Ti was too much alphabet-soup) when they added a sedan model as the Capri Scorpio. Mazda-built captive-import Mercury models such as the first-gen Tracer and the final Capri roadster (badged as, say, a Capri Barchetta or XR2?) could have slotted in as well, to expand Capri into a full-line captive-import marque.
I had an 86 xr4, cool car, really fast for a 4 cylinder. My main issue with mine was Ford decided to mount the battery directly over the turbo charger. It would flat cook a battery in less than a month. Got sick of buying batteries, sold it. Ford dealership replaced the first 2 batteries, then they told me it was on me after that and batteries weren’t through the roof like they are now.
The car with a name that could have been a strong passcode before there were passcodes.😁