Show of hands if you remember the Merkur XR4Ti (it’s that XR4Ti part that I can never recall). They were all over the place in the ’80s (’85-’89) and then just seemed to disappear overnight. Today’s find, courtesy of Johnny B, is a 1986 edition and is one of 42K imported to the U.S. over its five-year lifespan. This example shows well and has reasonably low mileage, so let’s take a look and see what made these cars special. It’s located in Cincinnatus, New York and is available, here on eBay for a current no-reserve bid of $8,800 with seven bids tendered so far.
Based on the Ford Sierra, the Merkur was a one-trick pony with its two-door, hatchback body style. Unbeknownst to me, Ford contracted out the construction of the Merkur to Germany’s Karmann as opposed to taking it on themselves. If you think “Merkur” sounds like “Mercury” you would be right, it’s similar sounding and U.S. Lincoln-Mercury dealerships handled sales and service for this import.
Our subject car, with 65K miles of experience, shows quite well. The seller states, “Exterior condition is very good (8.5 out of 10 rating) with only a few dings and chips commensurate with its age“. The finish shows as being fade-free with nice depth and some luster. The wheels are not original to this car though they are Merkur “Spatula-Style” wheels. The born-with “Phone-Dial-Style” rollers are included in the sale. One thing that always kept this car from looking like so many others of the era is the two-stage rear spoiler. I suppose that it’s a matter of preference…and I’ll leave it at that.
Power is provided by a 175 net HP, turbo-charged 2.3 liter inline, four-cylinder engine channeling its forward motivation via a five-speed manual transmission. The seller adds, “Car has had recent fluid changes, tune-up, new Bilstein struts and shocks, new front springs, front suspension bushings, and new front brakes (calipers, rotors, pads, hoses)“. Also included in the sale are receipts for a new timing belt, water pump, and accessory belts.
Inside is a bright, clean, two-tone gray fabric environment that belies this car’s 37 years of age. And that goodness extends to the door panels, headliner, and cargo area. There’s no mistaking this car’s ’80s origins with its sharp-edged, angular dash. The A/C unit is on the fritz but a new compressor and expansion valve are included in the sale. One nice feature of this Merkur is its sunroof – always a nice inclusion.
Some things to consider about this car are its initial twenty-five-year ownership by a Ford engineer and its extensive, accompanying documentation. So, who’s the likely target market for this Merkur XR4Ti? I’d suggest one who has owned one in the past and wants a redo, a Ford fan who wants to expand his or her FoMoCo horizons, or…?
Going full throttle, the turbo kicks in- at 80 MPH that whaletail spoiler pulls the rear end down to the pavement- and the car goes ballistic to about 130. It feels like you are wearing a jet pack. The full independent suspension makes it corner like it’s on rails. Don’t let the back end break loose on you in a turn, or you WILL swap ends. My only complaint was that they put the battery on top of the turbocharger.
16 second quarter mile.
Dave these cars were about cornering amd rally driving not straight line from a dig acceleration. Good to think about a car as the sum of its parts. This car is almost perfection to some of us… 4cyl turbo rwd- all four wheels independently sprung, but esp with the 2.3 svo/Limassol turbo engines that were used at this time didn’t have anything before 2500 to 3000 rpm but once the turbo was spinning fast enough to build boost pressure- you were gone.
I know many a camaro and mustang guy that slept on one of these rolling down i70 for a few years from the mid to late 90s- even at 10-12 years old and 85k rough miles – my cousins car would still shet and get.
If he was doing 70-75 and got into it you needed far more than a 5.0 ho mustang or 5.3 ss Cameron to keep pace..
And if you had a 6cyl car, or maybe you had a little Honda or Toyota or BMW that you thought was the ish.
You better have something more than stock and be able to drive because, with nothing other than an old school boost controller and turbo timer, that car was mean… like i said. Really nothing more than a ford tempo if you drove it to 2250 and short shifted it.. turtle slow… however once that boost hit… it was like you fed donkey Kong a banana king Kong would come out… these are the types of cars that make mountain driving in places like rural west Virginia and Kentucky freaking magical… don’t ever sleep on one. If I had 9k I’d bring it home but besides the money I’m kinda suspended at the moment so I couldn’t register it either sad. Cause this is a damn nice/fun affordable car.
Have to disagree on swapping ends. When these first came out, I took one out for a test ride. The Lincoln salesman was in the passenger seat and my two buddies were in the back. I had the back end out a bit several times and loved the handling. The salesman didn’t love it.
Nice XR4ti I’ve never seen one with an automatic. Must be rare.
I spy with my little eye, 3 pedals down there.
Definitely a 5-speed manual!
Nice car! My parents had an automatic version. To comment I think there were more automatics.
There were lots of automatics, but not in the earlier years of these. I test drove an automatic during my search for one – it was a dog compared to the manual.
Kind of like the SHO (I also had one of those), the automatics started appearing after the first couple of years. These cars need to be shifted by the driver.
I owned an ’87 automatic. Fun car to drive, but the HVAC sucked in it. If the windshield fogged over, you had to wipe it clean because the vents were so useless. Plus I would pull in a Drive-Thru, the car would stop and wouldn’t start because the battery was totally drained. I think I replaced at least five batteries because the Ford dealers could never decide what the problem was. Then the leather seats begin splitting. Unfortunately, it was a mess. I drove at 7 frustrating years then bought a Chevy Lumina. Such a comfortable little car, and the batteries never died on it. I would have loved the Merkur, but it had so many dang problems.
Had an 86 automatic, and an 89 5 speed. Loved them both. Regret not tucking one away.
I owned an ’87 automatic. Fun car to drive, but the HVAC sucked in it. If the windshield fogged over, you had to wipe it clean because the vents were so useless. Plus I would pull in a Drive-Thru, the car would stop and wouldn’t start because the battery was totally drained. I think I replaced at least five batteries because the Ford dealers could never decide what the problem was. Then the leather seats begin splitting. Unfortunately, it was a mess. I drove at 7 frustrating years then bought a Chevy Lumina. Such a comfortable little car, and the batteries never died on it. I would have loved the Merkur, but it had so many dang problems.
What’s the tipping point for “in a private collection”? Asking for a friend.
tell your “friend” that if you can’t drive them all for a day in one week, you MIGHT be a private collector. lol
a buddies sister had one we got to fix. i went real good. and handled pretty well too. which was why i always wondered how leadfoot lizy managed to everything but the lottery with it
dang sticky keys… it went real good…
Minimum 2 old cars (in any condition) plus daily driver?
Back in 1986 one passed me at a high rate of speed. I was driving my 1963 Pontiac Safari station wagon going fishing with my buddies. Being around 18 years old and knowing I had a high compression 389 with tall rear end gears, I took him own. Passed him at over 120 as that was as fast as the speedometer would show. Good times. Good times.
This is a good looking example of the breed – very few look this good anymore!
Very nice car. These were expensive when they were new, and didn’t sell well.
And, they depreciated just as fast. I bought a 3 year old one for $6,500 and I believe the sticker said 25K.
These were fantastic cars. If I only had the spare cash.
I bought one when they came out.
I really liked it, a rocket sled in that era. The turbo kicks in, and you go!
It was like a BMW 320i, but faster and more comfy.
The weakness is the “black box” would fail in the rain, and the car would just die and need to get towed. I went through three “black boxes” before trading it for another then-era rocket sled, a Probe GT.
The Achille’s heel on my ’85 was the manual tranny. I went through several replacements / rebuild before I finally gave up and traded it in.
Man! First turbo car I ever drove when I was 16. It was a loaner from the mechanic while my mom’s 79 Caprice Classic Station Wagon was being worked on. The whoosh of that turbo once it kicked in. . .They say you never forget your first time. . .
Popped your turbo cherry … sweet
lmao! 🤣
These were based on the European XR4i which was quite the car in itself. The ultimate Sierra though was the RS500 (500 build run) Cosworth with a 150mph top speed (all RHD, just for us in the UK!)
I remember the article in Car & Driver when they went to Great Britain and test drove one and how awesome they thought the RS500 was, wish I could get my hands on one.
They produced some LHD in Sierra Cosworth RS500 in Europe. Here’s one for sale now. Copy and paste the tinyURL. https://tinyurl.com/y6w9jnk5 Wish I had the funds for it, I’d bring it to the states and be a happy camper. DB
WOW
I didn’t see a price? How do you go about importing something like that?
The injectors for these were well travelled.
Ford was just getting into port fuel injection and the injectors were produced in Bosch’s German operations. Then they were shipped to Lima Ohio for the production of the Turbo 4 engine, which was then shipped back to Karmann in Germany for installation in final production of the car. The finished car was then shipped to the U.S. A friend of mine in the military, stationed in Germany bought one and had it shipped to Kaiserslautern where he was serving. So the injectors in his made 4 trips across the Atlantic.
As this engine was not available in the Sierra for sale in Europe his car attracted some extra attention over there.
If I recall although the 2.3 is a considerd a Lima, the 2.3for the XR was built in Brazil and then shipped.
I think Ford screwed up with these cars they should have done a better job marketing them. The only way I even knew they were available is being behind one at a stoplight, and light goes green and it was gone.
I thought these were grossly overpriced when they appeared in showrooms.
Compared to Audis and BMWs at the time, they were very reasonable.
If that were Ford’s intent, then I agree. I believe if Ford had advertised from that angle then it would have sold better.
They did, which drew me into the dealership.
The mistake was #1: the name (Merkur), and #2: through Mercury.
In hindsight, they probably should have just canceled or renamed the Fox-body Mercury Capri, so they could revive using Capri as a well-recognized submarque for imported Euro Fords sold through Mercury dealers, rather than inventing the novel and hard-to-pronounce Merkur brand. They could even use the same logo as Merkur and have it simply say Capri instead.
Then, as with the original Capri models, this would have started out badged as simply “Capri” (no other marque or model), then later they might give it an XR4 model designation (XR4Ti was too much alphabet-soup) when they added a Capri Scorpio sedan model. Mazda-derived 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 make Capri a full-line captive-import marque.
My mom looked at one. I thought it was awesome after reason about the Cosworth Sierras. Dad was fine with turbos as he worked on diesels, plus it was a Lima engine. Mom ended up with a Thunderbird because it was cheaper. I agree that it just should’ve been a Mercury. Bringing back the Marauder name, especially the all black cars seems like a good name for the car
This is one of the nicer specimens of this model I’ve seen in awhile. This era of Ford’s aero styling was nicely done, in my opinion before everything went way too jellybean. Sure hope this is preserved!
The first Merkur shipped to the USA were the alphas that were hand-built at Karmann for training puposes. I bought one of those off the showroom floor in 1985. The only alternative at the time was a Saab turbo: the BMW eta engines were sluggish. We had driven a Sierra in Germany and liked the size, and there performance of the rental model.
The engines were the 4 cylinders that were built in Brasil but the turbo had added water cooling around the bushings. That did not stop it from cooking up though. The Mercury dealer offered to sell us a new turbo. The aftermarket, Russ Harness at Rapido Motors sold me a rebuilt kit in a Ford Motorsports box!
Lots of other infant mortality with the first builds in a/c and the tranny: Ford sourced the French-built trans that was used in the Capri and tacked a 5th gear on the back. Mine had a habit of popping out of gear on lift-off. Local dealer rebuilt it but that didn’t help. I used a bunji cord to hold it in fifth until I replaced it with a BW T-5.
OTOH, the leather setting was great, ergo was also good and it was a joy to drive after getting used to the TTO. If I had parking space (and a different spouse) I might consider buying this.
I am a tall, large human, and the leather-clad interior was very comfortable and not at all compact cramped.
For the era, that car could really scoot.
Drove one of these, brand new, in an autocross “shootout” (3 different cars, 1 run in each). Went to left foot brake on a hairpin turn, got clutch instead and came about 1” short of stuffing it into a concrete barrier in front of the dealer principle who provided the car. I believe he pulled their sponsorship of the series after that.
It’s too bad that Mercury didn’t follow suit with Ford, and the SVO Mustang. 1984 & 85 were the same 2.3 Turbo, but then midway through 85 & 86 Ford had the EEC4 electronic system, added an intercooler and went to 200 horse.
In the EEC4 cars there was a vacuum line going from one side of the turbo into an electronic controller, then back into the other side of the turbo. Unplug the wire and loop that hose, and you just bypassed your wastegate regulator! Add a boost gauge and a Supertrapp muffler, putting in just enough plates to make sure you don’t exceed 20 lbs of boost, and you’ve magically created a LOT more HP!!
Thomas, mine is all original. Yes, it does have its issues but like a crazy girlfriend the issues can be worth the experience. I’d like to know more about your little mod. It sounds like a treacherous thing to do if you don’t want to blow up the turbo.
OK I will say it. Somebody call JIM ROME!
No Merkur posting is complete without a Jim Rome reference. I haven’t heard that story in about 20 years and still remember it!
I actually never saw one up here in Montreal.. If they were offered they must have been on the expensive side
I’ve seen more Merkur Scorpios than XR4Tis.
Back when I was in college, my landlady had a Scorpio. I thought it looked like a gussied-up Taurus. Didn’t know much about them back then. I remember the sunroof having what looked like horizontally mounted mini-blinds for the sunroof shade! 🤣
https://www.hagerty.com/media/magazine-features/10k-classic-the-merkur-xr4ti-is-an-affordable-80s-treat/
I may have seen as many as 10 of these when stationed in W. Germany in the early to mid 80’s. They were pretty sweet cars then and honestly; I didn’t think I’d ever see one stateside. If I only had the room, this would be at the top of my list. These things were just cool as hell.
One thing not mentioned yet is that the seats were Recaro units, nice and firm.
Unusual in its day and unusually nice today. It was a sleeper if you didn’t know what it was,if you did know…avoid the challenge. I knew a girl with a ’78 T/A 6.6 Trans Am that was pretty wicked for mid ’70s. Took on one of these Merkurs and proceeded to get spanked. There were a few engine mods and suspension mods for them. These mods would really wake this European monster up. They also handled well stock but with little input the available upgrades really were impressive. Today with what can be done this sucker would be a hoot to get around in. I can hear it now…” I don’t know what it was but…whoosh and it was gone..”
Expensive yes, but fortunate to be a long time customer of the local Lincoln-Mercury-Mazda dealer. Mazdas drew me in, but then when the Merkur was marketed, I got dealer pricing and leased an 86 and then an 89. Right place at the right time. I knew they were headed our way and watched as they unloaded the first shipment. The owner let me “test drive” a couple of them, until I was ready to lease. My family was tired of me singing the praises every time we met for dinner or a family thing.
Does anyone know how these compared to the Mustang SVO in terms of performance? I would think the SVO had a clear advantage since it was intercooled and most likely a lot lighter.
It’s funny how there are so many posts on how high performance these Merkurs were (I had one and agree), but every time an SVO is posted, the majority of posts mention that it was a dog because it didn’t have a lumbering V8 in it.
The second sentence of your first paragraph pretty much summed it up. The lack of an intercooler ensured the engine was a little less powerful than the SVOs. They never put 4 wheel discs on these cars either, which I thought was an oversight.
The era needs to be kept in perspective.
Nothing in the 80’s was hi-po by past or current standards. There were a few cars that performed well by then-era standards.
Both the Merkur and SVO fit that criteria for the 80’s.
I went from a Merkur to a Probe GT that was also very quick for the time, and did have an intercooler.