"We left quite a
bit of body roll on purpose. Jackie Stewart even recommended
it"
Ron
Reume, Car import
specialist, Ford Motor
Company
From the start, the car
suffered from in identity crisis. Bob Lutz, who was chairman of Ford
Europe at the time (and who went on to become the President of
Chrysler), wanted to differentiate the new German import from its
established Mustang and Tempo product lines. The decision was made
to market the car under a unique name Merkur, German for Mercury.
The name didnt exactly roll off the tongue and Ford needed the
educate its sales personnel, and the public in how to pronounce the
name Mare-coor. One early embarrassment was that the name was
mispronounced in several TV advertising campaigns! Anyone who knows
anything about marketing knows that to make a product successful,
the name has to be catchy, easy to remember, and above all roll off
the tongue. This name, while clever, had none of these
qualities.
"The fleet-footed
Merkur dusts the Bimmer in straight-line
performance"
Motor Trend
The automotive press was
full of reviews and comparisons between other cars in its class the
BMW 318, Saab 900, Audi 4000. A TV advertising campaign featuring
respected Formula 1 race car driver Jackie Stewart was aired to
support the January 85 launch on the West coast, and three months
later in the rest of North America. The Merkur XR4Ti was expensive
at $16,503, considering the buyer wasnt buying a well-established
name such as BMW, Audi or Saab. Four years later, in 1989, buyers
were awarded cash incentives of up to $4,000, although by then the
list price had risen to $19,039.
"The XR4Ti started
out as an unknown and remains one"
Car & Driver
1988
Ford had predicted sales
of around 15,000/year, and that the XR4Ti would be the first of a
complete family of quality European imports. Unfortunately due to
the reasons mentioned, and a love-hate relationship with the large
rear spoiler, sales struggled to break the 12,000 mark. For the 1988
model year, the rear spoiler was redesigned to a more subtle single
wing and the lower gray body cladding was color keyed to that of the
car. In addition, the number of dealerships was cut back to 600
nationwide. These changes were not enough to turn sales around, and
despite favorable reviews, it was too late. Ford cancelled the
program in 1989 after a total of only 42,464 cars had been
produced. |