Merkur XR4Ti
Overview
Merkur
Merkur , Mercury) was an automobile brand which was briefly marketed by Ford Motor Company in the United States and Canada from 1985 to 1989...
XR4Ti was a short-lived United States and Canada-market version of the European Ford Sierra XR4i
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni"....
. It was the brainchild of then Ford Vice President Bob Lutz. It was sold in the US from 1985 to 1989. It was the first vehicle of Ford's
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
Merkur range, followed in 1988 by the Merkur Scorpio
Merkur Scorpio
The Merkur Scorpio is a modified European Ford Scorpio with 4 doors and lift gate which was manufactured and sold as 1988 and 1989 models...
. Ford had hopes of importing its top European models under this brand, including the Sierra Sapphire
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni"....
but the venture was ultimately unsuccessful due to branding issues, increasing Deutsche Mark exchange rates, generally poor marketing tactics and the introduction in 1990 of new safety requirements such as airbags that would have increased retooling and production costs.
The cars were hand assembled and built entirely by Karmann
Karmann
Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, commonly known simply as Karmann, in Osnabrück, Germany was until 2009 the largest independent motor vehicle manufacturing company in Germany...
Coachworks in Rheine
Rheine
Rheine is a city in the district of Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base.-Geography:Rheine is located on the river Ems, approx. north of Münster, approx...
, Germany.
