Merkur XR4Ti

The Merkur XR4Ti was a short-lived United States and Canada-market version of the European Ford Sierra XR4i. 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 Merkur range, followed in 1988 by the Merkur Scorpio. Ford had hopes of importing its top European models under this brand, including the Sierra Sapphire 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 Coachworks in...