Junkyard Gem: 1989 Merkur Scorpio

Ford’s Merkur brand was one of the shortest-lived North American marques of the late 20th century, existing for just the 1985 through 1989 model years and comprising just two models: the XR4Ti and the Scorpio. Of the two, the Scorpio is the hardest to find today; I was excited to discover this ’89 in a car graveyard in Carson City, Nevada.

Dearborn had brought over some cars from its European operations in decades past, with varying degrees of sales success. Thousands of left-hand-drive Prefects, Consuls, Zephyrs and Anglias showed up during the 1950s, with the Cortina available here throughout the 1960s. The West Germany-built Ford Capri was sold in North America through Mercury dealers (though with neither Ford nor Mercury badging) for the 1970 through 1977 model years, followed by the equally West German Ford Fiesta for 1978 through 1981.

American car shoppers became increasingly enthusiastic about sporty European machinery during the first half of the 1980s, and Detroit attempted to push some of its models in a more European direction during that time. Ford was already a sales behemoth in Western Europe and had been so for decades, though, so why not bring over actual Euro-market machines from the Blue Oval Empire? Thus was the Merkur (the German word for Mercury, pronounced “mare-KOOR”) brand born.

First to arrive was an Americanized Ford Sierra XR4i, powered by the turbocharged 2.3-liter straight-four from the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and Mustang Turbo, badged as the Merkur XR4Ti. It went on sale as a 1985 model. For 1988, the Ford Scorpio (itself based on the Sierra) arrived as the Merkur Scorpio.

The engine in the Scorpio was the good old Cologne pushrod V6, in this case a 2.9-liter rated at 144 horsepower and 162 pound-feet. Members of the Cologne family went into everything from Pintos to Mustangs to Rangers in North America over the decades, but had a much wider range of applications in Europe.

A five-speed manual was base equipment, but this car has the $550 optional four-speed automatic ($1,427 in 2024 dollars). This is the fourth discarded Scorpio I’ve documented, and all have been two-pedal cars.

The MSRP for this car was $25,167, or about $62,292 after inflation. That was cheaper than the smaller BMW 325i four-door for 1989 ($25,450) and much cheaper than the $37,000 525i sedan. The 1989 Volvo 740 GLE sedan with automatic transmission listed at $25,045, while the Mercedes-Benz 190 sedan started at $31,840.

Despite being a decent deal for a European rear-wheel-drive sedan, not many American car shoppers wanted a new Scorpio; it was available for just the 1988 and 1989 model years.