How about a Ford with some German influence to spice up the week? Here we have a 1986 Merkur XR4Ti hatchback. Related to the Ford Sierra and built by the folks at Karmann in Rheine, Germany, these hatchbacks started appearing in the US in 1985 by the urging of then Ford Vice-President “Maximum” Bob Lutz. Powered by the venerable 2.3 liter four cylinder turbo similar to what was found in the Mustang SVO, it cranked out 145 hp in automatic form (175 for those cars equipped with the 5-speed manual). These interesting machines had a run in the US market up until 1989, when airbag legislation doomed the car due to retooling costs. Also, it didn’t help that Lincoln/Mercury dealers were peddling these things and had no clue how to market them. While they are becoming scarce on American roads today, finding ones with low mileage is even more daunting. Here we have an example of just that.
I purchased this vehicle from a VW dealer in 2002. It was traded in on a new vw. The original owner lived in Howard Beach NY. I bought this car for my father who needed a vehicle to get around town. He lived in boxford MA. At the time of purchase the xr4ti had 33,625miles.(I have documents). I had the vehicle gone through checking all the mechanical and replacing the tires, brakes and tune up. Shortly there after my father got sick and never really drove the car, as you can see current milage is 34581. In May of 09 I had the car towed to my house after sitting for the last 6+ years. I had the vehicle again gone through checking all the mechanical with only hoses need replacing due to age. The tires have flat spots but have been rounding out with me driving it around.Since they were new in 02 I hated to replace them.
There are a couple of things that need attention. There is a small dent in right front fender(pics), the headliner is beginning to fall, and the door panel needs to be glued on drivers door (pics). Otherwise the vehicle is in great shape. Everything is working. I have been driving it for a couple hundred miles and it seem everything is sorted out and working properly. It’s a great fun car and It’s rarity will pretty much guarentee you looks where ever you go. It is surprisingly quick when the turbo kicks in.
Not sure what the reserve is, but NADA.com is valuing high retail on an ’86 XR4Ti at $4,475, so I’d say anything under $5,000 would be reasonable, as this is not an easy car to put a price on. The only thing holding this back would be the automatic transmission in my opinion, but that could be a boon to the right buyer.
-Paul
I used to really drool over these: European, rare, even esoteric. Sporty-looking. Then I test drove one in the early nineties. Maybe it was just the (well used) example that I drove, but it was abysmal.
Drove like a Ford. I stuck with the Jetta.
Has anyone had a different experience with this model or the Scorpio?
i own one my cuzin owned one they are awesome cars some things need to be changed like drive shaft cuz the rubber donut breaks usually but its an easy fix and easy to swap in a t5 sweet cars