No car drove that point home harder than the 1985-1989 Merkur XR4Ti, the Americanized Ford Sierra XR4i. The Merkur was Ford's attempt at bringing some of its successful European offerings to the U ...

That, in a nutshell, is the Merkur XR4Ti, Ford’s ill-fated attempt to transform the European Sierra into a high-performance BMW rival. The Ford Sierra, launched in September 1982, was not ...

Thus, Ford created a confusing new brand for the car, Merkur. The Sierra was federalized with the 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from the Mustang SVO, and a new name: XR4Ti. Hemmings The car ...

Cars like today's Nice Price or No Dice Merkur XR4Ti were once referred to as "captive imports." Let's see if this rare former Ford can capture your hearts at its asking price. Now, while I agree ...

In total, around 850 exterior and chassis components were unique to the XR4Ti. Photo: Ford Motor Co. Although the design hasn't aged well, back in the mid-1980s, the Merkur XR4Ti looked sporty and ...

I'm not quite sure we can call today's 1987 Merkur XR4Ti a similar example of badge engineering, as the car from which it was derived was a full-blooded Ford, the European Sierra. FoMoCo's big ...

Examples abound: (1) an Opel Astra sold here as a Saturn Astra, (2) an Opel Omega as a Cadillac Catera, (3) a Teutonic Ford Sierra as a 1985 Merkur XR4Ti. Importing the Ford required more balls ...

an attempt to infuse Ford’s successful European models into the market as upscale BMW competitors. While Lutz hoped Merkur’s two models, the XR4Ti and the Scorpio, would steal some sales from ...

Ultimately, Ford's experimental Euro-import brand for the U.S. market was only saved from being its statistically worst brand by a single model year. Merkur's existence had a lot in common with ...

This might be the first Merkur XR4Ti restomod, and it's amazing. Merkur was Ford's effort from 1985 to 1989 to bring European products to the United States as premium offerings. One of these ...