Merkur Scorpio History

The Merkur Scorpio was introduced for the 1988 model year as the brand's luxury flagship, based on the Ford Scorpio — Ford of Europe's large executive car, which had won the European Car of the Year award for 1986. Manufactured at Ford of Germany's Cologne Body and Assembly plant, the Scorpio was powered by Ford's 2.9-liter Cologne V6 producing 144 hp, mated to either a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission. Its five-door fastback hatchback body featured a 'floating roof' effect created by blacked-out pillars.

The Scorpio's US pricing was its undoing. The base price of $23,390 — rising past $26,000 with the Touring Package and automatic — put it squarely against the Lincoln Town Car, a vehicle that carried far more brand prestige with American buyers. Critics noted that the Scorpio's exterior closely resembled the cheaper Mercury Sable, making the price premium a hard sell. Ford had projected 15,000 annual Scorpio sales; the two-year total for both 1988 and 1989 reached approximately 22,010 units.

Ford announced the end of Merkur imports on October 20, 1989, citing the dollar-Deutsche mark exchange rate, upcoming 1990 passive-restraint regulations (which would have required costly airbag or automatic-seatbelt retrofits the cars were not designed for), and persistently weak brand-level sales. The Scorpio's two-model-year US run made Merkur one of the shortest-lived American automotive nameplates of the postwar era — lasting only marginally longer than the Ford Edsel.