http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37472005/ns/business-autos/?ns=business-autos

Better start restoring them back to stock...

heymagic Wrote:
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> >
> Better start restoring them back to stock...

Hell no.
I've INSISTED for years that any Xratty I work on be de-Merkur badged and proper Ford badges stuck in place.
If Ford abandoned Mare-Kooooooor" owners and left us all high and dry, they we have no reason to continue the silly masquerade....

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

The last neat Mercs were in the 60's and they were copies of Fords anyway. Always seemed like a stupid plan.

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> heymagic Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > >
> > Better start restoring them back to stock...
>
> Hell no.
> I've INSISTED for years that any Xratty I work on
> be de-Merkur badged and proper Ford badges stuck
> in place.
> If Ford abandoned Mare-Kooooooor" owners and left
> us all high and dry, they we have no reason to
> continue the silly masquerade....
>
>
>
>
> John Vanlandingham
> Sleezattle, WA, USA
>
> Vive le Prole-le-ralliat
>
> www.rallyrace.net/jvab
> CALL +1 206 431-9696
> Remember! Pacific Standard Time
> is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.


Do you actually do trivial things like that? Rebadging it isn't going to make it something else, its still a Merkur.

---

Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Dazed_Driver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> john vanlandingham Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > heymagic Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > >
> > > Better start restoring them back to
> stock...
> >
> > Hell no.
> > I've INSISTED for years that any Xratty I
> work on
> > be de-Merkur badged and proper Ford badges
> stuck
> > in place.
> > If Ford abandoned Mare-Kooooooor" owners and
> left
> > us all high and dry, they we have no reason
> to
> > continue the silly masquerade....
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > John Vanlandingham
> > Sleezattle, WA, USA
> >
> > Vive le Prole-le-ralliat
> >
> > www.rallyrace.net/jvab
> > CALL +1 206 431-9696
> > Remember! Pacific Standard Time
> > is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.
>
>
> Do you actually do trivial things like that?
> Rebadging it isn't going to make it something
> else, its still a Merkur.

Actually I don't have to "force" anybody---it's a common and long standing joke among all adult Xratty owners since it was obvious way back in 1985 that the car was born an orphan car and the dealers were puzzled what to do with them when their normal clients were driving gross pig Continental "Town Cars" the size of aircraft carriers.

The car IS a Ford Sierra XR4i with a unique to USA and Canada engine, otherwise it is a common Sierra XR4i. (Ford's supposed logic was the target clients would not be thrilled to have a all iron V6 which was the top of the line engine in Sierras prior to the lovely 2,0 16 YB Cosworth, so somehow an all iron 2300 with a turbo was supposedly more acceptable.
The whole reason for the phoney baloney stupid and contemptibly pretentious badging was a) GM had the Sierra trademark, and b) they didn't want a car in Ford showrooms that was quicker, and hadled better than Ford's beloved "Mustang" so the cooked up the stupid name and forced Mercury dealers to move the cars....

Their confused nature is perfectly illustrated by the stupid nose badge which reads under the Merkur "Ford Werke A.G. Köln, Germany"

See? (Doubt it so I'll splain: if you're going to try and be pretentious and market it as some über-German technological triumph and write Ford Werke A.G. Köln (which is 'Cologne is English, where Ford's main German plant and HQ is), then don't switch to English for 'Germany', write 'Deutschland' or BRD....
That's what a poseur would do and there it is all mixed up right on the badge..
It'd be silly if a person did it, it's stupid that marketing division would think up something like that and actually produce it.
One language or the other.

It'd be sorta equivalent of the NUMI Toyotas badged as Chevrolets to try and pretend they weren't Corollas.

The car was Ford's second biggest seller worldwide for a decade at least---after Escort, it was a Sierra everywhere else---Europe, Africa （built in Port Elizabeth South Africa), South America (built in Venezuela and Cordoba, Argentina), Asia, Australia-NZ it's a fuckin Sierra.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

About time.. Mercury has been a cruel joke for as long as I can remember.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

The worst ever re-badge belongs to GM with the Cadillac Cimmaron.

The name Merkur just never worked to start with. Why the manufactures have built multi variations of the same shell is beyond me. The Chrysler, Dodge ,Plymouth mini-vans or Intrepid cars was costly and silly. Ford with the Tempo/Topaz Fairmont/Zephyr, Pinto/Bobcat, Escort/Tracer and so on. Didn't do the Merc badge any favors. Should've scrapped Mercury decades ago.

heymagic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The worst ever re-badge belongs to GM with the
> Cadillac Cimmaron.
>
> The name Merkur just never worked to start with.
> Why the manufactures have built multi variations
> of the same shell is beyond me. The Chrysler,
> Dodge ,Plymouth mini-vans or Intrepid cars was
> costly and silly. Ford with the Tempo/Topaz
> Fairmont/Zephyr, Pinto/Bobcat, Escort/Tracer and
> so on. Didn't do the Merc badge any favors.
> Should've scrapped Mercury decades ago.


Comming up with and actually producing the Cadillac Cimmaron was massively stupid. Must have been some really good drugs.

The whole division thing has been a bad hangover from back in the day when divisions actually had "different" cars. Cost rationalization finally made them stop re-inventing the wheel for each division, but no one took the next rational step.. why I don't know.. could have been as simple as the dealer network. No one with half a brain thought that a Tempo was any different than a Topaz.. but there were some who did, so who knows.. the brand hierachy might still have been working for some time.

Merkur was an abortion... just another example of a terrible "import" job by the big 3.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

An abortion?
In what way?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I think the problem is the American designers don't feel that the American public will appreciate the European designed vehicles so they take something with proven performance and aesthetic from Europe and bastardize it for the U.S. market. Makes no sense. Easy to see why U.S. manufactures have a hard time competing when they make stupid mistakes like retooling a factory just to make small aesthetic/performance (many times not for the better, IMO in the case of the Sierra) changes to an existing production line.

gpbullock Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the problem is the American designers
> don't feel that the American public will
> appreciate the European designed vehicles so they
> take something with proven performance and
> aesthetic from Europe and bastardize it for the
> U.S. market. Makes no sense. Easy to see why U.S.
> manufactures have a hard time competing when they
> make stupid mistakes like retooling a factory just
> to make small aesthetic/performance (many times
> not for the better, IMO in the case of the Sierra)
> changes to an existing production line.


Should be interesting to see how the new US market Fiesta is. This car that was supposed to come over as "the same" as the Euro version shares 60% of its parts with the Euro version. I don't think that's any more (and possibly it's less) than the Sierra XR4i/Merkur XR4Ti!

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

heymagic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> Better start restoring them back to stock...


Heh... one of my friends picked up a clean, stock XR4Ti and he doesn't want to modify it because it's too nice.

So he bought another one.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

john vanlandingham Wrote:
> Actually I don't have to "force" anybody---it's a
> common and long standing joke among all adult
> Xratty owners since it was obvious way back in
> 1985 that the car was born an orphan car and the
> dealers were puzzled what to do with them when
> their normal clients were driving gross pig
> Continental "Town Cars" the size of aircraft
> carriers.

Same thing happened 40 years ago with the Capri, get the division
thats smallest car was the 3400lb Cougar. Have them sell a 2100lb
sports coupe. That makes sense...

---

SteveL
This is the point in the killing spree when you really should turn the gun on yourself

SteveL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> john vanlandingham Wrote:
> > Actually I don't have to "force"
> anybody---it's a
> > common and long standing joke among all
> adult
> > Xratty owners since it was obvious way back
> in
> > 1985 that the car was born an orphan car and
> the
> > dealers were puzzled what to do with them
> when
> > their normal clients were driving gross pig
> > Continental "Town Cars" the size of aircraft
> > carriers.
>
> Same thing happened 40 years ago with the Capri,
> get the division
> thats smallest car was the 3400lb Cougar. Have
> them sell a 2100lb
> sports coupe. That makes sense...

Exactly.
Same with the really nice Opel Asconas and Mantas fobbed off on Buick...excellent cars sunk by internal politics.
>
>
>
> SteveL
> “This is the point in the killing spree when you
> really should turn the gun on yourself…”

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Exactly.
> Same with the really nice Opel Asconas and Mantas
> fobbed off on Buick...excellent cars sunk by
> internal politics.

I don't know if the big 3 fuck up european / japanese imports on purpose, by accident, or if there truly is no market.

I just know that they never take off.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish