Originally Posted by Mangudai954
Interesting.
edit: I just got done doing a little research on these and im impressived. Not sure how they would handle on a track but these would make for a hell of a sleeper car. Or even just a nice old school car. How much do these run usually?
The handling is perhaps one of the best attributes of these cars. Many Merkur owners I know (particularly owners of XRs) take them to the track.
The XR is quicker off the line than a Scorpio because it is lighter and the turbocharged 4-cylinder puts out more horses than the normally-aspirated V6in the Scorpio. The XR is a thoroughbred sports car without a doubt, while the Scorpio runs with the best of the sports sedans from its time.
As for price, they can be had pretty cheaply. You can get a top-notch Scorpio or XR for less than $4,000 (often a lot less). For a project car, $500-$1,500is a typical range. My car cost me $1,400 back in 1998. However, over the years, restoration and maintenance has cost me over $15k.
So to make a long story short, buying a Merkur usually doesn't cost a whole lot. Restoring them is not cheap though, and maintaining them can be a bit ofa pain and quite costly sometimes. Some parts are hard to come by and expensive, and if you're not mechanically-inclined, finding a shop that will work ona Merkur is very hard.
Just like any old car, Merkurs do have some notably vulnerabilities. Electronics, heads/head gaskets, and ******s can be problematic. But these problems canbe corrected with slight modification and using updated parts for replacement. The Merkur Club of America, MerkurSport, the International Merkur OwnersNetwork and the Merkur Desktop are all great sites to find out how to go about resolving old bugs.
When anyone tells me they want a Merkur, I tell them go for it because they're great cars. In fact, I'm picking up my second Scorpio next month. Justdo A LOT of research and be prepared to spend a good chunk of change to keep it in tip-top condition.
