A short-lived import brand of cars produced by Ford of Germany and sold at Lincoln dealers. The first model was the Merkur XR4Ti, a sporty hatchback with a turbochargedengine designed to compete with the BMW 3-Series. This was the more popular of the two models, being sold from 1985 to 1989. The other model was the Merkur Scorpio. Although prolific in Europe, there were only 22,000 imported to the USA. A five door hatchback luxury car, it was innovative for its time, featuring ABS, a rarity in 1988. In 1989, the brand was axed due to poor sales and passive restraint regulations which would have required retooling to add air bags.