The #FordCapri is rarely seen in the States now - so much so you’d never realize that almost half a million of them (yes, half a million) were sold in the U.S. between 1970 and 1978 (a trailing year in which leftover ‘77s were retitled and fire-saled). When it came to the U.S., of course, Ford’s European pony car was a small sporty coupe of an entirely different class of vehicle than the Mustang that had inspired it, and had more in common with the Fiat 124 Coupe and BMW 2002 than any U.S. #Fords. The blue oval wanted to avoid confusing buyers with the similarly-sized Pinto, so the Capri was sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers in the U.S. - the first “Mercury” Capri, although the #Mercury badges never actually appeared on the cars. In hindsight it’s hard to see how anybody could’ve confused cars as different as the Capri and the Pinto, but in the early days only the 1600 was offered in the Capri - which spoke “economy,” not speed, even it was labeled as “Mercury’s Sexy European.” This was followed by the 2-liter in 1971 and, in ’72, the 2.6 liter #CologneV6. The V6 actually made the car a fairly potent and responsive machine for the era. Sales trended steadily upward and the V6 really made the car quite desirable - sales peaked at 113,069 for 1973. This trend might have continued but for #Ford releasing the Pinto-based #MustangII for 1974. On paper the Mustang II looked just like the Capri (which it was imitating) but was vastly inferior in most respects. It was, however, very popular and appreciably cheaper than the Capri (the top-spec Mustang II Mach 1 cost less than the V6 Capri, and the Capri was hurt by exchange rates), whose sales it immediately began to cannibalize. For 1974, big bumpers arrived and in early ’75 all the Mk1 Capris were cleared out to make way for the MkII - which never quite recaptured the magic, especially after the Mustang II got a V8. But the Capri was still a better handling, higher quality car. With sales declining, importation ended a few months before the Mk3 #Capri debuted, and remaining stocks were sold until the introduction of the “Fox” Capri in 1978. #MercuryCapri #CapriV6 #FoMoCo #Coupe #CapriV6 #ig_autoshow #classicFord https://www.instagram.com/p/BnHGSFKnKiZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=rc7csyz24c7p
