(first posted 1/6/2017) The Versailles was a commercial and critical failure for Lincoln, a tarted-up Ford Granada with a laughably ambitious price. Wouldn’t it have been better if, like the 1973 Mark I concept, the Versailles had been a tarted-up Ford Granada. A European Granada, that is.
There’s not much information out there about this particular concept other than it was designed by Ghia and based on the European Granada. With that Mark-style grille and squared-off hood the front has a rather Mercedes air about it, while elsewhere the styling is crisp and suitably upscale.
Ghia’s styling tweaks appear to have been limited mostly to a new front fascia and a revised rear door design. Presaging Cadillac’s use of the Opel Omega for its Catera, a European Versailles would have been markedly different from the Mercury Monarch also sold through Lincoln-Mercury showrooms. Rather than a platform with its roots going back to the 1960 Falcon, a European Versailles would have used the Granada’s coil-sprung independent rear suspension and double wishbone front suspension. The Granada was 4 inches narrower and quite a bit shorter than the Versailles — by around 20 inches — although the Granada’s wheelbase was less than 3 inches shorter. The largest engine available in the Euro Granada was a 3.0 V6, however Ford’s South African operations showed the platform could be adapted for V8 power–there, they inserted the 302 cubic-inch V8.
The interior of the Granada was as inviting as that of the Versailles, although its design was arguably more stylish.
Here’s the Versailles’ interior for comparison, clearly showing its humble US Granada origins. It’s not as though the US Granada was a bad car and it certainly was handsome and ultimately successful, however it wasn’t really competitive at the Lincoln Versailles’ price point.
It’s tempting to wonder how the European Granada would have sold as a Lincoln Versailles, offering a credible competitor to Europe’s best and ushering in a new era for Ford’s luxury brand. But it’s also entirely possible it could have sunk like a rock, priced too high because of the exchange rate, if it was imported, or misunderstood by dealers used to selling Town Cars, like what happened to the Merkur brand. Conservative Lincoln buyers may also have been turned off by the lack of visual gingerbread or by the unfamiliar way in which it drove, much like what happened with the Cadillac Catera.
We shall never know how a European Granada-based Versailles would have sold but it would have been a much more compelling offering than the thinly disguised American Granada that Lincoln eventually sold.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1985-89 Merkur XR4Ti – Too Close To The Sun
Curbside Classic: 1988 Merkur Scorpio – Yes, I Finally Found One!
Automotive History: 1997-2001 Cadillac Catera – Caddy’s Dead Duck
OMG; the horror, the horror!
It looks like something I would have concocted for an April 1 post.
Seriously, as someone who liked the idea of Ford bringing over their best Euro cars like the Granada, if it had come like this, I wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole. Totally destroys the whole idea. And it’s so badly done; it looks like one of those RR-grille/hood kits for a VW Beetle.
The Granada’s body so doesn’t work with the formal, upright look. Actually, I wasn’t really all that big a fan of this generation Euro-Granada; the next one was a lot better.
You say they changed the back door. How?
I kind of like it. Although it would be much improved if the grille was a bit lower and curvier as Mercedes dd in the transition to the W123 and somehow able to retain more of the flow of the Granada.
Our last car in Germany was a Consul and I liked the shape a lot, the upscale Granada though was better, especially in wagon form, so solid and chunky looking. But I do agree that the next generation Granada was even better and wonder how that much more squared off shape would have fared as a Lincoln.
I admit the front has some appeal, if you like the fake RR/Mercedes look. But it just doesn’t work with the soft, rounded rest of the body, especially the rear of the roof/C pillar. It might have worked with more extensive body modifications.
But you still would have had the same fundamental issue: fake Mercedes/RR front ends were bound to turn off those looking for authentic Euro cars (like me) 🙂 But I don’t think I was the only one.
I don’t think Lincoln was looking to market to “authentic European car” buyers.
Cadillac sure was. The Seville was created specifically to compete against the Mercedes, which was eating its sales to more affluent, urban buyers. Lincoln should have been doing something about that too. The Versailles was an utter joke, in that regard.
It addressed “European car buyers” by packaging the same Caddy glitz in a smaller package and wasn’t just an obvious Nova with Cadillac wreaths stuck to it. You want to take the 1st Generation Seville down the Nurburgring? I doubt it.
It did answer a want for something more manageable and in line with newer trends. Lincoln was late in on the game with a second rate product in this case, unfortunately.
My thoughts exactly! This misses the point so badly. Truly cynical
The analogy to a Beetle with a J.C. Whitney Rolls front end was also my first reaction, especially after seeing the profile photo.
The Versailles was cynical, but the styling kind of works. The donor North American-market Grenada already had pretty baroque styling. Even if it’s not one’s cup of tea, the Versailles doesn’t look like a mishmash, and the longer hood arguably improves the styling compared to the Ford version.
Honestly, Paul, I actually DID a think this was a rerun of one of your April Fools Day or Alter-History posts, much like the excellent one you did on the ’65 Cadillac Seville!
Reminds me of the ’76 Aussie Ford LTD, which suffered from the same mismatch.
Kind of a 4 dr sdn, version of a first gen “Monte Carlo”.
I thought it was a Photoshop job… Perhaps the concept influenced the Granada Ghia a year later. Road &Track ran a feature about the Mk2 Granada being sold in the USA again with the 302 V8 replacing the Euro engines in 1977.. Not to be.. Properly due to the Dollar/ D mark exchange rate to killed of imports of the Capri.
From what I have read, the Lincoln Versailles was profitable for Ford.
It didn’t come close to meeting sales projections, but Ford did not lose their shirt over the effort.
The rear bumper is different, so perhaps that was meant to be rear end or rear panel. I agree the rear door looks no different.
Will, very interesting post! I have not seen this concept before, and had never thought of the European Ford Consul/Granada as a Lincoln. Baby Lincoln or not, I always thought this “right size” European platform would have made an amazing small Mercury, and I always wondered how things could have gone for FoMoCo if they had imported the Consul as a premium Mercury compact, in the vein of the very successful Capri.
Here are some scans of a June 1972 Road Test Magazine article I was going to write-up as a missed opportunity for a baby Euro Mercury, but I think they go nicely with this post on a never-produced baby Euro Lincoln.
Road Test Consul/Granada Page 2
Road Test Consul/Granada Page 3
Get your trousers on, yer nicked!
The 1966 Mk.IV Ford Zephyr and Zodiac has IRS too, but not at all well sorted.
The Granada Estates/Wagons were longer with load length and width to rival the Volvo 140/240 series.
It certainly would be more plausible as a Mercury than a Lincoln. A car 4″ narrower than a U.S. Grenada would have been too cramped inside for Lincoln buyers.
But it’s just about the right size to be a successor to the Maverick-based Comet. It probably would have been way too expensive to sell as a Comet, though.
http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/car_info_ford_granada_us.php
This article states Ford looked at the Euro Granada as a Maverick replacement
That article does have some errors in it. The 200 was the base engine until 77. The early anti-lock was not offered either. Only the 4 wheel disc brakes.
http://www.lincolnversailles.com/granada/MT0775_01.htm
At least one was built. MT tested this in ’75, then at some point the option was cancelled before production.
It’s a shame that the Lincoln Versailles was the failure it was. I believe that it offered something for those who like Lincoln cars, but in a smaller package for those who either don’t want, or don’t need a big heavy car.
Had it come true and sold well, by the late eighties it would be totally unnecessary to create the Merkur* brand (“-What the heck is a Scorpion Mercury?” “-It’s Maer-koor for Pete’s sake!!”), as they would bring over the Scorpio as a third gen.
But it would only be successful if the experiment was done on the second gen a couple years later. Now that is the Euro Granada (that’s not only a city’s name but also Portuguese for “Grenade”) with elegant styling
*(My phone actually tried to autocorrect to Mercury)
Anyone else getting Vanden Plas Allegro vibes?
Yes, yes – *this*! I had to scroll through to make sure no one else had said it. Vanden Plas Granada.
Wow that car looks like a pig!
Shame you couldn’t get the VdP interior with the standard front end. The shape of the front edge of the bonnet (sidelight-headlight-up again for the wide grille-headlight-sidelight) looks more twenties-architectural than automotive.
Ummmm, no. I much prefer the Granada-based Versailles.
What Versailles needed from the start was the more upright formal roofline it got in ’79 and a lower price. Trying to match the Seville’s lofty price for this car was Ford’s ultimate mistake I believe – Versailles should have been pitched as an entry-level Lincoln with all the dealer perks that go with Lincoln ownership, but a price that more realistically reflected it’s humble origins. The more formal roof went a long way towards differentiating it from the Granada/Monarch.
I think the Euro Granada adapted to a Lincoln would have been an even bigger failure.
+10
I don’t know how Cadillac charged as much as it did for a Seville.
There was an alternate grille for the Mark I that was even more Lincoln-like.
That’s absolutely terrible! Too many shapes fighting each other, not enough playing nice together.
There is something about that front end shot, familiar yet wrong. A perfect Twilight Zone car for certain sensibilities. Imagine the face of the driver when they suddenly turn toward the camera.
I’d have guessed that this was an Australian production model – the Falcon 500 Fairlane LTD Town Car Ghia Didgeridoo XA.
Could this have been more for England or Australia? The way Humber used the Imperial badge.
Ford Australia killed of the British Ford range with the MK3 Zephyr it was such a better car than the Falcon that they feared the competition the next Zephyr the MK4 had too many faults designed in to be competition for the Falcon, NZ got both big Fords and only the Falcon survived in the market place, where it matters so subsequent models were not imported except privately. Imperial was a level of Humber luxury not a market specific badge.
Australian aesthetics were more in tune with Europe and Japan. We would have seen that square front end as an odd American affectation, an attempt at a Mercedes look on a mundane car. The whole brougham/formal grille thing never really played down under, and the ’76 LTD shown above was rather controversial at first. Holden’s Statesman (below) had a wider interpretation of the formal grille thing, which scarcely looked formal at all in comparison.
As Bryce says, we never got the Granada here in any form – but it would’ve been nice.
That’s almost the front end of a ’71 Chevy Impala/Caprice.
The coke bottle profile of the European Granada says early 1970s. And is too reminiscent of the just discontinued Maverick/Comet (1977). More formal styling was ‘in’ by this time.
Why choose the European Granada, when the Fox body was almost ready? If Ford could have delayed the launch some, I think a heavily polished, premium luxury Fairmont/Zephyr-based version would have been better received than the North American Granada clone they released. Or the dated design of the European Granada. Especially given it was a new model. Upon introduction, something closer to the design/content of the 1983 Fairmont-based LTD/Marquis.
It also would have been more competitive with Mercedes and BMW designs than the Seville.
I’m basing this view on the introduction date being 1977/1978.
Reviews at the time, said the Fairmont platform was one of the most ‘European-like’ Detroit designs ever.
I remember this Ghia concept appearing in late 1972, years before the Fox.
Thanks, I know. As I suggested, I was basing this upon the actual launch date of the Versailles. Which was already very late (1977).
Agreed. That profile picture of the Mark I said “Maverick” to me the moment I saw it.
The taillight “blackout” pieces to mask the Fairmont origins always looked cheesy to me….but overall a great idea…
First thought that this is a “photoshop” joke. I would have thought that it would have cost to much to federalise for the US market plus the American idea of a luxury car was miles away from a European one of the time. I drove one of the last Granada Ghia 3.0 sedans 30 years ago and it was toast for a mere 10 year old car and no better built than a Cortina!.
By 77 the poor US dollar to German mark rate would have made it to expensive to import ala Capri 2.
We tend to view these things from the perspective of ones who care about cars. Those who are the vast car buying public are, oddly enough, people who really DON’T care about the cars themselves. They buy based on whether the car looks good, drives okay, and if they can afford it. They buy based on brand perception, whether it is deserved or not. If you view the exercise at hand by those parameters, the Granada/Monarch based version wins hands down. It looked like what a Lincoln buyer would want. History shows that, at least in the USA, people do not like anything too different from a manufacturer. The Catera, while not horrible, was not like any other Cadillac product. Result? Dismal sales. The Merkur? Not a Mercury. Result? Total flop. If someone wanted a European car, then they would buy a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi,or something actually from Europe. The Cimmaron (a crapbox tarted up Cadaver -whoops, Cavalier), oddly enough, looked enough like a Cadillac to get people to buy one. The quality versus the price kept people from ever buying another one, but it was not too different from the other models to turn off the buying public. Give a car guy a Catera or a Merkur, and they love them, for the most part. The euro based model would have hit with a thud.
By all accounts, the Catera WAS horrible, riddled with electrical issues and a self-destructing engine, courtesy of a $10 dollar timing chain tensioner.
This is what gives auto executives ulcers. They can play it safe with nice, traditional styling, but they take a big chance that no one will buy it because it’s the same old, boring stuff. Conversely, if they roll the dice and go with something radically different, they take a chance no one will buy it for exactly JFrank’s reasons above.
But when they do get lucky and hit the sweet spot with something different, the resulting success can be enormous and game-changing, with a couple of the best examples being directly attributable to Iacocca (Mustang, Chrysler minivan). Then there’s the unlucky examples of the Edsel and Aztek.
I have no idea how the Ford ‘Baby-Rolls’ Granada might have done in the US, but I suspect it would have been either a huge success or failure, without much middle ground. That’s why Ford played it safe with the Versailles. No, it wasn’t out of the ballpark, but they didn’t lose their shirt on it, either.
Yes, it is great when a major player tries something “out of the box” and has a hit, like the minivan or the Mustang. However, the US majors have never understood the philosophy understood by the Europeans – namely, you can take a luxury platform and dress it down to become a mass market, cheaper version, but you cannot take a mass market car and tart it up to become a luxury car. The “chevification” of Cadillac was it’s downfall. When you could buy a similarly equipped Chevy with the same body shell, drivetrain, and accoutrements for less than a similar Cadillac, why would one choose the Caddy? Ford did the same to Lincoln, albeit sacrificing Mercury first, by rebadging Fords and selling them on for more. In this case, the european Granada was not luxurious enough to become a Lincoln, which indicates to me it would have been a dismal failure.
Yeah, even though the first generation Seville indicated there ‘was’ something of a market for Euro-style American cars in the mid-seventies, the timing of the Ghia Granada was earlier during the peak of the brougham era. The domestic Granada/Monarch/Versailles were much more with automotive tastes of the times. Then there’s how far away from the original Seville the follow-up generations went.
Further, looking forward to the failure of the Merkur brand (as well as the craptacular Catera) during a later time which was much more favorable to Euro luxury cars in the US, well, it’s just a foregone conclusion that the Ghia Granada would have failed spectacularly. It just didn’t have the caché of the traditional Euro brands to justify what would have surely been a similar, lofty price tag.
Ultimately, I’m tempted to conclude that the American Granada, et al, was not really a reflection of the market for “Euro-style” American cars (Ford advertising to that effect notwithstanding), but more a return to the idea of plusher, more luxurious domestic compacts like the early Comet and Falcon Futura. It was the same kind of progression, since cars like the Maverick had returned to the “just the basics” formula in an effort to keep the price down.
Viewed that way, the U.S. Granada/Monarch, Nova Concours, and so on are, IMO, a little easier to take — as modernized Falcon Futuras, they were competent enough without making silly comparisons to European luxury cars that cost vastly more money.
Although Ford wisely chose not to import the Euro Granada, replacing the downmarket Maverick with the upmarket US Granada/Monarch was an astute move and they surely made a lot more money with that plan than GM did with the Nova Concours (which was still just a loaded Nova). Likewise, the cheaper plan of superficiously tarting-up a Granada to come up with the Versailles probably paid off better than the much pricier, total revamp of the Nova to make the Cadillac Seville.
All this upgrading of the compacts in the mid-seventies during the brougham epoch seems like sort of a validation of George Romney’s vision for Rambler. Of course, if Romney had stayed with Rambler and his plan of staying exclusively in the small car market had proven to be the right one, the end result would have been that the Big 3 simply got into the upmarket compact game a lot sooner, no different than how Studebaker’s successful foray into the compact market with the Lark was short-lived and quickly crushed by Detroit’s compacts.
The Lincoln Versailles was cheap to design and cheap to build, and brought with it the very high markup over build cost typical of US luxury cars of the time (this was Cadillac’s “Big Chevy” era).
The front end of the Euro-Granada concept does look too much like a caricature of Mercedes. It’s always dangerous to make a slavish copy. A more Lincolnish grill and polycarbonate headlights (though they were not yet legal in the USA) or rectangular ones could have made a far better impression. It could have presaged the Panther Town Car.
Such restyling could have been easy. But the low cost/high profit margin of the Falcon/Granada derivative probably drove the decision.
The profitable price point would have been high enough without the added requirements of the US market. This generation of Consul/Granada never had things like power windows, locks, seats, AC, tilt-wheel, cruise ,etc. That would have meant huge engineering bills to incorporate these into the platform. Far from a parts-bin job. A non-starter.
It would have flown like a lead Zeppelin. It’s just wrong on almost every level.
To me the biggest mistake Ford/Lincoln made with the Versailles was not changing the Granada/Monarch dashboard. If one sat in a Seville in the Caddy showroom, the dash looked just like a mini version of the Sedan deVille parked right next to it, right down to the same chrome air vents, switches and controls. Imagine if GM had only taken the Nova dashboard and added some woodgrain to it – YIKES! We know what happened with the Cimarron/Cavalier debacle…..
Now, I enter a Lincoln-Mercury showroom. Parked right next to the beautiful Versailles is a Monarch – wait – that dashboard looks exactly the same! What? I’m outta here!!
The refresh for ’79 for the Versailles would have worked if it was two years earlier and the dash had a Lincoln Town Car look to it. Major faux pas if you ask me!
The 1976-77 Chevy Nova Concours did have a woodgrain dashboard along with the steering wheel.
I’m surprised to see Paul’s surprise at this idea; this more or less amounted to his idea of what an Opel K-A-D turned into a Cadillac Seville in 1965 might have been, especially with a 302 between the fenders. Even the stylistic incoherence between the formal nose and the coke-bottle C-pillar and quarters could have been fixed by touching up those areas, just as Paul suggested doing with the Opel. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/alternate-history/automotive-alter-history-1965-cadillac-seville-the-car-that-beat-back-mercedes-and-became-a-global-best-seller/
I certainly thought the car’s nose looked like a FoMoCo product. The headlight modules somewhat resemble a 1972 Thunderbird’s (although they more closely resemble a 1974 Chrysler Newport’s) and the grille just puts a 1969 Continental eggcrate pattern into a Mark III radiator shell.
I believe GM did consider (in the 70’s, not the 60’s as in Paul’s other piece) turning the K-A-D Opel into a Seville. The problem was, it was too costly to import them from Germany and they couldn’t build them to German specs in US factories. The K-A-D was at least closer in dimensions to the first-gen Seville. The Euro-Granada was just too small. It would have been dwarfed by the Monarch in every L-M showroom. In a sense, the Merkur Scorpio, had it been badged a Lincoln, would have been the same basic idea. While the Scorpio would have benefited greatly from having just about any name other than “Merkur”, it still most likely would have flopped as a Lincoln.
Hmmm…I might see how my Lincoln Grill looks on one of my Mavericks…couldn’t be any worse …could it?
I don’t think it would have done well. Cadillac was aiming for Mercedes with the Seville, but Lincoln was always waaaay behind Cadillac, and I don’t think it had its sights set on anyone overseas. Lincoln was selling a lot of cars with “conservative luxury” and was gaining on Cadillac. A euro design was not where they were likely to have gone then.
Not that the actual Versailles was executed that well. It seems that Ford spent almost no money on development after about 1972 or 73, because after 1974 or 75 models came out, they coasted through the rest of the decade.
I agree with those above who say that for some additional investment, the right play would have been to put some new sheetmetal and a new dash into the Granada. A really nice interior, more sound deadening and a standard 351 would have made for a nice small Lincoln, if it had looked like one.
Ford was spending money to develop the Fox and Panther platforms, as well as the first front-wheel-drive Escort.
The Versailles came across as a half-hearted effort that was only developed because Cadillac had rushed out the Seville, and some Lincoln dealers undoubtedly kept asking whether Lincoln would have a response.
In one of it its annual “King of the Hill” face-offs between the Cadillac Eldorado and Lincoln Continental Mark III/IV, Motor Trend asked the heads of Lincoln-Mercury and Cadillac about future plans, including any efforts to address the rise of Mercedes-Benz. This was in 1973, if I recall correctly, or before the first fuel crunch.
Cadillac’s manager said that he took the threat seriously, and that any time a luxury import was sold, it was a threat to Cadillac. The Lincoln-Mercury manager said that people who bought imported luxury cars had no interest in domestic luxury cars, and vice versa, so Lincoln trying to appeal to Mercedes buyers was ultimately a waste of time.
The execution of the Versailles reflects that attitude. The car makes it obvious that Ford Motor Company management had no deep interest in addressing that market segment in the 1970s.
Yeah. This was the peak of the Bordinat Baroque era, the era of the Elite, the Mark IV, and so on.
I like the idea, but the blunt upright grille just doesn’t work with the curves of the rest of the body. And, perhaps a bigger problem, something 4″ narrower than the US Granada just wouldn’t have sold. But if you gave this car the same treatment as Mitsubishi Australia did for their Magna–i.e. cut it down the middle and add some width back in–it could help. If that could be done without sacrificing the Euro virtues of the platform, now you’re talking.
Then simply make the styling right for a Lincoln. Square up the front fenders a bit more to match the grille treatment, hidden lamps instead of those quad rounds (and their slightly odd bezels), square up the rear roofline, and if it’s going to be part of the Mark series it needs a “hump” in the decklid. What you would end up with would, hopefully, feel far more premium than did the production Versailles, and would beat it to market by a couple years also.
Given the North American market really began to embrace brougham luxury and faux Mercedes styling around 1973, the 1977 Versailles transposed back in time, would have likely been quite popular largely given it’s smaller scale compared to other luxury cars on the market. Its improved maneuverability and handling over the current luxury barges would have been a major selling point. While retaining all the features American buyers have come to expect from luxury cars.
If the Versailles arrived in 1973 before the Falcon-based Granada and Seville, with it’s own unique styling, it likely would have been more popular than it was in 1977. The major drawbacks to sales being price and poor mileage.
IMO, in the context of 1973, the European Granada (with a Lincoln grill added) has too many styling cues associating it to other downmarket English cars. Like the Plymouth Cricket (Hillman Avenger), already available in North America.
This’ll do nicely.
I was going to say doctoring up the Capri II instrument panel was a nice touch….and then I see that’s the actual Euro Granada dash you used.
Would it have worked as an entry-level Lincoln with tidied up styling below the Lincoln Versailles reviving the Premiere or Cosmopolitan names?
I just want to go on record saying I love the Versailles interior. (a very similar interior was available on the (U.S.) Granada Ghia if you ordered the Luxury Decor Option, which appears to be very rare.)
And yeah, the Mark grille on the Euro Granada looks ridiculous. I wonder though how good the Mercedes or Rolls grilles of the era would look to us now if those manufacturers used plainer grilles on their 1970s cars and the only real Benz or RR grilles we ever saw were tacked onto 2% of the cars as aftermarket items.
Wow! Corker find William. I looooooooove those Granadas, but this…
The Versailles failed because Lido was looking for a cheap hail Mary like he did with the ’69 Mark III which was a tarted up Thunderbird to compete with the Eldorado. America was near its all time high in ’69 and people were aspiring for something near the top and the Mk III filled the bill.
As for the Versailles, it looked too much like a MGMG (Mercury Grand Monarch Ghia). No fuel injection like the Seville or full instrumentation like an European car. Nothing special but a puffed up vinyl roof and a Continental hump. Sorry, no one would drink the Cool-Aid this time around.
I like the Versailles look once the roof was fixed in 79. These cars should have had the good roof from the start. The other short coming was the cheap dash. They should have copied buicks big car dash after 77. And the price was ridiculous. Who would pay more for a Versailles than a continental. Its no way near as awful as any post Mark viii non town car Lincoln. Lincoln is the new Oldsmobile. Ugly little compact cars, ugly Oldsmobile like grill and styled like cheap Korean cars.
Definitely a polarizing car, but I like it. However, I generally enjoy old Lincolns.
I rode in a Versailles once. Its ride was so soft and floppy I nearly became sea-sick. But boy was it plush. A fine place to toss your cookies if a winding road got to ya.
“however Ford’s South African operations showed the platform could be adapted for V8 power–there, they inserted the 302 cubic-inch V8.”
Ford South Africa had a thing for dropping the 302ci V8 into their cars – the Granada, Capri Perana and the XR8 Sierra all shared the engine.
Difficult to think of anything positive to say about this misguided effort, equal to the Versailles in most every way. The gas crisis hadn’t taken hold with the typical Cadillac/Lincoln/Imperial buyer in 1973 to the point they would have given up their preferred behemoths for this silly car.
…a tarted-up Ford Granada with a laughably ambitious price
Frankly, you can say the same about the entire Lincoln line today, and it seems to be working for them as sales are up 10% y/y. Here in the great SUV epoch, a bottom trim MK-C or MK-X cost $3-$5K more than their Ford siblings in top Titanium trim, yet the Lincolns have vinyl upholstery vs the Ford Titamium trims offering leather. Not only do you pay a higher price for a Lincoln with the upholstery downgrade, the Lincolns are hit harder by depreciation.
As for the styling of the concept, I don’t have any problem with it. Looks rather like an 80s Roller. A more upright backlight might be more fitting, but iirc, Chrysler did that to the K-car by sticking a fiberglass filler on the back of the roof.
It looks a 70s japanese car!
Aside from the ugly factor, there were currency valuation issues from the mid-70s to the early 80s. The Capri II (Imported for Mercury!) got killed for the US, as did the importation of German Opels. With the possible exception of VW, other European marques were forced upmarket. VW just built a plant in the states to get around currency issues.
I think it was Paul who wrote a piece about using some upscale Opel as the basis for the Cadillac Seville, but that also would have been costly. 1975-1982 (or thereabouts) were difficult years for European manufacturers who were accustomed to making a large quantity of sales to US buyers.
“Upscale Opel as the basis for the Cadillac Seville”
Would have been like Catera, bugs, recalls, etc. “Quality Nightmares”.
GM selling off Opel to PSA was one of best decisions.
Wow that’s interesting, never seen that one before.
I got a Catera as a loaner while my STS was in for some warranty work. I had initially thought that the Catera was a good idea but after driving one for a couple of days, I was not impressed. I thought my ’94 Seville was the proper evolution of the American luxury car. not a Euro hybrid.
Looking at the facelifted Versailles I kind of liked it. It kind of reminds me of a straw boaters hat.
“…a tarted-up Ford Granada with a laughably ambitious price.”
Worked for the original Seville. A (dramatically) tarted-up Nova with the highest Cadillac price tag aside from the limo/commercial chassis.
One difference is the Granada/Falcon underpinnings were a disaster compared to the relatively well-sorted Nova chassis/body. A Nova, or it’s clones, or the K-body Seville, have approximately the same potential as a Camaro Z-28 or Firebird Trans-Am. Or, going the other way, a basically-good chassis can be made as compliant and as soft as a bad chassis, without incurring many of the “bad chassis” penalties. The Falcon was a cut-price, poorly-engineered piece of crap from the beginning to the end. Everything built off that platform–however it was stretched, widened, tortured–still had it’s bottom-feeder Falcon roots, calling it “mediocre” would be an (undeserved) compliment.
A “good” compact car can be made better with the application of intelligence and increased budget. A “crap” compact car can look “more expensive” with an increased budget, but will always be compromised by it’s “crap” origins.
NO!
You must commit to brougham. Remember the super-sad brougham versions of the Satellite, Matador and Coronet? Brougham was more than extra vinyl a hood cornament or shag carpeting. I believe this looks like a larger version of the Maverick LDO.
The formal shape doesn’t permit external lines like these.
“By all accounts, the Catera WAS horrible, riddled with electrical issues and a self-destructing engine, courtesy of a $10 dollar timing chain tensioner.”
The wishful dream that “bringing over Opels would have saved GM” in actuality would’ve been quality nightmares. Imagine fleet of cars with Catera’s issues.
Now, Opels are badge engineered PSA products, who cares anymore?