Ford relentlessly compared its Granada to Mercedes, such as this utterly silly test to prove that it rode as quietly as a Mercedes 450 SE. How about performance, handling, braking, etc.? Never mind…. Anyway, I’ve been contacted by a writer doing research for an upcoming article of a related (current) matter. She heard about a comparison test that Ford set up for airplane pilots to drive both the Granada and a Mercedes at a racetrack in the Denver area, but one of the pilots lost control of the Mercedes. The ad did run (without the crash, presumably), but the writer can’t find it anywhere. Does anyone remember it?
Right….they probably had too much of this.
No – but I do remember this commercial on the Royal Deluxe II
http://autos.yahoo.com/video/royal-deluxe-ii-000000400.html
Something vaguely rang a bell about this. I could not find a commercial, but there was a 73 Mercury Marquis print ad that had a bunch of airline pilots comparing a Marquis to a Rolls Royce. Could this be what she was looking for?
I would be surprised if Ford really let a bunch of pilots loose on a racetrack with a Granada and a Mercedes. Ford was pretty astute about what the car could do, and was never afraid to set up tests to showcase how quiet and smooth its cars were. But they also knew what a Granada handled like, and I can never remember any kind of independent track test with a Granada.
Others here have more in-depth Ford knowledge, so maybe they remember something that I don’t.
There was also no shortage of print ads that made Mercedes comparisons, but usually it was comparisons of size (very close) and price (not close at all). I am going out on a limb here and saying that the NYT reporter is remembering it wrong (as we are all inclined to do as we get older 🙂 )
She heard it about it “through some pilots who have heard the story”. But that’s no proof, given that some pilots have landed at the wrong airport or just forgot to land at all.
Maybe they wrecked a Rolls instead while comparing it to a 73 Marquis?
The writer thinks you nailed it with this ad. She’s getting back in touch with the pilot, who’s now 80, to confirm it. And she’s blown away by how quickly someone here helped pin down what it really was.
Am I surprised?
And yes, with that $31k price tag, it had to be a Rolls or Bentley.
Bingo. She talked to the pilot, and yes, it was a Rolls. One of the pilots rear-ended the lead car. She will update us on her article she’s writing.
I don’t recall that but I do recall the SNL “commercial” featuring a ride so smooth a rabbi could perform a bris while riding in the back seat.
I believe that was a parody of another Ford commercial featuring a jeweler cutting a diamond while in motion.
Link to commercial posted above ^^
I remember Ford’s entire ad campaign comparing the Granada to a Mercedes. I also don’t remember anyone who actually thought a Granada was comparable to a Merc on any other level other then price, size and db levels. A common ad strategy to compare your car to others emphasizing it’s strengths no matter how ridiculous the comparison may be otherwise.
I recently bought a new car that was a whole lot less then a Bentley and gets way better mileage
Here’s another Granada ad that was hard to believe…
They compared the looks according to that ad the Ford looks homely the Benz looks purposefull maybe they shoulda compared it to something similar rather than something it doesnt resemble at all.
Oh, the brazen Granada ads didn’t stop there…
Nope but I can believe that the Granada and Monarch were more quiet riding then the Mercedes because the Granada would be always in the shop not moving so of course it would be more quiet!!! Or at least the Monarch we had always was(I caught my father waxing nostalgically about that POS the other day)
But since this be a Granada/Monarch/Versailles type post, I can show you what I found in a 1979 Versailles in the local junk yard last Sat.
It is factory Ford digital(or as they once were called ETR) radio with an 8 Track player called a Ford Quadrasonic radio. I had seen these in analog guise but never a digital one. It has what looks like 5 preset buttons. Could this be the first Ford digital radio deck?
I have more pics of the car and of a Subaru Legacy that is RHD and used for mail service and a Nissan Stanza minivan(it looks like a tall wagon like Honda had for its Civic and Toyota offered in 4WD Corolla guise but it has two side doors that open like a van’s) so stay tuned for a posting about it all
I have that head unit in my 79 Continental Town Car. I believe that was the upgrade from the basic unit with knobs.
The red LED display shows what station you’re on, but goes blank when you have an 8-track in.
I hope you grabbed the Quadrasonic! I nab every one I find at the scrapyard and I think I’m up to maybe one or two now, LOL. I’d love to hear one in action but that means coming up with a Quadrasonic 8-track — how many of THOSE did they make?
I think it would take someone with the audacity of Lido Iacocca, to market the Granada, comparing it to a Mercedes. He really did save Chrysler with this approach.
Oh, +1 on that. Ford advertising in the 1970’s really pushed the envelope of credibility. The Granada could leap over tall buildings in a single bound, run faster than a locomotive and fly through the sky. And it was quieter than a dead churchmouse. All of this was somehow due to the magic of Road Hugging Weight. It seems a bit counter-intuitive, I’ll admit. I even remember an ad in which Hugh Downs extolled the virtues of the Pinto’s Road Hugging Weight. Even their smallest car was known for its Road Hugging Weight? Did Ford ever get sued for the deep ruts that all that Road Hugging Weight left on our nation’s highways and byways?
Haha, I remember well the, “road hugging weight’ angle they promoted… you are fully correct. Here in the rust belt of Canada, FORD in the 70s was synonymous with another four letter word… RUST. They were perhaps the worst of the big three for premature rust. They were eaten alive by road salt. I remember by the time the ’77 Thunderbird came out, they were heavily marketing via commercials… better warranties and improved corrosion protection. Because they had earned such a reputation for severe premature rust.
Reminds me of an ad for the Hyundai Excel that claimed the Excel had everything a contemporary 3-Series had, the only difference being the BMW owner is still paying for his car.
I remember seeing a UK-market comparing a Citroen 2CV against a Rolls Royce and Ferrari among others. “As many doors as a Rolls Royce” or something like that!
…and “Faster than a Ferrari
Travelling flat out at 71.5mph, the Citroen 2CV will easily overtake the Ferrari Mondiale travelling at 65mph”
Really great ! Nothing beats self-mockery.
I have several of those old 2CV ads somewhere – I used them for a school project in my Form 3 French class. There were some brilliant lines in them – “A wheel at each corner, round, for perfect mobility”, “Central locking – you can reach all the doors from the driver’s seat” etc etc
Hey, if you can find the time, please dig them out and post some scans to the cohort.
No but I remember a parody where a Mohel performed a Bris in the back seat of one while it was driving over bumpy roads…the Royal Deluxe II