Is it just me, or is there something a bit odd about the clothing of these folks out on the Serengeti, or wherever they’re supposed to be? Yes, Banana Republic was still fairly new and the safari look was what they specialized in back then, but did folks really dress like this? The mom and kid seem to have matching uniforms on.
Never mind…The Lynx is where our attention should drawn. Maybe that’s why I looked at the models and not at the car, as I’m not exactly drawn to these.
Is that a Bobcat his eyes are fixated on?
Somewhat surprisingly (or not) we’ve never had a CC or even an Outtake on a Lynx, although we did have a Cohort Outtake on the extremely rare diesel version. So that’s the only place I can send you, other than my take down of the 1981 Escort.
Wait till an angry elephant sees them! Or a tiger, or a lion, or a hippopotamus! Perfect car for a safari.
I wonder how often a car hits the eponymous animal. It probably happened a few times with Cougars and cougars, Pintos and pintos, Falcons and falcons, Eagles and eagles. The police report would be interesting. (Hornets and hornets wouldn’t even be noticed.)
My folks bought a new ’80 Rabbit. A week or two after buying it, I hit a rabbit. I figured that’s what cursed the thing, as it was a lemon.
My wife always reckons a new car isn’t “christened” until it hits its first rabbit. 🙂
But we’ve never owned an animal-named car. Closest would be hitting a beer bottle with a Corona.
I currently drive a Mk5 Rabbit, but I’ve never hit a rabbit with it. But the Rabbit is better known as the Golf, and I did once get hit by an errant golf ball while driving alongside the golf course at the Naval Ordnance Lab in Maryland, where I occasionally played thanks to my uncle who worked there. The NOL, later renamed Naval Surface Warfare Center, was a WWII-era facility that tested new explosives, built in what was then deserted farmland but by the 1970s had become a major suburb with high-rise apartments, a shopping center, and many detached houses surrounding it. Many locals were unaware of the complex’s purpose until an accidental massive detonation of 5,000lb of stored explosives shattered windows throughout the neighborhood in 1992, leading to the facility closing a couple of years later. The Food and Drug Administration now resides there, but the golf course was closed in 2006.
I drive a 4th generation Golf; somehow avoided buying a Rabbit (when I bought my first VW 41 years ago, I looked at a Rabbit but ended up with a Mk1 Scirocco). Had a Mk2 Golf GTi, skipped gen 3 (to my regret, think it was the last gen before the “sell out” gen 4 I bought 21 years ago).
As far as Mercury, this was a few years before my Dad bought his 3 Mercury Sables in a row; though I had a friend that bought a new Escort wagon when they came out in 1981 (after I bought the Scirocco) and helped my sister pick out an ’86 Escort which was a pretty good for her except for fuel pump (she had an auxiliary one added) and ignition module. She used it in a carpool to her job outside the city back in the day (35 years ago).
My Dad was the chemist in the family; he was in the Army and went to school on the GI bill and right out of college started working on semiconductors (1956)..worked for several companies but really worked in the same field his whole career (retired in 1990). He was a process person, back then had to adapt/cobble things together as things were new and there weren’t yet support companies that specialized in the bits and pieces needed. He blew his share of things up.
I’m a retired engineer myself though I only worked directly on semiconductors on my first job, unlike my Dad. What the word “lynx” means to me is shaped by experience of course; sometimes use a text browser (there is such a thing…not everything is images if you read). In college I took an assembly language course where we used a “linker/loader” called lynx. The name undoubtedly comes from the animal kingdom (guess it is a cat…Mercury seemed to like names associated with “cougar” like lynx).
Would have liked to buy a Focus, but they stopped making them…maybe I’ll get a used one…hatchback as always for me…they’re pretty scarce now, but in the mid 80’s seemed like they were common, but hardly any left…they’re trying to get us to buy crossovers/SUV which I don’t really need nor care for except for higher seating height, which the earlier Rabbit/Golf used to have (before 4th generation)
Interesting… I just though of something. IIRC, Mercury dealers were referred to as “The Sign of the Cat”, presumably due to their mascot (and car) the Cougar.
In the animal kingdom, a Bobcat and a Lynx are the same thing.
In the car world, this is not true. One’s a Pinto, and the other an Escort.
I can’t believe after all these years, I did not notice this until now.
Nope: https://www.hunter-ed.com/colorado/studyGuide/Furbearers-Lynx-vs.-Bobcat/20300602_177942/
AEC Matador and a Matador, or even a Mammoth Major……
I would hope no Sting Rays, Barracudas or Marlins were hit by their namesakes. Colts, Mustangs, Stags, Rams and Impalas I’m sure were. Jaguars, Gazellas and Pumas more than likely, Beetles probably by the millions, along with Honey Bees and Hornets.
Sorry, that’s the best I can do.
>>Sorry, that’s the best I can do.<<
You brought to mind a bit from Bob Hope's monologue in a Thanksgiving TV special in the late 60s: Hope's specials at that time were sponsored by Chrysler, He quipped "brought to you by Chrysler, a company so far ahead of ti's time it's even hree days early with the turkey"
He continued: "The Pilgrims fled Imperial England to land at Plymouth rock. They were Valiant. They had to Dodge the Fury of the Indians."
“Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” said Mrs. Mitty. “What are you driving so fast for?”
“Hmm?” said Walter Mitty. He looked at his wife, in the seat beside him, with shocked astonishment. She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him while on safari. “You were up to fifty-five,” she said. “You know I don’t like to go more than forty.” Walter Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence, the roaring of the hard-worn Land Rover through the Serengeti fading in the remote, intimate airways of his mind. “You’re tensed up again,” said Mrs. Mitty. “It’s one of your days. I wish you’d let Dr. Renshaw look you over.”
Walter adjusted his khaki pith helmet, as he drove the Mercury Lynx toward his next big game kill.
That was a quick pivot from Mercury’s Jungle Lynx ad from a few years earlier. Maybe someone told the Mercury folks that lynxes don’t live in jungles.
Unmemorable car, but Lynx is a good model name.
Nice Mazda 323 sorry Lynx looks kinda lost out there in a paddock.
This generation of Escort/Lynx is unrelated to the Mazda 323
This one looks attractive in profile, with its glossy, dark grey paint. Not a bad looking car, aesthetically. The mini-bustle in the back looked ultra-modern to me when these (and Escorts) were new here in the U.S.
Maybe, but IMHO the 1980 European Ford Escort was visually a way better interpretation of the same idea
The US Escort/Lynx of 1981 was one of Ford’s deadly sins. US and European divisions were running separate programs for the same-size car with the same name for some corporate turf-war BS reason, meanwhile partner Mazda was running their own separate development for the 323; they shared almost nothing in common.
The US Escort ended up by far the worst vehicle of the three, an overweight chrome-trim mini-Granada to appeal to the tastes of Midwesterners who wouldn’t buy imports for nationalistic reasons, with hideous interiors, sluggish motors, mushy handling and dismal reliability and quality.
One of many false-starts where Detroit swore they were going to meet and beat the import challenge only to fail with a half-baked mediocre product.
No it wasn’t.
It, along with the Fox body, saved Ford when it fell into 4th place in sales and facing bankruptcy. The first generation kept improving for the next several years. It sold millions and the name was kept for three generations. I had one given to me for work and it exceeded my every expectation. It was the first Ford with FWD, a modern interior, four door accessibility and better built than cars I had been driving – (GM X and J-cars). Deadly sins harm sales, these grew sales.
Not Ford’s first FWD car in the US market. I bought a Fiesta in 1980, my first new car purchase. Very modern, but assembled in Germany.
Mini-Granada?
Nothing at all like a Granada.
I remember being in Europe in ’83 / ’84 and being unable to point exactly what seemed different between the then-new U.S. and European Escorts. This difference seemed to extend beyond bumpers and little obvious things like that.
Amazing how two cars with the same basic shape could differ so much upon closer examination, sharing zero body parts despite similar profiles. As far as which I prefer aesthetically, I think I am actually biased toward the U.S. models only because I was of an age that I remember seeing them as new models, and all the “world car” advertisement hype here in the States. “Quality Is Job 1!”
The US Escort’s styling definitely aged better due to “softer” body lines that were easier to pivot toward the aero look by just cleaning off some of the Brougham-era detailing starting in the mid-’85 facelift. The Euro model’s sharp creases must’ve looked mighty tired by 1988-89 or so.
Of course if they had properly leveraged their global economies of scale they could’ve amortized a single design in 5 years and come to the market with a much more significant refresh in 1985-6.
The preference is a personal opinion, not a right or wrong, of course.
I think that Paul once suggested that the death of the Mercury brand began with the 1965 introduction of the Ford LTD. I agree that was the beginning.
But cars like this Lynx (and the Bobcat, and the Maverick-based Comet) well and truly cemented the death of Mercury. I don’t believe many people were willing to pay Mercury prices for a fancy Pinto, or in this case, Escort.
In 74 (or 75?) in Ontario I knew a woman who bought a Bobcat MPG because it was cheaper than the equivalent Pinto. She needed a car for work and wanted something new, and this was the cheapest. I drove it a number of times and it was actually pretty good for the money.
…never had a CC or an even an Outtake on a Lynx. That would make this feature car the missing Lynx! Sorry.
They look like they’re waiting for a tow truck after it died 50 miles from the nearest town in Montana.
“Look at the pronghorn antelopes, honey!”
Can you even buy tires that fit the Lynx anymore? They look like they’re 165/13s
That was the upgrade size! Standard tires on Escort/Lynx (at least the early ones) were 155/80R13.
Yes Indeed. I had a new ’82 Escort GT that rocked 165/8013’s on actually very nice Ford alloys. The alloys were actually wide enough to squeeze on some plus 1,185/70/13 tires. The US Escort/Lynx suspensions alignments, especially rear, were designed to increase understeer. Said to be so first time American small car owners weren’t scared by sporty handling. They were infamous for very rapid tire wear. The Euro versions were not set up that way. A fix was to use the German Escort struts if money was no object. 13-inch tires, when you find them today, are still very cheap.
I recall the ’82 Escort/Lynx alloys were a half-inch wider than the standard steel wheels, which Ford curiously called “semi-styled” (I’m still not sure which half was styled). In between these were fully-styled steel wheels used on some of the higher-trimmed cars, don’t remember whether they got the half-inch of extra width. What strikes me as odd today is that the 165/13 tires have a larger overall diameter than 155/13s; that’s in contrast with today’s cars where there are often different diameter wheels used, but with lower aspect ratios to compensate (plus 1, plus 2 etc.) thus keeping the overall diameter the same.
Closest I ever came to buying an “old” car was this 83 Lynx.
An FB friend teased me with it a couple years ago, when it showed up on eBay, in Ann Arbor, very close to casa del Steve. I looked at the pix and said “I know that car!”, as I had seen it at the Ypsilanti orphan show a few years earlier. Totally loaded, seemingly every option available, except it had a 5-speed, instead of an automatic. Even had an 80s cell phone mounted between the seats. Totally mint, with crazy low mileage. The old woman who owned it was a dear. We talked quite a while as she showed me around the car, almost as if she was trying to sell it to me. I forget what the price was, but I could easily have written that check. I told Jim I actually thought about it for a couple nanoseconds, before reality returned: I don’t have the skills to take care of it, and no place to put it. The car eventually sold.
A year later, Jim teased me with another Lynx, this time on Bring A Trailer. I looked at the pix. Same car!
The car was bought by the owner of the Lincoln dealership in Fort Wayne. As far as I know, that is were it still is.
Same car, at the orphan show in 2017.
I like that Ford offered front vent windows on several of their cars, including this one, into the 1990s, long after they’d been dropped by other manufacturers. The Escort/Lynx two-door hatchbacks offered both pivoting front vent windows and swing-out rear windows.
The front vent windows and center armrest are the only redeeming features of that car. I’ve never liked the styling of the Escort/Lynx, and that interior is just as bad, with the worst being the instrument cluster and big steering wheel with the horn on the turn signal stalk.
Eventually, Ford would relent and move the horn back to the center of the steering wheel, but that was about the time they went with the irritating motorized-mouse seatbelts.
The styling of the Escort/Lynx didn’t bothered me a lot.
The guys of TestDriveJunkie founded a old promo video of Escort vs the competition featuring a Laurel & Hardy lookalikes.
https://testdrivejunkie.com/1983-ford-escort-vs-competition-manufacturer-promo/
Two people sitting on the front bumper minimizes a really bad aspect of the looks of the car here, which was the tendency for them to look nose-high. A half-inch or inch of drop in the front made a lot of difference, and they probably got that out of how they did this photo shoot.
Great observation!
Probably why it kinda sorta here resembles an actual car.
Good job on the photo as well.
Quite the polished turd.
I enjoyed the Cougar-Bobcat-Lynx nomenclature at Mercury, and have fond memories of our early-1980s Lynx. It was as reliable as our 1980 Pinto (multi no-worry cross-country trips) , but I could tell that suspension technology, engine management, etc. had progressed. I wonder what it’d feel like to drive one today?
I had an 87 Escort. Happily never hit an eponym. Different story with the VW beetle, no doubt.
But the Ford was a real trooper; just kept on going with almost no issues. Always ran when summoned. Hit from behind (mild to moderate) 3 times one winter in Edmonton, and still soldiered on.
Accidentally turned out to be my best ever automotive investment. My employer at the time required us to use personal vehicles with reasonable reimbursement for mileage – lots of mileage. The Escort was bought used with low kilometers and later given away with high kms. Within 2 months of purchase, I’d recouped the cost.
I’m definitely going to get a Mercury Lynx to take on my next safari. I can get it parachuted into rural Kenya.