The Ugliest Car Ever Made? - Ford Scorpio
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- čas přidán 30. 09. 2022
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They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of the Ford Scorpio, the eyes of the beholders were damning, as what was meant to be the next generation of the highly successful Granada range, which was in fact quite a sophisticated executive saloon, turned into a roadgoing joke, and has topped lists for decades as quite possibly the ugliest car ever made.
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References:
- AROnline (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references) - Auta a dopravní prostředky
There’s probably a good reason why the Wikipedia page lists the car’s designer as “unknown”
Probably because he was yeeted from existance by the management after this gaff XD.
Yet the management signed it off at multiple stages of the programme….
...which happens a lot more than one might think...
Come on it is not that bad
^ ...except that it is.
I am not being contrary, but as a kid on the 1990s, I cannot deny that I actually love the Scorpio design. I feel like the light bar at the back as been vindicated 30 years later.
Agree the fuck out of that.
Disagree the hell out of that.
I thought it looked bad back then as a kid, and if anything that it looks worse now.
The rear may have been typical for US styling convention at the time, but has never been popular across the pond.
I agree the fuck outta Jim Taylor disagreeing the hell outta you.
^ I disagree with anyone who thinks that comment makes any sense :P .
I feel as attacked as the Scorpio...
It looked strange and ungainly at the time but I have always quite liked the Scorpio. Almost 30 years later, uglification seems to be the order of the day and there are far worse offenders wearing premium badges out there now.
it spwaned the KA and Focus MK1 they were a sales hit in Europe.
And even to this day they are pleasing cars to look at.
Well said, although myself I always liked them.
**Ahem** Germany
@@Maddiedoggie Yes!
Agree, my boss had one which I used to drive regularly. Put my name on it when the business were ready to sell it on but it was hit by a truck and written off before I could get my hands on it. It was ugly but there was just something about it I liked.
It’s a really odd story. At Cosworth we did the 24v and 2.3 versions of this. The car was designed primarily in the US (but never sold there). On territory test trips in the US, the un camouflaged car got so much attention. The Americans absolutely loved it. Had a European quality interior, with a US style (at the time) and a Blue oval. Safe to say it was a huge hit.
In Europe? Well we asked WTAF?! One of our internal test cars had the plates GUP1 as a joke. It got accidentally sent back to Ford like that. They weren’t impressed. Suffice to say, at launch the market agreed with us.
We even went as far as working independently on a facelift to improve sales (so we could sell more engines!).
Ford’s global car plan didn’t last that longer either as US Focuses and Mondeos had so little parts commonality either.
It took VW to really get that platform model right but that’s another story.
Great stuff as ever other Ruairidh!
I think the "Americans loved it, Europeans despised it" ordeal seems quite common from domestics making models for other markets. I mean, the Scorpio looks nowhere near out of place in a mid-90s Kmart parking lot, alongside similar jellybean Taurus' and Lumina models. I honestly wish we could've gotten it here, good interior with nice Euro engines was something those getting the German or Swedish marques could offer, with a similarly hefty price tag. And this is not even mentioning Australia, what with their Caprices and Fairlanes, Falcons and Commodores galore...
I worked in wellingborough at the tyre place Cosworth used at the time. The guy with long black hair that used to bring the cars to us turned up one day in a mk3 granny cosworth at the time all the other cars he brought were the scorpio shape ones. I said to him, "is that the tea boy's car who didn't get a new one?" He said "no. It's the top guys car. He wouldn't let them swap it for the new one as this one has 4x4 and a development engine with loads of power. And the new ones look hideous." I fell about laughing at that one.
@@trashrabbit69 They still act like they can dictate to the market what it "really wants" like it's the 1950s, and then blame the market for the fact they wouldn't listen to what consumers want. And then there's the quality issues that while usually not terrible, take a huge spike in awfulness about once a decade.
@@trashrabbit69 Sadly it wasn’t a US domestic model. The DE Granada was solidly German made and designed it’s whole life. Only the “Global car” one Ford decided all large rwd cars were for US and that influence affected the new front and rear design of the Granada. Effectively killed large Fords in Europe, a market they’d held for decades and to which they’ve never returned ceding the whole field to other marques.
About as stupid as the whole Daewoo/Chevy European debacle. US auto execs don’t understand Europe.
The single-cam US-market 2.3 turbo they used in the Merkur XR4 was a rough and unpleasant engine, reasonable power but they tended to shake themselves apart. I worked on several over the years and could usually remove the turbo, intake manifold, exhaust manifold bolts with my fingers.
I can see how this car could be seen as strange-looking at the time, but compared to some of the angry kitchen appliances that are on the road today it actually looks half decent.
My Dad loved his Granada’s, he had 4 Mk2’s & 2 mk3 Scorpio 2.9i saloons all bought from the same salesman between 1978 & 1994. Around 1997 the salesman called him to see if he was interested in a new one, conversation basically went “No chance” & “I don’t blame you! 🤣
Excellent video as always
My dad was the same. He didn’t want a mondeo! Lol
It looks like an absolute beauty queen now compared to a lot of current cars, particularly BMWs.
I was thinking that. This evening I was watching a video about the American slab fronted Ford Lightning electric pickup, that really is ugly!
and over styled Kia's and Hyundai's especially the 4WD's with way too many front lights lol
Well may the good God replace any BMWs you will ever own with Scorpios.
I don't see what there is to complain about the Scorpio's style. I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact it was the early part of the transition from boxy sedans to bubbly sedans. The same thing happened for me with modern sedans like Toyota Camry and Honda Civic pretending to look "aggressive" and "sporty". Car designs go through fads just like fashionable clothing.
@@plaintruths6062 It all depends on the how ppl see frogs. Some say they are beautiful creatures.
After Mk2 and Mk3 Granada Cosworths we bought a Scorpio “wide mouth frog” Cosworth. Dark metallic blue with black leather. Whilst it’s looks were certainly challenging on the outside it was a magnificent car in every other way. Probably the most comfortable seats and interior we’ve ever sat in, every gadget available at the time and performance that at the time was jaw dropping. We loved it.
I remember seeing this car in show rooms (my Dad worked at Dagenham) and it did look weird. Its lasting memory will probably be it getting dunked in a river somewhere in Africa during the Top Gear hunt for the River Nile episode, where James May said it was 'gopping'.
It’s hideously 1990s, there was a real trend for everything from electronics to cars to assume these strange blobby shapes. I’ve often wondered if it was down to computer design software finally being able to produce complex three dimensional curves.
No. It was the yanks.
Or people figuring out aerodynamics.
@@alexsaffamerica its dat yankee aerodynamic dat dit it.
Oooooh spooky.... I literally just bought one of these last night! A 2.9 Cosworth version!
You will love it
@@fearnsey8800 few niggles but was (I think) cheap so cant complain
As Paul Fearns has said, you will love it.
My Dad has had 3 over the last 16 years, and still owns 2 of those. They have proven to be fantastically built, well designed and reliable cars for very little money.
It wasn't you who posted on the Scorpio forum that you'd bought one a few days ago was it?
Lucky you!
My grandpa had one back in the 90s, we loved the thing, never found the design particularly bad or divisive. It looked kinda normal in blue, had lots of kit and was comfortable.
Even as a kid in the 90’s and early 00’s, I never thought the Scorpio was ugly,
The rear I think actually looks really good, just the front looks a bit naff
I bought a bargain trade in ultima diesel manual saloon in black with badly rattle canned rear arches in the mid 2000's for £90. My mate stu christened it "The Sea Monster" and the name stuck. I'd bought the mrs a five or so year old focus ghia for a fair bit of money at the time, she took the sea monster shopping one day, and got back and threw me the focus key saying how much nicer it was to drive and she was having it for her daily..... to be fair it drove great. Super comfortable. Good on fuel, Everything worked, given a long pause in second with the clutch down for the revs to come up and then a huge clutch kick, it would drift roundabouts spectacularly well. Wasnt too laggy at all when it was on the boil. Not sure the mrs was ever in it when that happened though....
Had a good couple of years out of it before it got head onned by a single decker bus that was coming at me on the wrong side of the road in the snow. (I was driving sensibly at the time. Did everything I could to avoid it.) The insurance took away the wreckage.
About 6 months after that, we were watching some kids science TV program called "Nina and the neurons" and they were at Santa Pod crushing cars with a monster truck. There in the cars was the undamaged back end of P992 NHK.
R.I.P. The Sea Monster.
P.S. the front suspension design is very different to previous model, they all used sierra front cross member with anti roll bar controlling front wheels fore and aft movement via notoriously wobbly bushes. The scorpio ditched the whole design and instead had proper lower wishbones with two inner mounting points each side.
The problem with the car from a design perspective is that it doesn't make for a coherent cohesive whole. Some cars look like the front end was designed by a completely different lot than the rear. But here it looked like three different cars welded together, with the middle section clearly taken from the earlier Scorpio which then had a new front and rear welded on that didn't really fit with neither of them.
Yes. The Pontiac Astek had a similar issue; looking like it was cobbled together from odds & sods.
@Retired Bore Good point. The Astek was perhaps Pontiac's attempt at winning the award for *Ugliest Car of All Time* XD.
(after ironically producing one of the most beautiful in my opinion, the 1980's Firebird)
I'd say the same about the current Land Rover Defender...
@@onetonlandrover Eeh. I'd say it's one of the better looking models they do... albeit only in certain colours... and overall a downgrade in looks from the previous Defender.
When Japanese automakers do extensive facelifts, they almost always invest in new doors as well (e.g., from the 8th gen Civic hatch to the 9th gen Civic). Even if the A, B and C pillar angle & roofline remain the same on closer inspection, investing in new outer door skins (and only the outer skins, the inner frame can be the same) gives a much better impression of it being a new vehicle and not just a facelift. 🙂
For an 'executive' car, the middle part of the Scorpio being so obviously a dated carryover (even worse on the wagon, where the whole rear end is carried over) does not make it look very executive!
The American 1995 Ford Taurus was groundbreaking, until two years later when ‘Ford ovals’, began making buyers see stars. Everything Ford offered, looked like it started with a bubblegum bubble, then let it deform in direct sunlight.
I had a girl I liked in Kindergarten, whose mom drove a Merkur Scorpio. Considering everything else on the road was boxy, it looked like a spaceship by comparison!!!
My mom traded in our luxo-barge Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser wagon, for a base model (!) 1990 Ford Escort. It looked like an aerodynamic dog turd, and sounded like a cross between a kazoo and one of those old pressure cookers.
It didn’t even have a cassette player. But it did have those hateful automatic seatbelts.
I remember being 5 years old, and getting upset at her trade-in. “Why didn’t you at least get get a Merkur??? That car is at least cool looking!!!”
Oh god the late gen' Escorts... increasingly ghastly plastic death traps those were.
Thank god most of them have been scrapped since, as the only thing worse than seeing one or working on one, was the people - in the UK at least - who owned them.
(mostly agressive yobbos who thought they were the next schumacher, and half blind pensioners)
The Scorpio MkII was at the time known as "The car that is delivered in a plain brown paper bag". It was a very curious looking car to be sure. :)
I actually love the look of the car.... of course we didn’t get this in Australia. Then again, I once owned a Citroen XM and thought that looked beautiful too. 🤣 I can definitely see the American design influence, predominantly in the rear of the sedan.
Ah yes, the "Citroen Xtra Medium", a weak name choice for an extremely boring car.
(an ironic fall from grace, for a car company once known for delightfully mad, comfortable & oddly likable cars)
From Down Under as well. Probably would have sold much better than the Taurus Ghia. The headlights and pontoon style fenders kind of remind me of the Mercedes w210 but overall it looks vaguely Japanese. 7/10
I loved the look of the XM back in the day.
@Jim Taylor boring is why I loved it. However it was the one car I have ever owned that turned me off European makes for life. Not as unreliable as a Jag, but darned close. Saying that, the quality of the materials in the interior was superb and the ZF transmission and V6 was actually reliable. Only the bits that glue it together, like the electrical system and plastic clip that kept non important bits like the accelerator pedal connected to the cable kept failing.... and to get a 20c clip requires the entire cable assembly...... the ride was why I bought it and wish I still had. Plus the engine sounded fantastic!
@@avoohanian No need for the Scorpio in Australia when we had our own ugly 90's Ford - the AU Falcon 😆
I absolutely love it. It looks like such a pleasant little car with that front fascia. I infinitely prefer it to the manic scowls that so many cars have today.
Yes, many modern car's 'faces' are really ugly nowadays!
Nah. That prize goes to the 2005 Ssangyong Rhodius. You can just imagine the scene in the design department:
“Ere ye go boss, better late than never, eh … that four door fastback you ordered”.
“You pillock! It was supposed to be an MPV!”
“Oh, let’s stick a bigger bit on the back, then … “
i loved these as a kid back in the day ( and still do!) the odd time i see one on the road I have to see if it has the Ultima badge on the rear door sail panel. Can remember my dad forever looking at these in the Auto Trader in the salvage section, but the right one never came up ( they were either the wrong spec or were uneconomical for him to repair). In the end he got an Omega which was basically the Scorpios direct rival, Vauxhall didn't help the Scorpios fate when they were registering the new Omegas by their company in Jersey then 'importing' them back to the UK whereby it was then technically a 2nd hand car and wasn't subject to VAT. In reality the cars never left the UK and were just the subject of a paperwork shuffle.
Omega was stunning compared to this. Especially in 3.0 elite. Had a bit more bhp too 210 vs 204.
I had 1 of the last scorpios ever made back in 2001 , I bought it at 3 years old with 115k miles on it for 2,750 quid and it was like brand new . It was the 2.3 petrol ultimate and I loved it . I drove it as a taxi for 2 years and sold it for 1200 quid and all my customers thought it was lovely . Spent very very little on that car . I never understood why people didn’t like the design lol
It also bothered me that Ford gave it 4 hub studs, when the previous Scorpio had 5, so you couldn't fit alloys from the previous models.
Aye. Ironic really, as it was a restyle - or downstyle perhaps - of the previous Scorpio.
Good ol ford cheaping out. Like the drums on 1.8 mondeos of the 90s cavs and vectras always discs even on most astras of the day.
I noticed the silver Scorpio at the end was suffering from what a lot of fords and other makes suffered from around that period, rotting wheel arches !
SsangYong: hold my beer
It was styled by an American. It was a heavy facelift of the 1985 Granada. The hatchback body style was ditched in favour of a saloon, which was a mistake and the bug eye styling didn’t win many fans. It was finally canned in 1998.
The Scorpio who belonged to our former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands still exists.
It was only retired after an armoured car Volvo S80 was needed for securtity reasons.
The car is on permanent exhibition at palace het Loo at Apeldoorn.
This Scorpio was converted to a state limousine in the UK by Coleman Milne.
Why did our former Queen choosed a Ford as a Royal state car?
She got it from here mother former queen Juliana who was very down to earth and Ford minded.
They had first standard US build Fords/Mercuries and from the 60's standard European Fords.
As a state car Beatrix had the Granada/Scorpio and as a private vehicle an Escort/Focus.
To this day our former Queen still drives as a personal vehicle a Focus.
I actually really liked Merkur Scorpio. I saw a few of them here in Canada and really liked the European design. Why Merkur didn’t make it in North America is beyond me. I guess back then people had more discriminating tastes.
0:59 my dad had this scorpio hatchback version in dark metalic blue i still remember my dad driving me around as a kid in this he loved that car and knew it inside out unfortunetly he had to eventually sell it due to rust caused from what i think he said the sunroof drain location ending in the rear fender. He would have driven it to this to the very end if he knew what caused it sooner...
I miss you dad i wish i could have one more ride with you...
At that time Ford was using the names of constellations. They also had the Orion.
But thankfully NOT Castor & Pollux!
@@AtheistOrphan which are 2 of the stars in the constellation of Gemini.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 - Thanks, I didn’t know that. Astronomy not my strong point!
I had a 2.9 cosworth, one of the best cars I’ve ever owned, and I always said I didn’t have to look how ugly it was when I was behind the wheel, it was 18 months old when I bought it for half the price new! Total bargain and truly great car
I remember going to the motor show the year it was unveiled, I was horrified. The previous one was nice and was so looking forward to it. It was like a fish with its mouth open.
We had two Ford Scorpio's in our household for a time, my wife driving the 2.3 Facelift and I had the 2.9 24v Cosworth. Both were saloons and it was a lovely car to drive, sadly mine got an electrical fault which nearly set the car on fire. I changed mine for a much newer BMW 5 series and my wife then wanted an Audi A6. I was sad to see my car go.
I don't think the front end of the 1990s Ford Scorpio looks too ugly. It reminds me of the late 1990s Hyundai Sonata, which my parents first rented on a trip back "home" to England in 1999 and they liked it so much that they later bought a left-hand drive version of it in Canada.
The Hyundai Sonata isn't a high point for comparison though, a bit like Daewoo... though like most people I can't remember why...
(forgettably shocking, twas the story of Daewoo)
My dad had the cosworth here in Germany new. It was full of fails.
It loved unlocking itself and putting all windows down when your gone or in the carwash. Ford took it back after a year
Ford of Britain should have adopted the Australian Ford Falcon.
Scorpios make a great hearse. I have seen a few of them converted for that purpose
A car in mourning - how fitting!
"A Ford Scorpio?! They're hideous! I wouldn't want to be seen dead in one of those!" ;-)
This man must have ever seen the Pontiac Aztec.
...or the 2nd gen' Opel/Vauxhall Vectra, or the Land Rover Freelander, or the Suzuki X Mighty... there's a lot of goppers out there XD.
The Scorpio's still one of the ugliest though.
A wise man once described the styling of the Scorpio as “gopping”. Made a great hursbulance though!
1:37 to 1:52 is very familiar to me - it's by the Thames near Maidenhead. The Scorpio is driving north up Ray Mead Road and crossing the little humpback bridge across Boulters Lock.
Still remember my neighbours having these on their driveways back then, can still remember how gastly they looked even more so when the Mondeo launched the Scorpio didn't last much longer after that.
Actually, the Mondeo was launched in 1992, 2 years before the Scorpio.
Also, take a look at these awful looking cars that gullible people buy now, and you will realise the Scorpio wasn't that bad!
@@ryanwilliams6526 true there's some shocking cars out there, still not sure what to make of the ev version of the Honda jazz to name one. I would be surprised if anyone still had a Ford Scorpio in their garage curious to see how it's aged.
@@britishfilmguy Funny you should say that! My Dad owns 2 Scorpios actually. They have both aged rather well, and he has had pretty much trouble free motoring for the last 16 years from them.
For example, in all that time, the only suspension components he has had to change were 2 wishbones last year.
The only real issue with them currently is the engine wiring looms as the insulation is starting to go brittle and crack off in places (a common issue with earlier ones and the fault of the wiring manufacturer, not Ford).
@@ryanwilliams6526 that's pretty good going given its age, to have small issues like that and still usable even in this day and age he's done well with them top kudos to your dad for that.
Had great times with Granadas (Grannies) but the Scorpio was not quite the ugliest, ranks a good second. The prize for ugliest must be the KIA Rodius ,,,,,
You must mean the SsangYong Rodius ? Kia had no involvement.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SsangYong_Rodius?wprov=sfti1
Agreed but I'd like to add the Nissan Juke and the Fiat Multipla.
@@Mancozeb100 Yep, thanks, that is the one. In Korea we called it the Odious Rodious. Designed in UK? For shame!
@@johnclayden1670 Oof. As a Brit' I think the "stylist" should be exiled, preferably to a barren island in the south pacific or something.
Weird, but I'll add the Vauxhall Agila / Suzuki Splash as well.
Really good history of this car. Just remember at the time how strange it looked. Whereas the Sierra when it came out was more groundbreaking I think. Even although the Sierra was nicknamed the Jellymould. Subbed!!👊👍
I had a Y reg Scorpio Ultima Cosworth for 9 years - best car I've ever owned. Puts my current 2011 Mondeo Titanium X to shame.
There's an irony that in 2000, Citroen facelifted it's Xsara and the new C5 appeared with a rather similar front end - and got away with it!
Yes it would, the french will buy anything, anything that is a bit odd.
C5 mk 1 is a beauty queen in comparison if you ask me. It wasnt the shapes that are ugly, its the proportions, and the C5 being a bit less offensive makes all the difference. Still not a good looking car, but way better.
man i remember when ford learned how to build with curves here in australia, the classic "Falcon" went from being a pretty cool looking car to something that appeared to have been out in the sun too long. They literally looked like they had half melted and turned lumpy. horrid looking things. They pretty quickly reworked them into a cool looking design again
Aye. Lot of cars from the "wow, curves exist!" period look like they'd melted, been sat on by an Elephant, or like somebody had already crashed it.
Ford really, REALLY wanted to get rid of the Falcon and replace it with the third-gen Taurus, but you bunch were smart enough not to buy one. I remember seeing one (exactly one) in Hong Kong. Ford actually set up to build those things RHD.
Had a Falcon GT-P rental 2002-ish when we were down there. It was a blast. Did an HSV rental five years later, and I think I liked it even better. They were both wonderful distance cars, thousand-mile seats and great control weighting.
Did both plant tours, Tickford was very proud of having completely reengineered the Mustang Cobra but for me it was 'why bother'? HSV seemed to have something closer to a systematic assembly process and I learned a lot about how it was all done.
There is a great interview with Graham Wadsworth, one of the designers, on the Shannon's Insurance channel. The design office had already started working on the BA Falcon *before* the AU Falcon had even been released! Unfortunately by the time they realised the reaction was negative, they had already committed to manufacturing it and it was too late to change course. So all the design team could do was start work on the replacement and make sure they got it right. He says designing the BA was much more stressful as it "had to be right", unlike the freedoms they had with designing the AU. It wasn't so much about the BA being "cool" or "original" (that was the AU!), rather about making it conservative, well-proportioned and bringing it back into the "circle of acceptability".
My dad was always a Granada Estate fan and didn't mind having a Scorpio frogface for his last car It was an Ultima and had all the toys and he only paid a grand for it and after he died a got the £1000 back when I sold it on.. Free luxury motoring basically He always remarked yes it does look ugly but you dont look at the front when your driving it!
Everybody else does though... then again wearing a skeleton mask while driving would offset the revulsion with a dose of "wait... what?" XD .
It's always reminded me of Arnold Ridley (private Godfrey) in the closing credits of Dad's Army episodes.
Quality video Ruairidh - cheers m9y. Dad had a Mk1 Scorpio - blue with black leather - he got it up to 125mph on the M9 with me in '92. A friend had a black one, and he could get four of us in the back when we'd go to the football in the nineties.
Those video clips you've added of this silver one by the river (from 01:40) are priceless... As for the Mk2 being 'ugly', it's definitely uglier than its predecessor, but I still love the back. Those bulbous front headlights are whack but I wonder if this version was nicer to drive?
5:38 they put the steering wheel on the wrong side. no wonder the press weren't happy
I must admit, 20+ years on and I actually like the simple clean rear lights that went across the full width.
So many modern new cars seem to be adopting this same singlemlight bar at the rear thesedays, some pull it off better than others however.
The rear is quite nice!
Don't call me Mr. Scorpion. It's Mr. Scorpio. But don't call me that either. Call me Hank.
For some reason I actually found the Ford Scorpio to be somewhat premium-looking, but this was back in the late 2000s, when they used to be popular. Here in Belgium they vanished VERY quickly, not for its design, but rather for its poor reliability
Greetings from Belgium!
The first Mercedes-Benz SLK had practically the same face with similar shaped lights and front grille, but nobody hated that. It wasn't big, lumpy, unambitious and filled with too old technique, so thats probably why.
Nah. The car was derided as the SLGay at the time, as only hairdressers and metrosexuals bought them XD
Used to be my dream car, glad I had one
If you were to imagine putting a 2001 town car front on it and left the rest as is it would look like a miniature town car, I think anyway
The mrk 11 was in luxury form was beautiful I certainly would have owned one
lol i was just watching the Africa Top Gear special when this released!
It's no beauty but it's a stunner compared to the hideous vehicles infesting our roads nowadays. I think car companies really are competing to design the ugliest cars possible.
A lot of competition aye, but still frightfully ugly.
Imagine being run over by one, and a gormless frog is the last thing you get to see o_o .
@Retired Bore Aye; though it is possible for a car to be aerodynamic, and attractive; thus I think the stylist should still hang their head in shame.
(which it seems they do, as their identity is still a mystery; decades later!)
Seriously though, just what were they thinking? It's almost as if they bypassed the consumer clinic bit
"Ugliest car?!" Have you never seen the Nissan "Juke." That car looks like an African Warthog.
I think I had three Granadas and/or Scorpios, and the last one - a 2.9 V google-eye Ultima estate was possibly the best car I've owned at least, until the Honda Accord Estate. The google-eye might have offended onlookers but the interior was like a gentleman's club!
In the mid 90's the era of the 'bless your little heart' attitude began. Everyone is a winner, all get a prize, nobody is at fault or a loser. Hence when the Scorpio was designed, nobody had the balls to tell him to get lost and fired the idiot on the spot. And maybe some day Ford might explain to us all why they did not just build the bloody Taurus in Europe and be done with it.
Well, it's got strong competition, but I think the Multipla has it!
It had it for 2 decades, but now the BMW XM has thrown it from the throne!
The Multipla was a good car though... and the facelift actually solved the styling issue XD
FIAT > Ford in something at least.
Oh hello you!!
I always had a weird fascination with this car. I liked it a lot as a kid and that hasn't really changed much. It was always exciting to see one.
Ford Scorpio Mk I Hatchback design had so much potential and I was really waiting for the next model. Sadly I still remember the disappointment.
It certainly was an odd looking car to be sure, but when you actually got in one, it was just like sitting in a top of the range Mk III Granada. Mind you, the quality control on early ones was very poor: One of the sales reps where I worked at the time had one as his company car and he had so many electrical issues over the first year that they ended up swapping it for a newer one.
I've been in a few Fords over the years, but the last gen' Scorpio's interior always looked / felt tacky to me, in a way the Sierra's [for example] did not.
Late-model Escorts were worse though: horrid little plastic death traps, and even worse to work on.
"Gopping" - James May
2:30 : Man, someone needed to tell Ford Marketing back in the '80s that no business man buying a Scorpio would also afford to live in that house. Aspirational and all but let's not get crazy...
Are you saying that people who have estate homes wouldn't deliberately choose the Ford due to preferring the working class image of a Ford, over a Jaguar or Bentley they could have bought instead? 🙂
"Gopping" was the way james may described its looks on top gear.
I always liked the styling of them but I've always preferred curvy cars to boxy cars.
I think when compared to some cars its not too bad especially when compared to the Nissan Cube or Fiat Multipla
Added air conditioning? Does that mean more air-conditioning than the other versions?
I don't see anything ugly about that car. Poor car, man.
As an American, all I understand about this model is that despite its looks it must’ve been great to drive as we’ve never gotten a global Ford that was anything less than superb in this respect.
I had 2 24v Cosworth versions, which only bought to use the engine, but drove them a lot before dismantling. The interior, comfort, ride, handling, and power were absolutely fantastic. I loved driving them. Definitely one of the best cars ford ever made to that point.
I almost feel angry that ford made such a mess of the looks/exterior.
It should have been a beefier version of the mk1 Mondeo.
My grandpa had one of these as a company car and he loathed every second of "owning" it. He hated how it looked, he hated how it drove and he was disappointed by the interior quality since he had an Opel Omega before. The one he owned was the 2.9l with 150 hp and 5 speed manual transmission, which was a thoroughly terrible engine. 150 hp out of a 2.9l injection engine was horribly inefficient even for the time (said Omega was 8 years older and got the same power out of a 2.6l engine), acceleration was at least a second slower than the Omega which was the same weight, and the transmission felt like it belonged in a tractor or something. At least there was not a lot to actually hate about the driving experience since in the end the car was at the shop more often than it was on the road.
With that Ford Granada @0.51 that looks suspiciously like the late 70's Ford Falcon XD model in Australia. That i remember in Top Gear's Africa Special they had a Ford Scorpio as the back-up car but ended up at the bottom of a Croc-Infested River somewhere in Rwanda after the producers failed to place it properly on a homemade Car Ferry.
the XD used the exact same headlights, and the styling was based on the Granada
I own the 1995 Scorpio Ghia with 2.0 136KM engine and automatic transmission.
I say i love how it looks and i wouldnt sell it no matter what people say. For 300$? It was a jackpot!
Maybe thats also because my father had a wagon variant when i was still a small child...this car brings up some nostalgia :'3
my father had a 2.3 1998 model. facelift and had 252000 miles (400k KM) clocked on it before he was forced to scrap it to get something else. a BMW that fell apart more than that scorpio. he tells me that if he had the same car today he would of had half a million on it by now.
Saw Scorpio Cozzie at a car event and it looked stunning alongside a Rover 3500 Vitesse ,which also looked stunning. From a time when Ford made some of the most iconic cars on the road. Bit of a boo boo on part of Ford to drop Granada name.
Beauty is within the eyes of the Beholder on these, personally I love them especially the Cosworth version.
My nan had her very last ride in a Ford Scorpio hearse to the cemetery, while my family were behind in a six door Scorpio limousine.
Its ugly front was not the right image for funeral cars. The Scorpio was in direct competition with the Vauxhall Omega.
Vauxhall must have breathed a sigh of relief. There goes the competition. Tbh the omega gave saab 9000s and low end e classes a fright. A properly sorted handsome car.
Ugliest car ever made? No, that'll be the Nissan "joke".
I see why top gear made a joke of that one. It just looks WRONG! A little wider and maybe it works, but it does looks like a guppy!
as long as Its RWD and Manual then It can be a great burnout machine
...and if not a manual, just a good brazier.
The third-generation Taurus was also mostly rejected in the market. It was pretty awful ugly, too long relative to the Camry competition and relative to the available interior space. My understanding was that what eventuallly went in showrooms as the Lincoln LS (a great platfom) was originally intended to be the replacement for the Scorpio, but it took long enough to get to market that Ford had in the meantime bought Jag and Volvo, and Wolfgang Reitzle had a hard-on for British brands so Jag got the S-type (which failed in the US as everyone thought it looked too much like the '96 Taurus) and Lincoln got sloppy seconds.
I always liked the last generation of the Scorpio, and weird that they don't sold it in the States, I bet it would have sold there. And I also don't get why Ford never sold the Crown Victoria in Europe...
My father in law had one as a company car. No idea why.
We drove it from UK to Austria for a holiday, with me doing a lot of the driving. Quite apart from the gutless 2 litre engine, it was horrid. The Germans and Austrians in their Mercs and BMWs were crying with laughter at the sight of it.
As a retired employee of Ford, I have no idea what possessed the company to produce this hideous munter.
I’m an american, and this is the first time i’ve really seen this car. The front looks like a late 2000s kia, grafted on to the back of the first gen taurus. if you told me this came out in 2004, i’d believe you
Considering about 95% of cars on the road today are hideous I'd say the Scorpio is not too bad.
The rear of the STW looked more taken from the Sierra stw or was that copied from scorpio?
My friend had a V6 Scorpio, he drove it to it's end in 17 years.
If it was made today, in the world of suv, pickup trucks, cross over junk etc, it would be among the best looking
I loved it, brilliant, handsome, poised, shame it was not more popular.
It’s like a marriage of the US Crown Vic in the back and the 96 Taurus up front…
We had a Cosworth 2.9 version in our company bought 12 Months old Matt grey M reg 94 I believe. Cloth interior base model never actually saw another in the same spec or colour. Servotronic steering unbelievable engine covered thousands of miles in Germany and Europe in it, Ugly car but the engine was amazing ate the miles and not bad on fuel, amazing power between 80 and 110 mph. This engine should of lived on in something. Was a bargain car in terms of power reliability and performance for the time think it was £12000 and 12 months old. Think we did about 120k in it in total. Love or hate the looks it was a lovely drive.
That's not even in the top 10 ugliest cars.
I don’t know about ugly but our Scorpio was the WORST car mechanically that we have ever owned. We have PTSD after that car.
Not even close. The Pontiac Aztek is the most homely car ever produced.
The only Scorpios I've ever seen in my part of Ireland are ones converted into hearses
One can only feel sorry for anyone conveyed for the last time in one of those...
None in the North either
The rear actually looked good. The front lights were unforgivable though.
The rear still looked out of place in the UK/Europe market though, where contemporary US style Fords had never seen much interest.