Merkur was a Ford Motor Compay brand that briefly (1983-1989) existed in the USA. The name was German for "Mercury" and the cars were imported from there. It seems the idea was to climb on the American preference trend for European executive-class cars, hence the European origin and the foreign brand name.
Two types of Merkurs were imported. A two-door hatchback XR4Ti (model years 1985-1989) entered the American market first, followed (1988-1989) by a four-door hatchback called the Scorpio. The XR4Ti was an Americanized Ford Sierra XR4i and the Scorpio was an altered German Ford Scorpio Mk. I (UK Ford Granada Mk. III).
What was noticed, as hinted above, was the similarity of passenger compartment greenhouses of the Merkur Scorpio 4-door hatchback (launched in Europe for 1985) and the Mercury Sable sedan introduced for model year 1986.
I think I have a pretty good personal automobile reference library. But it isn't good enough to let me know the details of German Scorpio Mk. I styling process. However on the Internet, Uwe Bahnsen's Wikipedia entry credits him with styling the Ford Scorpio Mk. I / Grenada Mk. III. Not mentioned is the car's greenhouse. The link to the Sable states that its design was created in the USA, but the window motif "borrowed design elements from the Ford Scorpio liftback sedan, using blacked-out B, C, and D-pillars for a 'floating roof' effect." This seems reasonable, since the German Scorpio entered production slightly earlier and there surely were communication channels between Ford's German and American design operations.
Now let's look at those designs.
The Sable and its stablemate Ford Taurus were the first "standard size" examples of Ford's 1980s aerodynamic design effort in America.
The Merkur's shape and detailing are remarkable similar aside from some frontal details. This makes me wonder that there might have been more Transatlantic linkage than suggested above.
Sable sedans had conventional trunk lids. So did non-hatchback German Scorpio sedans (that had C-pillars not clad by window glass).
Note the hatchback profile.
Now for the similarity. The C- and D-pillars are fully clad by window glass, forming a smooth exterior. Side window glass is positioned very far outward. The combined effect is a smoothly shaped passenger greenhouse that seemed startling to many observers, including me, when first appeared.
The same positioning for side glass and the glass-clad pillars are found on the Merkur Scorpio and its European sources.
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