That’s how rare the Ford Scorpio has become

What is a Ford Scorpio? It was the largest Ford passenger car from Ford Europe (American Fords were obviously bigger) that you could get in the Netherlands from 1985 to 1998. A model above the mid-size Sierra, and later the Mondeo and the successor to the Granada.

The first Ford Scorpio, designed by Uwe Bahnsen.

Hard to imagine now, but in the early 80s a lot happened in the ruling class (segment E) with the introduction, for example, of the Volvo 760 (1982), Audi 100 (1983), Lancia Thema and Renault 25 (1984) and Saab 9000 (1985).

Scorpio succeeded Granada

Ford launched it with the Granadasuccessor on a different path. After the revolutionary design Sierra, a higher segment also had to be overhauled and so it happened. A new name, a very spacious five-door body and to convince the doubters… ABS as standard! It was not available on all cars at the time and was also an expensive option, so it was notable enough to become Car of the Year the following year. However, the Sierra-like scenes were not made in this class. The conservative Granada public could not get used to the sedan bodywork, while the Granada was only available as a sedan and station wagon. Those body styles arrived too (in 1989 and 1992, respectively), but it was too late to buck the trend.

The second generation Ford Scorpio, with frog eyes.

The extravagant 1994 second generation even looked ridiculous rather than serious, even if our royal house was a loyal customer. In 1998 it was done with Scorpio. There was no successor. Ford was buying a lot in those years and thought it already had enough in house in the E-segment with the Jaguar S-type and Volvo S80. 850,000 Scorpios were sold against twice as many for Granada in the same period (1972-1985) before. In Holland the counter stopped at almost 45,000 units, in the same period Opel still consumed around 65,000 Omegas and in total (the Omega was available from 1986 to 2003) even 79,000 units.

If you see a Scorpio, chances are it’s an 86

But let’s come full circle: how many Scorpions are there now and how old are they?

Year of construction Number

1985 61

1986 116

1987 88

1988 57

1989 85

1990 77

1991 70

1992 75

1993 59

1994 50

1995 39

1996 40

1997 42

1998 36

1999 1

Total 896

Bron: International CarTalk