The Mercury LN7 Failure Is The Greatest Unsolved Mystery Ever

"Margin Of Error" (marginoferror) 02/03/2015 at 13:19 • Filed to: FORGOTTEN CLASSICS, FC, ESSAY

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I always found Mercury products to be vastly superior than their Ford counterparts. Mercury was synonym with exclusivity, quirkiness and sophistication while Ford was, and is still, more a synonym of loud and obnoxious.

Welcome to Forgotten Classics.

Once again !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , thanks to the Jalopnik editors !

As demonstrated in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the goal of this series of essays will be to bring cars that are getting no love back in the limelight. FC is also a thorough analysis of why such cars remained obscure and never got the praise they deserved.

This week, we're looking at one of the most surprising Ford product of the last 3 decades, and I'm not talking about the the 2017 Ford GT, but rather the alluring 1982 Mercury LN7 and its less fancy sibling, the Ford EXP.

Location : Chicago, the year: 1981, the event : The Chicago Auto Show. Ford drops a bomb.

It is the first two seater coming from the blue Oval in 25 years, and it's red and it has phone dial wheels, an idea that was eventually stolen by Porsche.

One big problem, however, was the 70 hp engine. It clearly wasn't enough, and despite an impressive 44 MPG on this highway, some Lincoln/Mercury customers eventually saw it as brand dilution and swiftly rejected the proposition. Later that year, Ford/Mercury offered a revised 80 hp of the engine, but that was too little too late and the Mercury LN7 couldn't be saved. The LN7 was dropped in 1983 after only 40,000 units were sold, making it a future classic.

For 1984, Ford decided to step up its game and gave the remaining twin a much needed turbo engine. The EXP Turbo coupe was born.

Featuring a 120hp 1.6 Turbo engine, the EXP Turbo coupe was no slouch, delivering boost up to 8 PSI. It came standard with turbo badges, a 5 speed manual, vents, nicer alloy wheels sport bits here and there. Mercury probably realized it has been trigger happy by killing the LN7, because this could have been the LN7 XR7. Unfortunately, it is still impossible to go back in the past.

The 2 second generation EXP was presented as a 1985.5 model. I an idea that was again stolen Porsche with the 1985.5 Porsche 944, which was a similarly styled and similarly powered vehicle sold at 3 times the price.

The sad news was that the Turbo model has been dropped, but the base motor got beefed up to 1.9L and 90 hp.

At this moment, it became clear that Ford was throwing the towel. The EXP lost most of its sportiness and became an unpractical version of the the Tempo coupe, or a long escort. For the Price, the Escort GT was as lot more appealing.

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For 1989, Ford presented a new larger sports coupe, the probe. With 3 sport cars in its lineup, Ford had to cut one, and it was decided that the EXP would be sacrificed. the EXP's journey ended on a rainy day of October 1988, after 225,000 units were built, way below Ford's management expectations. It never really threatened the MR2, the Fiero or the Porsche 944.

As for their Legacy, the LN7/EXP have a bunch of hardcore followers, they have become cult cars for many, many people are racing these cars and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is pretty active. It's definitely worth a visit if you are into those cars.

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So this it for this week, dear friends, hope you enjoyed, and see you next week.

For Sweden > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:21

5

If you can't make 70 horsepower fun, you need to go back to driving school.

505Turbeaux > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:28

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there are certain elements of that car that are so stylistically winning for me, even to this day

Margin Of Error > 505Turbeaux 02/03/2015 at 13:29

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I really prefer the first gen, it was a lot more pure and original

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:30

2

I wanted a second gen EXP for a while to turn it into a hilarious auto/rallycross car. It looks like a fox body mustang but goes like an 80s escort!

RallyWrench > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:33

2

This is why it failed:

505Turbeaux > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:36

1

yeah that is the one I love

JEM > RallyWrench 02/03/2015 at 13:37

0

Mercury really liked those bubble hatches back in the 1980s.

And that was, and still is, pretty cool.

Margin Of Error > RallyWrench 02/03/2015 at 13:41

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The Capri was the best mustang, it still have a huge following

dogisbadob > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:44

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should've been pop-ups

BlurpleToyotaDishwasher > dogisbadob 02/03/2015 at 13:45

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I dunno, I think it would have been cool with XJ220-style pop downs

Margin Of Error > dogisbadob 02/03/2015 at 13:47

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They are called frog-eye, I like them

Margin Of Error > For Sweden 02/03/2015 at 13:48

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Not going to argue with that, but the turbo brought the sexy back.

E. Julius > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 13:49

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A neat little car I'd never heard of before. Thanks! I will offer one bit of constructive criticism for you: these articles are generally well written, but I think you should take a little extra time and read through it once or twice before you post. There's usually lots of typos like "LN&" that, while not making the piece more difficult to read, do break the readers concentration. Like I said, really easy to catch if you just give it a read through. Other than that, great stuff!

Margin Of Error > E. Julius 02/03/2015 at 13:58

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Thanks, I try to review as best as I can, will go correct

E. Julius > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 14:01

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keep up the great work!

Margin Of Error > E. Julius 02/03/2015 at 14:02

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Thanks !

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 14:03

1

Escort EXP/Lynx LN7 failed for one big reason, and many small other reasons.

Fox Mustang/Capri. 1979-86 Mustangs and Capris were simply better, and people were still used to driving RWD cars, and FWD cars were still primarily econo-boxes, and not developed for handling or power. Fox Mustangs with the 2.3L engine and a manual transmission were nearly as fuel efficient as an Escort anyway.

The bodies are so similar, I actually wonder if the hatch and tail lights are almost interchangeable, aside from some slight edge shut line differences. It looks like they grafted the fox-based hatchback bodywork onto the Escort's FWD chassis and floorpan, and tried to make their own front-drive Mustang alternative, something that didn't go over well until the 1988 Ford Probe, as Fox Mustangs neared 10 years old, and FWD development progressed, especially built by Mazda, along side the MX6, and build quality, especially interior quality rose significantly over the early '80s.

The 80's-era FWD Dodge Charger and Daytona K-platform based cars weren't enough to compete with Mustang/Capri, and GM F-body Camaro/Firebird, and rear-drive G-bodies, in addition to GM's front-drive Cavalier/Sunbird coupes and fastbacks.

Even Toyota still had rear drivers at that point, in the A60 Celica, A60 and A70 Supras, AW11 MR2, and the hold-over RWD from the E70 generation on the AE86 Corolla coupe, when the rest of the E80 corolla body styles went to FWD, Mazda had the RWD RX-7, and Nissan had both the S130 280ZX, and then the Z31 300ZX, as well as the RWD S12 and S13.

EXP and LN-7 had too little differentiation, too little power, and the rear-drivers were still too prevalent, and were actually getting GOOD again, after the dismal 70's. People started having money again, and bought things more fun than a 70-hp front-driver...

People buying Escorts and Mercury Lynx were buying the more practical boxy LS-3 3-door and 5 door econo-box models, EXP and LN-7 were not only competing against the rest of the market but also competing against their own model name variants.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 14:13

4

YEAH MERCURY!

Love the write up good work.

As one of the key "Mercury" guys on here and the Mercury Muscle guy - GO MERCURY!

And here's my Muscle Merc, the '68 Montego MX, because no, I'm not sick of posting it yet:

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > For Sweden 02/03/2015 at 14:19

1

If you choose a 70hp front-wheel-drive car, over a Fox-platform Mercury Capri 2.3L rear-driver with 88 horsepower, for *fun*, You don't belong in driving school.

That 88 horsepower was for the BASE model 2.3L Inline 4. the Capri also offered the 3.3L V6 with 94 horsepower, the RS 4.2 V8 (255 cubic inch) with 115 horsepower, the Turbo RS (2.3L I4 Turbo) was offered with 120 horsepower.

later model years of Fox Mustang and Capri received the 5.0 (302) V8, and other engines in the 79-86 Capri include the 2.8 and 3.8 liter variants of the V6 also.

LN-7 didn't even meet the least amount of horsepower that the Capri had, and didn't drive the proper axle for a performance car, and the appearance was quite similar.

The buyer looking for a 'fun' mercury in 1981 didn't look at LN-7, they walked past it to look at a Capri, especially if it was a Black Magic Capri with T-tops.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 14:33

0

I just re-read and caught the Porsche 85.5 model year update reference...

You have to be joking if you think that Porsche was following Ford on that.

There were regulation changes that took place in calendar-year 1985 that allowed for flush fitting headlights, different body and bumper regulations, and other automotive advancements that caused MANY cars to change specification after the fall-'84 introduction of the model-year-1985 cars. Even the Fox Mustang SVO converted mid-year from sealed-beam headlights to the flush-fit aerodynamic lens and cartridge bulb headlights it was intended to have when it was designed for the '84 model year.

Porsche 944 introduced a new 911-like dashboard and re-designed interior, as well as a Porsche-built engine for the 944S2, and the introduction of the 951 Turbo with aerodynamic fascia-covered bumpers.

Porsche designed the 2+2 3-door fastback progenitor of the 944, the 924, LONG before Escort, let alone EXP/LN-7 was a concept, originally intended for VW to sell, and with Audi-built engines. VW thought it too up-market, similar to their response on the 914, so Porsche sold the cars directly.

Porsche 924 and 944, as well as 928 were rear-transaxle cars, decades before GM did it with Corvette... and were some of the best handling cars, hands-down, of that era, and even being a premium-Porsche-branded vehicle, probably sold many times what EXP and LN-7 did.

Any parallels are industry-wide, or otherwise purely coincidental.

kanadanmajava1 > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 14:36

1

When I was in my 7th grade there was some school assignment where we were asked who our occupational idols were. I really liked drag racing then (I haven't even seen a drag race car at that point though). I remembered that I had a pack of trump cards and and one of them featured Bob Glidden's drag race EXP. And I decided to write his name.

It was probably this car but in different colors.

Margin Of Error > kanadanmajava1 02/03/2015 at 14:44

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Nice !

ranwhenparked > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 15:00

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I always thought the EXP/LN7 occupied a weird middle ground. They weren't exciting enough to appeal to ports car buyers and weren't practical enough for people that wanted a regular car that looked sort of sporty. The MR2 and Fiero catered to the former and cars like the 024/TC3 grabbed the latter.

If it had 4 seats, it might have done better as a sporty but practical coupe. If it had been RWD with a more powerful engine, it would have done better as a sports car.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 15:04

2

OK, I'll bite.

There are plenty of reasons it failed.

1. It was heavier than its Escort/Lynx progenitor. Imagine the two-seat sports car that weighs 200 lbs more than the 4-door hatchback It doesn't make sense to me.

2. It was expensive. For the price, you could get a 4-seater base Mustang with rear-wheel drive, 8 more horsepower and a lot more torque, in a package that weighed about the same. Early 4-cylinder Fox bodies could be optioned down to around 2300 lbs with manual steering, stickshift, and no a/c. One of the car magazines wound over 40 mpg out of a base Mustang 4-cylinder 4-speed back in the early 80s. It was a few hundred dollars more than its EXP twin, but didn't show anything except its bubble-back rear in terms of upgrades.

3. Mercury had suffered from a lack of a good brand identity from their late 70s "Everything's a Cougar," phase, until their death in the late 2000s. With the exception of the new Cougar, European styling and handling tease in 1998, Mercury had little direction. Also, when the 99+ Cougar sales boom went bust in 2001, they didn't have anywhere to go. It's like they said, "Maybe let's make Fords for women," and introduced the Mariner Premiere.

4. The Japanese/Europeans: For about the same money, you could get

or

or,

(Essentially a Simca Horizon, but with the Chrysler 2.2)

or,

all of which provided similar or better performance with far better utility.

Add to that, the fact that 1983 would be the year Honda introduced the new Prelude and CRX, and Toyota teased the MR2, Pontiac introduced the Fiero, and you can see how the LN7/EXP twins could be considered "Also-rans"

5. (correction) Porsche phone dial wheels came around in the late 70s - with the first 928. Here's a magazine ad from 1979 and the 928 clearly has phone dials:

Now, mind you, the EXP was an interesting little car, and the LN7 had style to spare, but it just wasn't competitive.

Jonee > Margin Of Error 02/03/2015 at 15:15

1

I've always been really fond of these, too. Everyone seems to have solid theories as to why it didn't sell, but I think the biggest one was that it was a two-seater that didn't look like one. I'm sure many people got in expecting a back seat and went, "wait, what?" Interesting idea, though, and that first generation looked great even though it was pretty close to its Mustang/Capri siblings.

Margin Of Error > Jonee 02/03/2015 at 15:16

0

Agreed

VA Gent > Margin Of Error 07/19/2016 at 10:50

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I guess I was one of the 40,000 that purchased an LN7 new in the Summer of 1981. It was a 1982 model. I had just graduated from college, started working and needed a new car - my first new car. I remember looking at the EXP but liked the LN7 styling much better. I wanted something sporty that got good fuel economy. I looked at a Charger 2.2. I didn’t think it could compare with the Mercury in terms of quality and refinement. The engine had more power but that was not a priority for me.

I still have the original window sticker from the LN7 - it stickered at $8,900. It had AC and a sun roof. It had the 4 speed.

I liked the car. Yes it wasn’t the fastest but I didn’t buy it for that. It drove fine. I traded it in in 1987 on a new Ford Escort GT. After reading this article I wish I still had that car.

Stephan Kippe > Margin Of Error 04/24/2017 at 07:12

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“phone dial wheels, an idea that was eventually stolen by Porsche”

So Porsche had a time machine, considering they introduced the phone dial wheels with the 928 in 1977...

v8powerage > Margin Of Error 10/28/2017 at 16:53

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Those wheels could’ve been hardly stolen by porsche as 928 had them since 1977

LN7 Famgg > VA Gent 04/02/2020 at 06:10

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My wife was also one of the 40,000 buyers. She graduated nursing school in ‘83 and wanted a small, sporty car, saw a   blue ‘83 version on the lot and fell in love with it. We met two years later, got married and kept the car until 1989 when our first child was born. The 2 seats then became an issue, even though we occasionally could take short trips with a third person in the hatch area.

We hated getting rid of it even then but didn’t have space for a third vehicle.  It was a lot of fun with the 5 speed transmission and really didn’t have terrible performance for the ‘80’s.  We’ve looked occasionally for available ones to buy and restore but usually by the time I see one they are already gone.  Getting an EXP just would’nt be the same.