Rules, by and large, are made to be broken. Limits and lines in the sand seem to exist for the simple purpose of pushing people to go beyond them. It’s not always a bad thing; if nobody had been brave enough to sail a ship to the horizon centuries ago despite all the baseless warnings, we’d all still think that dragons existed where the sky met the water. With auto companies, defying conventional thinking is the high-risk-versus-high-reward gamble many must take.
Ford has been on the winning and losing end of this over the years. “People will never buy a station wagon pumped up to van height, despite the huge interior space.” Ford agreed with that supposed rule and lost big to the Chrysler minivans. “There’s only so slick and aero-looking you can make a family sedan and still find buyers.” The Blue Oval ignored this idiom and hit the jackpot with the Taurus.
Recently, Ford has once again been doing the equivalent of being the first to say “shit” on the radio and not get fined by the FCC. One of the most hallowed names in American cars, Mustang, has always graced two-door coupes with various gasoline engines under their long hoods. The car essentially built a whole genre called “pony cars.” Then, like Galileo risking prison for saying the world was round, Ford placed the Mustang name on an electric car. Actually, it wasn’t even a “car,” but instead a four-door SUV crossover called the Mustang Mach-E. How dare they!
Ultimately, the world did not end. There were no protests or smashing of windows and overturned, burning Mach-Es in dealership lots. Sure, there were complaints, just like people of the 1980s ripping on Ford’s “jelly bean” cars. In the end, the gamble seems to have paid off. It helped that the Mach-E is not a bad EV at all, and the performance it offers at the price is nothing to sneeze at.
Ah, but what do gamblers do? They keep going- double or nothing! Ford wasn’t done with taking on sacred sports coupe cows, and now they were going to do it across the pond.
An Unexpected Move
Once the Mustang broke sales records in America after its 1964 launch, Ford knew there was no reason that the inexpensive, simple sports coupe formula couldn’t work anywhere. The Mustang used the pedestrian Falcon as a basis, so Ford took mechanicals from the Cortina/Taunus bread-and-butter sedans to make their more European-sized sport coupe. Launched in 1968, the Capri replicated the success of the Mustang as the “car you’ve always promised yourself” and could afford. In the first two years alone, Ford sold 400,000 of this first-generation Capri.
A second-generation car in 1974 added a hatchback, smoother lines, and even an automatic transmission option. By the time of the launch of the 1978 Mark III model, sales of the aging Capri were beginning to drop but strong enough for the model to soldier on all the way to 1986 in the UK (unlike Cortinas and Escorts, most Capris were private instead of fleet buys and far more profitable for Ford).
To be honest, most Americans don’t get the Capri in the way Europeans do- particularly the British. North America did get the first two generations for the European Capri; German-built cars sold as a Mercury, but with no branding on the car itself (the US never got the Mark III). At times it was the second best-selling import in America behind the VW Beetle.
Still, it never won the hearts of the US market like the Mustang did, in the same way that the American Pony car just wasn’t right for the UK. Boy, was the Capri right for England, though.
As an American, I only know this since I lived in the UK as a car-crazed young kid at the end of the seventies, and I was aware of the impact it had on the market. Also, I couldn’t help but notice them each week in the 1978-82 British TV drama The Professionals. British law enforcement agents Ray Doyle and William Bodie each were assigned Capris (primarily third generation “S” models) and would often hoon them sideways, showing my childhood self how real men were supposed to drive cars. The crappy Torino in Starsky and Hutch (on television during this same time) just paled in comparison.
Because of this experience, I can fully understand how Brits are up in arms upon hearing that Ford is at it again putting names of fabled cars where they probably shouldn’t go. This time, there’s going to be a new Capri, and it’s not just a four-door EV crossover; it’s based on a Volkswagen platform for Chrissake. What can we do?
Lower! Longer! Well, No, We Can’t
Regardless of what we think or say, this new Capri crossover is happening, and like the Mustang Mach-E maybe it’s simply a natural evolution of the automobile that we have to accept. Still, if you’re going to call something a “Capri,” I think it needs to do justice to the name. Over the years, Ford has slapped the Capri badge onto a Fox Mustang clone in 1979 and later onto a small front-drive convertible, but both were sporty-looking propositions. This new Capri SUV is not.
Making it look more like an original Capri would work not only from a nostalgia point of view but also from the standpoint of creating what appears to be a more aggressive and exciting car. Let’s at least try.
Speaking of nostalgia, that’s always something that’s relative to personal experience, yet I think we couldn’t go wrong with using the Mark III Capri as an inspiration for a rehash of the new EV model. Even if you loved your first-generation car in the UK, you likely lusted after the last version’s squinting eyebrow over the menacing four round headlamps and ribbed taillights that look lifted from a Lotus (I know, they’re Rover SD1 bits). Besides, who wouldn’t want to make like Bodie and Doyle chasing some baddies?
Look, we’re never going to turn a rather squatty-looking crossover into something that looks like a low-slung sports coupe, but Ford seems to have gone out of their way to make it look like the polar opposite. Let’s take the nose- please. Are they trying to make it look as tall as possible? Why? You couldn’t put the headlamps any higher, and all that body color below them just creates the antithesis of the Mark III Capri’s menacing low face. Hell, they look like they even tried to simulate four headlamps with the “lighting signature” on the new car and they didn’t even bother to make them round!
I’ve added a black grille-like band up front with simulated circular four-shot lights, mounted about as low as I could without getting into where the VW MEB platform bumpers likely are. More black trim in the bumper and turn signals similar to the last “real” Capri help continue the look.
On the sides, I’ve tried to carve out as much as possible to break up the visual mass that the new Capri seems to be accentuating. Oddly enough, the soft shadow area looks a bit like the iconic dark-colored “S” decals on the beloved hot Mark III version. I hate fake rear door handles but I do like the Mach-E’s “invisible” buttons and finger tabs built into the black window frame area so I’ve used that trick here as well. Now you can’t tell from a distance if it’s a coupe or a sedan. The beltline is lowered slightly just like it is on the VW ID4, and I’ve reshaped the rear window that seemed as if it was trying to look more like a Polestar than any Capri ever made.
In back, Ford did the same thing as the front by putting the Capri taillights way up high and accentuating the height of the car, even though the generation III Capri had a vast expanse of sheet metal above the low taillights. I’ve changed that and also removed the wraparound parts of the taillights. No “real” European Capri had wraparound lamps; the wraparound lights on the EV model just make the thing look like every other crossover on the road, and Jason has already pointed out that our friends overseas see no interest in the value of side marker lights anyway. The taillamp “signature” is an interpretation of the 1978-86 car as well, and we’ve added a graphic strip to simulate the old spoiler and further break up the space.
Wait Until You See The Corvette-Cross
As much as I’d love to see a new “real” Capri in the idiom of a Toyota 86, we know that the chances of that are slim to nil. Crossovers are the future, and it pains me to say how useful they are as daily driving tools.
Hopefully, this new Capri EV will provide performance as impressive as its Mach-E cousin and gain the at least begrudging acceptance that the Mustang EV now has. It’s just a shame that Ford couldn’t have done just that much more to make the Capri at least look a bit more like a car deserving of the name.
This Is Why People Are Mad About The New Ford ‘Capri’ – The Autopian
The Reborn Ford Capri Is A Volkswagen EV That Looks Like A Polestar – The Autopian
Our Daydreaming Designer Gives Us Some Facts And One Lie About The Mercury Capri – The Autopian
“To be honest, most Americans don’t get the Capri in the way Europeans do- particularly the British.” WHAT? WTF are you talking about?
The Capri (remember: KAH-pree, not cuh-PREE; that’s just wrong with no justification) was an immediate cult classic in Germany. It was the first car jointly developed by Ford in Germany and the UK. It was built in Germany longer than it was in the UK; it’s as much a product of Ford Germany as it is of Ford UK, even if more of the existing engineering was UK-based.
At least we did know how to say the name. And still do.
I don’t think he’s claiming that the Capri is more English than German, he’s just pointing out that the Capri is particularly fondly remembered in the UK, and I can attest to that.
Over here, people still absolutely adore the Capri, and they are usually everywhere at classic car shows.
I don’t quite understand the appeal myself, but I generally find myself alone with that opinion.
When you make it two doors and lower it, it just kinda looks like a Scion tC
Dramatic improvement. If only they’d bothered…
Lemme take a wild guess…. this is for the EO market only. Come on! Why do American car companies sell really cool looking models over there and we get stuck with mostly giant, oversized trucks?
Except that…. they’re not. They’re a compromise on everything. They’re not good as cars, and they’re not good if you need to haul anything.
The useful vehicle as a daily driver is the minivan, honestly….
I have one as my second vehicle, just because I like to have something more fun to drive (and good on fuel) in my daily commute… but if I didn’t care about having a fun car with a manual transmission, as most people don’t, a Toyota Sienna hybrid does everything a crossover can do, and does it better. More comfortable. More usable space. Easier to get in and out of for elderly people you might need to haul around.
I just will never understand crossovers.
Is it me or does it look a little grumpy? I expect it to yell at kids to keep of it’s lawn. I love the redesign though, Grumpus and all. How did Ford not do this?
I really like this image presentation format! Being able to see all three images at the same time is far easier than scrolling up and down to see the variations. Bravo!
Now I want to see the CorvetteCross, but as a C3 styled, Maverick competitor. The sugar scoop rear window is made for the buttresses of a unibody pickup bed.
When the Capri was launched here in the US, it only came with the anemic 1.6L Kent 4cyl, not exactly a Mustang competitor…..later we got the V-6, which also was not all that great. I always liked the looks, but it was a long ways from quick or sporty to drive.
Thanks, Bishop, and you’ve definitely improved the car. But really, the only style change needed involves the nameplate. With that done, it can just be yet another ugly crossover.
This is a car trend that I really don’t get.. Like normal cross-overs make sense. But why a giant sedan? Like this, and the Toyota Crown. I’ve also noticed a lot of the luxury brands are doing, BMW, and Mercedes both have one..
They look like toy cars come to life.
The BMW X4/X6 in particular look like sedans having an allergic reaction. I could be wrong, but I think they actually are sedans, in that they have trunks and not hatches. Which makes me wonder “is this for a sedan buyer who just wants the proportions of an SUV but not the utility?! How many of those buyers can there be??”
Thank you for trying, Bishop, but even your exceptional talents can’t redeem this design. The Mach E is a beautiful car (crossover, whatever) by comparison. May God strike me dead for saying this, but Ford should’ve just made it a full-on crossover and given up on the ugly ‘crossover coupe’ design style that Mercedes and BMW have foisted upon the buying public.
Good to see another styling article from you, Bishop. Maybe some day you’ll share your thoughts regarding the ass end of the Kona.
The Ford (VW) design kind of looks like a porky fish, so why not rename it the Ford Crappie. Same alliteration and the double entendre is just a bonus.
Ok – but you didn’t go far enough.
See how the rear light signature of the original Capris is vertical – like the Mustang?
Why are the new elements horizontal?
And as much as it’s the fashion to slap on large swathes of black on the lower sections of everything from 911s to Excursions to make them seem less tall – Why not just break it up the way the original did with black mouldings? Some actual bumpers that extend beyond the badges would be nice too.
Sectioning cars really needs to make a huge comeback.
And substantial contrast trim. It’s atrophied over the years unfortunately, but it’s a great way to break up large expanses of meh.
And since people seem to buy much on what they feel is better resale with their boring color choices and the market catering nearly exclusively to safety (or at least the appearance of such—the more intrusive, the more effective people feel it must be, apparently), big rubber strips down the side should come back to protect from parking lot dents as well as breaking up the slabs.
It might look like crossovers are the future, now, but like all the trendy form factors that preceded it , tastes will change and the crossover will, too, eventually run it’s course. That’s what I’m hoping at least.
One issue appears to be similar to the they-bring-a-knife-we-bring-a-gun situation in that people in normal height sedans (and especially lower coupes) feel “unsafe” on the roads now.
We need them to get just a bit taller first. I’m almost at the stage where I can see more of the road under the traffic ahead in my Lotus than in my GT86.
When lowness brings visibility we can all have pretty cars again.
I think there’s also been a generational shift in automotive enthusiasm. So many people in the younger generations see driving as a chore that interrupts their smartphone staring session or as a perpetrator of environmental malfeasance that they just aren’t that interested. A lot of them think it shouldn’t even be possible for a car to exceed the speed limit and want all the cars to have all the nannies. More than one generation of anti car nanny enthusiasts is certainly not helpful for keeping the fun cars around.
Spot on. And I think that attitude has always been there, it’s just been heretofore obscured by enthusiast sentiment. But smartphones tipped us past the apex, possibly for good. For a lot of people, cars aren’t about driving, they’re about transportation.
That front is a huge improvement, it’s like when Hannibal Lecter wears that guards face: sure that guard is dead, but there’s now something moving around that keeps reminding you he’s dead, and who doesn’t enjoy that? Just the people who loved the guard.
After what they did the the Puma (was a tiny sporty coupe, with a Racing version even, is now a SUV) and Cougar (was a coupe replacing the Probe, now a phonetically spelt Kuga SUV) no one seriously expected anything other than the same old shit with the Capri.
My family all refer to Capris as Crapis, because built by Ford. I’m sure had they actually launched a new coupe it would have either rusted immediately or eaten it’s own gearbox on the drive home from the dealer.
Still, it would have been nice if they’d tried something different to all this (gestures upwards at all the tall cars)
I’ve always wondered about the Puma, given its forbidden fruit status on this side of the pond. Does it sell well as a crossover now? How popular was the original coupe?
As an American, I don’t mind the crossover Puma that much, as compared to most of our crossovers, it’s remarkably restrained and carlike. And a manual can cover a lot of sins in my book.
The coupe was very popular: good looking, fun to drive and cheap. They were everywhere, until they all rusted away.
The new SUV Puma is also very popular. When people go to Ford to buy a replacement Fiesta or Focus what else are they going to buy? It’s not dreadful.
I do appreciate that Ford races the Puma crossover. I’m old school enough that that sort of thing is cool/matters to me.
When it discontinued the Ford Fusion here, there was speculation about what Ford would do for its NASCAR cup series entry.
The usual options floated were keep it the Fusion despite no longer making it (like Chevy’s doing now with its Camaro entry) or make it the Mustang. But there was also brief internet discussion of the oddball but kinda compelling choice of “why not make it the Edge (a meh crossover)?”
The prospect of a squashed-down crossover with two doors racing around oval tracks was fairly compelling to me, so an actual real-life version of that blasting through forests is pretty sweet.
Sounds like that’s the way NASCAR is going to go eventually.
A silly question that’s come to my mind that maybe our UK members (or Angry Adrian) can help answer for me:
How common was the bright yellow on the originals?
It seems like a very unBritish color, and while I get what Ford’s doing (and the history of if, Larry Shinoda and the Boss 302 ads, etc.), it seems like bright yellow would be the least common color people would associate with the originals.
I honestly can’t say how prevalent yellow was. It probably wasn’t available on the mkIII for more than a couple of years because by the mid-eighties the range was rationalised into 2.8 injection, and 1.6 & 2.0 Laser models.
I have an acquaintance (definitely not a friend) who is car dealer of the worst kind who deals in “recent classics”. He refers to that colour as “90 day yellow” because that’s how long the car is going to sit in the yard before anyone comes to look at it.
I have a similar thought about yellow, but it refers to the short length of time I would love it before I was tired of it. When I bought my Focus ST, there were three ST1s available (couldn’t order one as my previous car was totaled) and one was a metallic yellow. Every time I see it, I like it, but I know myself enough to know that I like that someone else has that color instead of me.
When I had my E86 Z4 Coupe I once found another one parked next to it in that bright “phoenix gold” that BMW used to do. The guy said it was only one of six that colour and didn’t seem to realise that that was because nearly everyone else had picked a colour that wasn’t horrific. It had matching seats too. I nearly said “oh god, they did it inside too” but mustered the social skills to stop myself just in time.
I was so happy getting in to my grey car with brown leather, it felt classy.
It’s stuck in my brain that every Capri I’ve seen in the US was dark red.
Mine was a nice medium blue color.
So I went down a bit of a rabbit hole in the Ford Heritage vault. I’m pretty sure that colour is Signal Orange, and it was an option on the S models. It’s in the 1978 brochure, but because the vault is badly indexed I couldn’t find a later all models brochure with the Capri in. The 2.8 injection came out in 1981, which replaced the 3.0S, but I don’t know when the lesser engined S models were replaced by the Laser.
Thanks and that’s truly fascinating. On our side of the ocean, it always seemed to me that hard yellows like that peaked in the early, rather than the late, ’70s.
Midichlorians exist? Spock had a sister? The new Capri is an electric Tiguan?
The Four Horsemen ride, and they’re coming for you.
It is CRAZY how adding just that black bumper trim and scooping out the sides really improves the look! It looks so much less like a giant hunk of Velveeta!
Ford Velveeta, what great name!
My understanding is that the doors on the Capri and the European Explorer are exactly the same, saving stamping and other associated costs.
Bishop’s comment about Mach E push button and winglet pull – spot on.
I really am looking forward to the new small BEV Fords coming out of the skunkworks group, in maybe late 2026. I’d like something original, less forgettable. I want cars with unique character, 3D sculptural qualities and hard lines to return, and that we hear fewer nostalgic words and see less hand waving regarding design. A little less efficient/more Cd seems like a small and acceptable trade-off for a more engaging car.
Looks better but still cannot get past the polestarness of it hah
And I think Polestar has been wonderfully trolling Ford already…”glad you like our design so much!”
Except the Polestar looks decent and this looks like my morning bowel movement,
Love this – funny how the brow-ed lights alone do such wonders.
The front end has been bothering me, not only for the whole “why not make them round?” thing, but also that it also seems to be trying to affect the MkII dog bone design as well?
I don’t have any design knowledge, but if you’re going to do retro, it sure seems it’s at best questionable if you try to combine two separate versions of something into a single one.
I think that’s true. The taller headlamps (“dogbone face”) were just on the Mark I and II, and the US market ones of that design were the main ones to get four round lights; a market that this new Capri isn’t designed for. The Mark III was the one known for the round lamps overseas, and that had the low eyebrow nose.