You Need This: Third-gen Mercury Capri, the “Australian Miata”

Calling this an Australian Miata is insulting to both Australians and Miatas.

RadBarchetta said:

Calling this an Australian Miata is insulting to both Australians and Miatas.

I remember when both cars came out, one of the auto mags said something like "Do you really think there are any Miata owners looking at the Capri and thinking 'I should have bought that instead'?" 

Sure an NA/NB Miata will kick its butt in any kind of performance driving situation, but I think the turbo XR2 version is worth looking at if you just want something fun and cheap to drive around town. They are out there in decent shape, and they seem to really fly under the radar value-wise compared to some other stuff from that era.

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

If my requirements were cheap, convertible, and 2 seater....It's perfect. I mean I see them all of the time under 5K. Shoot there is a super clean one close to me for 6K with both tops and under 70K miles.  

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

The XR2 is definitely on my radar now after writing this item up.

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

This one is not a turbo XR2, though.

Barely resisting urge to get pedantic about Capri's and generation defintions....

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

I don't mind at all if you get pedantic, I'd like to be as accurate as possible.

(And I'm genuinely curious, too.)

Honestly the generations thing doesn't work unless you're working inside a series of cars called Capri.  Ignoring trim packages, like on the Ford Consul Capri and some Lincolns of the 50's, there's the mk1, mk2, and mk3 Ford Capri that are all based on mk1 Ford Ford Econobox / Cortina.  mk2 and mk3 Capri's are very similar to each other, mk3 basically updating the front end sheet metal but most of the car is the same.  Only the first few years of mk2's were sold in N. America, as Mercury's, and those were in low numbers.  mk2's are kind of bland looking, mk3's look cool to me (never been near one in person), mk1's look like a mix of Mustang, Maverick, and a roof line vaguely like a 911.  These were built in the UK, Belgium, Germany, S. Africa and maybe somewhere else from 1969 to 1987.

There's the "Fox" Capri that is basically a Fox Mustang with a Mercury badge and styling tweaks and has nothing to do with the mk1/2/3 cars.  I don't know if a single part interchanges between the "real Capri" and these cars.

There's the car you linked to, which is heavily Mazda based, and is again its own thing with no technical relationship with the cars already mentioned.  FWD!  Australia!  Bob Lutz!  All combined to create a package far different from the above cars.

Apparently there's some weirdo Capri EV in Europe that just showed up with a roof like vaguely like a mk1 Capri but nobody seems happy about the reuse of the name and the thing looks kind of awful to me.  

Here's a 1979 Ford Capri mk3, for reference;