Hochbauamt Köln - Or: for the Capri garbage can
07/26/2024
We actually wanted to stay out of it. By now you've already read it elsewhere anyway: Ford has dared to put the name "Capri" on an electric SUV. Hmm. Should we make fun of it or get upset? Both have already been done enough. There's no need for another article. But since some of our readers have also complained in various stages of vulgar language about the defilement of Ford's traditional names, we naturally no longer want to ignore the issue.
Writing the names of successful sports coupés on chunky all-wheel-drive vehicles has become something of a tradition at Ford itself. And each time there has been an outcry among plum fans with a minimum of reference to the past. After the Puma and Mustang and the Kuga, which is at least phonetically similar to the mountain lion, the Capri has now also been resurrected as an overweight inner-city tank. Many feel deliberately provoked by this repeat performance. When will the GT40 come as a two-ton seven-seater?
On a less malicious note, perhaps Ford simply can't think of anything new. After all, in addition to the German-English compact coupé of the seventies, "Capri" was also used for a Lincoln road cruiser of the fifties, an English Consul coupé of the sixties, a Foxbody Mercury of the eighties and an Australian MX-5 competitor of the nineties. In the third millennium, Ford even had two completely different models called "Fusion" in its range at the same time.
This would only be half as bad as a pure lack of creativity if the press department in Cologne didn't obsessively try to establish a link to the "real" Capri of the seventies. "The legend is back!", pontificates the advertising and makes a big splash wherever it can. And then a bloated SUV appears, which has about as much in common with the compact sports coupé as the pill-popping Las Vegas Elvis has with the handsome boy from the Sun Records studios.
And that's what gets everyone excited. Because apart from the name, the old and the new have nothing in common. Or as one reader put it: "It's like building a huge concrete satellite town for 50,000 people somewhere in the sticks and then calling it 'Chambord Castle'." What does Ford expect from a nostalgic name with a positive connotation? Those who remember the seventies Capri are annoyed by it. And those whose memories don't go back that far don't care about the historical reference.
Incidentally, the new Capri is 35 centimeters higher than the old one due to its design. As a small consolation, Ford has tried to quote the original with the headlight contour and window line. But a vague resemblance in an otherwise fatty body without the youthful energy of yesteryear is simply not enough. See Elvis. Perhaps the tables should be turned and the coupés given SUV names: Explorer, Maverick - or even F-150. Ford has announced a new Transit for 2026. Perhaps it will then be a two-seater roadster.
