The Taunus was built by Ford in Germany. It looks more American than German. Ford built its first Taunus in 1939. They discontinued the line in 1982, replacing it with the Ford Sierra. Over the years, the Taunus name was used on several different sized and styled cars. You'll often hear this car referred to as the Taunus P7.2, P7b, or 17M 1.5.
Technically, these cars are unremarkable, except for the engine, which is a V4. (The Ford V4 found its way to the US in the Saab 95, 96 and Sonett in the late 1960s and early 1970s.) They were good, solid, unexciting cars. Think of it as a German Ford Falcon.
Never officially imported into the US, this is a rare car to find here. (The seller says it might be the only one in the US.)
The seller is the second owner and the car has just 22,000 miles on it. He's recently done some minor work to it (tune-up, radiator, brakes) and says that it "runs and drives well and needs no work". The body, which was originally white, has "some rust in both the rear wheel arches", but "no rust anywhere else". The interior, the sellers says, is "original and close to perfect".
The asking price for this car is $3500.00. If you factor in what it would cost to find a similar car in Europe and have it shipped to the US, that seems like a very reasonable price. I have to wonder why this car has been on the market for so long.
Located in Burlingame, CA, click here to see the Craigslist ad. A big thanks to Jon for sending me this listing.
