Scorpio is the eighth sign of the Zodiac and is also considered to be one of the water signs. Today's Merkur Scorpio rocks a V8, but does its price mean the seller is all wet?

Froggy may have gone a courtin' miss mousey - uh huh - and wanted to slip her some tongue, But had he done so in yesterday's frog-like she may have turned him down as fast as did the 68% of you who deemed it to be Crack Pipe. Not even its fancy-pants top could overcome the Olive Garden-ness of that odd-ball Italian.

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One of the more memorable Simpsons characters, Hank Scorpio was an evil genius with ADHD, who also had a penchant for flamethrowers. Contrastingly, with the Merkur Scorpio, Ford was happy just to dominate the U.S. sales charts for hatchback executive saloons.That of course, at the time of its release was a category made up of. . . well, the Merkur Scorpio. Unfortunately, Americans like big hatchbacks about as much as they like burning bags of poo on their front doorsteps, making the Scorpio as big flop here as were Hank's extortion plans on the Simpsons.

Of course it also didn't help that Ford decided to sell the Scoripio and its sister XR4Ti through dart board-chosen Mercury dealers, and then branded them with a moniker unpronounceable to the vast majority of the white belt and matching loafers patrons of those Mercury shops. It wasn't that either car was bad really - and in fact the little turbo 2.3-powered XR4Ti was, and is, pretty sweet - but both cars were priced in a strata not often visited by contemporary Mercury customers.

When new, the Scorpio cost nearly $25K, and as it looked almost exactly like the Sable sedans sharing the dealer floors, albeit with the hated utility of a large hatchback, the price didn't make much sense to potential buyers. Nor did the engine, a 144-bhp 2.9-litre edition of Ford's Eau de Cologne V6. Sapping ponies from that was an automatic gearbox - it's estimated that fewer than 60 cars came stateside with the 5-speed stick - but at least what power was left went to the back wheels.

This eliminates the dearth of power by replacing the six with a 5.0 H O V8 out of some sort of Mustang. That should be good for a few ponies more, as well as a few teeth less on the existing stock diff. In between the twister and the twistee is an AOD 4-speed automatic, put there only so the haters could get their hate on.

The rest of the car looks presentable, and the seller says that along with its new heart, it also received new struts, tires, steering and other parts, and only rocks 20,000 miles on the odo. He says it's ripe for either daily driver duties, or weekend hooligan shenanigans, needing only a new coat of paint if patina isn't really your thing. Wheels look like they're also off a Mustang, although they seem to be missing their center caps.

The Scorpio, and in fact the entire Merkur brand was pretty much a bust for Ford. These were premium European products which faced the kind of weak dollar pricing strains, and lack of familiarity that cars such as Saab and BMW also endured, only those cars had names that were pronounceable, and were likely to enjoy prime valet positioning due to their pedigree.

Because of all that, Ford only managed to move about 10,000 Scorpios during its extremely short model run, and despite engendering some they're still more likely to be found in the junk yard than a private collection. That doesn't mean they don't have any appeal, and they are kind of like a Sable - one of the coolest looking cars ever - but with the right set of wheels being driven, and this one has that Ford V8.

What do you think, is this Mustang-powered Scorpio worth its $2,800 asking price? Or, does that mean the planets aren't in alignment for its sale?

You decide!

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