A bright red Ford Capri sporty car, seen seemingly abandoned in the underground parking lot of the Ikea on the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing. At the time, parking at Ikea was free, no matter how long you parked there, so a lot cars were parked there ‘long term’, or dumped. The poor Capri was dusty and looked like it hadn’t moved for ages.
The black 京A license plate is very cool and very old. Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the early 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, and they were also allowed to import their own cars. The lower the number the older the plate. The numbering started at 京A·00001, so our Capri was the 05607’th black-plate car in the Beijing area.
The SA30 Ford Capri was completely developed by Ford Australia. The exterior was designed by Ghia and the interior by ItalDesign. The result was an attractive compact convertible that looked good even with the top up. It was made for just three years, from 1989 until 1992.
It was sold as ‘Ford Capri’ in Australia and as ‘Mercury Capri’ in the US. Things are a bit confusing on this particular vehicle because it has a Ford-badge on the bonnet and ‘Mercury’ and ‘Capri’ badges on the back.
Technically it was an interesting car as well. The Ford/Mercury Capri was based on the front-wheel drive platform of the third generation Ford Laser/ fifth generation Mazda Familia/323.
Power came from a 100hp 1.6 or a 132hp 1.6 turbo. The Ikea-car seems to be the base 1.6 model, the 1.6 turbo had some extra plastic and different wheel covers. Gearbox was a 4-speed automatic or 5-speed manual.
The license plate area is too small for the Chinese plate. The third brake light sits right above the license plate. Mercury badge on the right.
Capri badge on the left.
The interior appeared to be in a decent shape but some parts were loose and broken.
The Capri was never officially exported to China and as far as I know this is/was the only one in country. A couple of months later I was at Ikea again and the Capri was still there. Others have seen it too. Then, one day, Ikea started to charge money for parking and all abandoned cars were taken away. That’s when the Capri too disappeared.
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