The new Ford Capri should have been more coupe and less SUV
Editor Paul Barker thinks is surprising it has taken Ford thing long to bring back the Capri nameplate, and wonder what will be next
There’s clearly no such thing as a new idea in Ford’s ‘What shall we call a car?’ department. The long-rumoured resurrection of the legendary Ford Capri nameplate is finally a reality. And the purists will hate this one as much as they hated the Mustang name being used on the Mach-E electric SUV. Because, with a lovely sense of symmetry, the new Capri is… also an electric SUV.
Most manufacturers play on their history to some extent, but it’s surprising that Ford has taken this long to get to one of its most-loved nameplates. Well, most-loved among people of a certain age who pined over the desirable long-bonneted coupé in the eighties. Like me.
Ford’s random naming policy has seen it resurrect more recent names such as Cougar on a mid-sized SUV rather than a coupé – but with the Kuga spelling to throw people off the scent! Meanwhile, the Puma was loved as a baby coupé before coming back as a baby SUV a couple of decades later. Both those names are newer than Capri, but found a modern residency much sooner.
There’s clearly a lot of love for the Capri name, but the reaction to it landing on a new electric SUV will be interesting. Predictably, some will moan that it’s sacrilege, and anyone under about 35 will likely have little feeling either way. Personally, I wish it was a lot more coupé and less SUV, but I understand the desire to make the most of a famous name. And at least it’s not as bad as I first feared, when I envisaged little more than a Ford Explorer with a sloping roof. At least some proper thought and craft has gone into how it looks, and the Explorer underpinnings are certainly not the worst place to start, as I found out recently when I drove that new electric SUV, itself sporting a resurrected nameplate.
It will be fascinating to see what the world thinks of the new Capri. But what will be next? Cortina, Anglia, Zodiac? Maybe we could have a resurrected B-Max? I wonder what a 21st-century Model T would look like. Probably an electric SUV!
What legendary name plate would you like to see come back? Let us know in the comments section...
