When Ford revealed the new Capri earlier this year, the company’s marketing team knew it would be stress testing the old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Or Oscar Wilde’s quip that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
The Capri was certainly talked about. If it had ears they would have been aflame. Ford doubled down on the controversy by hiring footballer-turned-actor Eric Cantona to bang the drum on behalf of the new car. Presumably the plan was to infuse its new electric crossover with some of his cantankerous spirit despite the fact that he almost certainly had no idea what a Capri was until his agent brought him rapidly up to speed.
That said, it’s been a while since the arrival of a new car made the mainstream news agenda. This one did. What a car is called is part of the marketing process, and the Capri was off to a flying start. Even if lots of people were very angry indeed.
The irony is that the Capri is as much folk memory as it is car. This is a machine only those of a certain age will remember with any clarity, an emissary from apparently simpler times. The original arrived back in 1969, a genuinely stylish coupe that built out on the American Mustang’s concept that an ordinary Joe could afford a sports car.
Across three generations, Ford shifted 1.9 million examples, mostly in Europe and with very specific success in the UK. It may have shared its underpinnings with more mundane Ford fare, but its impact as a halo product in an era when Ford had more than 30 per cent of total market share and Ziggy was still playing guitar was unarguable.
There were wild looking racing versions, cars that reeked of petrol and cologne. But it was the Capri’s annexation of pop culture that really sealed its fate: there was one in the opening credits of Minder, Bodie and Doyle muscled their way round London in a silver 3.0 S version, and when Del Boy traded up to something with four wheels rather than three, it wore the Capri badge. (Feel free to look up any of those references if you don’t know what I’m on about.) It was all over by 1987, though it’s worth noting that the run-out limited edition 280 Brooklands model commands very solid values in the classifieds.
Will this ever happen to the new Capri? It seems unlikely, because the other thing being stress tested here is the very concept of a coupe. Not least because it’s a type of car we all profess to love but that hardly anyone buys. Hence the crossover/quasi-SUV typology. “The coupe is an almost irrelevant segment in my view,” Ford chief designer Murat Gueler confirms. “The Capri wouldn’t be a coupe in 2024 if it had stayed in production continuously. This car has a unique look and we know it’s not for everyone.”
Ford Capri Premium AWD Extended Range: the facts
Price: £56,175
Powertrain: dual motor, all-wheel drive, 335bhp, 501lb ft
Performance: 112mph top speed, 0-62mph 5.3 seconds
Battery: 79kWh (useable)
Energy efficiency: 3.9 miles per kWh
Range (claimed): 346 miles
Hmm. I’d argue that it’s not polarising enough. Echoes of the original car exist in the C-shaped rear window graphic and what its creators refer to as the ‘dog bone’ front grille. And that’s about it. The rest of it more closely resembles the chunkily modernist Polestar 2, the Scandinavian electric start-up that proved, as with so many other EV makers, that you don’t need any legacy at all to achieve cut-through. The Capri is more slippery than it looks, a drag co-efficient of 0.26 making this the most aerodynamically effective production car Ford has ever made. Way more than the jelly-mould Sierra of yore.
It’s also closely related to the Explorer model that went on sale earlier this year. Things being what they are in the automotive world at the moment – namely fraught and expensive – both borrow the ‘MEB’ chassis hardware from Volkswagen, as used on its I.D battery-electric cars to varying degrees of success. Ford’s European outpost has lately endured fluctuating fortunes and this parts sharing strategy is the only viable option. When pushed, its engineering guys looked a bit sheepish about the lengths they’d gone to in order to give the Capri a distinctive dynamic signature. A few tweaks to the suspension is about the size of it, which is a shame when you remember how good Ford got at ride and handling with the Focus and now defunct Fiesta. Changing times.
Not that there’s anything objectively wrong with the Capri. The problem is that there’s nothing especially right about it, either. One of the biggest challenges car makers face when it comes to electrification is in differentiating its smooth and silent new EV from someone else’s equally refined and quiet electric offering. Calling your new car Capri conjures a certain spirit and swagger, but the reality here is a little too vanilla. Two versions are available at launch; the rear-drive Extended Range has a 77 kWh battery and promises to travel up to 385 miles fully charged. An all-wheel drive dual motor version with a slightly bigger battery is good for 335bhp and a zero to 62mph time of 5.3 seconds. Faster than any previous Capri. It’ll also charge at speeds up to 185kW. Two trim packages, Select and Premium, are available, with prices starting at £48,075. A smaller batteried car is incoming, as is a more powerful ST version.
For now, the AWD car is another mid-size EV that manages its (two tonne-plus) mass impressively, flowing up and down the challenging mountain roads of our French test route in a generally very accomplished and grown-up manner. There are no rough edges, and the steering is linear without having much real feedback. Same goes for the brakes which could use a bit more feel and a greater level of regenerative functionality. Overall? It’s solid, composed and as exciting as a big smartphone.
Inside, there’s lots of storage space and the central infotainment touchscreen has a useful if slightly cranky tilt-and-slide party trick. Navigating your way through the various functions is easy enough. The dash architecture itself is pleasing, a floating fabric-covered soundbar at the top joining the dots to high end hi-fi. Once again, aside from a few holes in the lower spar of the steering wheel, nothing in here shouts Capri. It’s roomy, though, and the boot is a decent size.
Naming a car is a hellishly difficult thing to do, it’s true. But in dusting down the Capri badge Ford may have scored an own goal. I wonder if Eric Cantona was ever guilty of one of those?
