'94 Ford Probe [pics]

Hrrm. I like the execution of that, but the individual bits don't do much for me. I think he's achieved what he set out to do though - get people looking at Probes favourably. That sleepy eye headlight kit makes me cringe though. It just looks like the electrics are knackered (although 18 months of Volvo 480 ownership might just have left me paranoid).

Ford shot themselves in the foot with the Probe. It wasn't a bad car in its own right and even looked good. The forced marketing associations with the Capri killed UK sales outright, though. Had they made a rear wheel drive V6 successor to that car the phone would have been ringing off the hook. Instead people got a FWD reshelled MX6.

They've never really lost that semi tragic image. A guy at work has one and is forever having to defend it when people take the mick. Think about this though - it has a 5 x 114.3 PCD (so a lot of wheel choice out there) and the top models used Mazda's KL-ZE V6. The Probe's existence allowed Ford to homolgate that engine for racing use in the Mk1 Mondeo, too.

The Corrado was never a sales success in its day (something to do with ludicrous pricing and the fact that people regarded it as a direct Scirocco replacement when really it was pitched as a cheaper 944 alternative) but became a cult classic. The Probe arguably handled better than the V6 Calibra but the latter car is remembered for its styling rather than anything else.

No - one talks about the MX-6 (or the smaller MX-3) so it's a case of both siblings getting stonewalled.

The Canadian car at the top is much closer to what a tweaked Probe should look like, rather than a Ripspeed ram raid.

Summary : Would. Buy, treat with subtlety and I reckon you'd have a fair shot at the 'Love For The Unloved' award at RRG 2013.

A sierra based coupe would have done the job for Ford better than the Probe did, but with the sierra near the end of its life I guess ford were not interested in that platform any longer.

Shame as much like the Capri it could have run the full spectrum from basic 1600 right up to 2.9 V6 maybe even with the 24v or the YB in RWD or AWD.

They had all the parts.

I like the looks & ideas of the upper spec. ones done properly. Tail doesn't look as strangely long as Mx-6.
But memory will always be distorted by seeing a basic US one in this spec:
With Burgundy interior.
Ignore the owners additions!

The Probe was a relative failure here in the US in part because they tried to use it replace the Fox-body Mustang. Ford was even talking about calling it a Mustang. That went over about as well as you might expect. Funny though, the Ford Cougar was what resulted when they binned the next generation Probe halfway through development.

Another thing to point out is that it wasn't that cheap and more people went for a Prelude which was around the same price but had arguably a better chassis, was better on gas, and unarguably had a nicer interior. Plus, VTEC, which counted for a lot even if most owners didn't understand how that worked.

In its defense, we in the States never got the KLZE V6 in the 93-97 MY, we got the KLDE at a deficit of 30 or so horsepower. It was still an improvement over the previous generation's V6 offering, the pushrod 3.0 Vulcan, as featured in the Taurus/Sable, Ranger, Aerostar, and Tempo/Topaz.

The probe had the same engines and power no matter were you bought it the higher power klze engine was fitted to jspec import mx6s the uk mx6 was the same car as the probe just different bodys

That actually looks nice, in fact it's the only nice one I have seen.
Think the main problem with Probe's is they tend to attract certain owners with a dubious taste in stick on parts.
It may sounds harsh but just look www.google.co.uk/search?q=modified+ford+probe&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=7GqxUJ3gKcHJ0AWhhIH4Dg&biw=1366&bih=622&sei=8WqxUIeKKsva0QXajYD4AQ

The Probe wasn't helped by having a name which conjured up visions of a proctologists rubber clad digit.

+1

Stealth > GTO

Found a nice, simple MX6: