Ford Taunus - Production in Argentina

Production in Argentina

The Taunus was produced in Argentina from 1974 up until the end of 1984, when the production assembly was sold to Turkey to manufacture the Otosan Taunus. The Otosan factory also came to take over the tools for manufacturing the previously South African-built Cortina mk V-based Ford P100 pick-up truck, although building it with their own loading bed with foldable sides (reminiscent of the Peugeot U10) and its own front end with dual square headlights and a colourmatched grille. The Argentine models had different engines than the European versions, although the "Pinto" 2.0L OHC straight four was the base engine. Options were the North American 2.3L "Lima" engine which was derived from the "Pinto" engine but they differ in several specs. The biggest engine available in the Argentine Taunus was an updated version of the lima with an upgraded camshaft, new exhaust headers and a 2 barrel 36/36mm Solex carburator. None of the Argentine models came with 6 cylinder engines.

Prior to introduction the reborn "TC1" after a year of road testing received improvements to critical chassis components due to the harsher roads of rural Argentina and a lot of parts were re-selected for ease of availability although most of it still had to be imported from European Ford plants. One of the most significant technical differences is that the Argentine Taunus cars used Dana rear axles (of their common type 30 design) as opposed to the European Taunus and Cortinas that used Atlas or Salisbury rear axles, individually depending mostly on engine size.

The Argentine models produced were the "TC1" in 4-door saloon versions (2000L, 2000GXL and 2300GXL) or 2 door fastback coupè (2300GT and 2300GT/SP) from 1974 to 1980. The "TC2"/1976-78 Cortina Mk 4 was never produced, switching instead to the "TC3"/Cortina 80 (late mk IV) bodies directly and also introducing the uniquely Argentine facelift-version of the "TC1" fastback coupe with the "TC3" nose and its own taillights only found on this version. Those cars are referred to as the Taunus SP 5 and where upgraded with a five-speed manual gearbox (giving the number to the name), raised performance and a reworked interior as the most significant changes inside.

Both saloon (2.0L, 2.3 Ghia and 2.3 Ghia S) and Coupè (2.3 GT, 2.3 SP and 2.3 SP5) were produced, being the only coupè bodies ever made using the TC3/Mk5 styling. No estates or two-door saloon were ever produced. Four- and five-speed manuals and three-speed automatic transmissions were available, the last two only on 2.3 L models. In total, 72,024 (of which 3,769 were Rurals) Taunuses were built in Argentina.

Even though the Taunus/Cortina is not a usual sight anymore in many countries where it used to be a best-seller, it is indeed pretty common in Argentina, where a number of Clubs keep the cars in top condition, but it is also a regular transport with many families in the country.

Ford started production of the Sierra in 1982, replacing the Taunus definitely in 1985 and continuing production until 1993, without ever updating its styling as Europe did.