Yes, the Ford ads comparing the Granada to the Mercedes-Benz 280 were outlandish — some might even say they were downright crazy. But if you’ve seen either the print ads or television spots, you can see at least glimpse where Ford was coming from. Its Granada clearly shared similar, if decidedly boxier, exterior lines to the 280. So much so that even if Ford never directly acknowledged the idea, one has to wonder if its design team didn’t take direct inspiration from the Mercedes model.

But even as clever as the Granada ad campaign was, it’s likely nobody ever, under any circumstances, actually mistook the bulky vehicle for its sleeker Mercedes counterpart, unless they’d maybe had a few too many. That fact is so painfully obvious that the Ford ads actually feel a little tongue in cheek in retrospect. They might even be considered ingenious as works of comedic marketing, if only because the ads no doubt got people talking about the Granada. For proof of the fact, we’ll simply note that it’s been more than four decades since Ford pulled the plug on the Granada and we’re still talking about these wacky Mercedes ads.
We’ll likely never know for sure if a little cheek was the intent of Ford’s marketing team with the Granada-Mercedes spots. But it’s safe to assume that folks who’ve actually driven both the Ford Granada and the Mercedes Benz know that the similarities between the two did not extend far beyond the moderate-at-best interior and exterior likenesses.