Coinciding with lower than anticipated sales (Ford sought 15,000 sales a year for the brand), Merkur fell victim to unstable exchange rates between the dollar and German mark, leading to further increases in price. As passive safety regulations were to be adopted in 1990, the Scorpio was required to adopt automatic seatbelts or airbag(s); as the Ford Scorpio was developed with neither feature, passive safety compliance proved too expensive to justify the conversion cost of redeveloping the model line for North American sale.