The Ghia Vignale TSX-6 was a concept station wagon built by Ford Motor Company's Ghia design studio in Turin and unveiled at the Turin Motor Show in April 1986. That year the Turin show returned to a spring schedule, and the TSX-6 appeared there in place of the earlier TSX-4. Despite its numerical suffix, the "6" did not refer to six-wheel drive; the vehicle was a front-wheel-drive design.
The TSX-6 was built on a midsized platform with a raised roof intended to combine aerodynamic styling with everyday versatility. Ford design vice president Donald F. Kopka presented it as a multi-function vehicle able to serve as a passenger car, station wagon, cargo carrier, or urban pickup truck, and praised it as an ideal family vehicle capable of carrying seven occupants in comfort. The cabin held three rows of forward-facing seats, arranged for two occupants up front, three in the middle row, and two in the rearmost row. From the rear doors backward, Ghia's designers raised the roofline and glazed the resulting step, giving the two rearmost, slightly elevated passengers extra headroom and improving visibility, a treatment recalling the glazed roof step used on the Buick Skylark Sports Wagon and Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser between 1964 and 1969.
A folding seat system allowed the middle and rear rows to be arranged into a completely flat loading platform, a double bed, or a single bed combined with half of the total cargo space. The TSX-6 could also be converted into a pickup-style configuration: the electrically operated rear section of the roof slid forward, the rear window dropped, and a bottom-hinged tailgate folded down to extend the loading area, permitting the transport of taller items. When even more height was needed, a connecting roof bar above the tailgate could be removed and stowed in the load floor. Flip-up rear quarter windows allowed loading and unloading from the side of the vehicle.
The front end was softly rounded for aerodynamic efficiency, featuring low-profile mini-quad headlamps under plexiglass-style covers and a soft, highly yielding facia bumper that incorporated a cold air intake and blended into the body surface. The cabin was trimmed in antique-style leather, with seats topped by feather-soft cushions covered in silk-type fabric tailored in a coordinated color scheme. The instrument panel included an adjustable steering column with ergonomically arranged controls.
Mechanically, the TSX-6 used a front-mounted 2.3-liter four-cylinder HSC (High Swirl Combustion) engine with electronic fuel injection and EEC-IV engine management, the same type of unit fitted in contemporary American Ford models. Output was rated at 87 hp at 4000 rpm and 168 Nm of torque at 2800 rpm. Drive went to the front wheels through a three-speed automatic transaxle, replacing the five-speed manual gearbox used in the earlier TSX-4. The suspension consisted of independent MacPherson struts at the front with a stabilizer bar and a parallel four-link fully independent rear setup, paired with power front disc and rear drum brakes and power rack-and-pinion steering.
The TSX-6 measured 455 cm in overall length, 169 cm in width, and 147.5 cm in height, on a wheelbase of 252 cm. It was built as a five-door station wagon with seating for seven. As a design study, the Ghia Vignale TSX-6 was never put into production.
