in that coach built two-door cabriolets and coupes were offered, converted by a traditional Cologne based body builder called Karl Deutsch However, these special bodied cars appear to have been relatively expensive, and only about 150 were produced. The cars were offered with an unusually broad choice of color and interior trim options. The early 1960s were a period of rapid expansion for the west European auto-industry, and export markets for the new 17M included Greece and Australia where several cars were converted locally into "pickups" or, in Australian English, "utes". The 17M was also assembled in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia in right hand drive. Engine and running gear The cars were all branded as Ford Taunus 17Ms which might have led observers who thought they had understood Ford Germany's naming conventions to conclude that the cars all came with 1.7 litre engines. In fact, there were three different engine sizes offered, being the 1498 cc unit first seen in the Taunus 15M of 1954, the 1698 cc unit originally introduced in 1957 to cope with the weight of the first Ford Taunus 17M and, from September 1961, a new larger 1757 cc engine. Power outputs initially ranged from to , and these engine versions remained available throughout the model's four-year life, but several more powerful engines featuring raised compression ratios in response to the increased availability of higher octane fuels appeared during the four-year period: by 1964 the most powerful Ford 17M offered . In Sweden, the more powerful version first available in 1962 was sold as the "Taunus Sport", with the inclusion of a more lavish interior. Approximately 50% of the cars built were delivered with the smallest of the three engines, the 1498 cc unit. The engines were all gasoline/petrol powered four-cylinder inline four-stroke water-cooled units. Changing gear involved a column-mounted gear change, which by now was becoming increasingly mainstream in Germany. It was possible to specify a "Saxomat" automatic clutch with the three-speed transmission,: drivers content to accept a fully manual gear change system could also specify a four-speed gear box. There were several important technical innovations during the four-year model run which no doubt go some way to explain the car's commercial success when compared to that achieved by its predecessor, and will have strengthened the Ford image in a market which had grown used to seeing Ford sales trailing those of General Motors’