Ford Granada Review

Basically, it's a lot of car, for very little money......

http://www.granada-enthusiasts.org/

Equipped with a cosworth engine that
just flies with leather aircon CD ABS
etc

With J and K's going for between £2.5K
to £3K you would be mad to miss out.

I owned a black version with a bodykit
for 4 years, it looked stunning and
went like a dream I only swapped it for
a change and then I bought a Nissan
300ZX Twin Turbo I'm still not sure
which I prefer.

The Granada seems to almost have followed in his footsteps, the chubby kid which became the slim and stylish youth, before growing increasingly large, bloated and ugly.

For this test, we were loaned a G registered Granada (the best part of ten years old), well past its first bloom of youth, and now depreciated almost to the bargains section of Auto Trader. The Granada has always been the luxury limo of the masses, for the badge snobs, the low rent Ford badge just doesn't carry the kudos of certain European machinery, and hence its residuals are not great, but Ford still managed to shift bucket loads of the things, admittedly most went into the heavily discounted fleet market, where companies would use them as a sort of cheap senior manager perk. But there is still a raft of choice and this of course is great news for people hunting out used examples.

It's an awful lot of car for not a lot of pennies. Just look at what you get. BIG saloon body, large enough to easily hold 5 Ollie's. A large boot with fold down rear seats, capable of swallowing all of their take-outs. Rear wheel drive, all round disc brakes, ABS, power steering, and automatic gearbox.

Oh and Ford's venerable V6 in 2.9 litre cologne form.

Sure, the less than tee-total drinking habits of the ancient V6 lump will put off a lot of people, but that's why they're so cheap. Some one else would have to do the figures, but it's a fair guess that what you spend on fuel, you will get back on the laughably cheap Ford service and spares cost in the long term, when you compare the car with more modern, more frugal and much more expensive alternatives.

In reality, the engine is actually the most disappointing part of the car. 143 bhp from a fuel injected V6 and the best part of 3 litres is nothing to boast about. This is close on 20 bhp down on the earlier 2.8 units fitted to the legendary Capri. I guess that's catalytic converters for you.

What the engine does have is torque - and bags of it; an automatic gearbox is perfectly suited to this unit and most of the time, it merely waffles along at around two thousand revs, these two factors do mate perfectly to give excellent smooth take-off and the big car purrs to 50mph on a whiff of throttle, slurring the shifts beautifully.

On narrow, twisty backroads, the auto-box does get caught out as it's far too lazy and willing to change up as soon as you release the go pedal and then there is a delay as the box changes down as you get back on the gas. A multi-mode gearbox would be a lot more fun, but what can you expect at this price?

The narrow road also exposed the want for handling, not that it's bad, just that you can only move a big car at a finite speed around narrow lanes. The car's smoothness can also cause problems here, with you arriving 15 or 20 mph too fast at a tight corner. Luckily, the all-round discs perform superbly at bringing the car to a smooth, drama free halt.

The ride can get caught out on rough backroads too. It damps out most of the pockmarks well enough, and keeps its composure all of the time, but the suspension will thud over larger pot holes more than may be expected. It's independent suspension doesn't mask out road imperfections as well as say a Citroen XM.... but then, what does?

Wider A roads and the motorways that are this cars natural habitat are dispatched with aplomb. The Granada serenely shifts large loads from place to place without even ruffling its feathers. Most of us don't have rear wheel drive cars any more. The Granada reminds us what we are missing. It never lays claim to being the best handling car in the world, but it has excellent stability and no discernible understeer at sensible speeds. The body does roll somewhat but never uncomfortably, just a gentle reminder that a lot of metal is generating some large G-forces. The other thing we forget about front wheel drive cars is how pathetic the steering lock is; the Granada can be twirled round in small tight spaces despite its titanic length.

The Ghia tag didn't count for much by the time of this car's production. Velour seats, fog lamps, electric windows, mirrors, sunroof, heated front screen, height adjustable seats, lumbar support, centre arm rests are all included. Leather, air conditioning, electric seats are all held back for something above Ghia, but it's all fairly comfortable. The seats are plenty comfy and, for me at least, I could relax with both elbows on the centre and door arm-rests whilst ambling down the motorway.

All I needed was a (bigger) beer gut of epic proportions and a cigar and I would have been laughing. The plastic wood is just about the tackiest ever created (but luckily, there is very little of it) and the driver's binnacle is incredibly cheap, nasty and ugly, but the rest of the interior is fairly restrained if slightly underwhelming. The Nike pump lumbar support in the driver's seat is a great wheeze - and actually works!!.

I guess that, like many people, I would normally profess to disliking automatics. They still posses a slightly fat American image. This was actually the first large auto I'd driven as the only other autos I have driven were awful little sewing machines, with boxes that constantly hunted for that in-between gear, so I approached this one with some trepidation. But it dispelled some of my bigotry and just proved to me that automatics can make sense; when combined with a motor with a healthy helping of low down and mid-range grunt, they can be a pleasure.

Riding around town in stop-start stop traffic, they are an absolute godsend.

Just like Ollie, the Grandads have gone now and it will be left for us to look back over time and see how under-rated both were. At least with the Granada, the ones that were produced, including the so-called Scorpio, seem to be lasting quite well, so we could be seeing them for a long time yet. The newer versions do have an image problem that the likes of the Sweeney helped the early versions avoid, but as long as you avoid the disgustingly ugly hatchback, your street cred won't suffer too much.

So what the hell - ignore the general populous trying to eek out massive gas mileages from their horribly staid little cars. Instead sit back, relax, don't worry about the fuel costs and enjoy the ride instead. You only live once so why suffer a crap car? - Treat yourself to one of these and live a little.

The motoring cognoscenti will no doubt agree with the first part of the above statement and its not too difficult to see why. Even in its heyday the bloated inflated Sierra styling was hardly the last word in elegance, and Ford's venerable V6 lump only shoved out a fistful more horses than a good two litre four cylinder unit. On paper at least it looked old even when conceived. Inside no amount of leather and toys could rescue the Blue Peter sticky back plastic wood effect and chaotic scattering of dials and Lego land switches.

Looking now at a old and tired F registered version, its easy too be far kinder to it. Especially as it can be bought for so little money . This particular one sitting squarely half way in the Bargains column almost down at nominal prices. Its definitely an ugly thing, not so much in its basic concept but more in execution and detail. The wheels look lost in the arches and the volumous rubbing strips which wrap the body may save a thousand scuffs but look truly awful.

Yes its lived an obviously hard life, as pointed out by the neglected dull paint , almost polished away on the front wings probably by a few too many trips through the Car wash. The drivers seat was also well squashed and in need of minor repair, but other than those a few stone chips around the rear wheel arches, a missing front badge ( presumably vandal damage) and a little surface rot on the sunroof trim it was remarkably solid considering its Age and an Interstellar type mileage.

Fully loaded the Scorpio was then and heavily loaded it still is now. The equipment list would still shame many a modern vehicle.

Leather Seats , Air Con and Electric sunroof.

Electric windows all round, Electric mirrors..

Electric Adjustable , Heated front seats, with Air Adjustable lumbar support.

Heated Front and rear screens, Headlight washers, front spot lamps.

Centre arm rests Front and rear.

Auto gear box , Cruise control.

Fuel Computer, Central locking , Alarm

Ford may have skimped on the wood and the fine detail but they sure lumped in lots of the big details by the bucket full and its to the Granddad's credit that all its toys still worked perfectly.

Whilst details like the plastic wood grate insanely, other touches like the large swing out glove box contrast with their superb practical usefulness. Pockets in doors and behind seat, add to the dash and console trays and arm rest cupboard to provide adequate storage for all those little items that end up collected in your car. The Ford radio with separate amp/equalizer look a little on the HMV side of old but still worked excellently.

Tackiest things on the Granada which really give away Ford cost cutting measures are the aforementioned Sticky back plastic, the cheap dash, the modified standard heater controls to run the Air-con and a shiny plastic and ugly steering wheel.. Worst is the lockable fuel cover which is actually flimsy plastic not metal. Almost as bad are the doors which are seem to be flimsy metal and give a hollow clang like a FIAT pandas

To be fair to it this Granddad had sat neglected in a corner for a few weeks with no fuel in, so it came as little surprise when it refused to start and then sat chuffing away on a single bank until the cobwebs had blown off. After that it started perfectly. It was in need of a service mind and had a little trouble with stalling As the gas was pressed the Auto box would load up the revs drop and if on a slight incline the Granada did not move, more gas lurched it too fast and lifting the foot stalled it. Are very delicate (or heavy ) right foot cured it but it lead to a few anxious moments reversing in tight car parks. Its the sort of minor fluff you would drive around in a manual, and disappeared once warmed up.

Despite its size the range of adjustments to the drivers seat and excellent all round visibility make it easy to drive, even my vertically challenged other half being able to find a perfect and happy driving position and was unintimidated by its size.

Ride wise it was a strange mix slightly wooden on light undulations but superb over bigger bumps. The suspension does seemed well judged, never wallowing about as you might suspect it too.

The Granada never claimed to be the finest handling car of its generation, but despite it slightly vague power steering, grips and turns remarkably well for its size. It image may be jalopy but it certainly never drives like one. The only problem is that whilst the seats are remarkably comfortable they have little or no lateral support and you do tend to slide around a bit. It does encourage you to go a little less frantically though and at a more sedate pace they are fine. No matter what pace you choose the Granada's brakes are strong and powerful hauling you to a fuss free stop every time, with a well judged easily modulated balance of power against pressure stopping you hard without grabbing .

The Ford V6 may make a good boat anchor, but on paper its difficult to see how it managed to last so long as an Automotive power unit. It was not the last word in high tech when launched and was really quite old by the time the Granada inherited it. Low down torque and mid range is good but the top end was outclassed by many rivals, on the Road it still feels like it has plenty of urge in a somewhat noisy bombastic manner although the figures never reflect the seat of the pants feeling. For most of us it has adequate go just where we need it.

Being the ultra practical hatch back version this one offers some real versatility in the carrying compartment. My gut feeling when I opened the hatch is that the seats up boot is some what smaller than the saloons. Seats down it opens up into a truly mammoth space that I would be hard pressed to fill. The only disappointment was that although the seats backs split fold the base doesn't , but its a minor compliant that I would not lose sleep over. Nice touches in the rear are head restraint that tuck into the seat backs so you don't have to take them off either to fold the seats or see out the back.

I don't normally find on board computers either interesting or useful. Fords rendition of one here is fairly limited in functionality but does boost the useful Point, Average and Remaining Range figures. It did show up though that pussy footing about on very light throttle around B roads gives no real economy advantages over more liberal throttle applications, Low to Mid teens is what you get at Accelerating on anything up to two thirds throttle. Better just to get to 30 - 40 mph fairly swiftly and then cruise along rather than crawl slowly to that speed. A heavy right foot is rewarded by single figure MPG returns during acceleration. Without the aide of the computer I would have said the Auto box slips down a little to easily but the computer confirmed the truth that lugging in the high ratio used no less fuel than easing along in the intermediate ratio.

Changes from the Auto box are smooth under normal conditions but they do get slightly abrupt under heavy acceleration, Kick down response though is fine and on the move your never left waiting for power to arrive even if it does come with a fair old Rev screaming wallop. The only real time the Autobox gets caught out is braking down into slow 90 degree turns and then attempting to accelerate hard out as it stays in top and then pauses momentarily before it has to double shift before taking up drive again, a smoother driving style fixs that problem, but it can hunt a fair bit around tight switch back country lanes. To be fair with only 3 ratios and no mode switches the torque converter is always going to have to work hard to cover the gaps, manual shifting can improve the situation a little but most of the time hinders more than it helps so you dont bother.

In its natural motorway habitat fuel and gear ratio worries fade away. Cruising above 70 still returns a fairly remarkable 30+ mpg, and its not until your cruising above 85 that it slips back below 30mpg. At speed the Granada is a relaxed and able cruiser. Stability is excellent and you can switch in the simple but effective cruise control to allow you than too sit back and relax. This is the first time I've used cruise control and I have to say that despite my skepticism I was won over by it. It would be a boon on long trips able as it is to finely control the Throttle far better than I could and of course helping to stop that inbuilt complacent ness that comes from long motorway stints where your speed grows ever larger as the trip progresses. In this environment its difficult to find fault with the Granada as it eats up the miles in total relaxed comfort.

Fords Granada/Scorpio range has to be the most car you can buy for a little money in the used sector. Long model life and healthy sales mean there are lots out there to suit all pockets. When you consider how many people buy guzzling 4*4's that never go off road in the name carrying capacity, seating and strength, then you cant help thinking that many would be better off with a nice one of these, it will ride better carry just as much, tow just as well , go faster and be far cheaper to run/repair. If you want a lot of car but don't see the need to invest lots of capital in its purchase and are not too concerned about image, you cant go far wrong Fords big bus