Faults:

This was a very reliable family car. Main problems were the cooling system, namely the radiator used to get blocked & had to be replaced, plus the water pump had to be replaced.

Some rust appeared in the bonnet and the bottom of the driver's door.

General Comments:

This was a reliable family car with only modest performance, but could cruise all day at 60mph on the highway provided there were not too many hills. It began as my parents' car, then my first car which I unfortunately wrote off after driving it for 2 years.

I remember the disc brakes were quite good for a car of this vintage. Fuel economy was good at 30 MPG. You could do a lot of maintenance on the car yourself; they were mechanically fairly simple. This car was fairly comfortable with front bucket seats; I remember you sat fairly high in the back seat. The car was softly sprung and felt heavy in corners, but at least it did have anti sway bars at the front.

It could be an annoying car to buy spare parts for; there were often minor changes from year to year, and this could cause problems. I remember Dad buying a replacement exhaust pipe, and it was not quite right as he was given a 1962 model exhaust rather than a 64, and they were very similar.

This car was far superior to my next car, a 1972 1.1 litre Ford Escort.

Faults:

Most things went wrong with the car. The head cracked.

The positive earth electrics were a nightmare.

The car would not start on a regular basis.

Seats were so bouncy and the ride so hard that we would often hit the roof going over a bump.

The car had a crank handle which could be used - but could break your arm if not carefully used.

At one stage the car was running on 3 cylinders for 2 months before I noticed.

Tyres were so skinny that the car would slide out at little notice.

General Comments:

This car looked ugly and was ugly.

Its only positive point was that it was cheap ($350).