1981 Ford Granada straight six

Summary:

A piece of crap

Faults:

This car was a piece of crap. It would not start the first time. It would take up to five times to start.

It was lousy in the snow. It has a lot of slack in the steering.

The thing was a tank. That was the only thing good about it.

I had it for a year, then sold it to someone that knew more about cars than I did.

The other reviews are right, it is slow.

I truly hated this car. I would stay away from this car.

General Comments:

The car is a tank. Do not buy these cars; it is hard to find a shop to fix them.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 29th November, 2014

7th Dec 2014, 04:39

These engines have carburetors. Mechanics who can fix them are still out there. Look harder, and you'll find them. The bigger problem with one of these cars is the fact that they were way slow by 1981 standards (66 MPH 1/4 mile), let alone today's standards.

8th Dec 2014, 05:39

Needs a 5.0 V8 under the hood to move better.

11th Dec 2014, 16:02

Really, a V8 would make it faster?

14th Dec 2014, 21:11

Yes it would make it faster. It's a very common mod for these old Fords.

1978 Ford Granada 5.0

Summary:

A lot of fun and function!

Faults:

Master brake cylinder, but the car was almost 30 years old.

General Comments:

You cannot compare a car from the 70’s to today, but the Granada was my second car, and my first V8. I loved this car.

Now for reliability and performance, stock it is mid range, but you can do so much to this car if you wanted to. A 302 V8!

The car also did very well in New England Snow!

Out of the many cars I have owned, this is one of 3 I wish I had kept!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 18th October, 2011

1975 Ford Granada

Summary:

Very posh army green spontaneously combusting Granade

Faults:

Problems? Well, it does have that tendency to catch fire. The carb and fuel intake is all right next to the wiring harness and many electrical parts. Not a stroke of genius on these old Fords, but common problem for many I've heard. Mine caught fire 4 times over my years owning it. I carry a fire extinguisher to drive. If you don't, it always likes to burn parts that are no longer manufactured, and this results in many hours at the junk yard.

It's hard to start. More than the ordinary warm up time for a carbureted vehicle. It likes to stall, especially in the first 10 minutes of driving it. This is probably because I have it timed a little under manufacturer spec, because that's the only way I can get a 1975 boat-car to pass my state's emission requirements that were designed with fuel injectors in mind.

General Comments:

CARRY A FIRE EXTINGUISHER WITH YOU ALL THE TIME.

Other than the carb catching fire and being much too close to electric parts to spark it, it's a very well designed, posh, comfortable, smooth-riding car, after the first 10 minutes of it warming up. If I don't do this on mine, it stalls; like I said above, it may be because I've got it timed a little low to pass emissions.

It was $800 when I bought form original old-man owner. It's army green. I re-did the vinyl top with some green-brown plaid material and some polyurethane that I touch up yearly (like a deck).

The 8-track works!

I've never had to put any major $ in it, the engine & tranny still going strong, actually so are the alternator, battery, coolant system, shocks, struts, and things you expect to go bad.

I did have to do a little exhaust work, change the brakes, spark plugs, and other normal maintenance.

Only problem was that when it started to have undetectable carb issues, this caught it on fire. First time I thought I had found a leak in the fuel line, so just changed that & the filter while I was there. It happened again a month later. I replaced a bunch of hoses that got melted, and replaced some seals in the carb.

A month later, flames again. This time it burnt up a no longer made wiring harness that was a pain to figure out how to reproduce. Rebuilt the whole carb.

It happened again (damage minimised due to fire extinguisher always in floorboard now). Replaced carb with junk yard one that I put a new kit in. Good for a couple months... but my family kept riding me about not driving my Granade (well, what else will everyone call my army green spontaneously combusting Granada) now that I've got kids, so I sold it.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 2nd May, 2010

2nd May 2010, 20:11

Why not drop a newer Ford Mustang motor in it?

3rd May 2010, 17:38

Hehe, can't help but notice that FoMoCo is like the pyro-child of the automotive world. Remember the Pinto? And hey, Ford still has an ongoing recall of over 16 million vehicles for a faulty cruise control switch that catches the brake fluid on fire.

5th May 2010, 11:45

If you did not order cruise control, what's the problem? I have a manual trans anyway.

14th Jun 2010, 17:11

We had a 1975 Granada with the I-6 and an automatic. In over 300,000 miles we had put one starter, one muffler, and one carburetor on it. Other than brakes, tires and batteries, that's it.

As for fires, if you make sure the bolts on the carb attachment plate stay tight and the fuel lines stay tight, you won't have a fire problem. If gas isn't leaking out, it can't ignite.

As for the fire issue, Pinto was re-designed in 1974 and was then as safe as any other car. I owned a '79. It was a great car. I sold it at just under 200,000 miles for twice what I paid for it.

14th Oct 2010, 09:56

I had an AMC Wagon with a V8 that used the same carb.

Mine leaked fuel. It was the accelerator pump, right in front.

A snap to change (and fortunately no fires).