1981 Ford Granada L 200
Summary:
A good low-cost family or work car that's cheap to fix
Faults:
Starter, A/C, heater, radio and rust.
General Comments:
Bought new, still keep it around as a backup. Has had no major problems and has been far less troublesome over the years than my wife's Hondas and Toyotas.
Comfortable, slow, okay gas mileage, and unfortunately starting to rust.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 29th August, 2000
16th Jun 2009, 12:35
The Granada is a piece of crap. Our 1975 only made it to 325,000 miles before we got fed up and traded it. During those 17 years it nearly broke us with repairs. We were out almost $500 in repairs on that unreliable piece of junk. We very stupidly traded for yet ANOTHER of those unreliable Fords. Us domestic owners are stupid that way. Why, I'll bet you do good to get a measly 500,000 miles out of yours.
You might consider doing what we did later on. We read all those wonderful things about Japanese cars and got ourselves one of those nifty little Hondas. We got to meet all sorts of nice, friendly mechanics and spend lots of time in the dealers service waiting room watching a nice big COLOR TV!! The tow truck drivers were just as nice as could be too. Even that nice junk yard man was very friendly and nice when he hauled our wonderful Honda off to his junkyard at 99,000 miles with parts of the engine's innards poking out of the side of the block.
Yup, that little Japanese car was a BARREL of laughs. Oh, and we stupidly bought yet another of those unreliable, crappy Fords.
16th Jun 2009, 10:33
I agree that the Granada is not a fast car, but not necessarily slow by any means... I have an 81, Straight 6. This motor has been a juggernaut, I've ran with no oil, I've put 10k miles on it in 3 months and I believe the more this car is driven the more it loves you.
I have however had some problems with the key lock cylinder. It has been replaced a few times. But, I installed a momentary ignition switch on the dash and it's running like a champ. Not to mention that my car is twice as cool since the start up is similar to that of a race car!!! LOL.