Faults:

Dried up rear CV Joints needed greasing to stock knocking.

Centre bearing need replacing due to a low constant drone at 50mph and above.

Tyres/Alloys needed balancing because ride was rough and wobbly.

Temperature Sender was faulty and needed replacing so auxilary fan would kick in.

Interior needed v good clean as previous owner was a smoker.

Some interior panels needed refitting.

Al the above at point of sale.

General Comments:

For a 21 year old car, this is luxury driving at a fraction of the cost. My previous car was an Omega 3.0 Elite, packed with lots of gadgets, and a nice device that was guaranteed to lose your license (210bhp!)

After many months of spending money on the Omega, I decided I had had enough with all the modern gadgets and on board computers with ECUs and EMUs and decided that the the old school of motoring would be much more fun.

I purchased the mks series 2 Granada 2.8 Ghia X Auto Saloon from Ebay. I drove it first and it was great. few minor issues were noted, but nothing that could not be sorted easily.

The only issue that I really needed to sort out was a centre Prop-shaft bearing. Other than that, all the other issues could be done when I had time.

The Granada is bullet proof. The engine is a solid lump with plenty of BHP for the 3 speed Auto. It can keep up with modern day traffic speeds, and cruise on the motorway or in urban traffic.

The MPG is quite high, but the type I have is a carb version, and also has air conditioning which will cause a severe drop in economy.

Parts are still easy to come by as most of the parts were fitted to the Mk1, 2 and 3, so can still be found as new old stock, new, or even in a scrapyard.

The interior is plush with electric windows all round, electric seats in the front, heated seats in the front, electric sunroof, electric mirrors, child safety locks, air conditioning and a good stereo (replaced now with CD changer)

I has the usual Ghia refinements such as wood inlaid dash, wooden edged side panels and cubby hole, a massive boot (no wonder gangsters loved them in the late 70's and early 80's), and passenger interior lights for reading during those long night hauls.

It also has a trip computer that not only gives you all the required MPG and range details, but you can set it with an alert so if you set it to 70mph and you slip over it, an alarm sounds so you can ease off the throttle and salvage your license.

It is 21 years old, with an on board computer! Many cars today don't have that!

The seats are lovely and soft and not a mark on them. In fact the whole car looks brand new. I am very pleased with it. It is a hard wearing cruiser that took its routes from the big bruisers of the USA and, still today turns heads as a classic, not just for superior luxury.

Faults:

90,000 miles: Transmission (C3 box) needed a rebuild immediately due to water ingress from radiator. This was a good bargaining point when I bought the car. No further problems with transmission.

90,000 miles: Front brake discs were also very worn, but several new sets (OEM) juddered badly under heavy braking, despite meticulous care during fitting and gentle driving. The cure was to have them machined ON THE HUB by a local Rolls Royce engineer with a Pro-cut lathe.

100,000 miles: Prop shaft rubber doughnut broke up. There was still some vibration after replacement, but renewing the prop centre bearing and fitting spacer shims cured it.

115,000 miles: Fuel pickup filter INSIDE the tank caved in and blocked the pipe, causing the vehicle to falter and cut out on the motorway (going uphill in lane 3 of the Dartford Bridge of all places!). This is clearly a very stupid and irresponsible piece of design. My advice: If you've not done so already, drop the tank and lose that filter ASAP - this one strikes without warning! Fuel injected models are not affected as the filter is external to the tank.

Air conditioning works fine on the current R134a, but does need regular top-ups - potentially expensive!

There have been several other minor faults with the car, mostly run-of-the-mill (too many to list here) but nothing too difficult to fix.

General Comments:

These are generally durable cars which can easily achieve high mileages given some care and attention. There are very few other vehicles which can match the comfort of a Mk2 Granada and that's a fact.

Note that European Granadas are completely different from the US Granada/Monarch/Versailles versions.

Handling, performance and roadholding are all good for a car of this size and weight. Fit Gabriel gas shocks for ultimate smoothness.

Electrical systems rarely give problems, but there are some well-hidden relays to watch out for. Front window motors can fail due to corroded connectors or sieze up altogether.

The Colgne V6 engines do need regular top-end adjustment to keep them running quietly, but this is not difficult. Regular oil changes are imperative.

The exterior paintwork holds up very well - my car has no visible rust, but was treated with Ziebart when new. '77 - '81 models are more rust-prone.

The interior fabric is unbelievably hard-wearing with negligible fading due to sunlight. The leather on Ghia X Executive models can crack easily. Door and window rubbers can deteriorate and let in noise and water.

Faults:

Central locking broke at 218,000 miles.

Power assisted steering rack broke at 219,000 miles.

Started to get a little rust around the windscreen and rear window.

General Comments:

Very strong engine and body.

Quite fast for a big old car.

Quite thirsty.

Some minor faults, but expected with a car this age that's covered so many miles.

Very comfortable and extremely refined, a good cruiser.

Handling is safe, but not particularly sporting.