1987 Ford Orion Ghia 1.6i from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Council estate limo - a sophisticated hooligan's car
Faults:
Core plug went and the car dumped all its coolant.
As it aged, the central locking proved unreliable - ended up playing central locking roulette, having to check what lock hadn't worked each time you secured the car - what is the point of central locking if you have to go round the car checking all the doors (and the boot) every time you lock up!!??
Rust - awful spearing rust in the door bottoms, floor pan and inner wings
Impossibly heavy unassisted steering.
General Comments:
Went well enough - roomy, but not really the BMW basher Ford fans would have you believe. My Dad had one a similar age at around the same time and kept it for longer than I did, and his just dissolved. And just for the doubters, Manchester is NOT by the sea - nor does it rain as often as people would have you believe - the rust protection was just awful. My wife's Fiesta of a similar age did the same.
The interior was quite nice, though the grey, hard and easily scratched plastics were VERY 80's.
On the whole, even for the time it was pricey, only reasonably economical, and performed fairly well, but just not good enough.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 23rd November, 2013
13th Mar 2022, 15:07
Nice review. These cars remind me so much of 1980's and early 1990's life in the UK. Father had an Escort van from the same time period, was a reliable and tough enough van, but as you mentioned rust is not an 80's Ford's strong point, at only 8 years old it started to fail MOT's.
Cousin had an Orion LX and a later 1991 Escort Ghia that fared better and lasted over 10 years and 150K miles before they got scraped, but he garaged them, kept them cleaned and serviced like it was his trophies.
These cars were never worth much, but ironically now due to being so rare in 2022 it is thousands for a mint perfect example Ford from this time period; most rusted away to nothing.