Faults:

I bought the car with very low mileage, so it doesn't have any mechanical issues.

Unfortunately, it has an unsightly rust hole on the right side, but it's less noticeable because the fender is new.

When I bought the car, everything was original: brakes, shock absorbers, springs, etc., but we've replaced them.

Also included are some additional parts I acquired, such as a windshield (they were worn) and original bumpers from an Escort MK3, brought from England.

General Comments:

It's my first car, it's almost 15 years older than me, and I bought it thanks to my first job, so it's very special to me. The car belonged to a man very close to our family who had to sell it due to health problems, and he let me have it for just 21K Swedish kronor (less than 2,000 euros/dollars).

The car runs very well and serves its purpose. I use it to commute to and from work, do the shopping, and for other minor needs. Since it's over 40 years old, it's exempt from road tax (another reason to keep it).

A car that turns heads everywhere, fun to drive, and charming.

It starts in any weather (especially cold, because here in rural central Sweden we don't get much heat).

What I love most about the car is its originality. Although it wasn't heavily used when I bought it, throughout the time I've owned it I've noticed that it's a robust, old-school car, built to last almost forever, which for me should be the true purpose of a car.

Very typical of its era, it doesn't have unnecessary features like air conditioning (we don't really need it around here), central locking, or electric windows, just 100% charm and reliability.

With this car I understand when older people tell me that cars over 30 years old were better, more reliable, and had fewer unnecessary problems; I don't know if it's entirely true, but they have a point.

Faults:

The gearbox started to leak oil just after I bought it. It was such a small leak that it took plenty of time to notice it, but when we finally did, the gearbox was in such a bad condition that it needed replacement. You couldn't change gears at all, and it made a terrible noise too.

The engine couldn't do more than approx. 130 km/h (that's about 90 mph), it just kinda died after that marking, and refused to go on any further. I wasn't aware of this when I bought it.

The engine sometimes just died for me when not hitting the gas pedal at low speeds.

A lot of rust on it.

The original red color of the car was more white than red when I got it thanks to the sun. However, I partly fixed this problem myself with the help of a lot of cleaning fluids and a couple of hours of spare time.

General Comments:

This was the first car I bought after taking my drivers license. I needed a cheap car with OK looks, and bought it very cheap from a car dealer. Of course I knew that there should be some problems with the car for such a price, but I couldn't imagine they where this serious.

The most serious problem I had, a part from breaking down the gearbox, it was my engine. The engine felt kinda slow on all gears and speeds, but after 110 km/h it became super-slow. It took weeks until it reached 130 km/h, (or 140 km/h when going down a hill). These made overtaking both scary and dangerous. Of course the engine wasn't supposed to behave this way, but after getting tired of all the faults with this car, I sold it, so I never know what caused this rather serious error. Needless to say, my car wasn't a performance car in any meaning of the word performance. It barely performed at all.

As if this wasn't enough, when doing city streets at 20-50 km/h the engine often died if I wasn't given it any gas with the gas pedal.

I think all the other problems I had with the car speaks for themselves, but these engine problems really was something special that I wasn't quite prepared to fix myself at the time.

However, to be fair to the car, there were a couple of strong points as well.

The interior was pretty solid, even if it felt a bit plastic and a bit too simple. The seats were quite comfy, and it had plenty of room in it, No problems doing 4 hour trips in this one.

The handling was OK, but nothing spectacular. After fitting lowering springs, things got a bit better, but it still didn't communicate to the driver in the right way.

Steering was also OK, nothing special there.

I kinda liked my ford when it worked properly, it took me from point A to B most of the times, looked kinda good, and had cheap spare parts, but however, it was very unreliable, and have put me of from buying other fords from the same era.