Faults:

Fuel leak, oil leaks, exhaust center section, suspension rattles.

Inside many interior plastics broke, usually at the air vents.

Apart from the above wear and tear, there were no major issues and the car was fairly reliable as any car if looked after. In its final year with me I found oil was mixing with coolant and the head gasket was suspected to be going. Also the gearbox was making funny noises. At this point the car was not worth much and decided best it was scrapped.

General Comments:

1991 Ford Orion LX - dark red, a lovely wine red in-fact, good looking and smart car that I bought used for very cheap.

Surprisingly good to drive, and comfortable and spacious. The interior on LX models had nice seats. About town or on motorways the car was OK to drive and I made many drives up and down the UK throughout the 1990's. Good memories.

1.6 did around 35 mpg, about right for a petrol engine in this size of car. Fast enough when needed.

Overall reliability was good, just a shame it really went to bits at ten years old and past the infamous 100,000 mile mark. But this was about the average lifespan for one of these cars.

And yes, it really was just an Escort with a boot, nothing much else different about it. But the Orion nameplate was actually dropped in later years so that says it all, later booted Escorts were badged Escorts. I think they offered more equipment options over equivalent Escorts at the time the Orion was around, plus a lot of drivers traditionally like a saloon/sedan (myself included) so I guess it had some appeal. Not a great car, but not a bad one either, fondly remembered by many drivers in the UK. It used to be a very common sight on the roads.

Faults:

Speedo cable snapped.

Exhaust is blowing.

Eev counter inoperable.

Changed the engine from a 1.4 to a 1.6 xr2 engine due to having very different compressions and not worth fixing.

General Comments:

Quicker then most Orions, handles well due to being lowered.

Comfy on long distances, lots of room in the front and back of the car. Has a very large boot with plenty of room for lots of 10 inch subs.

Have re-trimmed the seats and door cards due to the gloomy gray standard ones.

It's a cheap car to repair when things go wrong. No major problems, just little annoying things.

Cheap to insure and cheap to run. Uses lots of fuel when racing mates in hatchbacks.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with car in the 12 months I have had it mot this year wipers seatbelt brakes and welding also new clutch.

General Comments:

Very good all round car good on petrol very fast 1 owner car from new

10 out of 10.

Faults:

Needed new front windscreen immediately after purchasing car.

Front brake discs and pads needed replacing at 115,000 miles.

Original equipment radio didn't work. (Since replaced with aftermarket unit)

General Comments:

Well, the Ford Orion is not a car you'd buy for cool image or to impress your friends.

However, if you can live with the pipe and slippers image, it's a great car to drive. Acceleration is awesome, especially for a car this size, and can have tears in the eyes of a few supposedly fast hatchback owners. And that's despite tall gear ratios, which give the car good fuel mileage on long journeys and the ability to cruise happily at over 100 miles per hour.

It's a roomy car, too, with an incredible amount of boot space. As a student, I recently had to move most of my possessions to a new residence, and the Orion coped admirably, even keeping up nicely with other traffic (no need to thrash the engine) despite being fully laden.

The car is more comfortable over bumps than the hatchback Escort, and has quite a nice ride if nothing particularly special. The LX model is also fairly well equipped; mine has a sunroof, electric front windows, central locking, rev counter and various other small luxuries. No power steering is a little bit of a let-down, but the steering isn't very heavy at all.

Costs are also good; almost all the servicing and parts have cost less than I've expected. The economy takes a bit of a dive in traffic, but out on the open road it doesn't get through fuel excessively, and is quite good considering the 1600 engine.

The car handles tidily and has plenty of grip, even in the wet, although you're still reminded that it's quite a big car if going fast. The engine also has a nice note under acceleration.

I was expecting to be disappointed (remembering a 1.4 Escort of the same generation), but in fact the Orion has been a pleasant surprise to own and drive. I'd recommend one to anyone who needs a solid motorway cruiser or family machine and doesn't want to give up performance or spend a mint.