1981 Ford Cortina Base review from UK and Ireland
"A car for underachieving sales reps, perhaps?"
What things have gone wrong with the car?
Mainly body rot was the problem, the boot floor suffering badly in this respect.
Passenger window mechanism broke.
And then the engine went bang. Hardly suprising, the 1300 kent was too small for the size of car.
General comments?
This was a fairly rare in the uk 1300 base spec 2-door cortina, below even the L model in specification, so the first owner must have been a right tightwad. one of the most basic cars I have ever driven. however it served the purpose as cheap transport for a while.
Performance wasnt too bad up to about 30 mph, but after that the lack of torque and the weight of the body started to show. Ford had lowered the gearing substantially to allow the little engine to get moving, this sadly meant that motorways were a noisy, thrashy affair even only doing 70 with economy rarely bettering 30mpg.Put into perspective, my previous car was a morris Ital 1300, which would have run rings around the cortina in performance and economy.
As basic A to B transport, it was fine with very few reliability issues, but not a good representative of the cortina range in general.
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| I think when running good they are great cars and its such a shame more people don't appreciate them |
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| An oldie, but a goodie, a classic piece of machinery |
| Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? | Yes |
| Year of manufacture | 1981 |
| First year of ownership | 1992 |
| Most recent year of ownership | 1994 |
| Engine and transmission | 1.3 petrol Manual |
| Performance marks | 3 / 10 |
| Reliability marks | 9 / 10 |
| Comfort marks | 8 / 10 |
| Dealer Service marks | |
| Running Costs (higher is cheaper) | 7 / 10 |
| Overall marks (average of all marks) | |
| Distance when acquired | 92000 miles |
| Most recent distance | 105000 miles |
| Date of Entry | 8th December, 2007 |