1987 Ford Fairmont XF Ghia 4.1 EFI from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Won't get better than this

Faults:

Head gasket (common problem). Fixed at home for a cost of $60, thankfully no damage to the head.

Door handles, but spare parts are cheap as chips, and there is a sneaky way to reinforce the handles so they never break again.

Electric windows worn out. The plastic slip gear ends up being chewed out eventually; even newer cars will do this when they hit an old age. Once again, a lot of spare parts are available.

Someone ran into me at a car park! The radiator was banana'ed, bumper destroyed... and it still made the 200 km trip back home!

General Comments:

This car was fantastic. It carried me from Melbourne to Queensland twice on 40 degree plus days, 4 men inside, A/C on, and running on LPG and did it without even trying.

Great first car. Heaps of room for all your mates, or just you and your girl in the back seat ;)

The interior is hard to keep clean, especially being a light tan color (yuk), but all the gadgets make up for it. Seriously, the accessories this car has put my dad's new Commodore to shame. The XF Fairmont Ghia came with a touring computer stock from 1987 onwards.

Including:

- Live liters per 100km

- Average liters per 100km

- Exact fuel mileage left in the tank (much more accurate then the dash fuel gauge)

- Trip computer

- Clock (I know, no way right! Haha)

- Timer

And I few more things I can't think of right now.

Anyone will a slight mechanical knowledge can usual fix all their own problems. The car is pretty foolproof.

Handle like a tank through the city, and chews fuel. But on open roads you can't get better. It seems the faster you go, the better it handles.

I kept mine stock, but I have recently bought another Fairmont from Dubbo and towed it down on a car trailer with my XF. I have lowered the new one, tinted windows, cut and polished the paint... and it looks mean!

Cheap car to buy, cheap to run (on LPG) and cheap to repair. And reliability is through the roof!

If only they made cars like that today.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st September, 2009

1987 Ford Fairmont Ghia 4.1 EFI inline 6 from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Awesome beast of a car

Faults:

Nothing apart from a few electrical niggles (i.e. the foot lamp comes on when you press the wipers or heater control, and central locking doesn't work). Steering feels odd.

General Comments:

I just bought this car and it is immaculate. excellent colour (moondust metallic grey) and plenty of guts from motor. not as thirsty as I expected. comfort mark would be higher if upper backrest was better. digital dash is excellent and it has a prestige feel for a cheap as chips price. I would strongly recommend this car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 16th June, 2005

1987 Ford Fairmont xf 4.1 efi from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

A comfy highway cruiser

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

I had the engine rebuilt at 240 000

The gearbox was also rebuilt

This is a very comfortable highway cruiser, although not very quick off the mark it hammers on the open road, I have had a mild cam and extractors with a sports system put on mine and it can do 75 in first gear, 130 in second and I have had it up to around 200. On the highway it is very very comfortable and roomy. My brother and I did 1140 K's in it in one day no worries. So reliable I took it to the snow and it started first time in sub zero temperatures. Loads of torque excellent for towing. Does chew the juice however.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 19th September, 2002

1987 Ford Fairmont Ghia, XF EFI, 4.1 from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

It's one really good ford!

Faults:

At 95,000 km I blew a water pump in the middle of the city in peak hour.

General Comments:

My Grandpa had this car new and rarely drove it, He gave it to me in 2000 when I got my licence.

It does some really good burnouts, It still looks like it just out of the factory.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 21st May, 2002

4th Jul 2002, 10:20

Wow, it does really good burnouts... too bad you need to throw down 5 litres of oil before it does a "really good burnout"

5th Mar 2007, 02:19

5 litres of oil? My one does full on tyre popping burnouts- no oil needed. You must have got it mixed up with your car-lol.

10th Jul 2009, 22:06

You must have worked that engine pretty hard, my bro has one and he is lucky to get a squeak out of the tyres around corners, also forgot to mention that it's an LSD, which I thought was standard on Ghia's, adding the question about how you do massive burnouts???