1993 Ford Granada scorpio from UK and Ireland - Comments

Faulty hand break leaver.

Leaking gear box gasket.

Wiper motor.

Various electrical problems including fuse box (due to water damage) stupid place to pit it.

Faulty starter motor.

This car was bought at a right bargain, at only £90. So therefore cost of putting it right wasn't so bad.

With electrics a problem, but sorted after a few weeks hard graft on this supreme motor was a dream to drive.

Also with so many different toys you could open your own toy shop, there is electric heated seats, air conditioning and cruise control.

Basically electric everything.

It's the most luxurious car for it's money and power to boot.

Super fast, super reliable, super value for money.

A little over a year ago I bought my Granada Ghia 2.0 dohc 1993 reg off eBay for about £500, and at the time it seemed like a bargain as it drove well enough apart from the warped front brake discs, and appeared to have nothing wrong with it.

Over the last year, however, I have spent in excess of £1000 on parts for the car, and recently had to cough up nearly £400 more for a new headgasket to be fitted, at which point I was told it was a common failing on this model.

It has finally died a death in the past week due to a snapped timing chain and damage to the valves/head. It is not worth spending another penny on and will be scrapped.

Would I buy another? No. During the time I have driven it, it has had a persistent leak into the passenger side footwells front and rear, and despite the greatest efforts has proved impossible to cure. It is clumsy, has poor visibility all round, and is not an improvement over the far superior mk2's. Ford should have stopped calling them Granadas at the end of mk2 production because the mk3 is an insult to the name.

If I had to advise anyone wanting to buy one, i'd recommend they buy the v6 version for the better engine, or better still set fire to their money (all of it) because that's what it'll cost them in the end, a bomb. The fuel consumption is also abysmal for a 2litre.

I never thought i'd be writing this about a Granada, but there you are. You live and learn.

I'm off to buy something that won't let me down, a Nissan or something...

Andy, North Wales.

Had my Granada Scorpio DOHC 2.0 for 4 years now. Excellent reliable motor car. Only had to replace front discs (£38 pair) and auxiliary fusebox (£92) about 3 years ago. Apart fom that only tyres and exhausts. Car handles well for a big motor, but DO NOT MIX TYRE TYPES as I've found this will affect the handling. Four the same is best. Get about 30 to 31 mpg on average which I think is good for a car this size and this luxurious. Only grouse really is the positioning of the fuseboxes which makes them very susceptible to water ingress. A polythene bag carefully placed over and wrapped round seems to cure this though. Just remove bag every 2 to 3 weeks in winter to avoid condensation problems.

Geoff - Suffolk.