RE: Ford Sierra 1.6 Laser | Spotted
Discussion
Nu57jez9639 said:
My old man had a 1.6 Ghia from the front looks just the same as this left hooker model in the UK Even the L had a rear wash wipe think only the base 1.3 didn't come with 1 ,my oldmans got smacked up the arse in Leeds town centre by a council wagon car was a Wright off ,6 months or so later house phone goes a bloke on the phone has looked up our name in the phone directory and asks the old man if milege is genuine etc as it's very low for 5 or 6 years old car dad says ( milege is genuine I only do so many miles a day etc but I had the car written off earlier in the year it was a Wright mess so my insurance paid me out) chap on the phone had just bought it funnily enough few months later I see it parked outside Wakefield express offices , over the next few years it was often scene by members of the family.
Reading this gave me a headache 
Olivera said:
stickleback123 said:
MC Bodge said:
I drove a friend's Sierra Sapphire in the late 90s. It must have been less than 10 years old, but was baggy and everything felt loose. Bloody awful. A Mondeo was VASTLY better.
I can remember to this day my genuine and deep felt astonishment the first time I drove a Mondeo. It was a mid spec hire car with very few miles on the clock, and it was almost impossible to believe the same company who insulted the market with the likes of the Mk5 Escort and the Sierra could make a car like this.stickleback123 said:
I've just been talking to a friend whose Ford/Vauxhall experience is all post 1995 so based on the Mondeo and the Vectra. They struggled to believe me when I say that Ford made absolute steaming s
ts of cars for 15+ years and Vauxhall absolutely smashed it through the 80s and 90s, given the complete reversal from the late 90s onwards.
These were crap cars from the off, with poor quality mechanicals, weak power outputs, noisy, poor riding, poor handling, and they all looked knackered by the time they were three years old. I drove a lot of mainstream cars that were around from the mid 90s onwards (so a lot of late 80s onwards dross) and besides the Fiesta, which was a good little car, they were all absolute crap.
Fortunately they almost all vanished before they were 10 years old - a Sierra was already getting to be a rare sight by 2000 despite the youngest being only 6 years old, a testament to what piles of crap they were.
I remember the first time I drove a Mondeo I couldn't believe that FORD made this car, FORD!!!!
This car needs to be preserved so people can drive it and howl with laughter that it was something made on the right side of the iron curtain that people actually bought. You drive one now and it's laugh out loud bad, but you drive a 405 or a Cav Mk2/3 or pretty much any of it's competitors and it just feels like a somewhat more st version of a modern car.
I had a MK2 Cavalier 1.6 GLS (I was 17) and it was a great car in comparison with friends 1.6 Sierra’s. Years later I had a 94 2.0ts of cars for 15+ years and Vauxhall absolutely smashed it through the 80s and 90s, given the complete reversal from the late 90s onwards.These were crap cars from the off, with poor quality mechanicals, weak power outputs, noisy, poor riding, poor handling, and they all looked knackered by the time they were three years old. I drove a lot of mainstream cars that were around from the mid 90s onwards (so a lot of late 80s onwards dross) and besides the Fiesta, which was a good little car, they were all absolute crap.
Fortunately they almost all vanished before they were 10 years old - a Sierra was already getting to be a rare sight by 2000 despite the youngest being only 6 years old, a testament to what piles of crap they were.
I remember the first time I drove a Mondeo I couldn't believe that FORD made this car, FORD!!!!
This car needs to be preserved so people can drive it and howl with laughter that it was something made on the right side of the iron curtain that people actually bought. You drive one now and it's laugh out loud bad, but you drive a 405 or a Cav Mk2/3 or pretty much any of it's competitors and it just feels like a somewhat more s
t version of a modern car.Edited by stickleback123 on Tuesday 23 November 18:44
GLS Cavalier that was a disappointment in comparison with the recently launched Mondeo with quite poor handling and refinement.
When it came up for replacement in 98 I looked at a high spec 2.0 Mondeo or Vectra. They were both great cars. In the end I preferred the Vectra as I felt it was more refined and a better Motorway Cruiser.
The early Sierras were horrible!
I remember borrowing a leggy Y plate 1.6L former minicab complete with curry odour from a motor trader mate in the 80s and the whole car was just miserable, with the added highlight of a 1.6 Pinto engine.
But in 1993 I bought a 1991 Sapphire 2.0GLSi with the twin-cam engine and it felt like a different car! Then in 1994 I bought a 1992 Cavalier SRi that felt even better - well until I drove my boss' Mondeo 1.8LX!
£4K for an LHD 1.6 Laser is madness.
I remember borrowing a leggy Y plate 1.6L former minicab complete with curry odour from a motor trader mate in the 80s and the whole car was just miserable, with the added highlight of a 1.6 Pinto engine.
But in 1993 I bought a 1991 Sapphire 2.0GLSi with the twin-cam engine and it felt like a different car! Then in 1994 I bought a 1992 Cavalier SRi that felt even better - well until I drove my boss' Mondeo 1.8LX!
£4K for an LHD 1.6 Laser is madness.
I had the 2.3 diesel on an E reg, it was an L too. Slow but able to keep with traffic and pass in the outside lane no problem. Mine had nothing, no PAS, no electric windows, no central locking but it did have a stereo at least. I liked it a lot, much more modern to drive than a Cortina mostly thanks to the 5 speed box IMO.
itcaptainslow said:
Yup, I don’t get it either. The Mk1 Focus & Mondeo, the late 90’s Fiesta (Mk5?), Puma and Ka are all utterly brilliant things to drive (shame they still rot like the old stuff, mind) but aren’t valued anything like some of the complete dross Ford produced in the 80’s. Weird!
They haven't dropped enough in numbers yet and I don't think enough time has passed. The MK1 Mondeo is commanding stronger and stronger money now, you'd be hard pressed to find anything decent for 3 figures. The MK4/5 Fiesta Zetec S commands stronger money now, £2k+ for a decent one. The Puma again is going up, the FRP obviously is already worth serious money. The Focus is still pretty common but the ST170 has started going up (I think yours was in Modern Classics wasn't it?), only a few years ago a decent enough one was easily bought for 3 figures, I paid £550 for mine on 104k in 2017. I don't think the Ka will ever be worth all that much but they're surely a soon to be classic. Given time all the 90's stuff will follow the 80's prices, just look at what people are willing to pay for a MK5 RS2000 or a MK3 XR3i now. The MK1 Focus deserves to be appreciated, it will be a real shame when they disappear which they quickly are thanks to rot. Agent57 said:
Not sure why someone would import a LHD Sierra from Belgium in 2020?
My nerdometer clocked that there was no rear wiper either which IIRC a U.K. one would have.
Interesting but nothing more than a curiosity.
My nerdometer clocked that there was no rear wiper either which IIRC a U.K. one would have.
Interesting but nothing more than a curiosity.
3795mpower said:
Happy memories of my Dad’s repmobiles,
He had a string of these through the mid 80’s to early 90’s
As a young boy I would always have my head buried in a car
Brochure and we would always have fun correcting the salesmen
On their car specs !
I can tell you that a U.K spec Laser had a sunroof, rear wiper
And 5 speed box, so this truly is poverty spec at its peak !
Does it need a rear wiper? Aero ought to clear the screen, no? It feels like the sort of thing added anyway to appease some British-specific Alan Partridge class of buyer.He had a string of these through the mid 80’s to early 90’s
As a young boy I would always have my head buried in a car
Brochure and we would always have fun correcting the salesmen
On their car specs !
I can tell you that a U.K spec Laser had a sunroof, rear wiper
And 5 speed box, so this truly is poverty spec at its peak !
itcaptainslow said:
Olivera said:
stickleback123 said:
MC Bodge said:
I drove a friend's Sierra Sapphire in the late 90s. It must have been less than 10 years old, but was baggy and everything felt loose. Bloody awful. A Mondeo was VASTLY better.
I can remember to this day my genuine and deep felt astonishment the first time I drove a Mondeo. It was a mid spec hire car with very few miles on the clock, and it was almost impossible to believe the same company who insulted the market with the likes of the Mk5 Escort and the Sierra could make a car like this.In many ways I do understand it though. The nearly new Mondeo ST24 that I had did absolutely nothing for me in terms of the way it drove/felt at the time, and I only started to appreciate the Mondeo when it fell into shed money territory.
cerb4.5lee said:
itcaptainslow said:
Olivera said:
stickleback123 said:
MC Bodge said:
I drove a friend's Sierra Sapphire in the late 90s. It must have been less than 10 years old, but was baggy and everything felt loose. Bloody awful. A Mondeo was VASTLY better.
I can remember to this day my genuine and deep felt astonishment the first time I drove a Mondeo. It was a mid spec hire car with very few miles on the clock, and it was almost impossible to believe the same company who insulted the market with the likes of the Mk5 Escort and the Sierra could make a car like this.In many ways I do understand it though. The nearly new Mondeo ST24 that I had did absolutely nothing for me in terms of the way it drove/felt at the time, and I only started to appreciate the Mondeo when it fell into shed money territory.
I am old enough to remember when no-one (or very few peope) ever thought that a Mk2 Escort could be a classic, never mind fetch the kind of money they do now.
It will be interesting to see whether those objectively much better 90s Fords follow the same trajectory to classic status. They should, except that running a ICE car may become.both more onerous and less socially acceptable than it is now, possibly limiting the pool of buyers of classics generally.
Maybe worth bunging a few early ST Foucuses and Mondeos in a barn anyway just in case;)
Patriotic Brits were still happy to lap up mediocrity from the "native" manufacturers back in the early 80's. I remember my Dad moving from an '84 Sierra to a Gen V Mitsubishi Galant in 1986. The difference in quality, equipment, refinement and reliability was such a chasm, that Ford wouldn't have a comparable product to what the Japanese were offering in the 1980's until the launch of the Mondeo in 1993.
dontlookdown said:
Maybe worth bunging a few early ST Foucuses and Mondeos in a barn anyway just in case;)
It would be great to have the money and space to do this for sure. I remember back in 2002 when I purchased my S14a 200SX...and I could have purchased a really nice Escort RS Cosworth for the same money that I paid for the 200. Now look at the prices of the Escort Cosworth! 
Petrolism said:
Someone with money to burn, please buy this and drive it to the crusher.
Not a collector's piece now, nor will it be in future. They were junk when new.
Never understood the desire to destroy something because you arent keen, there are loads of car enthusiasts that love pretty unremarkable old cars and I love seeing stuff like this still about or at shows. Most people didnt have the Cosworth and there are loads still around, most had stuff like this.Not a collector's piece now, nor will it be in future. They were junk when new.
They weren't the best car at the time, let alone now but they were part of the culture, peoples daily lives from 1982 until a few years back. Loads of people owned and enjoyed them for what they were, reliable, comfy transport and there arent many left, seems very weird to be so offended by it that you would like to see it destroyed, I imagine 99 percent of them have already gone to the crusher.
I would just say "No, its not for me", but I bet there is someone out there who will buy that and look after it, maybe take to the festival of the unexceptional which is fantastic as most people didnt own EType, 911's, Healeys, RS Fords and the like which are always the ones at shows. I love to have a mooch round cars like this, its mainly the way the interior smells that carries you back, if it wasnt a mini cab.
Agent57 said:
Top of the range Sierras in RHD might have some nostalgic appeal.
The Sierra got better looking with each facelift.
The early low spec ones looked particularly naff with the grille.
I always find the basic ones interesting as very few ever survive, nobody ever bothers saving them so consequently they end up very rare. Even the posher versions lose out compared to sporting/homologation versions.The Sierra got better looking with each facelift.
The early low spec ones looked particularly naff with the grille.
The early small light/grey bumper models must be all but extinct.
J4CKO said:
The early small light/grey bumper models must be all but extinct.
There is a PHer on here with onehttps://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
magic Monkey Dust said:
My second brand new car was a red 1.6 L with dog tooth tweed upholstery and options were a radio cassette and some sort of paint protection treatment. Ran faultlessly.
I remember a lot of my mates thought i was flashy back then when no teenagers ever bought brand new cars.
traded it for a white Ford sierra Sapphire LX with velour upholstery and red stripe around the plastic rub strip. At the time a lot of people mistook it for a Cosworth, pre internet there were only rumours about them. The ladies didn't know i was fibbing when i picked them up in my "Cosworth". I used to keep it on the boil on the way to the pub by only using the first 3 gears to the rev limiter!. Cosworth-lite.
somewhere on the internet, middle aged women are telling the world how cr@p Cosworths were and they only had 3 gears I remember a lot of my mates thought i was flashy back then when no teenagers ever bought brand new cars.
traded it for a white Ford sierra Sapphire LX with velour upholstery and red stripe around the plastic rub strip. At the time a lot of people mistook it for a Cosworth, pre internet there were only rumours about them. The ladies didn't know i was fibbing when i picked them up in my "Cosworth". I used to keep it on the boil on the way to the pub by only using the first 3 gears to the rev limiter!. Cosworth-lite.
Petrolism said:
Someone with money to burn, please buy this and drive it to the crusher.
Not a collector's piece now, nor will it be in future. They were junk when new.
Not a collector's piece now, nor will it be in future. They were junk when new.
bit harsh, I know its only a piece of metal. But, I somehow like seeing 'normal/everyday' cars of the past being rescued - somewhat nice to look back on what the road environment use to look like in these days - but for this price, not so sure.Probably a case of few comparisons and rose tinted spectacles, but I enjoyed driving dad's Sierra's in 1990 as a 17 year old. These were newish company cars, a 1.8 GLX then a 2.0i GT. I had a 4 year old MK II Cavalier 1.6 as my first car at the time as a comparison. The Sierra's felt more grown up, quieter and more comfortable. RWD was a laugh as well. The GT was fairly lively and looked good in a light metallic blue. The Cavalier felt rawer in comparison. I did love that car though.
That Laser is very basic compared to the UK spec models. Looks like there was a top bid of £2,000 for it at a recent Anglia auction. Nice curiosity but not for me thanks.
That Laser is very basic compared to the UK spec models. Looks like there was a top bid of £2,000 for it at a recent Anglia auction. Nice curiosity but not for me thanks.
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