Last Ford Granada Ghia V6 on the road for sale
The DVLA says there's only one manual 4x4 with the 2.9 left taxed - time for a hero to step up...
Nobody wants to see anything automotive go extinct, really. Not every car will be to all tastes, but diversity and variety deserve to be celebrated. They can get rarer and rarer, sure, but there’s no way of coming back from zero. As the future barrels towards us with unabating haste, so those bits of the past that are even just a little different from the norm should be saved. It would be a dull old world of classic cars if it was just BMW saloons and air-cooled Porsches.
You don’t see many Ford Granadas of any description nowadays; it’s been quite some plummet for a car once so loved by traffic police and upwardly mobile execs with a family to cart around. As with so many cars like this, nobody really realised they were worth saving until it was almost too late. The later Scorpio probably ought to be kept from extinction, too, though the fan club for that one will surely be a tad smaller…
What makes this 1989 Mk3 significant is that it’s a V6 4x4 Ghia with the manual gearbox. It would always have been a rare sight; there was a standard rear-drive V6 that would have been cheaper, an even plusher Ghia X for those wanting top-of-the-range kudos, and the automatic option perhaps more befitting of a luxury saloon. But while there would have never been many, we’re now down to the final one of this spec taxed and on UK roads. There hasn’t been more than five showing on the DVLA records since 2009, and it’s hard to imagine those SORN’d are all an afternoon in the garage (or a barn find video) away from roadworthiness. It’s a real sole survivor.
That being said, this sort of thing is always an inexact science. This Granada shows as the last Ghia 4x4 on the road, but there are also four cars that have been recorded as Ghia injection 4x4s as well. And ‘EFI’ stamped on the top of the V6 here leaves its fuelling in no doubt. So maybe it’s not unique, this Granada, but then perhaps it is. Undoubtedly it’s very, very rare - later cars with the V6 are very seldom seen. This Ghia is a beautiful example, too, subjected to an extensive (and expensive) restoration a few years ago that tackled the rot that will have claimed so many. As the number of cars around like this dwindles, so the dedication of those that love them soars, and that’s great to see. The interior (which wasn’t restored) has endured 35 years well, and there’s said to be a ‘vast’ history file from the four previous owners. The Granada looks a real credit to them.
Furthermore, without any motorsport pedigree or prestigious badge on it, this Ghia isn’t mad money. No doubt an XR4x4 tag or similar back in the day would have made it more desirable then and more valuable now, but going without means this 86,000-mile V6 is for sale at £8,950. Given £10k seems to be the entry point now for anything vaguely old and interesting (and just about road legal), that doesn’t seem daft at all.
Presumably there are plenty of possibilities. It could be kept for best and be the rarest fast(ish) Ford at the fair; or, with a modern stereo and advisory-free MOT until November, put into more regular use as a reminder of the good old days. Obviously it’d have to come to a Sunday Service, too. And for those Granadas that are still buried away in sheds up and down the land, let’s hope 2024 is the year they’re brought back to life. One of one is a good story, but the really good news would be just a few more of them.
A credible British' BMW rival from a time when a surprising number of company car schemes still didn't allow Beemers, Mercs or even Audi's;)
One PHer has a thread going on one of them currently. Can't remember when I last saw one on the road.
The opening part of the article is full of hilarious irony though...
This version was rare back then for sure. The closest I got to this was 2 XR4x4 V6 2.9's, happy memories.
A credible British' BMW rival from a time when a surprising number of company car schemes still didn't allow Beemers, Mercs or even Audi's;)
One PHer has a thread going on one of them currently. Can't remember when I last saw one on the road.
Then the market suddenly changed...
Pleased this one popped up - I'd forgotten they existed.
The MK2 looks menacing in the right trim (2.8 'Injection' often erroneously referred to as the Sport please) and was actually a good steer, far better than the Capri it was sold alongside.
However, the MK3 was a step up in tech, comfort and refinement.
I have fond memories of my Grandads 2.0i Mk3 that he used as a minicab, every Saturday afternoon I'd be out 'helping' him wash it, and then on an evening before he started his shift I'd put his door magnets and radio antenna on for him. Before he traded it in against a MK2 Mondeo saloon it had circa 340k miles on it, having gone through one headgasket and two gearboxes. I still to this day remember just how much legroom there was in the back, think Skoda Superb levels.
As for the V6, having grown up around them (both on the road and at the oval circuits across the country), I can say that while they are a boat anchor, they're sort of characterful.
The 2.9 is much better than the 2.8 as it doesn't have the Siamesed ports and I believe this will be EFi rather than the mechanical injection which was a bit naff. If I recall correctly the 2.8i was always marketed in the region of 160hp, but in reality makes closer to 130, whereas the 2.9 was marketed as having around 150 and did make that, while also being better on fuel than the 2.8 - albeit still crap.
It didn't get the blood pumping on a run, but as a device for ferrying a growing family around in comfort with masses of space for everything, it was fantastic. Several trips a year to Italy were accomplished without a problem. In 115k miles, it's only unscheduled trip to the garage was as a result of a bit too much throttle on a road covered in snow, the brake peddle pulsing under my foot in protest as the ABS was trying to work, as we gently slid into a ditch!
tness should not be celebrated. Burn every last one of them.This has to be a very reasonable deal if it’s not full of filler ?
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