I needed a car until I get a replacement for the E28, so I'm borrowing this 1.6 CVH from Posmo, who moved into... *gasp* FWD cars. So here's my short review.
This is the village bicycle of the finnish chapter of Finalgear. Public bought it from an old person, tried to convince himself and the rest of us for a year that he liked it, then Taneli (brotan) had it for some time, and then Posmo famously bought it from public in a bar, almost exactly a year ago. And now I have it for a month.
To be honest, I approached this car with a great deal of prejudice. I never liked the design of this era Fords, I think they look dull and totally uninspired, inside and out. It felt always very proletarian to me. A car for the masses, not to enjoy, but to commute in, to look at your huge analog clock in the dash and feel miserable. On the other hand, I'm not actually very fussy about comfort, and since Sierra produced some very famous and praised derivatives, I had hopes that I could extract some joy from driving it, especially since it's winter and the car is RWD. I have to admit now, that I was wrong on almost all accounts.
But hey, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, so no more negativity! There are many good things about this car. Let's see...
+ quite comfy seats
+ good ergonomics for an 80s car, I found a good position easily
+ not as loud as I expected, especially after my old E28
+ it's in quite a good condition I think, it hasn't broken down in a week, almost no rattles anywhere, shifter isn't sloppy, starts up without any fuss
+ a very potent heater
+
good tyres
Driving impressions
The first very obvious feature is the lack of power steering. It's been a while since I've driven a (full-sized) car without one, but it's actually not so bad. The wheel turns approximately 32 times from lock to lock, which in addition to allowing an absurdly precise steering input also means that not so much effort is needed to turn it even while standing still. The level of sophistication is also evident from the fact that despite a direct, unassisted connection between the steering wheel and the wheels, the driver isn't burdened with any information coming from the road. I suppose this could be partly attributed to
good tyres. So effortless is the steering, that at speed the car practically steers itself. To the extent, that I'm in fact beginning to wonder whether the toe-out alignment was done with enhanced track-cornering-performance in mind.
Comfort
The ride is smooth and mushy. And so are the brakes. The modest options list has a bright side of offering an excessive amount of storage space in the interior. The ergonomics of the pedal layout ensures that you're automatically blipping the throttle on every braking-downshift, for a smoother experience. Or when just braking.
Engine
I don't know if I can put it more eloquently than this sentence from an unnamed journalist:
The 80-horsepower, naturally aspirated, four cylinder, continuously harshly vibrating boat anchor of compound hemispherical whatever that was taking an all-too-modest portion of underhood space has been such an underdog, that I was worried for a minute if it would actually make it up the hills on the track.
To which he then concludes:
But I was happy to be wrong.
Yes, amazingly, it doesn't feel too underpowered. Let's say, it is adequately matched to the chassis.
Summary
Ok, honestly now, I have to admit that it has started growing on me. I don't think it's so horrible any more. It's just not very good, but it has certain boy-racerish charm. Makes you feel like you got your license last week. It's not a completely unlikeable car.
The difference to E28 is stark. It many ways this feels a lot more modern, but E28 felt both more grown up and much more joyful to drive. I do think that this would be a great first car, but only a first car. I guess my biggest issue with Sierra is that it's so utterly uninteresting in almost every respect, even if it does some thing OK.
And unfortunately, it hasn't snowed yet this week, so I can't even exploit its RWDness. High hopes for a good January!