Let's Laugh At Fords...

[D87SMW]

Aaargh, that's gotta smart! So if that happened to the Metro, why continue that and not the Maestro?

[Austin-Rover]

That picture was the death of the Metro. apparently, it made headline news on the BBC....

[D87SMW]

...and I'm not surprised. :laugh:

[John S]

I think I remember that news announcement...only a few years ago - but I've never been much of a fan of the Metro. The Metro has got to be less safe than the Maestro because you are much closer to the dash for one and it is a much smaller car. There is much less of a crumple zone at the front in comparison to the Maestro i.e. the Maestro has a much bulkier/longer bonnet.

[Simon]

I totalled a B reg Maestro in 1989 and walked away. That's why even today I drive a Maestro. In my humble oppinion all this airbag/ABS?SIPS/WHIPS/EBD etc could make some people drive more irresponsibly in the mistaken belief that they can drive closer to the limit and the gadgets will help them out. Rubbish. I could drive a new car if I wanted and if there were no MG Rover cars available here are my, somewhat interesting/or not, choices:

1) Believe it or not, a F*at Stilo 5 door

2) Something perhaps from the Honda range. I happen to believe that the Honda is a superior motor car. But that's only a personal thing.

3) Having just done a load of work on a C***lier SRi I can now say, yuk! Nothing from GM please!

[E_T_V]

I seem to remember getting a leaflet published by a govenment agency around the time crash tests were starting to become popular probably abound the early 90's. Anyway they ranked all the accident statistics and grouped them by class supermini etc.. Well in its class the maestro was in the top 5, and it was above the average for all the cars they examined (around 100 I think) I'll see if I can track it down sometime as it was interesting reading. By todays standards the meastro is rubbish but back then it was a safe car.

I think my father can vouch for that several times over. He drove a lot of miles and all were not his fault.

Head on into a lorry closing speed around 80mph - He walked away with whiplash.
Rear ended by a merc at 40. Walked away un hurt. Car still drivable.
Side impact at 30. Un hurt.
Side impact at 30. Un hurt.
Side impact at 20. Un hurt. Car still drivable.

[John S]

Found this altered image of a Ford Ka(k)on Sniff Petrol:-
:laugh:

[Guest]

My line manager has a Ford Puma (or "the mid life crisis" as we know it), and he may be able to overtake me on a big hill where my autobox bogs down, but I can kick his arse royally on takeoffs, junctions, corners and roundabouts.

Maestro's are no slouch..and a lot of modern cars just don't seem to have the sheer acceleration of my 14 year old 1.6 Automatic.. Upto about 55-60 at least..:laugh:

After that, the box is a limiting factor..being only a 3 speed. WHY couldn't it have an overdrive top like my Mk1 Renault 5? That'd have been nice!

[SimonR]

While on the subject of Fords (if you'll forgive me for saying this) I saw the best mk3 Orion while on the M6 on the way back from Scotland last week. It came battering up behind me in the fast lane at some horrendous speed and looked like an Escort RS. Some one had evidently put a different front end on it and also a full bodykit as well.

Best thing was that the owner obviously had a sense of humour because it had been totally debadged apart from the usual silver Orion badge in the serifed font. On closer inspection tho, the owner had cut up 3 different badges - Escort, Orion and TD (turbo diesel) and made a totally original-looking badge that instead of 'ORION' read 'SORTED'.

Sometimes you have to take your hat off to a professionally Barried up Ford or Vauxhall - this one was certainly in that category.

[Maria]

I'm always tempted to rearrange the "Escort" badge to read "Scrote"

[e692wtt]

What have I done? All I said was that I respect Transits. Talk about 'light the blue touch paper and stand back'!!!

Apologies if this seems a bit 'late' but it all kicked off in my absence from the Forum while nursing a hangover from hell that lasted 2 days...

I'll get shot for this, but the early Vectra was inferior to the MkIII Cavalier it replaced. It was improved, but why not from day 1? Compare with the Austin Maxi, Allegro, Princess, Marina... and the Maestro and Montego... oops. Once again, BL leads the way - but our cars didn't cost £1 Billion to get wrong...

The other other Rich.:laugh:

[Maria]

Hey. we like our Mk3 Cav!!!

[e692wtt]

Good for you. They're pretty good cars (that's praise from me - I HATE Vauxhalls) and they were far better than the Vauxhall Verruca (thanks to RDGelder for that one!) when it was first launched - only fault, really, is the corrosion on the rear wheelarches, otherwise they run and run. Keep it and enjoy.

I saw a Ford scrotE on a Rally once - and yes, it WAS re-arranged like that! Still an Escort on the paperwork though.

The other other Rich.

[John S]

Don't know much about Vauxhall's petrol models but any Isuzu engined diesel model will run and run without any hint of giving up. We like in particular the Nova 1.5D models as they are capable of 200,000 miles plus - we've got two of them.
A friend of mine's parents had a 2.0 cavalier and after having the car it was difficult for them to choose any other model. It reached over 170,000 miles before any problems were encountered. Vauxhalls lack a great deal of prestige and are rather utilitarian, however they are well put together in my experience.

[Maria]

The Cav's got over 250k on the clock, and has had a recon engine, which it promtly detonated no 3 piston on! It's now got a mix n match engine, but it keeps on going. The rear arches are going though.

On the subject of Scrotes, I like the "Austin Roast Em" that comes out to play in the MGOC racing championship