I would certainly consider buying one now if the price was right. Yes, yes I think it's a car for the 80s. Now that we are approaching 1983, I might just think about swapping my cavalier in for a new Sierra. I think if Ford continue down this road, they will have some winners on their hand when we get to the 1990s. I have no idea what they will replace the Sierra with, but, if they come out with a car car named something good like 'Tondeyo' or 'Mandeo', and improve its features then they will surely be on a winner by the time we approach the end of the century. I can't wait to see what Ford will be bringing out after the year 2000, but I'm sure it will be pretty space age, with things like laserdisc players, electric motor engines, car phones, and all sorts of mod cons that I can't even dream of, like satellite guided navigation!! But now of course I'm just dreaming, things like that will never happen - not in my lifetime anyway. And even if it did, the car would likely cost more than £10,000. And not many people could afford that.
I met Wiliam Woodard at the Vine Tree, a pub I ran. He was quite bitter, I felt about being pushed out from top gear. A cracking chap though. I remember Alexi Sayle doing a program on the death of the cortical, and ending up with the Sierra. A great program too!
Just a note on William Woollard. Excellent motoring presenter for many years. Informative without being boring and genuinely interested in the subjects he covered.
But what about his integrity? Supposedly a great motoring journalist according to you, but prepared to cash a fat cheque from ford to sell their new car and talk down the opposition.
@@Eat-MyGoal I know what you mean but this was not made for public TV, Ford paid him to make this for them to use internally for briefing the sales force. So, for that, perhaps it is as expected :)
What a blast from the past! As a young teen growing up and seeing the Seirra for the first time, it was so different and yes I wanted the XR4i!!!! Looking back now, it was such a great time in the 80's and 90's...yes there were some ups and down but compared to today, it was a much simpler time and all the better for it...If I had a time machine I would go back in an instance...
I'm only 28 soon to be 29, but this comment gave me goosebumps and I also got a slight feeling of sadness. I imagine there wouldn't have been all the pain in the arse complications back then like there is today.
A lot of beige suits going on there. The reason nostalgia is so comforting is that we already know the outcomes. But I reckon the thing that made the 70s/80s more agreeable was the comparitive lack of supervision and unwelcome oversight in all aspects of our lives. It's unavoidable and overwhelming now.
My dad had one of the first Sierras in the north of England, so the dealer told him. People would gather outside our house to look at it - it was such a revolutionary shape change at the time. Years later I had a brown Talbot Alpine like the one in this video, which was like something from a different century!
@@James-gf9jl The gear stick on mine used to pop out of the box completely sometimes and had to be slotted back in. It was pretty old by the time I had it, to be fair.
Lucky man. Many had stuff like that not realising what they'd be worth. Still have a 405 Mi16 and a MK2 Golf GTi myself. Everything decent seems to be a rare sight nowadays
4.50 A great failing of the range was not having a bumper that protruded out far enough for William to find purchase with his foot on when displaying the engine bay features.
I found this hilarious. I remember It was nicknamed the jellymould and had structural issues at the beginning. The early models were written off when they had a small low speed shunt from the rear. Ford soon sorted it out, with the usual updates. Thanks for the fabulous video, it brought back many fond memories.
Very interesting. It is difficult viewing this in 2019 to understand what a revolution in terms of styling Sierra was. Other competitive cars were basically to the old 3 box design. Back in '84 my boss got a red Ghia 2.3 estate and it was like a spaceship had landed in the yard. Of course it was a certain Mr Costin and Mr Duckworth that gave the Sierra its defining model a few years later.
The Alpine was a good pussy magnet alright, but surely the Sierra would be more so. Because with that futuristic design, you'd look like a made man, and we all know how women are attracted to money! 💷 💷💷
The first Sierra I saw, was on the road in the Antwerp area, with all the labels taped. It was before the official introductionduction. Used it often as a factory pool car or as a rental on business trips. It was a game changer in the automotive industry.
Year i was born - but as a child i was mezmerised by the sierra... and when i saw a cosworth....well... thats a given. Ive owned several variants including the saffy cossie and an xr4i (not 4x4) on a B plate.... what id give to have another - alas i own a domestic appliance that can do 60mpg with 92hp as a turbo diesal. Very efficient and needed in my financial situation and been very reliable (touch wood) considering i miss services constantly - but by god... what a washing machine. Set your load and turn it on... no drama. No excitement. No soul or feeling. A domestic appliance.
@@davidmaddison4544 Mondeo ST24 or ST220. As for Cosworths a good one will set you back up to £50k these days. Back in 1997 I was 24 and could nearly bought a '91 Saph Cossie but couldn't afford the insurance. Now I can easily afford the insurance, got quote £275 for classic cover, but can't afford the car.
Back when the roads weren't jammed up, filling up at the pump was affordable and you could put your foot down on the motorway, without having to worry about getting a flash from a speed camera. Good times 😎
I love the way that he managed to write off the entire opposition in a just a few sentences. Basically Sierra is great everything else crap ignoring the fact that their little focus group saying they liked front wheel drive while the Sierra was a rear wheel drive car.
This is one aspect of car promotion that i dont like,where all the opposition cars are supposed to be useless. If you watch the Peugeot 505 verus all the other cars on you tube it comes out on top everytime ...lauaghable!
My first car after passing my driving test in 1988 and 18 years old was a 1.6 Ghia. All my friends had mk 2 escorts. I thought it was the dogs danglies 😆. Certainly taught you to drive with respect because even with only 75bhp the back end would come out mid corner in the wet...fond memories.
I know exactly what you mean buddy. I passed my test in 1992, my dad had a pre face lift 1987 L hatch back in chestnut brown. You definitely had to be awake to drive that thing in even damp weather lol. I always complained that the tyres were too thin, but my dad would always keep with the standard spec. Just aswell it was slow, like you said it would drift on any surface that wasn't completly bone dry, but didn't have the power to do it in the dry lol. The XR4x4 and Cosworth were my dream cars back then haha.
@@epicfriedchicken5042 but the installation was key: Engine mounts should have been designed/tuned to isolate the vibrations and the under bonnet should have been fitted with enough sound deadening to reduce the noise to lower that John Deere.
I remember quite vividly that in 82 several cars appeared which showed the way to (yesterdays) future and the Sierra was one of them. The others were the Mercedes Benz 190E, Audi 100 and Citroen BX.
I thought they were hideous when they first came out as a hardened Cortina driver with a 2.0 GL company car. I warmed to them quickly as they quickly made some improvements to the looks, however it's funny looking at the video now, it really looks quite normal and just like a Sierra where as it was controversial at the time. Then they had the problem with the aerodynamics and a propensity to get a rear end side to side movement at speed.
@@Arayig1982 The engines were old nails. Both the Pinto & the Cologne engines were iron block and iron head; the Cologine wasn't even OHC. Specific output was laughable. Ford's 1.6 was 75bhp. Vauxhall's 1.6 Cavalier was 90bhp & Austin's Montego 1.6 was 85bhp.
These guys were just like my older colleagues and line managers when I started work in the mid 80s, all victims of Mr Bean suits, crap cars and permanent aspirations of double glazing and Eccles caravans.
James T yes the Sierra was sold until 1993, in parallel to the Mondeo for a few months, by 1993 it was the 2nd generation Sierra, not the one you see here.
It was a great car at the time, but the shape was somewhat startling after the Cortina. Early ones were not that good but it improved when they tweaked certain parts for the Mk II. Sirra's biggest problem was rust! Especially around the wheel arches and suspension turrets. Once it got in you could end up dismantling half the car to chase it down! We had a 1.8 and that started to go after a couple years. Overall a good car though.
yeah, I found that amusing that so many of the people they quizzed mentioned how much they like the front-wheel-drive and here is Ford about to launch a rear-wheel-drive car.
@@illusionuk the rear wheel drive decision was a reflection of where the new car market was at the time. The largest purchaser of new cars at the time was fleet buyers and they were a major part of the market for Ford at the time. Fleet managers were deeply suspicious of anything they perceived as new or complex! To a suspicious fleet manager front wheel drive = Expensive to maintain and repair. Ford was already taking a huge market risk with its swooshy jelly-mold styling so decided to stick to the conservative choice of rear wheel drive to avoid spooking their precious fleet customers too much. You even see it in this video, each potential customer drives a company car with limited choice over what he could have. The guy who worked in IT was interesting as an Alpine is a rather quirky fleet choice and I wonder if that is a reflection of that industry when it comes to fleet management.
Remember pushing a colleagues hopeless new Sierra in the snow in 1985. It was as crap as my terrible Rover SD1. Both were trounced by the might of our boss's front wheel drive 1750 Maxi .
I had both the Sierra 1.6L and Cavalier 1.6.L. As a rep, speed was important - if memory serves, the Cavalier beat the Sierra by 0.5 seconds 0-60mph. However, look at the dashboards. Sierra was well thought out. Cavalier had lots of blanked of switches, constantly reminding me that I was in a relatively poorly equipped car. Cavalier had a digital display stereo, very easy to nick, and loads were stolen. Back in the day of company cars, reps rarely had a choice. Some companies favoured Fords, others Vauxhall so you took what you were given. Different now, with lease schemes etc.
@@dlamiss Not really, as its middle aged when people have decent jobs, cash to spend, and no mortgage. Gay people go for far more flamboyant vehicles than this.
I was born in 76 and always loved cars as a child. This is the first one I remember there being serious hoopla about, it felt like it was on every TV show. At the time the styling was a big jump over most other cars. The XR4i was stunning. I can’t remember many cars having the same sort of launch, perhaps the Mini One in 2001. Strangely I’m not sure I’ve ever actually been a Sierra. Two of my friends dads had the Orion Ghia 1.6. That seemed like a real luxury car in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It’s amazing how things change. Those older than me will be even more wise to this and those younger clueless as to how it feels as things like this come and go.
I remember the first Sierra I ever saw outside my father's shop in Ireland in 1983 The garage next door was a Chrysler Simca dealership so hunters and avengers and the very 'modern' Alpines, Solaris etc. Were a big deal.. . I was never into 'Starwars ' etc. ... but a pure white ford Sierra made me stand in awe and complete respect.... I was now in the New Age... In fact the Sierra was the leap out of the 70's ( I still don't know if it's a good thing)
I remember my parents got one of these in 1986, it was three years old at the time but still looked brand new - to my 13-yr-old eyes was part spaceship ;) You get so much more for your money nearly 40 years later, as is the nature of progress. Imagine what they'd make of a mk5 Mondeo 😲🤯
What a great video from a wonderful age. Made me laugh when they uncovered it! Silence. No whoops of excitement or wow look at that! I remember as a kid thinking it was an extremely dull looking car compared to the Cortina which was legendary growing up!
This was a stunning episode. Definitely the L Version is the one to buy aerodymanic wheel covers to reduce drag, a passenger side mirror and everyones favorite Bristol & Sanford trim, and all this in a hatch-back. But seriously, my mom had an 1986 XR4TI under the Merkur label and it rocked. As Audi as a Ford could get. Heated leather seats, great tape deck, 3 doors, 4 round wheels and a 2x wail tail. Bitchin'
They were great cars. I bought a second hand Y reg 1.6 in 1992, and I loved it. Yes, there was a bit of rust on the door skins, but it was a solidly made, sturdy and reliable runaround. I cried when I had to sell it (lost my job).
Brings back some fine memories of the 80's. I had the basic 1.6L as a sales rep, it was certainly a looker of a car, performed well for its class and could drive all day in it. It was fun and well equipped for a basic model, at a time when a company car was a real useful bonus in ones employment package, before they taxed the life out of it.
Ease of maintenance and accessibility. Many modern cars can learn from the Sierra. It's ridiculous how difficult manufacturers make basic tasks these days, such as changing a bulb
@@maartenyzer4121 not quite. Some engines were ex cortina but modernised, but the chassis was new hence independent suspension . No solid live axle like other rwd at the time.
Its quite hilarious to hear Bill Woolard refer to In Car Entertainment while talking about an analogue AM radio with cassette player. If you could've shown him then what we have now his nut would've exploded.
How refreshing to see an information film about the actual car and it's practical features. Today we have all this nonsense with touchscreens and how quickly you can connect a smartphone to the dashboard. Give me the good old straight forward 1980s any day.
@@tonystoakley5816 Tell me about it. Remember when Top Gear was presented by William Willard and Sue Baker and carried out proper road tests on proper cars? Non of this driving Ferraris up Jeremy Clarkson's backside or trying to turn a Reliant Robin into a spaceship nonsense. It was blooming marvelous. Bring back the 80s
Parents had one of these when it first launched. A 1.6L. The auto choke kept stalling the engine, or in anything rainy or cold, refused to start. after 4 years old the door bottoms and boot were rotten. BUT it was comfortable and fairly well equipped compared to teh Maestro and Volvo 340. However, when they replaced it with an R21 GTS, it was a revelation and massively more modern.
@@1964mjc Thank You for the update. I thought it was earlier was it a UK/German design? I remember the big fuss about them when they came out mainly lack of saloon version.
William Fenton I remember seeing the ones at dagenham and the engine testing bays ... I had a Sierra sapphire (saloon) in aprox 88/89/90 - don’t think they came out with first release though
Australia could have got the XR4i Sierras as a Niche product since the coupe version of the Mazda 626 and later the MX6 was denied to Ford as a Telstar.
I had a Y Plate 1.6L in lovely Chocolate Brown (probably not the official colour description) in 1985. It drove quite well but I had constant issues with the rear brakes locking on overnight due to the useless 'automatic' adjusters on the drums. The door mirrors also rattled very nicely. The boot light was fun too as it had a mercury tilt switch that would cause it to come on during braking. It took me a while to work out where the light was coming from that I kept glimpsing in the rear-view mirror when driving in the dark!
My dad had a 1.6L in Red and Rust. Mainly engine faults... constantly. Didn't know it had a boot light, ours must have been delivered pre-broken by Ford ;)
The plate on that Audi comes back as a Bedford..... in fact the Alpine and Bluebird had the same plate!! When you see these cars coming up the ramp, they are wearing different plates.
Parents Sierra rust away in 4 years. My German Uncle's Audi 80 had rusty wings at 3 years old. It is how cars were. Parents had a R16 before the Sierra which did have some rust I seem to remember (nothing like the Sierra or AlfaSud that also had) but the R21 after never rusted during their ownership. Rustproofing came on a long way in the 80s. The only car they had that had any rust after then was a Golf3 in the 90s.
This "Zone 1", "Zone 2" bollocks was just that. I never felt that I was on the wrong "zone" when using the switch gear and buttons in my old Mk2 Cavalier.
To be fair, it does look like its been damaged & quickly blown over with an aerosol.. The 18`s didnt generally suffer with external bodywork rust, they did however rust in hidden places, most died of inner wing to bulkhead rot, which was a pain to repair.
" A car for the ages" , quite a statement. I started the 80's driving a yellow Triumph Spitfire. My second was a xr2 then a xr3i before ending the decade in a xr2i. Back then I had nice cars and a full head of hair , happy days😂.
Thanks for the upload! William Woollard is who Alan Partridge aspires to be ;-P On the one hand, the 'nice hubcaps' made me think, aah simpler times - but in reality is it any different from ticking box on alloy nineteens with carbon finish inserts? Thankfully the poverty spec grey grille was shortlived; anyone remember problems with subframes with early units? Q: What do you call a red Sierra? A: A raspberry ripple
Ah, William could talk about anything & I'd listen! Sierra looks dangerously futuristic to me. 1982 & the Ambassador saved our family's lives in a head-on.
Despite their claims of superior ergonomics, I always found the Sierra's dashboard to be a cluttered mess, especially with the way the blower fan switch is separate from the rest of the heater controls. We only got it here in the USA as the German-built turbocharged XR4Ti coupe, which Ford marketed under the "Merkur" brand name and advertised as a sporty competitor to BMW.
@@vwestlife I still find it strange the 2litre had the pinto engine cast iron head with 3 bearings but also came with the 1.6 and 1.8 CVH and I later found out you had 2.0 Liter CVH in the US
I hired a Sierra when they came out, my mum loved how everyone would stare at it. I also had an Alpine, very roomy comfortable economical and fast, it eventually ended up with the dreaded rusty hatch. I loved it so much I bought a new hatch painted it and fitted it, a really nice car.
I would certainly consider buying one now if the price was right. Yes, yes I think it's a car for the 80s.
Now that we are approaching 1983, I might just think about swapping my cavalier in for a new Sierra.
I think if Ford continue down this road, they will have some winners on their hand when we get to the 1990s. I have no idea what they will replace the Sierra with, but, if they come out with a car car named something good like 'Tondeyo' or 'Mandeo', and improve its features then they will surely be on a winner by the time we approach the end of the century.
I can't wait to see what Ford will be bringing out after the year 2000, but I'm sure it will be pretty space age, with things like laserdisc players, electric motor engines, car phones, and all sorts of mod cons that I can't even dream of, like satellite guided navigation!!
But now of course I'm just dreaming, things like that will never happen - not in my lifetime anyway. And even if it did, the car would likely cost more than £10,000. And not many people could afford that.
You sir have won the comment section
Give up the drugs
Laser in a car ? What you on about ?
Well Jack Frost had none of that, and he managed to do his detective work,
in one of those Ugly early 80's Ford's.
LaserDisc will be dead in 5 years time - Digital Audio Tapes (DAT) are the future. Get with it!
The 80s was truly the greatest decade ever and William Woolard was a God amongst men.
I met Wiliam Woodard at the Vine Tree, a pub I ran. He was quite bitter, I felt about being pushed out from top gear. A cracking chap though.
I remember Alexi Sayle doing a program on the death of the cortical, and ending up with the Sierra. A great program too!
Just a note on William Woollard. Excellent motoring presenter for many years. Informative without being boring and genuinely interested in the subjects he covered.
Agree. I think he used to introduce Top Gear when it was professional and boring, rather that the teenage abortion the it became
But what about his integrity? Supposedly a great motoring journalist according to you, but prepared to cash a fat cheque from ford to sell their new car and talk down the opposition.
@@Eat-MyGoal I know what you mean but this was not made for public TV, Ford paid him to make this for them to use internally for briefing the sales force. So, for that, perhaps it is as expected :)
Basically in Nottingham
William Woolard a proper motoring presenter
What a blast from the past! As a young teen growing up and seeing the Seirra for the first time, it was so different and yes I wanted the XR4i!!!! Looking back now, it was such a great time in the 80's and 90's...yes there were some ups and down but compared to today, it was a much simpler time and all the better for it...If I had a time machine I would go back in an instance...
I'm only 28 soon to be 29, but this comment gave me goosebumps and I also got a slight feeling of sadness.
I imagine there wouldn't have been all the pain in the arse complications back then like there is today.
Man I would as well . But would want to be driving a RS TURBO . Had one in the 90s . Long time ago.
A lot of beige suits going on there. The reason nostalgia is so comforting is that we already know the outcomes. But I reckon the thing that made the 70s/80s more agreeable was the comparitive lack of supervision and unwelcome oversight in all aspects of our lives. It's unavoidable and overwhelming now.
@James-gf9jl Yeah exactly! Good point!
It was around 1997 that I stopped seeing ford sierra everyday until then they were ubiquitous
My dad had one of the first Sierras in the north of England, so the dealer told him. People would gather outside our house to look at it - it was such a revolutionary shape change at the time. Years later I had a brown Talbot Alpine like the one in this video, which was like something from a different century!
I remember the sloppy, notchy grear change in those Alpines. You used have to chase the gears into a corner.
@@James-gf9jl The gear stick on mine used to pop out of the box completely sometimes and had to be slotted back in. It was pretty old by the time I had it, to be fair.
My best mates dad had a green alpine and called it the green goddess
@@paulhollins6127 That’s true love!
Nostalgia, my 7 year old self loved the Sierra. Loving the Exocist themed music and the three guys dressed like Mr Bean. Awesome.
the fibre glass wigs were spiffing
Loved your comment. I love fords to
Glad I’ve still got my cossie, used to remember seeing sierras everywhere now a rare sight.
Lucky man. Many had stuff like that not realising what they'd be worth. Still have a 405 Mi16 and a MK2 Golf GTi myself. Everything decent seems to be a rare sight nowadays
... ahhh... the smell of rust... mmm!
The tape editor was so glad he got to try out all his push and wipe transitions.
From an era of completely impartial not at all bought BBC presenters. Top stuff.
4.50
A great failing of the range was not having a bumper that protruded out far enough for William to find purchase with his foot on when displaying the engine bay features.
I was waiting for a "Wollard" to appear but it never happened 😩
Woolarding
Yep. I feel cheated.
Nice to see John has colour coded his Alpine with his suit and tie.
I found this hilarious. I remember It was nicknamed the jellymould and had structural issues at the beginning. The early models were written off when they had a small low speed shunt from the rear. Ford soon sorted it out, with the usual updates. Thanks for the fabulous video, it brought back many fond memories.
Very interesting. It is difficult viewing this in 2019 to understand what a revolution in terms of styling Sierra was. Other competitive cars were basically to the old 3 box design. Back in '84 my boss got a red Ghia 2.3 estate and it was like a spaceship had landed in the yard. Of course it was a certain Mr Costin and Mr Duckworth that gave the Sierra its defining model a few years later.
And now imagine someone parked it on street of city behind Iron curtain...
You are correct they did seem to have a 'spaceship design' when they first appeared.
I thought they were amazing when launched.
I remember seeing one for the first time. Very impressive.
I would go for the brown Alpine every time. A real fanny magnet that one.
The Alpine was a good pussy magnet alright, but surely the Sierra would be more so. Because with that futuristic design, you'd look like a made man, and we all know how women are attracted to money! 💷 💷💷
That would mean something different to yanks instead of what you are thinking.
YEAH THEY WERE!!!
I had one for a few days when the brake's failed and I ended up rolling it...
“Get yer beige corduroy blazer, you’ve pulled” 😋
William Woollard still alive in 2023 aged 83. Well done sir, excellent presenter.
The first Sierra I saw, was on the road in the Antwerp area, with all the labels taped. It was before the official introductionduction. Used it often as a factory pool car or as a rental on business trips. It was a game changer in the automotive industry.
Year i was born - but as a child i was mezmerised by the sierra... and when i saw a cosworth....well... thats a given. Ive owned several variants including the saffy cossie and an xr4i (not 4x4) on a B plate.... what id give to have another - alas i own a domestic appliance that can do 60mpg with 92hp as a turbo diesal. Very efficient and needed in my financial situation and been very reliable (touch wood) considering i miss services constantly - but by god... what a washing machine. Set your load and turn it on... no drama. No excitement. No soul or feeling. A domestic appliance.
At least you owned a Cosworth :) , by the time I could afford one they seemed to have disappeared, not even sure what they were replaced by. STs?
@@davidmaddison4544 Mondeo ST24 or ST220. As for Cosworths a good one will set you back up to £50k these days. Back in 1997 I was 24 and could nearly bought a '91 Saph Cossie but couldn't afford the insurance. Now I can easily afford the insurance, got quote £275 for classic cover, but can't afford the car.
I had Ford sierras through the whole range over the 80s as a company salesman. Loved the car so reliable great on the motorway. Those were the days 🙂
Drove one of these back in the day as a taxi driver loved them and I swear they went round the clock numerous times
Back when the roads weren't jammed up, filling up at the pump was affordable and you could put your foot down on the motorway, without having to worry about getting a flash from a speed camera. Good times 😎
Gotta love that video tape buzz!!
I love the way that he managed to write off the entire opposition in a just a few sentences. Basically Sierra is great everything else crap ignoring the fact that their little focus group saying they liked front wheel drive while the Sierra was a rear wheel drive car.
He talked about the Ital with disdain in his voice.
This is one aspect of car promotion that i dont like,where all the opposition cars are supposed to be useless. If you watch the Peugeot 505 verus all the other cars on you tube it comes out on top everytime ...lauaghable!
But the Audi 80 is "quite stylish". Of course, next to a Mark I Sierra it looks nothing at all...yeah, as if!
@@simonjones7727 And galvanised.
Well observed 😅 and those 2 Jap cars would destroy the Sierra for reliability
Remember the first time i saw one on the road. I was 10 years old and thought how futuristic they looked, it wss like something from space lol
“Inside they’ve really gone to town with this smooth velour and ‘Chatsworth’ trim”. Bloody hell, how 80s is that?!?!
Beautiful
My first car after passing my driving test in 1988 and 18 years old was a 1.6 Ghia. All my friends had mk 2 escorts. I thought it was the dogs danglies 😆. Certainly taught you to drive with respect because even with only 75bhp the back end would come out mid corner in the wet...fond memories.
I know exactly what you mean buddy. I passed my test in 1992, my dad had a pre face lift 1987 L hatch back in chestnut brown. You definitely had to be awake to drive that thing in even damp weather lol. I always complained that the tyres were too thin, but my dad would always keep with the standard spec. Just aswell it was slow, like you said it would drift on any surface that wasn't completly bone dry, but didn't have the power to do it in the dry lol. The XR4x4 and Cosworth were my dream cars back then haha.
Escort's are cool.......Sierra's are shite ....apart from the Cossie and perhaps 4x4
@@martinparker6536 That's not what the girls thought back then 😋
The 2.3 diesel WAS NOT quiet. My God, sounded like a big metal bucket full off Marbles.
It was a Peugeot diesel
True, but it was bullet proof, I did 200,000 in mine
@@freesaxon6835
200 000 miles of Peugeot propelled Hell.l
@@epicfriedchicken5042
but the installation was key:
Engine mounts should have been designed/tuned to isolate the vibrations and the under bonnet should have been fitted with enough sound deadening to reduce the noise to lower that John Deere.
@@lewis72 Just said it's a Peugeot engine.
That cutaway to see the bloke changing gear was just sublime. Also the cutaway to see the halogen headlight turn on. Major cargasm.
Love William Woollard’s hairstyle. A real ‘80’s man.
I remember quite vividly that in 82 several cars appeared which showed the way to (yesterdays) future and the Sierra was one of them. The others were the Mercedes Benz 190E, Audi 100 and Citroen BX.
The BX was a lovely ride. Dad had one as a company car. He was a Ford lover but even he admitted the BX was good!
The electric clock is stunning 😂
Aerodynamic was a word no one had heard of.
Sierra broke new ground but the Ford Granada Mk 2 is my favourite Ford of all time. Ghia X pack variant in Ford diamond White. Top Banana!
Since then of course, seatbelts have become compulsory whilst ties have, thankfully, become optional. I think that's what they call 'progress'.
I remember when it first came out thinking the Sierra was quite modern but in hindsight it was just old mechanicals wrapped up in the jelly mould
fully independent suspension, ohc engines, what was old mechanical about it? that is kept BMW like rwd instead of Opel's switch to fwd in the segment?
I thought they were hideous when they first came out as a hardened Cortina driver with a 2.0 GL company car. I warmed to them quickly as they quickly made some improvements to the looks, however it's funny looking at the video now, it really looks quite normal and just like a Sierra where as it was controversial at the time. Then they had the problem with the aerodynamics and a propensity to get a rear end side to side movement at speed.
@@Arayig1982 At the time the decision to stick with RWD was quite bold.
@@Arayig1982
The engines were old nails.
Both the Pinto & the Cologne engines were iron block and iron head; the Cologine wasn't even OHC.
Specific output was laughable. Ford's 1.6 was 75bhp. Vauxhall's 1.6 Cavalier was 90bhp & Austin's Montego 1.6 was 85bhp.
@@rovingenglishman
Yes, I get that.
The fashion in the early '80s was the aero look, if if it wasn't aero !
I remember my dad's sierra he didn't have. I fondly remember not sitting in the back as we went on our family holidays we didn't go on.
Ah, fun times.
"I like the hubcaps on the wheels"...............yeah much better than all the opposition who have them om the roof and doors.........................
they were considered a fancy optional extra back then. The weren't included by default. Different world.
The lamest of lame hubcaps though.
Very good! Nice bit of Glass Ties by Brian Bennett opening things up!
The 80’s, when ties had to have diagonal patterns.
I wouldn't be surprised if those suits were made in the mid 70's. They look to be wool as opposed to the cheap Polyester nightmares that were to come.
Same goes for the ties. If you bought Silk ties in the 60's/70's it was unlikely you would change them for 20 years due to the cost.
These guys were just like my older colleagues and line managers when I started work in the mid 80s, all victims of Mr Bean suits, crap cars and permanent aspirations of double glazing and Eccles caravans.
@@philhealey449 To be fair, if you live suburban and everyone has noisy cars: Double glazing probably seems like a wonderful upgrade.
@@bobdole4694 Granted! Might also have kept out the Allegro fumes.
At the time Sierra was a rocket ship in comparison to tractors.
"Anti theft locks" That worked out well...
It certainly is exciting to look at!
Ford must have sold millions! They were everywhere in the 80s, and I think still available up until 93 K reg
James T yes the Sierra was sold until
1993, in parallel to the Mondeo for a few months, by 1993 it was the 2nd generation Sierra, not the one you see here.
german built ones were the beat.drove better and didnt rust as bad.
They called it the "jelly mould" when it was released.
Yeah I remember that too..it split opinion
Yeh it didn't really take on until they released the XR4i and then "The Cozzeh"
And the Cosworth was called a fanny magnet
Always liked the Sierra, I had the 2.0 GLS, but the Diesel version I would never have called quiet or refined.
It was a great car at the time, but the shape was somewhat startling after the Cortina. Early ones were not that good but it improved when they tweaked certain parts for the Mk II. Sirra's biggest problem was rust! Especially around the wheel arches and suspension turrets. Once it got in you could end up dismantling half the car to chase it down! We had a 1.8 and that started to go after a couple years. Overall a good car though.
"I like the front wheel drive"
Ford "whelp!"
yeah, I found that amusing that so many of the people they quizzed mentioned how much they like the front-wheel-drive and here is Ford about to launch a rear-wheel-drive car.
Can tell when a company is worried about what its done when all they do is slag off the competition.
@@illusionuk the rear wheel drive decision was a reflection of where the new car market was at the time. The largest purchaser of new cars at the time was fleet buyers and they were a major part of the market for Ford at the time. Fleet managers were deeply suspicious of anything they perceived as new or complex! To a suspicious fleet manager front wheel drive = Expensive to maintain and repair.
Ford was already taking a huge market risk with its swooshy jelly-mold styling so decided to stick to the conservative choice of rear wheel drive to avoid spooking their precious fleet customers too much.
You even see it in this video, each potential customer drives a company car with limited choice over what he could have. The guy who worked in IT was interesting as an Alpine is a rather quirky fleet choice and I wonder if that is a reflection of that industry when it comes to fleet management.
Remember pushing a colleagues hopeless new Sierra in the snow in 1985. It was as crap as my terrible Rover SD1. Both were trounced by the might of our boss's front wheel drive 1750 Maxi .
@@philhealey449 Apparantly the trick was to throw a few bags of sand in the boot when driving in snow!
I had both the Sierra 1.6L and Cavalier 1.6.L. As a rep, speed was important - if memory serves, the Cavalier beat the Sierra by 0.5 seconds 0-60mph. However, look at the dashboards. Sierra was well thought out. Cavalier had lots of blanked of switches, constantly reminding me that I was in a relatively poorly equipped car. Cavalier had a digital display stereo, very easy to nick, and loads were stolen. Back in the day of company cars, reps rarely had a choice. Some companies favoured Fords, others Vauxhall so you took what you were given. Different now, with lease schemes etc.
That's done it for me!
I'm on my way to the dealer right now!
John, Roy and Mike are the fathers of Clarkson May and Hammond. perfect match.
You're absolutely spot on there😄!
I loved this. It's absolutely charming. Even down to the three identikit men with their diagonally-striped ties!
These three 'test drivers' want to make you ring up the Samaritans. 😀
Aghahhahhahahhahaha
They're all wearing the same suit.
Yes 3 white straight middle aged men. A thing of the past for adverts and advertising campaigns these days
@@dlamiss Not really, as its middle aged when people have decent jobs, cash to spend, and no mortgage. Gay people go for far more flamboyant vehicles than this.
@@Santor- You missed my point. No way would 3 middle aged white men be targeted on advertising campaigns these days. The cars are incidental
I was born in 76 and always loved cars as a child.
This is the first one I remember there being serious hoopla about, it felt like it was on every TV show.
At the time the styling was a big jump over most other cars. The XR4i was stunning.
I can’t remember many cars having the same sort of launch, perhaps the Mini One in 2001.
Strangely I’m not sure I’ve ever actually been a Sierra. Two of my friends dads had the Orion Ghia 1.6. That seemed like a real luxury car in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
It’s amazing how things change. Those older than me will be even more wise to this and those younger clueless as to how it feels as things like this come and go.
Great and good looking car. We had one, from 1985. Had the car 6 years. There was No problems with it☺. I cried when it was sold.
Ahhh the 80s what a time to be alive.👍👍
Remember seeing these when i was a brat in the mids 80s. Always thought they looked futuristic for the time
I remember the first Sierra I ever saw outside my father's shop in Ireland in 1983
The garage next door was a Chrysler Simca dealership so hunters and avengers and the very 'modern' Alpines, Solaris etc. Were a big deal.. .
I was never into 'Starwars ' etc. ...
but a pure white ford Sierra made me stand in awe and complete respect....
I was now in the New Age...
In fact the Sierra was the leap out of the 70's ( I still don't know if it's a good thing)
Comes with an “electric clock” ... as opposed to a wind up one?
I remember my parents got one of these in 1986, it was three years old at the time but still looked brand new - to my 13-yr-old eyes was part spaceship ;) You get so much more for your money nearly 40 years later, as is the nature of progress. Imagine what they'd make of a mk5 Mondeo 😲🤯
It might have been wind tunnel designed but get hit by a strong side wind in the first iteration and it was downright dangerous.
What a great video from a wonderful age. Made me laugh when they uncovered it! Silence. No whoops of excitement or wow look at that! I remember as a kid thinking it was an extremely dull looking car compared to the Cortina which was legendary growing up!
Good propaganda,i’m going to my nearest ford dealership tomorrow and get one.
For a few seconds there, I thought the intro music was from The Exorcist lol.
This was a stunning episode. Definitely the L Version is the one to buy aerodymanic wheel covers to reduce drag, a passenger side mirror and everyones favorite Bristol & Sanford trim, and all this in a hatch-back.
But seriously, my mom had an 1986 XR4TI under the Merkur label and it rocked.
As Audi as a Ford could get. Heated leather seats, great tape deck, 3 doors, 4 round wheels and a 2x wail tail.
Bitchin'
They were great cars. I bought a second hand Y reg 1.6 in 1992, and I loved it. Yes, there was a bit of rust on the door skins, but it was a solidly made, sturdy and reliable runaround. I cried when I had to sell it (lost my job).
Yes, it was a great car... Quite easy to work on. One of my car-mechanic fellows drives it still and I think will be driving it for a long time...
See the space in the centre console for a Sat Nav that hadn't yet been invented @ 18:39 ? Sierras were truly ahead of their time ;-)
Still based on a Cortina and had external door gutters.
A friend of mine installed a 5" tv in that cubby, takung it out of its housing. Looked really cool!
Brings back some fine memories of the 80's. I had the basic 1.6L as a sales rep, it was certainly a looker of a car, performed well for its class and could drive all day in it. It was fun and well equipped for a basic model, at a time when a company car was a real useful bonus in ones employment package, before they taxed the life out of it.
They are all so polite, so articulate and speak about the cars with a real passion.
Zone one in the primary zone 🤯 I love these videos. The marketing is so ‘super slippery’. How technology moves on. Great video 👍🏻
Hahah yes my thoughts exactly. “The information zone” What? A fucking clock? 😂😂😂
Ease of maintenance and accessibility. Many modern cars can learn from the Sierra. It's ridiculous how difficult manufacturers make basic tasks these days, such as changing a bulb
Yes!!!!!👍
Brilliant video and great quality too. I own three of these cars, one of which is in that rather naff shade of beige.
It was Coral Beige. We had a Laser in 1984 that colour.
Everything seems beige in this vid. I remember the 80's as quite colourful, especially 89.
"My wife has short legs", mmm she sounds great.
sounds like a right go'er
Mr short legs sounds like the person that you make excuses and avoid at a party or meeting
To be fair, that still looks a good car and was light years ahead at the time
It’s better on fuel than my 2008 Ford Focus 2.0 I should get an upgrade 😂
miles away from the CX which came out 7 years before it lol
Fuck me, now I want a Sierra 😆
Only the top side was new..
@@maartenyzer4121 not quite. Some engines were ex cortina but modernised, but the chassis was new hence independent suspension . No solid live axle like other rwd at the time.
Its quite hilarious to hear Bill Woolard refer to In Car Entertainment while talking about an analogue AM radio with cassette player. If you could've shown him then what we have now his nut would've exploded.
Not really cassette tapes were much better I've got a stereo radio cassette with a cd player mp3 player and USB input with Bluetooth and I love it
You can, he's very much alive and kicking, and probably drives a modern car
How refreshing to see an information film about the actual car and it's practical features. Today we have all this nonsense with touchscreens and how quickly you can connect a smartphone to the dashboard. Give me the good old straight forward 1980s any day.
i miss real car programs with cars we can all have and put them through real uses that everyday people will do
@@tonystoakley5816 Tell me about it. Remember when Top Gear was presented by William Willard and Sue Baker and carried out proper road tests on proper cars? Non of this driving Ferraris up Jeremy Clarkson's backside or trying to turn a Reliant Robin into a spaceship nonsense. It was blooming marvelous. Bring back the 80s
Parents had one of these when it first launched. A 1.6L. The auto choke kept stalling the engine, or in anything rainy or cold, refused to start. after 4 years old the door bottoms and boot were rotten. BUT it was comfortable and fairly well equipped compared to teh Maestro and Volvo 340. However, when they replaced it with an R21 GTS, it was a revelation and massively more modern.
@1:00 look at that front door panel fit - now that’s quality British engineering.
Were these not made in Europe?
William Fenton I believe before 1990 rhd models were made at dagenham uk, they then consolidate in Belgium both lhd and rhd
@@1964mjc Thank You for the update. I thought it was earlier was it a UK/German design? I remember the big fuss about them when they came out mainly lack of saloon version.
William Fenton I remember seeing the ones at dagenham and the engine testing bays ... I had a Sierra sapphire (saloon) in aprox 88/89/90 - don’t think they came out with first release though
@@1964mjc some were built in Ireland as well, I believe. Weird, eh?
Hell this is the most 80s production ever
Australia could have got the XR4i Sierras as a Niche product since the coupe version of the Mazda 626 and later the MX6 was denied to Ford as a Telstar.
If I could have any of the cars in this video it would be the Austin Ambassador!
Lol!
Y Reg?
Of course!
Good taste I'm 36 and I want one.
@King Brilliant full money reference?
My first car was a Talbot Alpine, JRJ 972V....loved it!
The brown bumpers go with the beige paint, enough said.
Yes, that line had me and Mrs. M. in hysterics. Really sums up how dreary things were in the early 80s.
"I like the hubcaps" 😊
I actually like them. Unusual.
The Ghia was a great looking car, the base one not so great.
The base model's wing mirrors and grey grille looked bloody awful.
I like the base model. Real clarity in the design.
Ghia trim always looked good on fords of that era.
Yes, better front end
The base model was very rare, most cheapskate companies offered their fleet the L model as a minimum.
I had a Y Plate 1.6L in lovely Chocolate Brown (probably not the official colour description) in 1985. It drove quite well but I had constant issues with the rear brakes locking on overnight due to the useless 'automatic' adjusters on the drums. The door mirrors also rattled very nicely. The boot light was fun too as it had a mercury tilt switch that would cause it to come on during braking. It took me a while to work out where the light was coming from that I kept glimpsing in the rear-view mirror when driving in the dark!
My dad had a 1.6L in Red and Rust. Mainly engine faults... constantly. Didn't know it had a boot light, ours must have been delivered pre-broken by Ford ;)
The plate on that Audi comes back as a Bedford..... in fact the Alpine and Bluebird had the same plate!! When you see these cars coming up the ramp, they are wearing different plates.
I never should have sold my Cossie in the mid 90’s for absolute peanuts.
William woolard IS Alan partridge 😂😂😂
Shocking that the Renault 18 was already rusting by the front grille within about a year of being registered!
Still are..
Renaults were absolutely crap in those days but the French kept buying them and the government subsidising them, so they survived.
Parents Sierra rust away in 4 years. My German Uncle's Audi 80 had rusty wings at 3 years old. It is how cars were. Parents had a R16 before the Sierra which did have some rust I seem to remember (nothing like the Sierra or AlfaSud that also had) but the R21 after never rusted during their ownership. Rustproofing came on a long way in the 80s. The only car they had that had any rust after then was a Golf3 in the 90s.
This "Zone 1", "Zone 2" bollocks was just that.
I never felt that I was on the wrong "zone" when using the switch gear and buttons in my old Mk2 Cavalier.
11.46 that renault is already rusting at the lower grill
I think its stone chip paint, not rust
@@pit_stop77 it is bubbling due to oxidisation clear to see
Roflmao
To be fair, it does look like its been damaged & quickly blown over with an aerosol.. The 18`s didnt generally suffer with external bodywork rust, they did however rust in hidden places, most died of inner wing to bulkhead rot, which was a pain to repair.
@@MrPabsUk I always thought the R18 was an exceptionally reliable machine, it was certainly very popular with taxi drivers here in Spain.
" A car for the ages" , quite a statement. I started the 80's driving a yellow Triumph Spitfire. My second was a xr2 then a xr3i before ending the decade in a xr2i. Back then I had nice cars and a full head of hair , happy days😂.
Thanks for the upload! William Woollard is who Alan Partridge aspires to be ;-P
On the one hand, the 'nice hubcaps' made me think, aah simpler times - but in reality is it any different from ticking box on alloy nineteens with carbon finish inserts?
Thankfully the poverty spec grey grille was shortlived; anyone remember problems with subframes with early units? Q: What do you call a red Sierra? A: A raspberry ripple
Ah, William could talk about anything & I'd listen! Sierra looks dangerously futuristic to me.
1982 & the Ambassador saved our family's lives in a head-on.
Despite their claims of superior ergonomics, I always found the Sierra's dashboard to be a cluttered mess, especially with the way the blower fan switch is separate from the rest of the heater controls. We only got it here in the USA as the German-built turbocharged XR4Ti coupe, which Ford marketed under the "Merkur" brand name and advertised as a sporty competitor to BMW.
Thought it was built in Belgium?
@@gingernutpreacher Some Sierras were built in Belgium, but the ones we got as Merkurs in the USA were made in Germany.
@@vwestlife I still find it strange the 2litre had the pinto engine cast iron head with 3 bearings but also came with the 1.6 and 1.8 CVH and I later found out you had 2.0 Liter CVH in the US
I could spend hours talking to Roy about this love for the Cavalier and to Mike about his passion for FWD....
🤣🤣🤣
1:39. My dad had a Sierra EXACTLY like that one in the same colour with single headlamps and 4 doors. Nice to see Mr. Bean with his Chrysler Alpine!
This is my first time seeing this and I now see where the Ford Tempo originated from.
Imagine being stuck beside with one of these individuals at a function.
😂😂😂😂😂
I'd rather be stuck behind "one of these individuals" rather than some of the creepy weirdos that infest current society.
The brown brown brown convention….. 😂
I hired a Sierra when they came out, my mum loved how everyone would stare at it. I also had an Alpine, very roomy comfortable economical and fast, it eventually ended up with the dreaded rusty hatch. I loved it so much I bought a new hatch painted it and fitted it, a really nice car.
14:20 "I like t' hubcaps on wheels". Then camera pans to plain grey hubcaps lol.
Hubcaps was a luxury item at the time. Signalling poshness and flair