Loved the estate - shame 'we' went down the SUV route. Those Ford estates (with the Granada Ghia X being at the top of tree if I remember) were immensely practical and bloody good looking!
Initially the Crusader was a tie in with the daily express using their logo shown in the estate picture. The dealership I worked at were still importing these from Ireland in 1983 as they were so more popular than the Sierra.they were built at Dagenham. Genk in Belgium and Cork in Ireland.
The 2-tone colours were indeed very typical styling for the 80's to stand out from standard models. Quite a radical change from Cortina / Taunus to Sierra back then. Kind of surprising though that Sierra wasn't front wheel drive car, as so many cars changed from rwd to fwd around those times. Escort had already done that and Fiesta was fwd car from the start. Finally Mondeo got the fwd drivetrain in 1993.
I had a Crusader. All silver. 1.6. The VV carbs were never very good when they aged and could let you down badly. I got hold of a Pinto intake from a 1.6 Ghia and a weber and swapped it out, later swapping the progressive weber for one that opened both venturis at the same time. That's when I did the head, just a little polish and a mild cam. Sounds drastic? You could take the head off, do everything and put it all back together again in an evening. Such an easy car to work on, the pinto is such a nice engine, rock solid and almost bullet proof. I got married in mine, they had little plastic covers in the middle of the wheels, someone put some pebbles in mine at the wedding, took me a year to locate that rattle :-)
The crusader was a very nice car but the pick of the range was the 1.6LS in my opinion. GT engine sports suspension and a rev counter and was a massive step up from the 1.6L.
For people in Europe, this was mostly considered , as a rebadged Taunus , not that they ever had a Taunus Crusader . Think they made a Taunus Savoy , in the latter year .
Nice car the Cortina and this model the Crusader. I remember you done a video on the Cortina Carousel a teacher in high school had a 2 tone grey with a 1300 engine I thought that Ford did not make a 1300 Crusader looks like I was wrong. Never saw one with the smaller engine, I do remember a neighbour back in 1985-86 bought one in two tone blue grey Y-reg , like I said yesterday the Cortina best looking 4 door car Ford had built. As always a great video Take care👍
It was a slight pity that the 'S' pack couldn't be available on the Crusader, as a pair of spotlamps would look alright with that colour-coded grille, black bumpers and bonnet stripes. On the more expensive Crusaders with the two-tone paint, the black bumpers would be taken from the parts-bin for the base Cortina. Nonetheless, they were very well-built cars. So much so, that I remember the first Y reg Sierras getting rusty much sooner than these final Cortina models.
Can you find a brochure on the 1995/96 Mk3 Cavalier 'Classic'? - Another run-out special with, wait for it: a range of nice metallic colours, posh wheel trims, wind-up sunroof, and not much else.😂
nice too see this ford cortina crusader,this model is limited base from ford cortina mk5,the best model that time,in the uk how many this model left in the uk road now
Those were the days when you paid for a car upfront and could negotiate a good discount (typically 10-15%) on even recently released models. Not in the 2020s. Most cars are bought on finance and if you pay upfront and ask for a discount the chances are you'll be offered a token discount of a few hundred pounds, some free accessories or nothing at all. The last really good discount I got was 21 years ago on a Volvo S40. Thanks for sharing!
Loved the estate - shame 'we' went down the SUV route. Those Ford estates (with the Granada Ghia X being at the top of tree if I remember) were immensely practical and bloody good looking!
Initially the Crusader was a tie in with the daily express using their logo shown in the estate picture. The dealership I worked at were still importing these from Ireland in 1983 as they were so more popular than the Sierra.they were built at Dagenham. Genk in Belgium and Cork in Ireland.
Start of my weekend love these Ford special editions
Thank you - have a great weekend
Used to admire a red cortina crusader estate on my street as a lad....
according to parkers price guide a 1.3 L Serria was £6,830 in 1982
I Always wanted all of the Mk5 Ford Cortina’s to own
The 2-tone colours were indeed very typical styling for the 80's to stand out from standard models.
Quite a radical change from Cortina / Taunus to Sierra back then. Kind of surprising though that Sierra wasn't front wheel drive car, as so many cars changed from rwd to fwd around those times. Escort had already done that and Fiesta was fwd car from the start. Finally Mondeo got the fwd drivetrain in 1993.
I believe they thought going fwd was a step too far for the Sierra at the time.
I had a Crusader. All silver. 1.6. The VV carbs were never very good when they aged and could let you down badly. I got hold of a Pinto intake from a 1.6 Ghia and a weber and swapped it out, later swapping the progressive weber for one that opened both venturis at the same time. That's when I did the head, just a little polish and a mild cam. Sounds drastic? You could take the head off, do everything and put it all back together again in an evening. Such an easy car to work on, the pinto is such a nice engine, rock solid and almost bullet proof. I got married in mine, they had little plastic covers in the middle of the wheels, someone put some pebbles in mine at the wedding, took me a year to locate that rattle :-)
Great memories- thank you for sharing
The crusader was a very nice car but the pick of the range was the 1.6LS in my opinion. GT engine sports suspension and a rev counter and was a massive step up from the 1.6L.
For people in Europe, this was mostly considered , as a rebadged Taunus , not that they ever had a Taunus Crusader . Think they made a Taunus Savoy , in the latter year .
Ford Cortina Mk5 Crusader Was my Favourite Car of all times / Cortina Mk5 Carousel / Mk5 Ghia Saloon Etc
on the september ptice list the two tone 2.0 drops from £5935 to £5476 and the whole range has a roughly £500 discount one month later
Nice car the Cortina and this model the Crusader. I remember you done a video on the Cortina Carousel a teacher in high school had a 2 tone grey with a 1300 engine I thought that Ford did not make a 1300 Crusader looks like I was wrong. Never saw one with the smaller engine, I do remember a neighbour back in 1985-86 bought one in two tone blue grey Y-reg , like I said yesterday the Cortina best looking 4 door car Ford had built.
As always a great video Take care👍
All the best
It was a slight pity that the 'S' pack couldn't be available on the Crusader, as a pair of spotlamps would look alright with that colour-coded grille, black bumpers and bonnet stripes. On the more expensive Crusaders with the two-tone paint, the black bumpers would be taken from the parts-bin for the base Cortina. Nonetheless, they were very well-built cars. So much so, that I remember the first Y reg Sierras getting rusty much sooner than these final Cortina models.
Can you find a brochure on the 1995/96 Mk3 Cavalier 'Classic'? - Another run-out special with, wait for it: a range of nice metallic colours, posh wheel trims, wind-up sunroof, and not much else.😂
I will certainly keep an eye out for one
nice too see this ford cortina crusader,this model is limited base from ford cortina mk5,the best model that time,in the uk how many this model left in the uk road now
The 'Sports Road Wheels' look incredibly narrow on the first page-spread with the Cardinal Red/Stratos Silver Crusader - that could make it a 1.3.
The heavily discounted cars were fine as long as you accepted when you traded it in thats when the depreciation hit you
Absolutely…….unless you kept it for 40 + years of course lol
Those were the days when you paid for a car upfront and could negotiate a good discount (typically 10-15%) on even recently released models. Not in the 2020s. Most cars are bought on finance and if you pay upfront and ask for a discount the chances are you'll be offered a token discount of a few hundred pounds, some free accessories or nothing at all. The last really good discount I got was 21 years ago on a Volvo S40. Thanks for sharing!
Deals are certainly all gone these days you are lucky if you can find the car you want on the lot.
🤗👍👌💯
Huntsman mate if you can!
Will add it to the list
The best value Ford special edition ever.