(music) If you lived in North America in the 70s the
words Ford Granada means this. (music) But if you’re from Europe, and specifically
the UK, the Granada means this. (tyres screeching) The Granada completed the transformation of
Ford’s stodgy 1960s image with a complete line-up of daring car designs for an affordable
price. But why was it initially called the Ford Consul
in the UK, and why did it all go wrong with the Ford Scorpio in the 1990s? This is the Ford Granada story. (music) In the 1960s Ford’s large car in the UK was the Zephyr, which Ford marketed with upmarket
Zodiac and Executive models. On the continent Ford made the completely
different Ford Taunus. But Ford was losing out in the large car market
to Rover’s P6 and the Triumph 2000, and on the continent, there was competition from
Opel, BMW and Mercedes. By 1968 Ford was revitalising its range with
the new Escort, mk3 Cortina and Capri that would launch in just a year, so it made sense
to produce a new large car for the whole of Europe for the 70’s. And Ford was hoping its aggressive American
styling would be popular throughout all of Europe, setting it apart from other European
cars at the time. Ford would pour £50M into the development
of this new vehicle. They wanted to call the car the “Granada”,
but they were threatened by a lawsuit from Granada Ltd, a company that owned a TV studio, a chain
of cinemas and TV rental shops. They worried Ford’s Granada car could cause
them negative publicity if something bad happened to it, like it started randomly exploding
in the streets. With the threat of the lawsuit over the car,
Ford chose to call upper spec cars the Granada, with lower spec cars called the Consul. It’s likely Ford was hedging its bets. It wanted to use the Granada name around the
world, but if this wasn’t possible it could use the Consul name in Europe, a name it had
used since the 1950s. The new car would have independent rear suspension
and a range of engines from 1.7L to 3.0L. Although it got better disc brakes at the
front, it would retain drum brakes at the rear. The car would be both a saloon, coupé and
estate. The previous Ford Zephyr estate was produced
by outside companies, but the Granada estate would be done by Ford themselves. It would be produced in both Cologne in West
Germany, and Dagenham in the UK. The Ford Granada was launched in 1972 and
was an immediate hit, being well received by the motoring press. They compared it favourably to more expensive
cars like the BMW, and heaped praise on its suspension – beating the hydropneumatic
Citroën DS. Suddenly the Rover and Triumph were looking
old-fashioned, and Ford played up its exotic continental image. Its promotional footage even threw some casual
sexism in for good measure! "Still it doesn't matter if you have an obliging lady
wife who'll fetch your car for you in the mornings." "Perhaps she does it because she knows it's
one of the rare chances she'll have to drive it!" Customers loved the fresh styling and it was
a hit with fleet managers and taxi companies, allowing Ford to take significant inroads
into the luxury car market. Ford now had a full, compelling and inexpensive
range, from the Escort, through Cortina to the Granada, and companies could use Ford
as a one-stop-shop. The car was exported to countries such as
South Africa where Ford worked their magic by installing the Mustang 5.0L V8 engine,
giving it a 0-60 time of around 8 seconds and a 128mph top speed, although the popular
automatic gearbox sapped some of that power. The car was called the “Perana”, and it
was said that none other than Ford President Lee Iacocca used one as his daily driver. The car also found success as a police motorway
cruiser, both in mk1 and mk2 variants. In 1973 Ford added a 2-door saloon model on
the continent, allowing the entry level model to be just a little cheaper. The Granada was Ford’s high-end luxury car,
and Ford needed more than a fancy badge to tempt customers away from their Rovers, BMWs
and Mercedes. They found it through Carrozzeria Ghia, the
Italian design studio. Ghia had done work for Ford since the 50s
with car designs such as the Lincoln Futura. If you think the Futura looks familiar, then
you’ll likely have seen it in its modified form as the Batmobile in the 1960s TV show. Ghia was bought by Ford in 1970, to become
its in-house design studio and its name was applied to high end Fords, and to the Granada
in 1974. The Granada Ghia was meant to look significantly
different from the regular car with a much more luxurious level of trim, but cost cutting
meant only a few outside changes could be made. The cynical might say Ford were using the
Ghia badge to sell its high end models to its snobby customers, and there was an element
of that, but Ghia brought real skills in making a premium car that Ford could lean on to drive their
cars upmarket both in Europe and North America. The Ghia name would be used across the entire
Ford range well into the 1980s. Ford’s marketing team did the car proud,
getting it featured in “The Sweeney” in 1974 and later in
“The Professionals”. No longer just an executive cruiser, the Granada was
a cool car that was helping to clean up the streets! This coincided with a small styling update
for the 3.0L Ghia model in the UK, an update that was extended to more models on the continent. Ford finally won its court case with Granada
Ltd in 1975, allowing them to drop the Consul name on the lower spec models. So just why is there a North American car called the
Ford Granada, produced around the same time? Well it’s possible that Ford wanted to rationalise
its European and North American cars, especially in light of the 1973 oil crisis where fuel
efficient vehicles were becoming fashionable, and European Ford’s used smaller engines. Ever since Ford started building cars in Europe
they’ve been looking to create “world cars” that would minimise development costs. Ford did investigate using the European Granada
for their 1975 North American Ford Granada, but rejected it as the cost to make it street
legal in North America was prohibitive. By 1976 production of the European Granada
was moved solely to Germany in preparation for the updated mark 2 Granada in 1977. The updated design took cues from Uwe Bahnsen’s
new styling being used on the Cortina and new Fiesta. What’s surprising is that although the car looked all-new,
it was merely a reskin of the mk1 car. Car design fashions changed quickly in the
1970s. They seem to stay relatively static today with car
companies coalescing around one low drag shape. The mk2 Granada dropped the coupé model,
leaving just the saloon and estate. But to reduce costs the estate’s rear end
was mostly carried over from the mk1. The old Essex engines in the mk1 were replaced
by newer 2.3L and 2.8L V6 Cologne models. For the first time a diesel was added, mainly
for the taxi market. The 2.8L Ghia featured new Bosch fuel injection,
making it a bit of a beast with a touch of opulence. In 1978 Ford worked with Hyundai to bring
Granada production to South Korea. The car used a smaller 2.0L engine due to
tax restrictions. Production ended in 1985 after selling almost
5,000 cars. Ford also produced and sold the car in Taiwan. The Ghia design studio was frustrated they
didn’t have more influence over Ford’s cars. They had been restricted to trim changes,
but they were able to do full car restyles. They showed off their prowess with the Ghia
Altair project in 1980. The car was a little larger than the Granada
it was based on, but with a lower drag factor and angular styling that was popular at the
time. It included a single windscreen wiper and
covered headlights. But Ford wasn’t interested in going in this
direction and limited the Ghia design studio to trim changes like the high-end Ford Granada
Ghia X Executive in 1981, a car that believed the more fancy names you could throw at a
car the fancier it would appear to the customer. With the luxury car market demanding high
end features, Ford added heated, electrically adjustable seats, air conditioning and electric
windows and sunroof. Ford did a light facelift on the whole Granada
line in 1981. But by the 1980s other car companies were
introducing their own high-end models. Image was important to the company executive,
and they needed to be seen rolling up to clients with the right badge on the front. They were looking at German cars with Mercedes
and BMW being their top choice, and Audi’s “Vorsprung durch technic” adverts were
making it a popular alternative. 1980s luxury car customers wanted German cars
and wouldn’t be seen dead in a car made by the same company that made the cheap Fiesta. Ford updated the car in 1985 and split their
naming once more. In the UK and Ireland the car remained the
Granada due to the resistance over the Sierra name change and styling, but in Europe the
car was renamed to the Scorpio. In the UK, top-spec Granada’s were given
the Scorpio badge. The car received a toned-down version of the
Sierra jelly-mould styling. But fuel economy figures had made colossal
strides in just 13 years thanks in part to better engine management and lower drag styling. Where the mk1 Granada got 18mpg, the new entry-level
Granada would get 45mpg. The Ghia trim level was still used, but it
was relegated to being a middle range trim level. With German cars offering a high level of
refinement, Ford pulled out all the stops with the Scorpio model, with headlamp wash,
variable assist power steering, a heated front screen, trip computer, headphone jacks in
the back and electrically reclining rear seats. ABS was standard across all cars, quite unusual
at the time. The car won the European Car of the Year in
1986. The new car used a new chassis, based on a
stretched version of the Ford Sierra. It used 1.8L and 2.0L Pinto engines, but by
1989 these were replaced by better 2.0L 8-valve DOHC engines. Peugeot 2.5L diesel engines were also available. A 2.9L 24-valve Cosworth V6 was added in 1990
giving it a 0-60 time of 8.1 seconds – quite a good time for such a heavy car. The car was initially only available as a
hatchback which hurt sales, but Ford added a saloon in 1989 along with an estate in 1992. The new version was also still sold in Taiwan. The North American Granada had been phased
out in 1982, but Ford brought the Scorpio back to American shores in 1987 as the Merkur
Scorpio. It was only available as a hatchback as the
saloon hadn’t yet been launched in Europe. Despite good reviews sales were disappointing,
with just 22,000 sold, and the Scorpio and the Sierra XR4Ti were discontinued in 1989. But the Ford Granada / Scorpio was struggling
with sales against the German triad of Audi, BMW & Mercedes, ironic as the car was designed
and built in Germany. But Ford had a plan to beat the Germans at
their own game. In 1990 Ford purchased Jaguar with the goal
of transforming it into a volume luxury car maker. The Granada / Scorpio got a small facelift
in 1992 before a more major redesign in 1994 where the Granada name was finally dropped. There were many who didn’t like the new
styling, with the front given a pair of sad bulbous eyes. The rear had a transatlantic flair to it,
but it looked out of place on European roads and a far cry from the exciting and well-proportioned
transatlantic styling of the Granada mk1. The estate just looked dull, like an enlarged
Ford Mondeo. We’ve never found out who designed this car,
as Ford never made the “culprit’s” name public! Ford were so concerned about the “bold”
styling that months before its release they held a meeting with the motoring press. They explained in great detail why this car
was beautiful and forward thinking and not ugly at all, but it’s never a good sign when you
have to call a meeting to explain a car's styling! It didn’t work, of course! If you want to read just some of the motoring
press’s scathing remarks, pause the video right now. The trim levels were Executive, Ghia and Ultima
and it used the updated versions of the 2.0L, 2.3L and 2.9L engines from the mk1 Scorpio. With customers looking at other large cars
like Ford’s own Galaxy minivan, BMW, Audi & Mercedes sales going from strength to strength,
sales of this awkward-looking car were disappointing at just 95,000 sold and production ended in
1998. Ford threw their money and marketing behind
their new luxury saloon, the Jaguar S-Type. Just a year later Ford purchased Volvo, allowing
them to also sell the Volvo S80 saloon and V70 estate. To get early advert free access to new videos,
or to appear in the credits, please consider supporting me using the Patreon link below
from just $1 or 80p a month, and hit that subscribe button to get notified of new videos. Thanks for watching and see you in the next
video!
