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Car Of The Day: June 18, 2017; Majorette '83 Ford Sierra
Topic Started: Jun 18 2017, 08:43 PM (317 Views)
Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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Today's Car Of The Day comes from Brett's collection and is Majorette's 1983 Ford Sierra.

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Wikipedia
 
The Ford Sierra is a mid-size car or large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 to 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni" It was named for the Spanish word for mountain range.

The Ford Sierra was first unveiled on 22 September 1982 at the British International Motor Show hosted at the NEC in Birmingham. with sales beginning on 15 October 1982, replacing the Ford Cortina. Its aerodynamic styling was ahead of its time and as such, many conservative buyers (including company car drivers) did not take fondly to the Ford Cortina's replacement.

It was mainly manufactured in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, although Sierras were also assembled in Ireland, Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa and New Zealand.

Assembly for the Ford Sierra in Ireland was located at the Marina in Cork City, which became the first European vehicle plant for Ford Motor Company outside of the United States in 1932. After an investment in the plant of £10 million in 1982 to upgrade it for KD kit assembly of the Sierra, it briefly had a relatively small production output of the car, which was assembled mainly for export until the plant's closure two years later in 1984. The former plant at the Marina is now a distribution point for imported Ford Cars to the South of Ireland. The Sierra was the 1983 Semperit Irish Car of the Year in Ireland, although it missed out on the European Car of the Year award to the Audi 100.


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For more information and pictures of the real car, please visit: Ford Sierra

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Interestingly, Majorette labeled this as a 'Ford Tempo' on American packages. Words cannot express my intial excitement at the prospect of a Ford Tempo (I liked these as a kid and still do now), only to discover it was, in fact, a Sierra.

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Wikipedia
 
Ford had confirmed during 1981, a year before the Sierra's official launch, that its new mid-range car would carry the Sierra name, signalling the end of the Cortina nameplate after 20 years and five generations. In September that year, it had unveiled the Probe III concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show, hinting at what the new car would look like when the final product was unveiled 12 months later.

At first, many found the design blob-like and difficult to accept after being used to the sharp-edged, straight-line styling of the Cortina, and it was nicknamed "the jellymould". It was also nicknamed "the salesman's spaceship" on account of its status as a popular fleet car in Britain. Sales were slow at first - the situation being exacerbated by heavy discounting by Ford dealers of surplus Cortina stock from the autumn of 1982 onwards, with more than 11,000 new Cortinas being registered in 1983, although the Sierra still managed nearly 160,000 sales in Britain that year, outsold only by the smaller Escort. Ford had also launched the Escort-based Orion saloon that year, which also found favour with buyers who would normally have bought a Cortina or another similarly sized family saloon.

It was later in the Sierra's life that the styling began to pay off; ten years after its introduction, the Sierra's styling was not nearly as outdated as its contemporaries, even though all major competitors were newer designs, although the Sierra had been tweaked on several occasions and many new engines had been added. The most notable changes came at the start of 1987, with a major facelift and the addition of a 4-door saloon (UK: Sapphire). As other manufacturers adopted similar aerodynamic styling, the Sierra looked more normal. At its peak, it was Britain's second best selling car in 1983, 1988 and 1989, and was still Britain's fifth best selling car in 1992. Its best year was 1989, when more than 175,000 were sold. However, it was outsold by the Vauxhall Cavalier in MK2 form during 1984 and 1985, and then from 1990 until its demise by the MK3 Cavalier. However, it comfortably outsold its second key rival, the Austin Montego, which was launched in April 1984. Between 1985 and 1988, the Sierra faced fresh competition in Europe from the likes of the Renault 21 and Peugeot 405, while Japanese carmaker Nissan was producing its Bluebird model in Britain from 1986.


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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Solid and well made with lots of play value....
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Pegers
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Pony Car
ditto:Solid and well made with lots of play value....
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Hot Wheels
Fullsize
Beautiful and in amazing condition! :thumbup:
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94cadillacfleetwood
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Nothing good ever happens after midnight.
For some reason, I'm drawn to these '80s EuroFords. Must be because my cousin had a Merkur XR4ti back in the late 80s-early 90s. I have this one, the Matchbox 2dr from the early 80s and both the Corgi and Hot Wheels releases.
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Ripa
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Minivan
The Sierra is one of my long-time favourites when it comes to diecast collecting. An ordinary car that almost every maker has done.

The real Sierra is horrible to drive in my opinion and the quality is poor. I have had a couple beaters shortly, but wouldn't like to own one for a long time. It has a huge following here amongst youngsters who have to have a RWD car and even the worst ones tend to be repaired over and over again, though not necessarily reasonable.
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Dean-o-mite
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Muscle Car
I also remember these being marketed by Majorette as the Ford Tempo. I remember buying my first one from a store, and the card had a sticker on the front, with the model number and "Ford Tempo" on it.

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chris.p
Compact
A nice model of an everyday Sierra. It sits nicely with Matchbox's XR4i.

They were everywhere at one time but I can't remember when I last saw one.

They were a bit of a Marmite car, not everyone took to them. They liked the traditional rwd but not the shape. GM's Vauxhall Cavalier had a more acceptable shape but fwd.


This sort of car from mainstream manufacturers seem to have all but disappeared now. We all seem to buy C class Mercedes, Audi A4s, BMW 3 series. New Mondeos are a rarer sight in the uk.

This model is from the era when Majorette made cars your parents might own. Not fragile exotica.

Nice choice.

Chris
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Ripa
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Minivan
Interesting variations Dean! I have never seen it with such wheels than the yellow on on the back or with no "Sierra" text on that kind of tampos (the one on the front right)
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Ripa
Jun 22 2017, 02:59 AM
Interesting variations Dean! I have never seen it with such wheels than the yellow on on the back or with no "Sierra" text on that kind of tampos (the one on the front right)
Likewise on the no Sierra gray one, and I don't recall seeing the blue or white examples before either. All of them are nice!
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