Ford Granada

Ford's Mk2 Granada helped forge a new identity for the marque in Europe, wooing customers with a unique mix of discreet styling, great value and solid design. This Ghia was top of the tree in 1979, and it still turns heads for all the right reasons today.

Superb early Mk2 is a reminder of just how much car the Granada offered.

For many of us of a certain vintage – in other words of an age to recall The Goodies the first time around – the debut of the Ford Granada Mk2 in September 1977 was quite a significant event. A Ghia in metallic Oyster Gold dominated the front cover of Ford’s October brochure of that year, the highlight of their Autumn Collection. Inside, the copy promised ‘a superb blend of performance, comfort, safety, economy, reliability – and good looks.’ Today, Phil Bosher, owner of the car pictured here, would regard this as not so much hyperbole, but more as a statement of fact.

In the late 1970s, sales of large cars represented approximately 25% of the European car market, and it was essential for the

Mk2 to build on the success of

the Mk1. The original model had replaced the Zephyr/ Zodiac MkIV in 1972, and the motoring writer Michael Tee observed at the time: ‘I would say that a lot of Ford’s racing know-how has gone into the new Granada, to make their business-man’s express a that much better road car.’ It seemed that the public agreed, and in five years Mk1 sales approached 850,000.

At one point, Ford considered introducing the secondgeneration model in

1975, but a

smart facelift of the Mk1 line-up extended its life span. When it did finally arrive, the Mk2 was similar in dimensions to its predecessor, but it boasted a choice of new engines – augmenting the familiar 2-litre OHC Pinto unit (which had ousted the Essex V4 part way through Mk1 production) was a 2.1-litre diesel option – a