A Ford Granada brochure of the era touts the Granada as being “European-flavored”, and as most of us who were alive back then know, that was a big thing. It still is. This big-bumpered, Polar White, rust-free 1980 Ford Granada 2-door sedan can be found posted here on craigslist in Chesapeake, Virginia, and the seller is asking $6,950. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the tip!
It’s hard to run a company of any size, but imagine being in the car business on the scale of Ford Motor Company. No way. It seems glamorous, all you do is walk around and look at new designs, have meetings with catered meals, jet off to exotic locations to meet with movers and shakers, and other captains of industry. Fun! I thought the same thing about architects when I considered going to college; walking around with a cape, looking at your grand designs. Then you graduate and get low-paying jobs working on bathroom details for strip malls and assisted-living facilities. Not everyone can be Henry Ford or Frank Lloyd Wright. I assumed these wheel covers would have had a white center portion to match the body color?
Looking to Europe for inspiration was a real thing in both car design and building design throughout the last century. Even a giant in the industry like Ford had to realize that European imports were taking customers away, so it started marketing toward grabbing those customers back with cars like the Granada. Most of you remember the comparison to Mercedes-Benz, which seems funny now, but I think I’d take a Granada over a Mercedes of the same era, as weird as that sounds. Ford made the Granada from 1975 through 1982, with the ’75 through ’80 models looking like this car, and the following two years of production being based on the Fox platform and cars that were unrecognizable as “Granadas” for most of us. The Ford badge is missing from the trunk lid; was the trunk lid repainted?
I prefer the earlier round headlight Granadas, but this 2-door example looks like a peach. The seller says it has 96,000 miles and has no rust. It looks good inside, other than the steering wheel, the missing radio, some possible fading on the faux wood dash, and some issues with the dash padding. The Medium Wedgewood Blue velour seats look like new, both front and rear, and the trunk looks pretty clean. I love that the light blue exterior pinstripe matches the interior color.
The engine is, I believe, Ford’s 250-cu.in. OHV inline-six with 90 horsepower and 194 lb-ft of torque rolling through a three-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels. The seller says it runs and drives great, and has new belts, hoses, oil change, tune up, etc. Other than cleaning up the steering wheel and dash a bit, this looks like a really nice Granada that’s ready for crowd-gathering at your local Cars & Coffee events. Any thoughts on this one?
We now chuckle at the comparisons to Mercedes, but I think it may have actually worked. Being positioned as a somewhat upscale compact, they appealed to those who wanted more than a Maverick but perhaps not as much as a Torino or LTD.
They were conservatively and cleanly styled, and well-trimmed. I too prefer the round-headlight models. And what was ironic was that, underneath, they had 1960 Falcon roots.
Good write-up Scotty.
Don’t understand all the criticism of these cars…worst car lists and so on. I bought ’75 4 door Granada Ghia, nice green with darker green vinyl top, 302 with 3 speed on the floor. One of the nicer cars we had during that period. I suppose the silly Mercedes comparison might have been the issue.
Basically an upgraded Falcon. These are really not bad cars aside from how badly strangled Ford’s engines were in the early emissions era. Even AMC did a lot better in that area though that may be because they were permitted by Congress to buy emissions tech from GM.
There wouldn’t have been a Ford blue logo on this car. Just the letters F O R D in silver metal. Trunk lid must’ve been repainted at some point.
Ford did a great job of building a 7/8 scale GM G-body with these coupes. Long door with a single glass followed by a vertical opera window, much envogue at the time. The result was a compact personal luxury coupe but was by no means an economy car. Nice example with air to keep you comfy on your way to the show.
I had a ’78 Monarch, Mercury’s version. Great mileage and with an LP gas conversion was inexpensive to run.
I had two of these back in the day. Both were reasonably priced, comfortable, easy to maintain and repair. Parts were readily available and low priced. It obviously was not a Mercedes. But, most of us didn’t have a gazillion dollars to spend on a Mercedes.
With this car, I see a nice economical ride. Simple to fix and will provide you with a comfortable ride and parts are dirt cheap. I say it is a nice deal.