Cars - Ford Sierra

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	Cars - Ford Sierra

The Ford Sierra was an midsize car built by Ford in Europe between 1982 and 1993. Released on October 13th, 1982 for the 1983 model year, it replaced the Ford Cortina/Taunus, and was itself replaced by the Mondeo. (In New Zealand and South Africa, it was initially replaced by the Telstar). Its radical and polarizing aerodynamic styling was ahead of its time and was a lasting influence, but more conservative buyers found it unappealing.

Possibly for this reason, and the early lack of a saloon variant, it never quite achieved the ubiquity of the Cortina or the Taunus, although sales were still strong; a total of 2,700,500 Sierras were made, mainly manufactured in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, although Sierras were also assembled in Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Styling

The styling was first seen on the 1981 Probe III concept car. The good reception this received encouraged Ford management to go ahead with a production car with styling almost as challenging. This "aero" look influenced Fords worldwide; 1983's new Ford Thunderbird in North America introduced similar rounded, flowing lines, and many other new Fords of the time adopted the look. The aerodynamic features of the Sierra were essentially developed from those first seen in the Escort Mk III - the "Aeroback" bootlid stump was proved to reduce the drag coefficient of the bodyshell significantly, which was a class leading 0.34 at its launch.

The aerodynamic styling of the Sierra would later be seen in North America's revolutionary Ford Taurus, which turned out to be one of the most popular cars that Ford has ever sold in North America.

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 picked up nicknames such as "jellymould" and "The Salesman's Spaceship" (the latter thanks to its status as a popular fleet car in the United Kingdom). Sales were slow at first. 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life that the styling began to pay off; ten years after its introduction, the Sierra's styling was not nearly as outdated as its contemporaries. As other manufacturers adopted similar aerodynamic styling, the Sierra looked more normal.

Early versions suffered from crosswind stability problems, which were addressed in 1985. These shortcomings saw a lot of press attention, and contributed to early slow sales.

Body styles

In another departure from tradition, the Sierra was, at first, only available as a 3-door, which itself existed in two versions, with two pillars (XR4) and only one pillar (later 3-door hatchbacks), a 5-door hatchback and a 5-door estate; no saloon was available. Due to the fact that the Ford Cortina only came in saloon and estate bodystyles, along with the Ford Escort Mk III and the Ford Granada Mk II. Ford had completely turned a saloon and estate lineup into a hatchback and estate lineup.

The company then addressed this issue by launching the Ford Orion in 1983, a car to fill the gap vacated between the late Cortina and the new Sierra. Ford found that customers were more attached to the idea of a saloon than they had thought, and this was then again addressed in 1987 by launching a saloon version of the Sierra. In the UK, this model was called the Ford Sierra Sapphire. This differed from the other Sierra models in having a traditional black grille, which only appeared in right hand drive markets. The 3-door Sierra was dropped in the UK in 1985.

Sierras outside Europe

South Africa

In South Africa, the local Sierra lineup featured both the hatchback and wagon. The restyled Sierra range, introduced in 1988, differed from its European equivalent by featuring the traditional black grille of the Sierra Sapphire sedan (known simply in South Africa as the Sapphire) on the hatchback and wagon. (Later, the grille would feature on these models in Europe).

The Sierra was replaced by the Telstar in 1993. Samcor, which assembled Ford models under license after Ford had divested from the country, was already assembling the smaller Laser and Meteor, alongside the Mazda 323, on which they were based, as well as an earlier version of the Mazda 626. Ford's badge engineering of Mazdas proved less successful in South Africa than in other markets, and the Telstar was replaced by the Mondeo in 1998.

New Zealand

Whereas British buyers rued the absence of a saloon version of the Sierra, in New Zealand, it was the absence of an estate (station wagon) that customers missed, when Ford New Zealand replaced the Cortina with the Ford Telstar range. This led to Ford importing CKD kits of the Sierra wagon for local assembly in 1984. The wagon was offered in 1.6 and 2.0 L Ghia models initially, and proved to be a strong seller. In one month in 1987, the facelifted Ford Sierra, by then a single station wagon model, was the country's top-selling car range.

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