MEET THE OWNER – MATT HOUGHTON AND HIS FORD GRANADA MK. I ESTATE
By Andrew Roberts |
15th December, 2020
The Ford Granada Mk. I Estate has to be one of the most attractive station wagons of the 1970s – and the rarest. Some of us of a certain age will remember the green metallic example driven by “Jeffrey Fourmile” in George and Mildred and today Matt’s 1975 2.5 “Series 2” is almost guaranteed to cause a sensation. After all, there can be very few examples of a ‘completely unrestored original 45,000-mile car never been welded or messed about with’ still on the road.
The Granada saloon debuted in March 1972 as the heir to the Zephyr/Zodiac Mk. IV with the Estate version following seven months later. It was Dagenham’s first in-house large purpose-built wagon as Ford GB’s previous offerings in this line were saloons converted by E D Abbott Ltd. of Farnham. There was a choice of two versions – a 2.5-litre bearing the “Consul” badge that denoted a cheaper model and a 3.0-litre Granada.
The Salesman’s Guide foresaw both versions becoming ‘the most wanted and prestigious estate cars in Britain’. The Consul was ‘the only sensible choice for the practical motorist’ while its more expensive stablemate offered ‘an unchangeable combination of prestige, performance, luxury and engineering’. Meanwhile, Autocar of 18th October 1973 headlined their running report of the Granada with the memorable phrase ‘No Fuss Grandad’.
Ford revised the Granada range as the Series 2 in autumn 1975. There were no more Consul versions, and the Estate was now available as a 2.0-litre or 2.5-litre L and a 3-Litre GL. As compared to the basic saloon, the former came with front head restraints, a clock, a vanity mirror, a trip recorder and a dipping rear-view mirror as standard. Any motorist who craved an MW/LW radio and a sliding roof had to aspire to GL ownership.
In terms of domestic rivals to the Series 2 (UK-market Granadas were Dagenham-built until 1976), the Vauxhall Victor FE 2300 Estate was stylish but more of a five-door hatchback. As for the Triumph 2000 Mk. II Estate, it was both slightly more upmarket than the Granada and had a smaller load bay. The prospective Ford buyer might also have considered an overseas model such as the Volvo 145, the Peugeot 504 and the Citroën CX Safari. When Car magazine of September 1976 evaluated the 3.0 GL against the latter two, they concluded it was ‘a hell of a lot of estate for the money’.
In August 1977 the Mk. II replaced the Mk. I and examples of early Granada Estates are now scarcer than an edition of Emmerdale that does not induce total boredom. Matt is the third custodian of the pictured vehicle and he acquired it from a gentleman in Surrey ‘who bought it from the original owner’. Today the Granada resides in Bournemouth, which was also the hometown of its first driver.
Naturally, the Granada receives a great deal of attention; Matt notes that he often experiences being approached with the opening line ‘my old man had one of those - but a saloon’. Few examples of the station wagon survive and the fact that LRU is an Mk. I Series 2 makes it even rarer. And, as the Salesman’s Guide boasted, the Granada Estate really would ‘not be out of place in top class surroundings where taste and luxury are expected’.
With Thanks To: Matt Houghton and The Ford Granada Mk. I and Mk.2 Driver’s Guild.
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