Ford Granada
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The Ford Granada was the name for several cars produced by the Ford Motor Company. A series of cars was produced under this name in Europe, while an unrelated automobile used the name in North America.
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Europe
In Europe, the Ford Granada was produced at both its German factory in Cologne and its British factory in Dagenham from between 1972 until 1976 when production switched entirely to Germany until it was discontinued in 1985. From 1985-1994 the Granada name was used in the UK only.
1972
The 1972 Granada succeeded the Ford Zephyr/Zodiac as Ford's full-size European offering, and was very common in taxi, fleet and police usage. It was also converted into limousine and hearse versions by the British company Coleman Milne. At first, lower models in the range were called the Ford Consul, but from 1975 on they were all called Granadas. It was best known for its appearance on the television series The Sweeney.
Mechanically, the European Granada conformed to Ford convention, the inital range using the Ford Essex V4 unit in 1.6 L and 2.0 L capacities, and the "Essex" V6 engine in 3.0 L format. The V4 was later replaced by the Pinto unit.
The cars were available as two- and four-door sedans, a five-door station wagon (Turnier) and two-door fastback coupé. Interestingly, the British Granada Coupé had slightly different sheetmetal; the German models had a more pronounced "coke-bottle" line. This was the reverse of the situation with the TC Cortina and Taunus, where the British model had the coke-bottle styling.
1977
The square and straight-lined Mark II Granada appeared in 1977 and was produced until 1985. The Mark II was a development of the previous car, the main differences being the "Cologne" V6 engine in 2.3 L and 2.8 L forms replacing the older "Essex" unit, and the introduction of features such as air conditioning and fuel-injection. The coupé was discontinued when the new model began production.
Ford subcontracted assembly to Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea for export of this model to Southeast Asian countries.
In South Africa, the Granada Piranha V8 was available through Ford dealers with the 302ci Windsor V8 engine.
1985
In 1985 the third-generation car arrived, which was essentially a rebadged Ford Scorpio, the Granada name being used in the UK only, with the Scorpio badge being reserved for the top-range versions. The entire range was called Scorpio from 1994.
North America
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1975
In North America, an unrelated car of the same name was introduced in 1975 along with the related model, the Mercury Monarch. The luxury version Mercury Grand Monarch became the Lincoln Versailles in 1977. The Granada was touted by Ford as a rival to the similarly sized Mercedes-Benz 280SE of the time.
In the United States, the Granada/Monarch was intended to replace the Ford Maverick and Mercury Comet but ended up being sold alongside them for a time. They were assembled in Wayne, Michigan. They also slightly overlapped with their successors, the Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr. Ford North America also sold a Ghia version and an ESS (European Sport Sedan) version.
1980
The range was moved to the Fairmont's smaller Fox platform for the 1980 model year and was sold through the 1982 model year. It was replaced by the downsized LTD, based on the Ford Fairmont.de:Ford Granada