What is in a name? If that name is “Cortina,” enough to make
a documentary: in 1982, the BBC broadcast “The Private Life of the Ford Cortina,”
not as an episode of “Top Gear,” but as part of the arts series “Arena.” Named
after an Italian ski resort, the car was portrayed as having woven itself into
the fabric of British life over the previous twenty years, becoming the
archetypal British family car and company car, its ascending trim levels
equating itself with social status. In styling terms, it was the closest you
could get to an American car without importing one.
However, the “Arena” documentary followed an announcement by
Ford that Cortina production would end in 1982, to be replaced by a new model based
on a futuristic, aerodynamic concept unveiled the previous year. The comedian and
writer Alexei Sayle, appearing as a Cockney punter through the programme,
lamented the demise of his favourite car like a death in the family, before
turning on its successor:
“They’re gonna call it the Sierra, the bloody Sierra. And what
does that mean, eh, Sierra? What’s that about, eh? It don’t speak volumes to
me, an English person, Sierra. It’s not like Cortina, you know what I mean?
They’re doing away our car for some poxy hatchback. Oh I think it’s - I think it’s
disgraceful. I’m angry.”
That “poxy hatchback,” named after the Spanish word for a
mountain range, was the future of car design, requiring only tweaks over the following
eleven years while the rest of the industry redrew its cars from scratch. Although
the Sierra remained rear-wheel drive just as front-wheel drive became more
common, this helped it to be adapted into high-performance sports models, like
the XR4i (also sold in the US as the Merkur XR4Ti), the XR4x4, and the fabled Sierra
RS Cosworth – South Africa also had the XR8, with a five-litre V8 engine. My grandfather
had a more regular Sierras, and it was as comfortable and dependable as a Ford
is should be, with the familiar blue oval badge coming with its own set of
expectations.
However, in 1982, the Sierra’s design was proving to be
ahead of its time, making it more difficult to form a personal connection in
the way others did with a Cortina, unless you owned one of the sportier models.
The Sierra proved to be very popular in Germany, where it replaced the
lower-selling Taunus, and for the last six years to 1982, the Cortina was a
rebadged Taunus. But with the goodwill generated by the “Cortina” name carrying
forward in the UK, it was likened to a jelly mould and a spaceship, and the
lack of a Sierra saloon option until 1987 meant buyers scared off by the then
unconventional design were forced to look at the smaller Ford Orion, or at
competitors like the Vauxhall Cavalier – while the Cortina was the UK’s biggest-selling
car in each year of the 1970s, the Sierra usually found itself second to the
Cavalier or the Ford Escort.
Right now, the name “Mondeo” has been used by Ford longer
than “Sierra” and “Cortina” ever were, and if their recent decision to phase
out regular cars in the US and Canada, apart from the Mustang and a version of
the Focus, in favour of more sports utility vehicles and similar crossover cars,
the whole notion of a standard “family car” may already be over. However, the
nostalgia over the name “Cortina” can still be found in the UK, and in real
numbers – according to howmanyleft.co.uk, 3,520 Cortinas remain registered on
British roads, against only 2,642 Sierras. Perhaps, the Sierra is still too
close to the cars we have today for nostalgia to kick in and save those that
are left.
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