1989 Mk2 Ford Orion GL Goes for a Drive 

My dad had a 1.6i Ghia, in red, with the pepper pot alloys. It got nicked three times in one year, and we still loved it :-) It was only replaced a few years later with a Sapphire Cosworth. Good times.

There is something very lovable about Orions - don’t know why! Funny how every A-pillar crinkled over time 😂 Great view of a great car. I miss simplicity

The coin tray is also a blanking panel where the trip computer isn’t.

We loved coin trays in the 80s because coins were actually worth something then.

Had a 1.4L Orion back in the day, good car, very comfortable, always liked the stubby indicator stalks. Good review.

Here in Brazil we had "our" local version of the Orion. But it was a bit different, there was no four-door version, it was only sold as a two-door sedan/saloon and had a different rear end style. It was made during the joint venture between VW and Ford, called Autolatina. Ford sold it under the name Verona and VW sold it under the name Apollo. The Verona had two trim levels (LX and GLX) and two engine options, the CHT 1.6L (it’s not the European CVH) made by Ford and the AP 1.8L made by VW, the Apollo also had two trim levels (GL and GLS) and the only engine available was the 1.8L. Back then we didn't have flex fuel cars, so you had to choose the gasoline powered version or the ethanol powered version. So considering which fuel you wanted, technically you had four options for the Verona and two options for the Apollo. The Apollo was made from 1990 until 1992 and the Verona was sold until 1996 (the second generation from 1993 until 1996 was sold only as a four-door sedan/saloon).

The 1.4 cvh like this car was much better than the earlier 1.3, but 1.6i ghia was the one everyone wanted. The pepperpot alloys were awesome.. brings back so many memories. Thanks for brightening up my day 👍👍👍

Had a 1.6 injection Ghia version on an F plate. Think the dropping of the Orion name was so Ford could bolster the escorts sales figures, by adding the booted version sales in. Didn't Vauxhall do the same thing with the Astra and the booted version which was originally called a Belmont?

I always wanted an Orion 1 6i Ghia when I was younger now I want a Capri lol. Passed my test in a Mk5 Escort. A mate of mine had a S2 RS Turbo it was an absolute rocket

Also love your enthusiasm for everything you review and your attention to detail and knowledge. You even make a glovebox lid sound exciting. Hilarious! Still these little buzz boxes are quite attractive as you tend to look over the dash and those rear door windows are so square the visibility is brilliant.

That colour was called Aqua Jade. In 1989 I had to choose my first company car. Ford were the best value on our scheme and although I liked the Orion, the hatchback Escort suited my needs better. We had to give 3 colour choices and I chose an Escort 1.8D GL with Tasman Blue, Aqua Jade and Magenta as my colours. W R Davies in Welshpool had a blue in stock, so that became my car for the next 3 years and 89,000 miles. It broke down three times; the dim dip headlamp relay failed and consumed part of the loom in a smoky encounter. The fuel pump drive belt snapped, and a fuel hose became porous and allowed air to enter the fuel system. I had it serviced every 6,000 miles by my small local Ford dealer, which meant I saw them about every couple of months. The service manager and I became friends due to the amount of time I spent there!

CVH's are well known for being tappety when the rockers and lifters are worn. The head is easy to rebuild.

Not ashamed to say I bought a new Orion in the 80s. Although a little ashamed to say I bought a second :-)

floorpan on The Orion was extended around 6 inches, sharing the boot floor extension with the Escort Estate. the Gearstick should be sprung so you cant go 2nd to 5th if you dont press against the springing. the Wheeltrims on that car are from the L model, not the GL (i had lots of these back in the 90s, and worked in a dealers back in the day)) the extra blank on the speedo cluster surround was for heated front widscreen where optioned (or you could add front foglights if you wanted them). the additional blank 'twist' part on the wiper stalk wasnt for rear wiper on Escorts it was for variable intermittent where available. power steering was never available at all from factory on there (i believe some disability conversions had power steering added but they were so rare only a handful were made and were adapted escort 'chairman' vans) and ABS was also never standard, it was optional and absolutely RUBBISH (i had one equipped with it and swore never again) as it was a belt driven system on the front wheels only, and if the wheels were going to lock, it simply cut ALL pressure to the front brakes, almost. very scary to drive. you care correct there was never an RS model, even the RS bodykit was an option, it was never standard on any model and i think was a dealer fit thing (we never sold one with a bodykit) i have to say they were much better to ride in than the Escort, handled as well, once you knew how to work with them, looked better than the escort.

Watching this brought back a flood of memories of my 2nd car - a 1988 Ford Escort 1.3L. It was 10 years old when I bought it, but the original owner had added numerous optional extras - the 5-speed (an extra on the 1.3L), sunroof, same seat fabrics as that Orion Ghia, etc. and those stubby indicator stalks and to circular headlight switch were awesome. I loved that car.

I have Ford Orion Greating from Serbia!!!

Brings back memories as a child this does. These kind of cars were on the roads when I was a child(80’s child). Just to add, those strange rocker switches for the door locks you mentioned, my 2005 Toyota Avensis has those😜

I bought a 1983 model in 1987, off a 72 year old lady with 20,000 miles on it (was her late husband's and always garaged), it was 1.6i Ghia - wanted an XR3i, but they cost alot to insure and generally after 4 years were thrashed and knackered. The Orion's were generally driven by the over 50's so were fully serviced and not thrashed, and handled as well as the XR3i. The boot was enormous and far more useful than an Escort.

My parents had one of these back in the mid-nineties (I was about 6 to 9 years old I would guess the time we had it). It must have been a lower spec though. It had the same sunroof and the speaker adjuster thing, but it had wind up windows and manual wind mirrors. (I think the headunit is still in my parents garage) That was back in Ireland though, and saloons were always more popular in Ireland (Live in Sussex now, not that far from Sussex Classics actually). One thing I remember though my aunt had an Orion as well at the time (both were the same green metallic colour as the car in the video). We were at my aunts house and Dad went off to the shop on his own in the car. But with out looking he unlocked, started and drove off in my aunts car with the keys for his car. When he came back (he realised he had his sisters car by the time he got back), she tried her keys in his car, she could unlock it and start our car no problem with her keys. A few years later (around 2000 i would guess), my oldest brother started driving and got an escort mk4. My parents had a Sierra at the time, and you could use either set of keys to start them. The Sierra has the last ford my parents had, after that they have had Peugeot's and Renault's the last 20 years. Weirdly my Dad's has had quite a few cars designed by Patrick Le Quément, without even knowing it.

Had a 1988 1.6 ghia as my first car when I was 18. It will always have a special place in my heart!

I had a 1.6i Ghia loved it at the time it was pretty nippy aswell . Rare cars now days keep up the top vids of old classic cars like these ✌️👍

Blast from the past. Bought one in 1987- the boot was a revelation after my MG Midget. Died of rust. Always liked the stubby indicator stalks. Thank you.

I had one of these as my 1st “proper” car. Good to see the familiar interior again after 😮 25yrs.

I had 4 orions through the late 80,s and 90,s,two mk1,s a 1.6l and a 1.6gl, and two mk2 injection ghia,s loved them all cracking looking cars

If you can go lock to lock with the palm of your hand at a standstill, then it will be assisted, but I know my 1.4 Orion back in the day did not. Interesting memory of my girlfriends dad, telling me shouting for me around 4am, that my car alarm was going off. Didn't have an alarm, but some scally had broken my steering lock, shorting the horn contact pins in the process. Lucky bit of Ford design that stopped it being nicked.

I had a '89 1.4 back in the late '90's. I paid 1200 for it sold it to my parents for 750 on 2001. It had 127k on it. The boot kept filling up with water and it blew a lovely cloud out the back if you took it over 3k rpm. They took it down to London after 6 months and tried to flog it off for 1000. They gave up in the end and sold it to a dealer for 500. It had nearly 140k on it by then. It was well appointed and well built compared to what I was used too.

I remember working for a company in the late 80s & they had a new rep join. They bought him a new Orion LX but he wasn't happy because the other rep already had a GL lol.

All the final '90s Escort saloons that I drove had a wiper for the rear window with the pivot going through the glass.

Really nice and honest review. I've actually always preferred the look of the older Mk3 Escort over the Mk4 as I found the rounder design on de Mk4 a bit too soft in my opinion. I currently have a red '82 Escort XR3 for weekend motoring. I really love the roughness and simplicity of the car. This review really temps me into looking at an Orion as a second daily driver.

Recall that these were maybe a little bland back in the day but it looks great now. Good to see one in such great condition.

The switches on the Orion brings back memories of my old Mk4 Escort, With the switches, below the rear fogs and heated rear window, the blank switch was for the originally optional heated front windscreen which ford bought in with the 1985 Granada and the Mk4 Escort and Mk2 Orion. The ring at the end of the wiper switch was for the time delay for the variable delay intermittent wipers that was on the later upper range versions, to activate the rear wiper on the Escort you would push the wiper switch back then push it back further to activate the washers. The Escort and Orion of this generation was never available with power steering, not even an option. The ground breaking features on this version was the ability to option a mechanical anti lock breaking system, first in the class and the option of a heated front windscreen, still used by Ford today.

I had an Orion 1.6i Ghia in the late 80's. Loved it. Also worked in Ford Halewood for a bit where we made these along with the Escort. The idea of this was ported over to the Sierra which became the Saphire.

I had a 1990 1.4GL Orion that was metallic Gold. It was great, the boot swallowed up my young son’s (he’s 32 now!) buggy, support equipment & weekly supermarket shop. It was great, I eventually traded it up for a Mondeo hatch back.

Brings back memories, my father's company had Orion diesels as pool cars in the 80's. His very kind boss would often take pity on him when his old bangers were in the garage and would lend him a pool car, also he used them if he was on works business. I remember a red and light blue mark 1 Orion and a lovely mark 2 metallic blue F reg with the tilt and slide sunroof and the joystick balance control, both of which seemed very cool at the time. I still remember the distinctive Ford smell. I bought a rather worn out C reg diesel in the mid 90's which had that smell. I would love another Orion.

My Dad had 1986 "C" reg 1.6i Ghia in black & it looked beautiful, not a spec of rust on the body at all... The chassis on the other hand , yeah it was rather breezy underneath (there may have been a rather large hole under the carpet). He sold it in the late 90's, that car ran on for a good few years after that with the new owner,

I remember my dad's orion in the 90s. Driving all the way from teesside to the Portsmouth before getting the ferry to Isle of Wight is one of the memories I have

Loved Orions - much less road noise and rattles than an Escort, because of the boot (enclosed cabin). I still prefer saloons to hatches!

My Dad got an E reg mk 2 Orion 1.6i Ghia just after I passed my test and got my MK 3 Escort. It had a trip computer in place of the coin tray and an amplifier for the stereo. It got nicked and eventually turned up on a playing field minus it’s pepperpot alloys. It was written off but my Dad didn’t want to part with it so he bought it back off the insurance and got a replacement set of alloys. I didn’t get to drive it for about seven years as it was too expensive to add me on the insurance, but when I did eventually get to drive it I thought it was a cracking car.

My grandfather had a new A Reg mk1 Orion 1.6 ghia in gold with beige velour interior 😀 He used to wear stringback driving gloves, overcoat and a cap when he went for a drive. Bless him.

I'm glad to hear those back seats are comfortable since my mum gave birth to my brother in the back of my dads Orion :)

In 1996 I had one of these and it was an upgrade from my short-lived first car. Despite it being an odd cream colour with a light brown interior and had far too many miles on it, I loved it. I drove it ragged for 2 years, except for some oil and lightbulbs it didn't need anything and I sold it for the same money I bought it for when I moved to London and didn't need a car for a while.

I do love a trip back to the 1980s - my childhood era. There were so many of these. I always thought that the rear light clusters were essentially pinched from the last Cortinas - very similar in style

My family's first car! Good memories. They're so rare now here in Finland.

A lot of companies wanted saloon cars for sales reps because the separate boot offered better security for samples. Hence the Orion and Sierra Sapphire. I thought the Orion name was dropped because it split the sales figures between two models for essentially the same car. In 1989, I could have had an Orion 1.6 GL or the larger Sierra L or Cavalier L. I wanted a Peugeot 405. Only when I pointed out that the 405 was built in Coventry wax it added to the list. That handled and rode beautifully and had the all important electric sunroof in lowly GL spec.

I loved the Escorts and Orions of this era. I've always found the A-pillar trim quite disturbing in these cars though, it really looks like they dragged an offcut of pvc 'leatherette' out of a parts bin somewhere and wrapped it round the metal as an afterthought!

My late two uncles living together, lived on a farm (both where farmer in Wales). Had a first generation Ford Orion, on a C reg plate. A cow one day went mad, and damage the offside front door (drivers door), the engine bonnet. My uncles never bother fix the damaged door and the bonnet.

I loved my Orion 1.6 Ghia, to me that was the XR3i in saloon form. It had all the qualities of the hot hatch and drove like a rocket. 4 attempted car thefts made me decide to say goodbye😢 it was a G reg in silver. Wish I’d kept a pic of that wee beauty.

My step son bought one of these shortly after passing his test in 1999. It was the same year as this one but looked like it had been tarted up by the previous owner. He asked me to get it ready for the MOT and I gave the sills a poke with the handle of a screwdriver and found there was more filler than metal! I would have welded a pair on it but then I noticed that the rear arches were also a bit frilly. I opened the back door and gave the stepdown panel a good thump and it totally fell apart! Old newspaper and more filler. A rear shunt and the whole thing would crumple like an old coke can. I insisted it went straight to the scrapyard. That car was barely twelve years old. Then Ford introduced the Ka and we all know how that went!

My father had the 3 door estate version of the Escort a mk3 1.3 Pop plus and a mk4 1.3 L .......he drove them both and us as a family to spain and back ...........i still love that shape to this day I had mk3 1.3L death trap .......i called it the Dagenham disaster, just an old car , a tired car .....wish i still had it though !! Alas foresight Mk3 shells worth 6 to 10k these days !!!!

Always like the Orion square shape I had a 1600 diesel,not fast but the mpg was amazing compared to today’s diesels.

Was really happy to see someone taking a look at the Orion and was looking forward to seeing the vid, but after roughly two minutes i found the editing to be quite an annoyance which really for me spoiled what could have been a decent video

Yep! One of my Son's first car. Took his test and passed 1st time in it. When he eventually upgraded I bought it off him, it did a whole lot of very comfortable miles before being retired to the Banger-Racing Freternity ;-)

Another great video of a car we rarely see anymore. I would love to see you do a review on a Vauxhall Astra Belmont. Can't remember the last time I saw one of them...another rare classic. 🙂👍

My parents bought a RedMK2 Orion in 1991 on an E plate but it had the same wheeltrims, it was the first car I remember from my childhood because we had it for 4 years which was the longest they had owned a single car

That interior takes me back to the days when i drove an Escort combi van .....unusual colour that Orion....nice...

My mates brother had a new 1.6i ghia with full RS kit his dad bought for 17th birthday. I wonder if he still looks back at stuff like this, last time I saw him he was driving a new Aston. Always liked the Orion but I went Lancia, had the booted delta called Prisma, still have an old Delta now. Man would be nice to go back to the 80s early 90s. Cars were so cool.

The front rounded bonnet - excellent for collecting stone chips. A gutsy family car, took one to France in 1986, did 500+ miles - never an issue. However, it did have a digital radio which attracted scrotes and charvers on home turf. Lost six in ten days. Local constabulary couldn't cope. I suggested to the Ford dealership they should disguise it as a book, or a salad sandwich.

I have an 1.4 Ghia mk2 I've advanced sightly the timing. And gained a little bit of top speed too. But this car is perfect cruising at 80mph It's a sofa with wheels. Mine was originally stratos silver, but painted it moon dust silver in 2015. And rocking 14" RS rims with Goodyear efficient grip tyres.

We had a red automatic orion with the CVT gearbox that made it sound like a spaceship, two major problems with it were that it suffered from "Red Paintitis" which caused it to turn pink and eventually the boot lid turned white and the other problem was that due to problems with poor engine breathing it kept sucking oil into the carb. All the best, Stevie

Great video. Very well done. I had the Ford Orion 1.6L in Biscayne blue. It was a 1988 car on the 'E' plate. I bought it in 1998 and although it was already 10 years old, it really enjoyed it.!

Always liked Orions, but always thought they were pronounced Onions when I was a kid. I recall a navy blue one being owned by someone in my neighbourhood. Pretty much felt like one day they just all disappeared, along with all the Esorts of the era. I think I have an 80s Escort Corgi model somewhere that is in this colour - Trev

Loved the Mk2 Orion. Always wanted a 1.6i ghia. Had to settle for a 1987 Escort 1.6 GL. Mum had the XR3i in 88 which I thrashed about with much glee.

My sister has a 1987 Orion 1.6i ghia. It was a really nice drive and the steering was very light for non assisted. It also has a lovely exhaust note. As did my montego 1.6LX I had at the time too.

In the early 90's, I learn't to drive in an 86 1.6 Ghia. Happy memories. They all had the wrinkly A post trims after a few years due to the body/chassis flex lol. :)

Wow. This looks familiar. When I was growing up in Taiwan. I think this was called Ford Laser. Replacement for Ford Escort. Missed all the good old European Ford Cars. My father had a 1973 Ford Cortina. First Introduction of Ford to Taiwan, and my dad said it was actually imported from England. Then my dad upgraded to a 1977 Nissan Cedric that was slow as hell on the highway. He then traded for a 1979 Ford Granada. 2.8L V6 was plenty. Highway police in Taiwan would all later switched to Ford Granada.

Another superb video. You're easily my favourite RU-vid channel. I do miss your comments on the smell of car interiors, which you used to do all the time. Sounds odd but the smell of a car interior brings back a lot of nostalgia for me. This generation of ford seem to have a kinda sweet powdery smell. Vauxhalls from the mid-2000's to now seem to smell like a McDonald's burger IMHO. Anyway, keep up the good work and remember there is a nice Fiat Grande Punto multijet Eleganza with leather to review here in Southampton. 😁

Enjoyed seeing an Orion review; don't see many these days, especially the Mk1. Looks like a great example and the 1.4 is up to the job. I had 2 Orion's back in the mid 90s; a 1990/H 1.6 LX then a 1990/G 1.6i Ghia (Efi). The 1.6i was the best package, in my opinion. Great blend of performance and refinement, nice exhaust note, smart pepper pot alloys, practical and decent trim/spec. I did hanker after the rare 1600E but couldn't afford one at the time.

The orion was a nice car. My dad as company cars always had sierra ghias and a granada scorpio, he was never given an orion. I remember though when the 3 of us was on holiday in jersey about 83-84 we went to a ford showroom one day and dad drove an orion. We all went out init, nice car 👍

My dad had a H mk2 Orion 1.4L as a company car from new in 1990-1993. It was quite quick and never broke down. We could fit loads of stuff in the boot whenever we went shopping, holiday or moving house. It's a shame his firm swapped it for a Rover 214SLI as it was a duff one. The ECU packed in after 6 months. To this day he misses that Orion and so do i.

Great Video! Couple of things (Ford lover here) - I checked the Ford brochure, the 1.6i Ghia Orion did 0-60 quicker than an XR3i by 0,1 sec (mk1). Also, you can get PAS, only with a disability car! Keep up the good stuff.

It used to be much clearer what denoted a "Mark", specifically it was a change in metal pressings for the body. Escorts MkI and MkII were the same car facelifted, MkIII and MkIV the same, and likewise for MkV and MkVI. It's much more recent that the waters have been muddied by referring to facelifts, such as my MkII facelift Focus.

And the delight of the plastic clutch adjuster that broke and left you with about an inch of travel!

takes me back to ours we had a red 1.6 h reg. with same wheel trims

Dad had a mk 2 on the H reg.Bright red . one of last I’m assuming as the new model was the big thing we got it in 91 next to new. Same wheel trims as that and was a nice car for outings and starter motor was first real problem we had.

A workmate had one around 2006 it was completely rotton and leaky, duct tape all over the sunroof and window seals. Eventually the engine fell out whilst driving to work. The mounts had rotted through and the engine dropped out onto the road, ripped the sump off, spilt oil and engine parts all over the road and ground to a halt. The car was completely trashed.

my brother had a red orion 1.3 with only 4 gears he bought it for £50 about 20 years ago.. we had great fun it !!!! we drove all the way down to lyme regis without any oil in the engine as he forgot to check it before we left ha ha !!! still worked and drove fine ,, we filled it up when we got down there ha ha

Great vid, I had a blue 87 1.6 Orion Ghia for a year or so in the late 90s and replaced it with a white 96 1.8 Ghia X Escort saloon which I had for 6 years

You forgot about the special edition Orion with leather trim basically a 1.6 injection Ghia....the 1600e

My mum had a 1.6i Ghia from work as a pool car, I managed to get over 120 mph out of it on an empty private motorway ( not sure how accurate the speedo was though 🤔) we also had a system 2.0 version in for work at the Ford dealership I worked at , it used an American block to get the bigger capacity. It was a Passey and Porter conversion or something, fast car

I remember my friend's dad back in the late 80s buying a 1.4 LX Orion. I remember thinking how comfortable it was with the velour seats. 😁

This is interesting in that it's one of the only cars that was sold as a sedan in Europe that wasn't in the USA. We did get a sedan version of the Mazda based 2nd gen American Escort but not til the early 90s.

So many memories when I was 19 driving an Mk5 Orion 😎

I learned to drive in an 1989 1.3 Orion. It was the Laser spec, which seems to have been one of the special edition badges that comes and goes at random on Ford models. It had the same manual tilt and slide sunroof as the one shown, but all manual windows and mirrors and definitely no heated seats. None of these had power steering, but they were so light (780 kg IIRC) that it wasn't really needed. This was a car that could get 40 000 miles out of a set of tyres when driven gently. The classiest feature was the hazard light button on top of the steering column that flashed on and off like the Batphone when the hazards were on... Also never ever look for crash test results from this car if you ever want to willingly drive it in modern traffic.

I had a 1986 red orion 1.4L and it was a lovely car to drive with a very smooth gearbox,the stubby stalks were easy to use and it's fuel consumption was really good,l once did a Ayr to gt-yarmouth and return run which the orion handled like a champion, overall a brilliant car, in fact l might just have a look and see if I can get another one 👍

Equivalent dial to the lights switch on the right hand side was variable windscreen wiper speed on higher specs. No power steering on this mark, only on the next version. ABS was available but only an option. I had a metallic blue G reg Orion Ghia injection from new and loved it and it’s pepper pot wheels! Was a complete come down 3 years later and had to have an Astra belmont🙁

I completely agree - this Orion represents the best of the Escort/Orion range. Later Es/Os weren’t as good and didn’t even match the equipment levels available on some Mk2 Orions. The not-too-rounded edges of the late 1980s cars appealed to those who thought the Sierra was too soft, and in many ways the Orion strikes the most pleasing silhouette with faint whiffs of the Mk5 Cortina. As a child who grew up in the UK in the early ‘80s, I was a big fan of the Escort and Orion range from that era. I remember seeing an Orion at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1982 or 1983 and being impressed with the styling and shape, clearly Escort derived but different enough to feel more gentrified. My family moved to the USA in the mid-1980s where, strangely, no such booted version of the Escorts existed until the early 1990s. Then again, the US Escort was a heap of junk compared to the sleek European ones, even though they were vaguely related. It was truly for entry level car buyers who would prefer a blue oval to a ‘foreign’ nameplate. It does have to be said that the US Escort was a better car than its rivals from Chrysler (Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon) and GM (Chevy Chevette). Coming back to the UK for a two week holiday in 1989, we hired a mid-level spec Orion and my father was very impressed with it. He liked the driving position, comfort, dashboard and drivability of the car, all the things you touched on in this video. I don’t recall which engine we had but I can echo your sentiments: the back seat was a comfy place to spend time. The car was well-made and equally comfortable cruising on the motorway all day or on the twisty roads of North Wales. Great memories! Thank you for the video.

Here is NZ we have the Ford Focus. Nearly all of the first generation are hatchback. I saw a 2015 Focus sedan for the first time this week and I never really knew what it was I saw the badge. Practically all of our subcompact cars are hatchback and most of our compacts are hatchback.

I owned a silica gold 1986(D) Escort 1.4 GL in the late 1990s. I had my heart set on a Vauxhall Astra or Rover SD3. The dashboard is very familiar to me! I managed to snap the stubby indicator and the driver's seatbelt locked up. Both items replaced and refitted fairly easily. I sold it for scrap in late 1999 as it needed a lot of welding. This very nice Orion was likely made out of higher quality steel so it looks like a good buy. No power steering unless you go up to the Ghia spec iirc.

Here in 1981 the Mazda based Ford Laser replaced the Mk11 Ford Escorts. My sister had a 1989 Ford Laser hatchback without power steering and that felt very heavy at low speeds, especially compared to my Mk11 Ford Escorts that felt relativity light. We got the Ford Escorts again when Mk5 come out in the mid/late 90s. Then that was replaced by the last generation of the Ford Laser. Then I think in 2002 we got the first Generation Focus. The late mid/late 90s Escort reliability was bad compared to the Lasers. And the Escort also had problems with rust from a young age. Your still more likely to see a early 90s Laser here than a late 90s Escort. The diesel escorts here esp died young. It's the same as the at Transits here. No where near as reliable or as rust free as the Japanese competition from this era.

I didn't think much to these Fords at the time, and I couldn't understand why people would spend a fortune on cars with chickenwire wheel arches when you could buy something else in good condition for the same money. But they are undeniably practical, seem much less boring nowadays, and it is very good to see some are still about and being looked after. Thank you for another excellent review. :-)

'used to love these cars and had several including at one time one of the cleanest about. Couple of pedantic fyi's for anyone interested; There never was a full RS version, although I believe Ford did make a prototype. Sadly it wasn't to be so the 1.6i ghia was the best we got aside from the limited 1600e. On the matter of power steering, it's highly unlikely the model in the video had it although it was available as a very, very rare option to aid those with disabilities. And as for those that question whether the mark 4 escort really was just a mark 3.5 I suggest trying to face lift a mark 3 yourself... I did it once but the differences are actually pretty huge under the skin... as an example the front wings were wildly different meaning that to fit a mk4 front bumper required either large scale modification of the bumper or replacing the weld fitted mk3 wing with those from the mk4. Changing the dashboard necessitated rewiring the cluster and updating tye speedo cable as the mk3 didn't reach and there was a laundry list of other details that had to be updated to make it convincing!!

The Orion name was dropped in ‘93 with the Mondeo launch and that not having a separate saloon name, although they should have done and called it Contour!

Great video, I've loved orions for years, since my dad had a mk1 1.6 injection ghia back in the 90s, I had one when I was 18 and now 36 I still have one, although not used daily anymore. Orions are very underrated, but that keeps the prices sensible and gets you a really good 80s practical family car. I would absolutely love for you to test drive mine, be a bit different to this one I can promise that 😂

I'd love a 1.6i Ghia one, in gold, with brown bumpers & brown velour interior.

Just watched this again today back to back with the 1990 Rover 414 SLi. They both seem to drive really well with comfort and both seem to trounce the BMW 3 Series for rear headroom and legroom. Rover and Ford Teashelfery masterclass. Both in very attractive colours.

I knew a rep that was supplied with one he didn't like I didn't like the three oven knobs for the heater controls LOL

The mk2 orion ghia 1.6i was a great looker with good performance for its time.......

My dad had a two tone red and grey Orion 1.6i Ghia was pretty nippy!

When I was an apprentice at a Ford dealership in the 80s someone told me they couldn’t build Escort & Orions at the same time on the production line at Halewood.So Orion bodyshell’s we’re stored outside the factory whilst they made the more popular Escort and yes I was still daft enough to buy a D plate Orion 1.6GL the thing cost me a bloody fortune having the floor pan welded up every MOT

I think as I recall the high spec Mk1 Orion also came with black trim in the rear lights (very fine lines) and I think only on the really high spec models (Ghia)