RE: craigalsop's Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 4x4

[yeah right]

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Hi there is no doubt at all from my observation that the Sapphire (and in fact all Ford Cosworths are the same ilk) is a car of bad design on Ford's side..insofar as its suspenson and drive train is concerned and because they choked the engine down. Ford has been one of the worst design company structures of all time,lives on its undeserved reputation as a "top car". Every model has been a pain in the neck for several reasons ever since Henry Ford got the usual USA nonsense reputation of boy wonder appropos of nothing. Reo for example and Olds were far better cars right at the outset . . Nevertheless the Cosworth has a great deal of potential limited only by Ford Motor's mean-ness and incompetence, or rather their miserably minded and confused design teams. That Ford couldn't fix some problem or another is because Ford is an incompetent engineering company which sits on its diminishing reputation and refuses to budge but pretends it does. Holden..and I dislike both firms..eats Ford at Bathurst. Why you would go to Suburu after 50000 miles of problems makes no sense at all, frankly you shouldn't buy cars you cannot comprehend but if you do then go to true experts and not the local Ford dealer and require performance before you start, say "I am not interetsed in paying you to learn about this model and its problems but to fix them rapidly and competently. I will pay for actual work done, any learning curve is for you to pay" and take the car to the Society of Auto Engineers for review afterwards.. Suburu is a very good car as are ALL horizontally opposed marques, however in 50 years the Cosworth will still be a legend whilst Suburu is already off the boil..who cares about an Imprezza today?? Better or worse the Imprezza is old hat, sad but true.So keep your Cosworths, sort out the problems, keep them standard as possible and work on the suspension and brakes rather than racking up torque and horsepower figures with bolt-on chip and chattle expenditure..make the engine work efficiently but don't go this cretinous path of spending thousands of pounds which is dead money..never recoverable . BMW is a far better car in most areas and even better as M series but Ford wouldn't have a clue why.Ford motor company is simply a dead end mob and most of their cars over the years prove it with horrors like Mustangs and GTO's as their flagships. No road car should run without complete wishbones to locate its geometry and BMW knows it. Ford stuffs around with too many models instead of finding the ace solution and applying it to all models. Having said all that in brief you simply didn't try hard enough to repair the car but that's your choice. You also did not specify the problems of which you complain. In finality, driving a sports saloon which is a third part or less "racing car" invariably gives heat problems. Electronics are very vulnerable to heat and corrosion. Try improving cooling, braking and suspension and drive the car like Moffatt drove (and I disliked him very much as a person) ..with respect and smoothness ...and your Cosworth will serve you well.Whenever I see "large number of receipts" in a Cossie advert I know the car has been abused, the owner ripped off for owning a cossie (or the car is a dog)and stay clear. Unfortunately the abuse of the car in 'hotting up' coupled with poor drivers who bolt on this power without thought about the far more important areas of suspension and reliability reinforces the the inherently poor Ford component in the Cosworth. Recently a BMW with Cossie motor received a poor bidding on eBay yet the concept simply eats Ford. The difference of course is that a Cosworth BMW is, whatever way you look at it an orphan and not a Ford Cosworth...So, learn about what makes a car a good car and apply it to the Cosworth and what makes a good driver ( a critical component) instead of running off to something else after 50K.As I said or implied the suburu is already passé...it will never be legend like the Cosworth Sierra and Sapphire.

Cheers

Tony