Is the M3 the new Ford Cortina?

[M3noob]

Several different body styles over the years but it was never an exotic choice ... well, aside from the rear light clusters and mini wings on the Mark 1 ... as kids we thought it must be American! Maybe the look hasn't aged so well!

Do not dis the ban-the-bomb taillights

 

[oneonorder]

I had a little money in 1979 and bought a 1972 Capri 3000 GT V6. After that, it was a long time before I had any money again.

My dad had one in 74-77. Was as cool outside primary achool as my 3sr is today.

 

[Js1977]

Mine certainly has the panel gaps and paint quality of a car from the 1970s.

Unlucky

 

[Adopado]

Do not dis the ban-the-bomb taillights

Certainly not ... I loved them at the time ... very sci fi spaceship... my mother was a sales rep in the 1960s and got use of a Cortina so that became our first family car. Imagine that, a family with a car in 1963 ... we may have had an outside toilet but we also had a Cortina!

 

[Sparkeur]

I didn't know what the Cortina was. I had to go look it up. Boy is that ugly.

Steady on old boy, I had a Mk3 and Mk4 Cortina. As a young sales/support pleb in the late 70's early 80's, I'd arrived. What's more, The Sweeney used MK 3's...kudos.

 

[AndrewGR]

it had black plastic foam seats

Rather like the Model 3 then?

 

[RazorCH3]

To be a modern day Cortina, the LR and Performance would need a vinyl roof

I remember my mates Cortina which had a foot operated switch for the headlights. Or was it windscreen wipers? It doesn't really matter which as either way the footswitch would have worked better than the equivalent high tech solution on the Model 3.

My Mk1 Escort had a rubber bulb and switch on the floor next to the clutch for the windscreen wash… no vinyl roof though it was only a 1300e

 

[DigbyChicken]

Steady on old boy, I had a Mk3 and Mk4 Cortina. As a young sales/support pleb in the late 70's early 80's, I'd arrived. What's more, The Sweeney used MK 3's...kudos.

A pedant writes: True, though the main Flying Squad vehicle (the brown car that Regan's driven around in for most of the early episodes, as seen in the title sequence) is a Consul GT. And in the final season, the squad car is a Granada. (Life on Mars, however, used a hybrid Cortina 2000E/GXL.)

Guv.

 

[Jason71]

Mine certainly has the panel gaps and paint quality of a car from the 1970s.

Unlucky

what do you mean? mine is one of the good ones

 

[Gatsojon]

My Mk1 Escort had a rubber bulb and switch on the floor next to the clutch for the windscreen wash… no vinyl roof though it was only a 1300e

Haha my Escort Estate mk1 too. If someone was tailgating, you could press the washer pump hard and cover their windscreen

 

[Dilly]

If you had a Cortina in the 70’s, you’d arrived. Which was something to be grateful for. You didn’t always arrive…
TBF, that was true of a lot of 70’s cars!

 

[Js1977]

what do you mean? mine is one of the good ones

You are a salesman dream

 

[rotor2k]

My first car was a Cortina and my current car is a Model 3. So I suppose the answer is yes.

Ditto!!! Mine was a Mark V, and it is the only car I've ever been randomly pulled over by the police in (twice!) *and* it got stolen for a joyride (and I got it back). Much simpler times...

 

[Rustybkts]

Aye, they don't make cars like they used to ... (thank god!) It wasn't uncommon to see rust coming through body panels within 3 years on British made cars (Fords, British Leyland)... and failure at the first MOT (3yrs) for structural rust on some (particularly Italian) models. Let's be honest here, Tesla quality bears no relation to the poor quality of 1970s cars!

I had an engineering apprenticeship before training to be a Sparky and spent many a weekend replacing sills and the odd wing on 1970's cars for mates and girlfriends before MOT's.
Modern kids have no idea and few will have the skills to weld on to pure rust as was necessary in those days! The liberal use of underseal held the lot together until the first bad patch of road!

 

[Jason71]

I had an engineering apprenticeship before training to be a Sparky and spent many a weekend replacing sills and the odd wing on 1970's cars for mates and girlfriends before MOT's.
Modern kids have no idea and few will have the skills to weld on to pure rust as was necessary in those days! The liberal use of underseal held the lot together until the first bad patch of road!

Fortunately few will need them. Most modern cars become un economic to keep on the road long before tin worm gets a serious look in. But who knows maybe that's another trend Tesla will buck.

 

[Iain]

Several different body styles over the years but it was never an exotic choice ... well, aside from the rear light clusters and mini wings on the Mark 1 ... as kids we thought it must be American! Maybe the look hasn't aged so well!

That’s hilarious. I grew up in South Africa and my dad had a 3.0 litre I thought was so cool. We had never owned a car with so much horsepower. Until I read your post ( and googled it) I still thought it was an American import .

 

[candida]

My grandad had a Cortina, it had black plastic foam seats that were molded to look like they had stitching. I remember as boy burning the back of my legs when I was wearing shorts and it had been left in the sun.

Plastic? Surely early "vegan leather"

 

[Aye_Watt]

My first car was a Cortina and my current car is a Model 3. So I suppose the answer is yes.

Yep me too! 82' MK5 2.0 GL in champagne gold. She was a tail happy thing

 

[Regulo]

I learnt to drive in a Mk2 Cortina, not the height of sophistication, but a thousand times better than my first purchase - a Morris 1100! That fell apart at the hands of an over-exuberant MOT tester, who managed to separate the rear subframe from the rust that was the rest of the bodyshell. Yes, welding to rust was a much desired skill in those days. To be fair, none of my mainly british Fords and BL cars were ever rust free, until I bought a 1989 Volvo 760 estate in 1992. I sold it in 2004, and it was as rust-free as when I bought it. Inspired me to buy another two Volvos after that. You young whipper-snappers don't know how lucky you are!! The Morris didn't have wing mirrors, radio, carpets, and the windscreen washers were a manual push knob on the dashboard. It did have a heater though, which not all cars did, even in the early 60's. Luxury.

 

[Jason71]

I learnt to drive in a Mk2 Cortina, not the height of sophistication, but a thousand times better than my first purchase - a Morris 1100! That fell apart at the hands of an over-exuberant MOT tester, who managed to separate the rear subframe from the rust that was the rest of the bodyshell. Yes, welding to rust was a much desired skill in those days. To be fair, none of my mainly british Fords and BL cars were ever rust free, until I bought a 1989 Volvo 760 estate in 1992. I sold it in 2004, and it was as rust-free as when I bought it. Inspired me to buy another two Volvos after that. You young whipper-snappers don't know how lucky you are!! The Morris didn't have wing mirrors, radio, carpets, and the windscreen washers were a manual push knob on the dashboard. It did have a heater though, which not all cars did, even in the early 60's. Luxury.

Cue Three Yorkshiremen parody in 3...2...1......