Ford lives up to its reputation

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 68

Ford lives up to its reputation

By

PETER GREENSLADE

When Ford New Zealand, Ltd, begins to think about launching a new product range, the decision-makers in the Lower Hutt-based company must inevitably give themselves a lot to worry about. Take, for example, the Laser. It followed the Europen origin Escort, itself a best-seller, and for three consecutive years it has been the best-selling car in New Zealand, more than 35,000 examples having been sold here since the launch in May, 1981. Then there is the Telstar, successor to the evergreen, market-leading Cortina. It was launched in New Zealand in 1983 and has attractived more than 14,000 sales.

Those are hard acts to follow. Ford New Zealand, with its Lasers, Telstars and Australian-origin six cylinder Fairmonts, is far outstripping the rest of the pack and at the moment is selling more than a fifth of New Zealand’s new cars.

Frankly, when I flew into Wellington a couple of weeks ago to drive Ford’s latest Lasers and Telstars, I did not expect to shake such a dry hand as that of Reyn Penny, Ford’s director of

sales and marketing. Penny and I met at the Levin motor racing circuit to “blood” the first New Zealand-assembled Cortina. Since that far-off day I have written quite a lot about cars and Penny has talked a lot — and with conviction, apparently without boring his listeners — about all manner of Fords.

If one looks at that objectively, against a background of Ford in the marketplace, one is forced to the conclusion that either Penny is a good marketing man or Ford builds good products. Having driven these cars from Wellington to Napier and then on to New Plymouth over a couple of days, I must say that Ford’s new Lasers and Telstars are good.

As everyone the slightest bit interested in motor cars must know, Ford Lasers and Telstars are fundamentally Japanese Mazdas — the 323 and 626 models, respectively.

Mazda is arguably one of the more innovative Japanese automobile manufac-

turers and that is saying something, for the Japanese car industry is nothing if not innovative. Mazda is also highly regarded in the world of machine tool manufacturing and the company’s expertise in that line evinces itself in its car range. The new Mazda 323 and 626 cars were launched earlier this year and have been the subject of comment in these columns. However, those among us who approached the Laser and Telstar launch with a “been there and done that before” attitude must have been more than mildly surprised to find that the new Laser, in particular, is a vastly different car from the Mazda 323 and, to my mind, rather a better one. Although, to be fair to Mazda, one is forced to say that the choice of Waiheke Island was an unhappy launch venue. To make a fair assessment of a new car, one must drive it exhaustively in typical New Zealand conditions. Having said that, it

follows that the roads between Wellington and Napier comprised a route more typical of New Zealand than that encountered on Waiheke Island. With the advent of these new models, Ford is now in the position of being able to offer at least one model in each of its passenger car ranges with a fuel-injected engine.

The Laser TX3i, which succeeds the Laser Sport, is a good-looking two-door hatchback fitted with a single-overhead cam 1600 cu cm engine, featuring Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection manufactured under licence by Nippon Denso. Exactly the same electronic fourpoint system is used in the Telstar TX5i, a car that is certainly not dissimilar from the Mazda 626 i. Whereas a man on a galloping horse would be hard put to distinguish the new 323 from the older version, the rounded panels on the new Laser make it ever so obviously different from the older model and, indeed, from the hew Mazda 323.

This Laser possesses an Australian-designed body and, with the Mazda drive train and running gear underneath it, is a cleanlimbed and lively car in all its model configurations. I did not drive any Ghia versions of the Laser, but was impressed with the performance capabilities and handling qualities of the TX3I.

This is an ideal, small four-seater, if only because it will carry four adults in complete comfort, head, shoulder and leg room being more than adequate. What is more, it has the capacity to see off a fuel-injected Ford Fairmont Ghia without running out of breath, or so I have reason to believe.

Unfortunately, like all the other hatchback Lasers, the TX3i is not over-endowed wth luggage space and the suspension on my sample was perhaps a little less

forgiving for those among us with older bones. It was a Japanese assembled car, some of which have been imported to bridge the gap until New Zealand assembled versions with Mazda’s manually adjustable suspension system reach the showrooms early next year. At $21,130, the TX3I is not the most expense Laser. The four-door Ghia versions in manual and automatic forms sell for $21,940 and $22,740 respectively. However, the TX3i is pricey enough, although rather a bargain when compared with the fuel-injected L 6 litre Mazda 323 equivalent. After sampling the TX3i it seemed fitting to try the cheapest Laser of the line. This is now the 1.3 litre twodoor hatchback which replaces the similar 1.1 litre Laser of old. The two-door Laser 1.3 L, unlike the other models in the range, has a four-speed gearbox. It tends to be rather noisier at open road cruising speeds, but is a lively and manageable little car. So lively, in fact, that I have no difficulty in keeping an enthusiastically driven 1.5 litre Laser Ghia at bay on an undulating and twisty stretch of road.

Subsequently, I was able to drive a more handsomely appointed 1.3 GL four-door hatchback on the last leg of the journey to Napier and found it to be a comfortable model in which to complete a day which, in a numbr of other popular models I have driven in the last year or so, could have been quite exhausting.

There are nine cars in the new Laser range, five of which are booted saloons, two being Ghia versions, the third Ghia model is a fourdoor hatchback. Likewise, there are nine models in the new Telstar range, the cheapest being the 1.6 L saloon at $19,780 and the most expensive the TXS Ghia EFi at $29,840. Six of these cars are four-door

saloons, the others being TX5s, which are four-door hatchbacks.

On the run from Napier to New Plymouth, often in torrential rain and limited visibility, I drove a $22,460 two litre GL saloon, a $26,990 Ghia saloon and the fuel-injected Ghia TXS which sells for $29,840. The GL is quite well appointed and performed adequately in the hill country one encounters on leaving Napier for Taupo. I was impressed with this car’s handling. It tracked truly, unlike some front wheel drive mid-sized saloons, and even th ough it was pushed there was no wheel scrabble exiting climbing comers. It was not quite so impressive on the long, fast straights leading into Taupo, but the conditions were by no means impressive either. The car felt light bn the rain-slicked roads and on was not tempted to stray beyond the legal lOOkm/h open road limit. Inhibiting factors were a quite stiff cross-wind and the blinding spray generated by approaching logging trucks.

The Ghia 2-litre saloon had an air of quality about it that some people, mistakenly, would never associate with a Ford. This is, indeed, a very nice car in every respect. Its road manners are impeccable, the noise level is very low and the car I drove felt much more gutsy than the GL I had sampled earlier. Disregard the higher standards of furnishing and appointment of the Ghia version and, to all intents and purposes, the 2 litre GL is the same car. Why one should feel so much stronger than the other is beyond me. Maybe it is just an illusion.

I rounded off the day in the TX5i driving over a typical New Zealand touring route to New Plymouth, often in heavy rain. This, as I found when driving the fuel-injected Mazda 626, is a powerful,

sure-footed four-door hatchback. It runs on 60 series low profile tyres, has disc brakes all round and when the suspension is in the “sport” mode it voraciously gobbles up the kilometres even though one does not need to be a law-breaker to make the good point-to-point times. The fuel-injected engine is instantly responsive, the adjustable suspension, when in the “sport” mode, keeps the car four-square on the raod and the disc brakes are real anchors. I have driven quiet a lot of cars with sporting pretensions that would get lost in the shadow of the TX5i, or its Mazda running mate, for that matter.

Casting my mind back to the 626 and Telstar launches some years ago, one remembers the vigorous defences advanced by both companies on behalf of the instrument panels in the Mazda Sporthatch and the TXS.

Mazda opted for the electronic graphic and digital instrumentation, while Ford stoutly defended its analogue instrumentation. Curiously, Mazda now has analogue instruments in its fuel-injected 626 Sporthatch, while Ford has gone all electronic with graphics and digits. Under the circumstances, motor companies should not be surprised when motoring writers convey the impression that, far from taking the information and the arguments they disseminate as gospel, they tend to approach the subjects with enquiring, if not cynical minds.

All the same having sampled the new Lasers and Telstars, I can understand why Reyn Penny's handshake was so confidently dry that morning in Wellington.