800,000 is small beer, you may say, about these sales numbers when compared to the numbers sold for the Escort, Cortina and Capri ranges but remember this was Ford’s top of the range at the time. UK prices at the launch would range between £1700 to £2000 depending on spec required. This is when a new Cortina or Capri was about £1000. So the Consul/Granada was not cheap. At the time petrol was 35p per gallon for 4 star that’s 7.5 p per litre !! So To fill the Consul/Granada 65 ltr tank cost just £5. But a year after the launch there was the 1973 oil crisis and the petrol price more than doubled to 75p per gallon. But even that was only 15 p per litre when compared to the current cost of £1.65 per litre as I write this article. How times & prices have changed.
But the Consul & Granada story did not start in 1972. It started more than 4 years earlier in Cologne in Germany and Dunton in Essex. The design and development cost over £50 million and involved over 4,500 on the team. The cars were intensively tested in UK, Europe, Scandinavia and Africa & Ford could confidently claim that the model had undergone more road testing than any other European car at the time. The reason for all this time and expense was that motoring in the 1960’s and early 1970’s was starting to change in the UK and Europe. More UK car ownership because the all the baby boomers were now learning to drive. In 1960 car owner ship in Europe was 21 million by 1970 it was 64 million. Plus more wanted to drive longer distances and in comfort using long legged cars such as the Consul and Granada. In 1970 nearly 1 million took their cars from the UK in to Europe. The motorway network was expanding everywhere. By 1972 the UK had over a 1000 miles of motorway. In Germany it was over 2500 miles and Italy had 2200 miles and France 2000 miles. All were going to double that by 1980. So this expanding motorway network was to greatly influence the Ford’s design.
I am not going into all these design features that Ford put into the cars because we all own one - so we know. We know about the comfort and the smooth engine. So what follows are is a small selection from the Ford launch data book catalogue handed out to all UK dealers in February 1972. If you are interested I will be posting a full copy of the March 1972 catalogue & technical data book on the Guild web site soon. It is 38 pages - so no room in the current magazine.
Now I have owned my 1974 Mk1 Coupe for 27 years now and it is the car that puts the biggest smile on my face. In truth it can be a smile of relief that the old bus has kept running and survived another year – after all it is 48 years old. But mostly my grin is there because it is one great looking cool car which now stands out amongst the crowd. When Ford launched the new Consul and Granada range in 1972 the sales pitch was this - and I quote.
“Our best luxury car ever, handsome, comfortable and spacious with high performance and the sheer good looks come as a bonus”.
I think they got that right and so do all the fans out there. Thanks to the Ford design team for a great car. And here’s to 50 years of the Consul and Granada and to the next 50.
Cheers
John Kempson
Secretary & Magazine Editor