Crazy money xr3i

[john-e89]

Each to their own and why not if you want one but 19 thousand new English pounds is rather a lot for an early 11k miles mk 4 Escort. They’re not even anything special, slightly bigger brakes and harder springs and shocks and a slightly thicker antiroll bar on the front than a normal 1.6, and that’s it apart from mechanical fuel injection on the old wheezy, 80’s designed CVH lump, delivering a blistering 105bhp. No recaros inside, in fact crap standard seats just in the same cloth used for RS recaros. Approx 9k new for this xr, prices have gone mad for old fords, a series one white heat RS turbo recently fetching 60k at auction!

I can think of a hell of a lot better cars to blow 19k on even if it is to just polish and take to the odd show. I’ve had a few of these in me yoof and am a ford fan but quite honestly I’d not part with more than 5k for this, it’s not even concours! You’d really really have to want one. Each to their own though.

[dgm]

I had one when they were new, dreadful cars which were way over hyped in some of the motoring press. I didn’t know much better back then but looking back it was a poorly built, asthmatic POS. I remember a straight line drag race with a mate in a bog standard 1.6 Escort and I got my ar*e handed to me on a plate.

[Darren Slone]

I had one in about ‘89 it wasn’t very good

[Zoomer]

I remember them well. They were c@@p. But the world is going mad. Now what can I buy for £500 and keep for the next 30 years or so to make loads of money?

[firebobby]

We had a 1985 xr3i in red and thought we were the mutts nuts. It rusted nicely
My mum had a black 1983 xr2 and I thought that was the best thing since sliced, it was compared to my 1969 1.1 Escort
I do like the Mk1 Fiesta though

[Tyreman]

I've had a couple and they were crap but there are always worse areas to invest a few quid than an old sporty Ford.........surely some of these cars must have peaked now though ?

[Nanu]

I had a silver one when they very first came out, I thought I was the business but just happy none of my mates had one as they would have realised as I did how crap it was.

[85genius]

My mum had an h reg xr3i convertible in red when I was a kid, thought it was the best car ever til my dad bought a 944, after that I never wanted to go out in the escort anymore

[Paulr]

It is all relative. My 1600 MG Maestro with a talking dash - now that was dire!

[buzyg]

I raced a red XR3i cab to the the Isle of white ferry, back in 1988. MrsG was sat in the passenger seat of the XR3i and her punctured push bike wedged in the back seat. Happily I won the race.


....................I was riding my push bike. They are and always were, not very good

[TonyP]

It always annoyed me that the wheels weren't handed per side, I realise how impractical that would have been but they still looked odd to me.

[Bottom]

I bought one brand new. It was delivered without a working heater, in the Highlands, in February. It was all downhill from there, the final straw was the steering lock jamming on, luckily at low speed.
It spent a day in the garage getting “fixed” for every week I owned the POS.

[john-e89]

No one defending them, I’m surprised tbh! Just shows what an overpriced bag of nonsense it is! Leave it outside for the afternoon and it’ll go head to head for rotting with an old Alfa.

19k, why the hell would you....?

[Mr Tidy]

I never had one but have been in a few and but I don't remember them being particularly special.

I think the problem is at that sort of price if you use it the value is going to plummet - and now they're that expensive they're likely to go back to being a thief magnet!

If I had that much lying around I'd put it towards an M Coupe.

[BMWZ4MC]

I had a very old Orion 1.6i Ghia when I was very young. I used to tell people it was an XR3i with a boot
It seemed fast to me at the time (coming from an Uno 60S) and it could hold its own against a contemporary XR3i when driven hard, but reading all of the above, it’s now clear my judgement was poor...