Zodiac Executive MkIV Valuation please!

It's a niche market - they're fugly as hell.

Best asking on Oldskooford website.

Ahhh, it's the one which looks like an overgrown MkIII Cortina.

I quite like those.

Some time in the last 2 or 3 years I remember that one of the classic car rags did a piece on them. It may even have been one of the (gasp!) US classic car mags. The article featured a timewarp example that made me once again rethink old prejudices against things like Triumph Acclaims and Morris Marinas. OK, I'm still not quite ready for those yet.

Known as Poodle Poo in my family when my dad had one.

But it's a Z-car.

That reminds me, I still have a soft spot for the VX4/90.

Get the latest copy of Practical Classics. Their guide prices are as good as any.

nothing like the "coke bottle" Cortina MkIII About as bad as Ford ever got. Utter rot box that deserves to be crushed. I'm surprised there's 1000 left, I'm even more surprised that people will pay for them. Everyone couldn't get shut and into MKIVs quick enough. (The Datsun 180B MK1 that replaced the yellow peril in our family was a complete revelation as to how reliable motoring could be and how basic Ford's were) Lots came with with pretend cabrio vinyl roofs. Only Cortina with any style at all is the Mk1.

Of the Zephyr's the MKIII 4 headlamp Zodiac is the one to have, though it does have a bit of an Austin Cambridge et al arse end.

I think the MKII was the first "£1000" Ford.

Is the MkIV the one with the massive, button covered, slab seats, like cheapo versions of the Barcelona Chair? There is some sort of perverse appeal to them.

Executive Mk IV Saloon: 3250/1350/600 (Condition 1/2/3). Buyer's guide

10/95.

Ian

The MkIV is this type.

I've always loved the looks of 'em for some reason..

MkII Lowline is my favourite by quite some margin. The MKIII is typical of many cars in that it photographs well from some angles but doesn't carry it off in the flesh.

It's a purely personal thing and I'm not going to have a dig. Some people really love square 70's stuff but it's not for me. If it floats your boat you're likely to pick it up for a song.

Think that's the one. Bonnet like an aircraft acrrier flight deck, under which the Essex crouches apologetically in a corner. Was originally designed to take the Fergusson 4wd system, IIRC, hence the rather odd convolutions of the front suspension as well as the vast gulf under the bonnet. Didn't get it as Ford management found out what it would cost.

Practical Classics seems to regard the Executive version, at least, as up and coming. Can't remember what the prices quoted were in the last issue, but for non-sheds I remember them as being surprisingly like real money.

I did remember right: surprisingly like real money for a good one.

It was that one that my father owned. It was, for a couple of years, a complete pig of a car. Difficult to start, lumpy idle, occasional cut outs of the engine while running on dual carriageways. I can remember it breaking down on the reston by-pass, in the outside lane. That was fun.

The local mechanic didn't have a clue what could be wrong with it, but he did comment that they had several with the same problems. Dad lost his temper with them and took it to Lookers (I think it was Lookers) in Manchester. they diagnosed a problem with the carburettor and decided to strip it down. In the float chamber they found a metal disk which was jamming the float. The disk had "HA HA HA BOLLOCKS TO FORD" stamped on it.

I saw a documentary recently that said that industrial relations in Ford plants at the time were at rock bottom. The men were treated as if they were machines and told to work as they were told or to bugger off.

Disappointingly, that doesn't show the interior. And having scrolled all the way to the bottom, I now feel ill.

Even the one at the bottom?

But we're talking about the MkIV Zephyr thingie. Which does look very much like an overgrown 'tina.

FD or FE?

FE, was there ever an FD VX 4/90? I really can't remember it if there was.

I prefer the overdrive model rather than the Getrag manual version. I just like the flicking a switch on the gear knob feature.

This is what Wiki says about it:

'The VX four-ninety was introduced to the FB series as a performance oriented version. During the FB series, the name changed slightly to VX

4/90 which continued, until the FE range. The final VX 1978 incarnation was badged VX490. The VX Four Ninety designation originally came from its engineering designation - Vauxhall eXperimental four cylinder engine of 90 in? capacity. As well as performance increasing modifications, VX 4/90s also had a number of exterior and interior modifications to distinguish them from Victors.'