No it was my bosses, he let me take it for a tootle, obviously compared to an AM the RS sucks but so does every other car in the World ever built, its all horses for courses, and when you can only afford a Donkey best make the most of it.
Well not 'EVERYBODY' as lots of people already think they are, if its the best car you can afford then to the owner it is the best car in the World, quit dreaming and start living....
Like just about everyone else on this group you lose all sanity when trying to prove me wrong, obviously comparing a BRAND new car after a few thousand miles is going to show it 'improves' this is known as running in.
Tell me any car say with 100,000 which will run better with after 50,000 of good thrashing, which was where I was coming from originally.
I might have it. Been thinking of downsizing from the A6. Also vaguely considered a Xsara Estate HDI (and a 306, and an Octavia Estate TDI). Then I slapped myself and said "what are you even considering that for?".
Erm, no, they're FWD or 4WD. But the chassis was pretty sorted by Rallye Sport. It was certainly a massive improvement on the standard MkV chassis, anyway. A friend had the MkVI (or is that 5.5?) version - it was a surprisingly rapid, fine-handling car.
Engine is a DOHC, 16v Pinto-based lump, ISTR. Think of it as a Cossie lump without the Turbo. In the region of 150bhp.
The MkVI RS2000 is one of the few Escorts I'd consider - especially in
AstraVanMan made the world a better place for us by saying..
I was waiting for someone to come forth with this....
they're FWD (unfortunately), and have a 16v version of the I-4 motor. Very similar to the 2.3 in the Galaxy, but with 150 bhp, and no balancer shaft. If you tried a decent one, mine was only 3yrs old and very well maintained, you'd be surprised how nice a car they actually are. Reasonably quick, very quiet, good fun to hustle, but comfy and reliable, good on fuel too! Totally unlike any other FWD Escort then.
SteveH made the world a better place for us by saying..
MkVI 4x4 is one to avoid actually. Could have been a lovely car, but Ford in their traditional manner, went on a cost cutting, parts sharing spree and ruined it. Lost the rear discs and a few other goodies, and looked no different from a 1.6 "GTi".
So, some cars hit the sweet spot of being run in after about 10 minutes. Those that were built with tolerances to the nearest qarter of an inch. No cheap gags or exmples here. other engines are built with more precise tolerances. They take longer to "run in". The Golf GTi MKII is well known for being in the second category. It's a simple and widely known fact. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's true. Thrashing an engine is fine so long as it runs on high quality clean oil which is still in grade.
Any pug XUD diesel. A lot of 405 TD's were used as company cars and were thrashed cruelly and almost permanently, but they still run to 200k+, and they most definitely run better at 100k than at 50k.
Why's that then? According to the figures I can find, the combined mpg for the escort TD is 49.6, so the out of town figure will be somewhat higher. The same source suggests 42 mpg for the 306 TD, but even with pretty heavy thrashing, that actually gets 47 mpg. I think the crappy old ford TD lumps were direct-injection, were they not? Hence the 'bag of spanners' soundtrack.
How or why does direct injection equate to sounding like a bag of spanners?
Don't know about the old ford TD lumps being DI or not - the one in my Fiesta van is, but that lump (lower powered version of the one in the Focus) was only put in the Fiestas from 2000. It's called an Endura-DI (same shit, slightly different fuelling system!), and it's not the sweetest sounding engine, nor the best performing, but it's a bloody good little engine. That is, until the oil cooler develops some sort of crack, causing water and oil to mix, completely bunging up the cooling system with a jelly like substance, effectively rendering the whole engine scrap. And there's no way of telling that this has happened until it's too late, as they don't have a temperature gauge, just a light that tells you when it's basically too late. Other than that, good little engines - my Fiesta regularly returned
In indirect injection (IDI) engines, the fuel is injected into a small chamber just outside the cylinder, rather than dierectly into the cylinder. This means that the combustion is a bit more drawn out in an IDI engine, and so you don't get quite as sharp a 'knock'. DI engines are more efficient, but tend to be noisier, and more rattly. I think modern DI engines have better designed water jackets to supress the noise, and can sound quieter even than the old IDI engines, but the older ones (transit, maestro/montego, escort/mondeo?) sound 'orrid.
Indeed. I have nothing against DI engines at all - in fact the reason I mentioned it was that it might explain why the old TD in the escort managed such a good mpg compared to the other TDs of the time.
Not bad, although it depends on how that's driven. My old 205 TD, which is rarely driven gently, never gets less than 50Mpg nowadays (used to get less, but I guess it's nearly run in now, with 80k on it....), and _can_ give 65 Mpg if driven like my mum does.
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