Conference terri::cars_uk

    
    	I guess it must be pretty soon, as I saw one driving around here
    a couple of months ago...
    
    	Rat

    This weeks Auto Express says September.
    
    Steven

    They were either going on test drives or on show to dealers at the
    Mediatel Sophia Antipolis (Valbonne) when I was there for a meeting in
    mid-January.
    
    There was nothing remarkable in their styling, very much the same
    family shape......
    
    Don't have a date for them though.

    September is the date that Ford are saying.
    But in true Ford style I'm sure we'll have to wait until way after Xmas
    for the performance models.
    
    Andy

    I just picked up this afternoon a new Orion, from Avis for 2 or 3 days, 
    with delivery mileage only. Its one of the new CVTauto transmission
    ones, I personally think its great, 1.6 litre, the lag between when you
    put your foot down, and when the car moves takes a bit of getting used
    to, but its only half a second or so, when it "bites" it really does
    shift!,although out of curtosy to a new car, I haven't pushed it to the
    red line so to speak!. In fack, due to the fact that you are continualy
    changing the ratio, I think it is quicker than a normal auto box, and
    certainly on par-ish with a manual!.
    
    Carl.

    I quickly saw a sketch of the new Escort on the front cover of
    this weeks 'Auto Express'.
    
    I think it looks pretty bland, just another jelly-mobile!!
    
    
    Steven

    The new Escort is being very slow off the production line due to body 
    panel problems.
    
    The joke currently going the rounds of Dagenham...
    
    "What's the difference between a Jehovah's Witness and a new Escort ?"
    
    "At least you can shut the door on a Jehovahs Witness"
    
    Chris ( with apologies to any Jehovah's Witnesses reading this )
    
    

    Well while my Rover is in having some attention I have a new Orion Ghia
    i to play with. I must say in comparing it with the Rover it fails
    miserably!
    
    Engine, although it now has Electronic multi-point Fuel injection, and
    is a 1.6 the same as the Rover's (Honda) lump, it doesn't have the same
    get-up-and-go and it's making a hellova din and the gearstick's
    vibrating loudly at 5000+ rpm, whilst the rover sounds sweet when the
    7500 rpm rev limiter cuts in.
    
    Ride, very harsh, you feel and hear every dimple and bump in the road.
    
    Noise, road noise is the worst, particularly from the rear, droning on
    at anything above 30 mph.
    
    Switch layout, whilst driving you cannot see the switches and indicator
    lights for either the front or rear heated windows. The electric window
    switches are mounted low down behind the gearstick, and are a bit of a
    reach to get at and the handbrake gets in the way.
    
    Heated front window, whilst it was great this morning, defroting
    quickly, last night going home in the dark, all lights appeared to have
    diffraction, (sort of like the alarm signal on digital watches) very
    distracting.
    
    Heated rear window, misses a good 6-8 inches from the top, rerstricts
    rear view.
    
    I found the trip into work very tiring, mainly due to the noise and
    ride (this after 5 years of diesels even!) I'd hate to do long
    journey's in this car
    
    Now good points,
    -----------------
    being 'tamer' in response than the rover it's easier to crawl in
    traffic, it's difficult to avoid over-revving and slipping or
    kangaroo-ing in the rover. 
    
    Being used to estates and hatches, I liked the rear wiper on the
    saloon, I often feel I could do with one on my Rover saloon.
    
    central locking works from both front doors, very useful if you
    approach from the passenger side and you want to let them in first.
    (though, although you can unlock the boot from it's own button, unless
    you've disabled the alarm by unlocking the doors first, you'll get a
    nasty surprise!)
    
    
    goodies comparison			Rover			Orion
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    central locking			drivers door only	both
    electric windows			yes			yes
    electric adj. door mirrors		yes			yes
    heated door mirrors			yes			no
    heated front windscreen		no			option
    sunroof				electric		manual
    remote boot release			yes			yes
    remote fuel flap release		yes			locking cap
    alarm				option			yes
    16valve				yes			no
    
    Richard

    IMHO The (new!) Escort/Orion looks dated and boring.
    
    Grant

    It was tested last monday on TV and the story was told, the 1.4
    engined version was so badly received by the press, the complete
    release was postponed and now the cheapest version appears to be 
    the most expensive for Ford!
    
    Pitfalls were: bad roadperfomance and engine performance, the latter
    due to injectionsystem malfunction.
    
    Hans

    Forgot to mention that if you flick up the boot lid and lean in you get
    beheaded as it comes back down quite fast!!!
    
    Both my son and myself have been caught out in the last few days.
    
    Richard

I saw a trailer full of new shape escorts last week. Looks like they've whacked
an ugly great grill on the front end, and slightly modified the light cluster at the
back. Estates and cabrio's have only the grille added.

Anyone know whether the interior's changed? Any opinions on the restyle?
Personally, it looks even worse than the last model.

Ian

    Buy last weeks AutoExpress, it had pictures of the car.
    
    Front changed on all Escort and Orionm models 
    Back changed on Escort Hatch only, not estate or orion
    Some 300 tooling changes, but I don't think the interior got anything.
    
    Richard

The rear-end revisions look good, similar looking to the new Civic saloon.
Pitty not all models will get the new treatment.

The grafted on grill looks rather ill-conceived. Ford's ploy is reminiscent 
in fact of the nose-job B.L. gave to the Allego Vanden Plas many moons ago.

mike.

	Yes but the common denominator regarding Ford and B.L. is that 
	their nose-jobs were hideous. :-)

	mike.

    I don't agree. I think the Rover 800 nose (and other bits) job is
    *very* smart (nicer than a BMWhatsit!).
    
    JK

I like the 800 nose. I'd be interested to see what it looks ike on a smaller car, like
a 200 or 400. I get the feeling it may be a little overpowering.

Ian

	Q1. What don't you agree with JK.

	Q2. But (predicting your reply) nobody said the 800 looked
	hideous. 

	mike :-)

    I quote from .16....
    
	"Yes but the common denominator regarding Ford and B.L. is that 
	their nose-jobs were hideous. :-)"

    I assumed the reference to "B.L." was meant to be Rover, and therefore
    included the 800 series. If you meant a specific car (e.g. the Montego),
    you didn't say so (and I wouldn't agree with you there either, nor the
    Metro for that matter (-: !).
    
    Or is there another meaning for B.L.?
    
    JK (I hate to be a pedant, but I never, ever make sweeping
    generalisations.)