A Mexico that Satisfies

Sir,

I am sure that many people must, like myself, be getting fed up with the woeful tales of unreliable British cars, so perhaps the saga of my Ford Mexico will be of interest.

It was bought new in February 1973 and is now approaching 30,000 miles. Faults on delivery were nil and since then it has not spent one day off the road apart from routine servicing which, incidentally, is carried out by an ordinary Ford Dealer and not a Rallye Sport garage. The heated rear window has stopped working twice due to blown fuses, but the only replacements have been three bulbs, three sets of brake pads and a set of Dunlop SP68 tyres. Apart from that nothing has broken, fallen off or failed in service which says a lot for Ford AVO.

Performance is quite adequate for most road use, my particular model cruising at an indicated 90-95 m.p.h. and it will pull an indicated 6,500 r.p.m. in top gear. In these economy-minded days it is perhaps worth recording that oil consumption is just under 3,000 m.p.p. and on a recent trip to Cornwall fuel consumption (obeying the 50 m.p.h. limit more or less) worked out at 42 m.p.g. I always run my cars in for 3,000 miles so Perhaps this has -some bearing on these figures.

The Mexico must be one of the safest cars on the road as the brakes are terrific, handling is excellent and the car is superbly controllable compared with most saloon cars.

No car is perfect and the Mexico does have its faults: the noise level is fairly high especially when driving hard; the ride is ‘t has and the standard Mexico seats terrible – I changed to one of Ford’s excellent bucket seats on the second day. Although the gearbox must be among the best in the world, first gear is a little high when towing our Mallock-BMW, and the clutch is rather heavy for my wife’s leg. However, these points are minor when compared with all the virtues.

So, if anybody is looking for a reliable, sporting saloon, then buy British and order a Ford Mexico.

Bradford I. A. Curtis