HAVE YOUR SAY
Did you spend more on your classic in 2011 than the previous year?
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| Twin Test: BMW v Ford |
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So it’s the early ’70s, you’ve just got a good promotion at the cigarette company and it comes with a step up the company car ladder from your Cortina. But what do you choose? The premium brand as a marketing concept has yet to be born and the pecking order is less distinct. Rovers have always been classy of course but the P5 does look a bit old school by now and as for Mercedes, well they’re a bit serious looking and pretty bare inside, too. There’s always the Jaguar of course but the boss drives one so that’s out which leaves... well, the logical upgrade from the Cortina is the newly-launched Granada. But there’s also a left-field choice in the shape of BMW’s newly launched 5-Series. Its Bavarian solidity is a world away from the way Ford makes its cars and the bigger-engined versions have some pace, too. What’s more in 1972 BMW is such a small player in the UK car market that you’re not going to see many other BMWs on the road either. In the end of course it’ll be the company fleet manager who makes the choice and the new set of wheels bearing that L registration plate come August 1 will most likely be the big Ford. Fast forward to the early ’80s though, with both cars in their second generation and the battle would have been far closer-fought. With the Granada in its much-loved MkII form and the BMW in its iconic sharknosed ‘E28’ second generation, the two cars demonstrated two very different approaches to blowing the company car budget: the value-packed approach of the Granada 2.8i Ghia X or the sporting appeal of a mid-ranging 5-Series, complete with all the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ posturing which came with it. The two cars may have been priced very differently when they were first introduced but by the mid ’80s they were very close: in 1984 the top-of-the-tree Granada was the 2.8i Ghia X automatic retailing at £13,099, while the BMW 528i was £13,575.
Today of course, the MkI Granada is a rare beast but what’s really surprising is that the first-generation ‘E12’ BMW 5-Series is almost extinct here in the UK, the hot rod M535i being the exception. All of which means that the second generation of each car is the one you’ll most likely be looking for if you’re buying today. Here’s how they stack up.
To read the complete twin test see the January 2012 issue of Classic Car Mart - available here |
It was 40 years ago today that Ford launched the Granada and BMW launched the 5-Series. We pick the second generation of each of these German-built executive contenders.
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