Been thinking about getting a second runaround, small 106 deez, for taking my dog out - as I just can't bring myself to put the hairy dirty little so-and-so in the boot of the octy.

Anyway, a mate has a G reg Sierra XR4x4 going begging. At 2900cc and V6 not so much the economical run around I eas looking for but I love big V6 engines and it might do for a year of so of dog and trailer towing action. She's a little tired and needs a good mop but pretty sound.

Anyone got any experience of these thirsty beasts?

yeah, they are suprisingly good cars! 170 bhp if I'm not mistaken! and four wheel drive, all good for fun, and if its just a second runabout, 20 mpg won't be that much of a problem! lol...... parts are cheap, easy to find in the scrappy's and easy to fix if you don't mind getting your fingers dirty.... try to make sure it doesn't smoke though.....

There's a Turbo Technics version for sale on E-Bay, now that would be much more fun!

Usual Sierra collapsible suspension bush trouble, and viscous fan bother, but apart from that ( and smokey engines ) a decent tool IMHO

watch out for buckled aloys as later ones tend to bend easily. if the tappets are getting noisey get thr feeler gauges out it makes a hell of a difference

they are 150bhp not 170bhp, mpg wise they do a bit better than 20mpg but watch out for rot and other than that they are fairly good reliable cars

Hi

The Ford V6 seldom produced more than 130 bhp on the rollers. With transmission losses from 4x4 system it aint gonna set the tarmac on fire. If you use it for short journeys, 20mpg will be optimistic at best.

Bloke where I worked had one and used it for the 12 mile commute. He reckoned 15mpg in general use, up to 20 on a run. Sounded nice though the Ford V6 is no free revving honey.

Chris

the 4x4 is officially 0.2 seconds quicker to 60 than the xr4 which were 8.4 and 8.6 respectivly

not too bad really.

My last car was a 2.9 XR4x4 which I owned for eight years, and was a member of the XR owners club......it was a great car and never let us down.

Performance wise, it wasnt actually that fast.....even a Focus TDCi could give it a hard time......what it did have was lots of torque across a wide rev range, which made it ideal for towing our caravan.

Fuel wise, they can drink petrol if you do a lot of cold start short journeys, I used to get 26mpg driving 10 miles to and from work, which I was very happy with.

The gear box on the 2.9 is bullet proof and the 4x4 system is great, with viscous couplings in the transfer box and rear axle.....the 4x4 system was actually developed for use in the Granada and is way over spec'd for the sierra but means it can take lots of abuse.

I sold mine and bought a Octy vrs, because genuine Ford spare parts were getting harder to get hold of and we sold our caravan.

Bill.

Thanks for the feedback guys, all useful. Had a few captain sensible moment throughout the day, telling myself a diesel runaround would be the best option....

But this is one tidy example of an XR4x4! The one my mate has is far tattier.

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