Alfa Romeo, Rover, Ford, Peugeot, Toyota and Talbot: battle of the barges

By Martin Buckley

| 26 Jul 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Alfa Romeo, Rover, Ford, Peugeot, Toyota and Talbot: battle of the barges

The barge looked as if it might have had its day as the 1980s dawned.

When reduced crude oil supplies from post-revolution Iran triggered the second fuel crisis in 1979, the UK price of a gallon of 4-star broke the £1 barrier for the first time the following year.

Suddenly, someone who earned £8000 a year was looking at a £1000 per annum fuel bill for the dubious privilege of driving their thirsty, buttoned-velour status symbol.

Although Peugeot had pioneered turbo-diesel technology in the 604, today’s fast and refined executive oil-burning big saloons were years away; barge ownership circa 1980 still meant 20mpg at best.

Buyers in the big-car market still had plenty of choice in the 1980s

It should never be forgotten that business users were a huge driver in the way that these cars were conceived and marketed.

Relatively few large saloons were purchased new by private individuals who found it hard to take the financial hit when the time came to trade in.

By the early 1980s, in fact, nine out of every 10 Ford Granadas were bought by companies.

More than ever, the big-car landscape of that time was about the requirements of fleet managers and the baffling world of tax break points and ‘perks’.

Margaret Thatcher and Geoffrey Howe put the mockers on the situation with new legislation in 1982.

It was announced in that year’s budget that company car users faced a 50% increase in the tax bills relating to their vehicles and the fuel that they consumed.

The Toyota Crown’s air-con and fridge in the rear sum up 1980s excess

Big cars were suddenly showroom poison and the market for them shrank by 12% in Europe. That accounted for almost 400,000 lost sales as many buyers downsized to thriftier vehicles.

Even so, the region’s appetite for traditional large saloons had not quite disappeared altogether – which was just as well because there were several new models in the pipeline that had too much industrial and corporate momentum behind them to be cancelled.

Then (as now, probably) manufacturers liked flogging us big cars because the profit margins were commensurately greater.

It doesn’t cost much more to make a lardy saloon than it does a nifty runabout, but you can certainly charge a lot more money for all that extra sheet steel.

Two million buyers still felt that they ‘needed’ a luxury tintop for its space, its comfort and its perceived prestige in the company car park.

Here we evaluate six ways the bargemiesters of the ’80s spent their money.

Images: Tony Baker

Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia

‘The Ford Granada was a seriously swish machine that could square up to any 5 Series BMW’

The Ford Granada represented the exact piece of big car sales action everyone else wanted to muscle in on.

It succeeded where others failed, not because it offered any blinding technical revelations or insights, but because it was a thoroughly market-researched and properly engineered product.

From 2-litre models via 2.3 and 2.8 V6s to the plush and pokey 2.8 injection Ghia, the second generation of Granada boasted a range that was finely tuned to buyers’ expectations and progressed in neat calibrations of price, trim and performance.

Uwe Bansen’s crisply defined three-box shape – launched in 1977 – has aged remarkably well, particularly in original form.

The well-appointed Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia offered lots of kit for the money

Today, any elderly Granada is the sort of blue-collar classic that presses nostalgic buttons for lots of people.

If you spool back to when it was new, the Mk2 Ford Granada Ghia was a seriously swish and sophisticated machine that could square up to any 5 Series BMW.

Most people knew that it was made in Germany, so it seemed immune from the strike-ravaged image of its British competitors.

No excuses had to be made for any aspect of its finish or for the way that it drove.

You can still sense that competence in this 1980 example.

The Ford Granada has plenty of room in the back

It sits well on the metric (and now viciously expensive) Michelin TRX tyres that were part of the Ghia package.

These were hot news at the time and bestowed above average grip on the always well-mannered Ford Granada.

It aspired to standards of driver appeal set by the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, although it was priced against top-end Renaults and V8 Rovers.

The Ford’s pushrod-operated tappets click and clack at tickover in a not very aristocratic way, but the Bosch injection gives it perfect drivability via the C3 automatic gearbox.

The Ford Granada’s Cologne V6 engine weighs c50lb/23kg less than the Essex unit

Inside, the Ghia spec meant crushed velour and simulated veneer, which sounds cheesier than it really is. The optional leather (as here) is classier still.

In fact, the clear instruments were a lesson in how it should be done and goodies such as powered, tinted windows, a tilt-and-slide sunroof, headlamp washers and remote-control door mirrors were enough to turn the neighbours green.

Thanks to: Phil Bosher

Alfa Romeo Alfa 6

The super-rare Alfa 6 grips and handles well

The Alfa Romeo Alfa 6 is up there with the Talbot Tagora as one of the great, almost-mythological beasts of the barge world.

It’s one of those cars that just makes you ask yourself ‘why?’

Designed in the late 1960s for a projected launch in 1973/’74, the 6 was elbowed out of the schedule – quite rightly – by the much more commercially important Alfetta, with which it shared its doors and basic floorpan, although not its rear-mounted gearbox.

The launch was delayed until 1979, by which time the world was well into yet another oil crisis and had in any case moved on from this school of formal, angular styling.

This Alfa Romeo has a boxy interior

Alfa Romeo’s priceless excuse for the way the 6 looked was that it wanted to build a car that didn’t attract too much attention from the kidnappers, terrorists and other assorted bandits that were abroad in Italy at the time.

Unfortunately, it didn’t attract much attention from anyone, least of all potential buyers in the UK, which should have been a good market.

Only 134 were imported through to the model’s demise in ’86.

This is the only MoT’d Series 2 example currently on the road in these islands.

This Alfa 6 boasts posh velour trim

Series 2 means fuel injection, square headlights and a few other tweaks in an ’82 makeover by Bertone; the earlier cars had four circular lamps and a famously difficult to tune six carburettor set-up.

Not even the availability, in the left-hand-drive market, of a five-cylinder diesel and 2-litre version of the petrol V6 could do much for sales, which totalled 12,070 cars.

The Alfa 6, however, makes a much better classic car than it ever did a serious executive contender.

Its saving grace remains the wonderful engine that sounds much stronger than its 156bhp, yet is also marvellously refined – a cultured V6 compared to the Ford Granada’s workmanlike unit.

The Alfa Romeo Alfa 6 has a sweet-revving V6 motor

The 6’s reputation as a sales dud obscures the fact that it was a capable car worthy of the Alfa Romeo reputation.

It steers, stops and rides with most of the alacrity of the agile Alfetta.

The power steering is BMW-like in its swift and clean responses and the ride is similarly reassuring in its lack of wallow.

Inside, it feels narrow for its length (a corollary of its Alfetta roots), but the cabin is possessed of a boxy elegance that is wrought in quite classy materials.

For a 1980s Italian car, you’d have to say that it feels pretty nicely made.

Thanks to: Chris Cousins

Toyota Crown Super Saloon

The short-lived Toyota Crown Super Saloon sold well, but not in Europe

Most European buyers probably rejected the Toyota Crown out of hand on the basis of what it looked like rather than how it drove.

Although descended from a long line of wobbly and ornately detailed saloons built for conservative Japanese business people, this seventh-generation version – with its fuel-injected, straight-six engine and four-speed automatic transmission – was a better car than it appeared, which maybe isn’t saying much.

There are certain clumsily executed references to Mercedes W116 S-class styling, but the Crown remains determinedly mid-Pacific in its overall shape.

This Toyota Crown sports a cloth trim

It was the product of an entirely separate cultural sensibility that either had not yet grasped what it took to woo Western big-car buyers, or was more interested in keeping its enthusiastic home market happy.

Despite being about as heavy as the competition, the Crown sweeps away enthusiastically when you level the throttle – 0-60mph took just over 10 secs – or will glide effortlessly in its long overdrive top gear that allows 114mph flat out and 25mpg cruising within the legal limit.

The recirculating-ball power steering is speed sensitive and, while it cannot entirely disguise the limitations of this nose-heavy understeering vehicle, you can get along swiftly enough in the Toyota without losing your dignity.

The Toyota Crown’s smooth ‘six’ is quite lively

The interior is a cheese-fest of unappealing synthetic materials styled with maximum fuss in a way that only the Japanese could.

And yet, if you look beyond the chintz, there are lots of impressive touches such as full air conditioning, a coolbox in the rear parcel shelf, electric remote-control door mirrors and all kinds of other conveniences (all standard) that we now take for granted, but which were rare in the early ’80s.

The Toyota Crown is also unique here in the way that it focuses on the needs of rear-seat passengers, who even have their own overriding controls for the radio and air-con.

Is it perhaps the car for the penny-pinching tycoon who preferred to be chauffeured rather than to drive themself?

Thanks to: Chris Cousins

Rover 3500 Vanden Plas

‘As you sit low, admiring the futuristic dash pod, the Rover SD1 feels too alert to be a true barge’

The Rover SD1 3500 is a tragic remnant of Leyland’s malignant influence over the once noble house of Rover.

This is a car that reeks of unfulfilled ambition, its early promise as a new performance-and-efficiency orientated Euro-Rover for the second half of the ’70s reduced to near-joke status by the dawn of the following decade.

By then, Rover was trying to rescue the model’s reputation for abysmal quality and reliability via reassuring new variants such as this flagship Vanden Plas with its full Connolly leather interior, machined alloy wheels, headlamp wash/wipe, as well as powered sunroof and mirrors.

The Rover SD1 3500’s smart dash design is set up for left- or right-hand-drive markets

Supplementing the 3500SE (and in effect replacing the 3500S), it was a vehicle that still cut a striking figure on British roads, with its chisel nose and practical hatchback, although the ‘four-door Ferrari Daytona’ comparisons are perhaps a little flattering.

That said, it made a brilliant racer.

The rationale behind the new Rover was to go back to basics and build a saloon along simple lines (so that it was easier to produce and service), but refine the details.

Hence the return to a live – but self-levelling and well-located – rear axle after the relatively exotic de Dion set-up of the Rover P6.

Rover gave its top-spec Vanden Plas Connolly leather-upholstered seats

If it didn’t ride as well as the earlier model, then the handling trade-off was probably worth it – especially because the power steering was so highly geared and precise.

By making it long-legged and relatively aerodynamic – things nobody was talking about much in 1976 – Spen King and his team made the best out of the sweet, punchy V8 engine.

As you sit low, admiring David Bache’s futuristic instrument pod, a sorted Rover SD1 feels too alert and together to be a true barge.

It is stable, swift and firmly resistant to body roll.

The Rover SD1 3500 is powered by a Buick-derived V8 engine

Five-speed manuals are fun, but the automatic that came as standard in the VdP is relaxing while somehow managing to retain the high gearing that still makes a nice SD1 V8 a pleasant motorway car.

In fact, for the price, the Rover was as good as anything in its class and much of its poor reputation centres around the camshaft-snapping and head-gasket popping frailties of the 2300/2600 variants, rather than the all-alloy V8.

Now, as then, it is the best thing about the car.

Thanks to: Chris Parmenter

Peugeot 604 STI

The understated Peugeot 604 has the best ride here

The 604 was Peugeot’s belated return to the big-car field, although it already had a reputation for making some of the world’s best-riding mid-range saloons.

The handsome Pininfarina-styled tintop enhanced the firm’s reputation for making conservative but refined middle-class machinery.

The shape doesn’t grab everybody, although I find it a mature and quietly elegant profile with an appealing chunky tail and large, squarely shaped doors that open enormously wide.

The Peugeot 604 STI offers plush velour and fine ergonomics

It was a shoe-in for ministerial duties, taking over from the Citroën DS as the ‘official’ French Government car.

The Peugeot 604 STI is a saloon with just enough of everything to keep you satisfied without being particularly astonishing.

Its slightly lumpy, wide-angle fuel-injected Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 engine (originally planned as a V8 and later to find a home in the Talbot Tagora) lacks either the muscle of the Rover or the exotic appeal of the Alfa Romeo.

Yet it is quantifiably more impressive than the thrashy Cologne V6 in the Ford Granada or the somewhat characterless Toyota engine.

The Peugeot 604 STI has lots of space for rear-seat passengers

Head for a corner and the 604 rolls rather more than the Rover or the Ford (and more than modern drivers would feel comfortable with), although it seems to hang on for ever on its Michelin TRX tyres.

Your way is plotted by notably accurate power steering and a general determination not to be knocked off line.

It feels bright inside this Peugeot, the view out commanding from wonderfully soft seats.

With its generous rear leg, head and shoulder room – plus its massive boot – the 604 was, and remains, an outstanding long-distance touring machine.

The Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 gained fuel injection from 1978; the 604 also came with turbo-diesel ‘fours’

But the best thing about the car is its ride. By the time that Peugeot killed off the 604 in the mid-’80s, it still offered a level of sophistication – in terms of civilisation and comfort – that was beyond even the expectations of this class of car.

Probably only the Jaguar XJ outshone its ability to deal with all kinds of poor roads. Even now it is hard to think of a modern car that rides with such a light touch.

The 604, no matter what the surface, never feels as if it is raising a sweat.

Thanks to: Gareth Davies

Talbot Tagora GL

This immaculate, 17,000-mile, ex-dealer demo Talbot Tagora is the only GL known in the UK

Conceived in the mid-’70s as a successor to the 180/2 litre, the C9/Tagora project was too far into development to be cancelled when Peugeot took over Chrysler Europe in 1979.

With its newly inherited Sunbeam/Alpine ranges swiftly rebadged as Talbots, the nascent Tagora of 1980 was the first new model under the PSA regime.

It was far more than a tweaked Peugeot under those angular lines; the 604/505 suspension was simply a last-minute PSA modification aimed at giving this orphan barge some family kinship.

There are hints of Alpine in the Talbot Tagora’s spacious cabin

Of the handful of Tagoras still alive in the UK, this is the only base-model GL known to survive.

That means just four manual speeds to harness its 115bhp and no power steering, although it was an option.

It feels austere and brittle in its fittings, but airy and spacious with clear dashboard architecture and no attempt at wood appliqué.

The V6 SX was quick, with a good power-to-weight ratio, but the 2.2-litre ‘four’ is a hesitant, gasping presence that urges the car along with no sense of enthusiasm and hardly seems worthy of what was a supple, sophisticated and sure-footed chassis.

The Talbot Tagora GL’s blue-cloth rear seats

It is rather flavourless to drive once you’ve overcome the thrill of being at the wheel of a car that is so close to extinction.

The Tagora’s shape was signed off by Roy Axe in Coventry as early as 1976.

It might have fared better had it appeared then, but production didn’t begin at the old Simca Poissy plant until 1980.

It was all over by 1983, with just 23,400 built. The Tagora wasn’t a bad car, just a bit pointless in that it didn’t offer anything over the competition.

The Talbot’s 2155cc ‘four’ makes 115bhp

Compared to their earlier counterparts, I can’t help feeling that our ’80s barges have survived less well – their ranks thinned by rust, bangering and an apathy born of plummeting desirability in a world that values only prestige ‘brands’.

Lucky for us that every car has someone to love it in its old age even if, like the Tagora, it was born into the world with the odds stacked against it.

It is sobering to think that – from being relatively commonplace once upon a time – many of these classic cars are now among the rarest on the UK’s roads.

Thanks to: Tony Owen

This was first in our March 2015 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfiles

Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia

Sold/number built 1977-’85/639,440
Engine all-iron, ohv 2792cc V6
Max power 160bhp @ 5700rpm
Max torque 162Ib ft @ 4300rpm
Suspension: front double wishbones rear semi-trailing arms; coil springs f/r
Transmission Ford C3 automatic, RWD
Weight 3100Ib (1406kg)
0-60mph 8.9 secs
Top speed 117mph
Price new £9615

Alfa Romeo Alfa 6

Sold/number built 1980-’86/12,070
Engine all-alloy, sohc-per-bank 2492cc V6
Max power 158bhp @ 5600rpm
Max torque 156Ib ft @ 4000rpm
Suspension: front double wishbones, torsion bars rear de Dion axle, coil springs
Transmission ZF three-speed auto, RWD
Weight 3241Ib (1470kg)
0-60mph 11 secs
Top speed 115mph
Price new £11,900

Toyota Crown Super Saloon

Sold/number built 1980-’83/823,000
Engine iron-block, alloy-head sohc 2759cc straight-six
Max power 145bhp @ 5500rpm
Max torque 123Ib ft @ 4000rpm
Suspension: front double wishbones rear live axle; coil springs f/r
Transmission five-speed manual or four-speed auto, RWD
Weight 3164Ib (1435kg)
0-60mph 10.4 secs
Top speed 114mph
Price new £865

Rover 3500 Vanden Plas

Sold/number built 1976-’86/303,343 (all models)
Engine all-alloy, ohv 3528cc V8
Max power 155bhp @ 5250rpm
Max torque 198Ib ft @ 2500rpm
Suspension: front MacPherson struts rear live axle, coil springs
Transmission three-speed Borg-Warner automatic, RWD
Weight 3097Ib (1405kg)
0-60mph 9.1 secs
Top speed 122mph
Price new £9200

Peugeot 604 STI

Sold/number built 1975-’85/240,100
Engine all-alloy, sohc-per-bank 2664cc V6
Max power 144bhp @ 5500rpm
Max torque 159Ib ft @ 3750rpm
Suspension: front MacPherson struts rear semi-trailing arms, coil springs
Transmission five-speed manual or three-speed automatic, RWD
Weight 3252Ib (1475kg)
0-60mph 9.4 secs
Top speed 115mph
Price new £8522

Talbot Tagora GL

Sold/number built 1981-’84/23,400 (all)
Engine all-alloy sohc 2155cc ‘four’
Max power 115bhp @ 5400rpm
Max torque 133Ib ft @ 3200rpm
Suspension: front MacPherson struts rear semi-trailing arms, coil springs
Transmission four/five-speed manual or three-speed automatic, RWD
Weight 2767Ib (1255kg)
0-60mph 11.3 secs
Top speed 106mph
Price new £7000