page_title: Ford Sierra
section_title: New Zealand
hierarchical_section_title: Ford Sierra / Sierras outside Europe / New Zealand
caption_attribution_description: PH9080 This was a very clean Sierra - could have just come from the showroom! I like this shot - the sky looks good in it, along with the car directly in the foreground. I particularly like the red pinstriping... By 1990 the Sierra had been reintroduced to NZ after an absence of 3 years, but they were more upmarket models and were far nicer than the Mazda-based Telstar. Originally, in 1984, the MkI Sierra estate was assembled locally, but these later ones were built-up imports from Belgium.
context_page_description: The Ford Sierra is a mid-size car or large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 to 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni". Its name came from the Spanish word for mountain range.
  The Ford Sierra was first unveiled on 22 September 1982 at the British International Motor Show hosted at the NEC in Birmingham. with sales beginning on 15 October 1982, replacing the Ford Cortina. Its aerodynamic styling was ahead of its time and as such, many conservative buyers did not take fondly to the Cortina's replacement.
  It was mainly manufactured in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, although Sierras were also assembled in Ireland, Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa and New Zealand.
context_section_description: Whereas British buyers rued the absence of a saloon version of the Sierra, in New Zealand, it was the absence of an estate (a "station wagon" there) that customers missed, when Ford New Zealand replaced the Cortina with the Ford Telstar range. In order to fill the gap in the market, Ford introduced the Sierra wagon in 1984, in spite of opposition at Ford Asia Pacific and from the Detroit headquarters. This was assembled locally from imported CKD ("completely knocked down") kits. The wagon was offered in 1.6- (base) and 2.0-litre "L" and "Ghia" models initially, and proved to be a strong seller. The then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, used a Sierra as his personal transport and would drive it to his office in the government building known as the Beehive. New Zealand was the only market in the world where both the Telstar and the Sierra were offered next to each other.
  In one month in 1987, the facelifted Ford Sierra, by then a single station wagon model, was the country's top-selling car range. A few fully built-up 2.3 V6 five-doors and XR4i three-doors were also imported from 1984.
  However, Ford cancelled the Sierra once Mazda, which developed the Telstar, could offer a station wagon. The Telstar wagon, while popular, never reached the Sierra's heights, especially its competition successes overseas. Further reasons could be customers' knowledge of the Telstar's Japanese roots, and that the equivalent Mazda 626 wagon offered a considerably longer warranty at a similar price.
  Relative rejection of the Telstar forced Ford to import completely built-up (CBU) premium models built in Genk, Belgium from 1990: the Sierra 2.0 GLX Wagon, the Sierra Sapphire 2.0 Ghia and the XR4×4 were part of this range. The advertising copy read, "Introducing the new car that needs no introduction." However, a relatively high price did not help – the Wagon began at over NZ$31,000 – and production errors in the launch brochure showed cars with no steering wheels. Furthermore, any marketing boosts Ford could have gained through Group A touring car racing were over with the Escort Cosworth becoming the company's standard-bearer in competition (and the Escort, meanwhile, was absent from the New Zealand market).
  The Sierra was withdrawn from the New Zealand market in 1992, and it would be another five years before its European successor the Mondeo would arrive there. Sierra Cosworths remain sought-after performance cars.
  By contrast, the Sierra was never sold in Australia, as there was less demand for a medium-sized wagon than in New Zealand, although the RS Cosworth/RS500 was used in the Australian Touring Car Championships from the late-1980s and early-1990s.
caption: 1990 Ford Sierra Sapphire (New Zealand), imported CBU from Belgium
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