Why are we driving EA's?! - Page 2 - Ford Forums

tickfordboy · 08-12-2003, 04:44

dude, you should get overyourself a bit on the EA's. I own one, never had a problem with it, except for the pressure reg. Its done plenty of k's and still has the same factory engine in it. I don't feel i bought a POS even tho you had a bad run. Car is a car man, i like my car, and i don't care what anyone else thinks of it. I paid cash for it, I totally own my car, no loans nothing. Give the EA a bit of slack.....

antigravity · 08-12-2003, 04:48

Blue EA = yuk..

Ea's only look respectable when they're not overdone. That EA, unfortunately is overdone. That blue paint, with the rear garnish painted too... And my pet hate.. those c pillar grills.

But still, I wonder how much was spent on the Blue EA to look shit?

BTW, any car looks decent lowered 2", with 16" mags. I guess I hate the fact you have to change and modify so many things just to get an EA to get off the line in a repectable manner. Even a stock 4speed MPI will get beaten off the line by almost any car on the road.

Just look at this Civic 92 model

http://www.jdmcivic.com/photopost/sh...cat=504&page=7

antigravity · 08-12-2003, 04:55

Tickford Boy, I haven't had a bad run.

For a 14 year old car, in 2 years i've had the tranny go on me, front and rear calipers seize, power steering belt snap, hand brake not work (due to calipers), timing chain need replacing, creaky suspension that needs changing.

I mean, this list looks bad, but apart from the steering belt snapping the actual car has never left me stranded.

Dave

barry_v · 08-12-2003, 05:07

I cant agree on any level with antigravity. in fact i dont know what hes talking about. underpowered and slow? compared to what? oversized? not when you're 6 foot 5. ugly? simply dated, but I still like it.

you seem to be after a friggin rice burner. go buy a skyline or a silvia. im sure they're great cars. just more expensive, harder to fix, less reliable, less room.. the list goes on. you obviously dont want what a big car. thats not the EAs fault.

EFJase · 08-12-2003, 05:10

First up, who crawled up your ass and died?

I personall think that eas are a pretty good car. Cheap, enough power, heaps of room.

Quote:

Originally Posted by antigravity

Blue EA = yuk..

Ea's only look respectable when they're not overdone. That EA, unfortunately is overdone. That blue paint, with the rear garnish painted too... And my pet hate.. those c pillar grills.

But still, I wonder how much was spent on the Blue EA to look shit?

That car look real nice imo. Neat and straight. Cant see what your saying is overdone?

People come here because they like these cars, and it a place where they can talk to other with the same interests.

If u want to go wank over a civic, that your choice.

tickfordboy · 08-12-2003, 05:11

the thing that concerns me about this thread is that it seems all EA owners are povo basically. Hey I am no rich fella, i don't have a lot of money, but the EA is another car on the road. What about all the recalls on the new cars, they are brand new and have less than 1000 k's on them and they have to be brought back... Seriously... put in all the good things about EA's and you will find the list will be even, if not, higher than the bad points.

antigravity · 08-12-2003, 05:21

I don't want to go wank over a civic, (although I prolly would If I had one in the garage heehehhe).

It's hard to get my message across without being offensive, but doesn't it bother you that the majority of EA's out there are pieces of shit?

All I want to know is why do the majority of people on here (who are young and don't have families) choose to drive such big cars? Thats all.

Dave

EFFalcon · 08-12-2003, 05:21

sure, a base model EA GL is ugly, anything above that aint.
and it sure don't take much to change the way it looks.
i wouldn't have purchased one, i wanted something that i would find HIGHLY reliable, but IMHO some of the best cars in this club are EA's

crowbar · 08-12-2003, 05:23

hey "buddy" i think ea-ed's look great.For the money you pay for them, you got a whole lot of bang for your buck in my opinion. I am proud to be driving what i am, but no doubt i will be updating in a year or two. I just need to get the thing looking better, getting mags, lower it, tinted windows, and a few performance things, such as the mpfi conversion. It goes hard for cfi, but im looking forward to the mpfi gain. If im happy after all this i might keep it for years. Its really what your tastes are. As if they are really as bad as what you make them out to be. Really for the kind of money what else can you get, a crappy 4cyl honda accord? come on!! A vn or vl commodore? nah ill be right. The style of the ea-ed looks unreal to me and when u compare it to what else is around of that time. If you dont like ur ea, buy the civic and stop knocking what some people are actually proud of.

Troutman · 08-12-2003, 05:24

Hmmm I didn't expect a thread like this to pop up. The type of car that one drives is a personal decision, and I like to think we shouldn't have to justify that choice on our own forums. Australian cars are not the last word in reliability, so if you want a Jap car, buy one. You will probably only have a quarter of the problems of a local car of the same age... but each problem will cost 20 times more to fix.

Let's look at these claims one by one.

ugly
Upon its release, it was regarded as one of the most perfect sedan shapes in the world. Members of a styling clinic in Germany were shown an EA back in the '80s and mistook it for a forthcoming Audi 100. That Ford took this design and cheapened it with a few unattractive traits like jumbo-size unpainted bumpers and carry-over wheels/mirrors on some models is enough to make some people dismiss it as 'ugly'. Extremely short-sighted, and people are very surprised when they see how nice a tastefully modified EA-ED looks. It's understated, which I think is the best part. The perfect base for a sleeper.

oversized
If you want a Starlet, buy one (not that you could even get one for the same money!). The EA is not particularly space inefficient (like, say a Jaguar XJ of the time) and is a great size for long distance driving. Australia is a country with unique conditions, and only a full-size sedan will cruise with comfort and space to spare.

underpowered
A similar story to the EA styling. The 3.9 MPI was a good engine that in its ultimate form (the manual cars) was respected for doing its fair share of V8-bashing. Compare it to, say, a 5.8 litre manual XE Fairmont and you'll get the point. The problem was not a lack of power, but an absurd 2.77 diff ratio and 3 speed automatic which strangled all the potential the engine had.

As for CFI, I am of the strong belief that it should never have existed and was a waste of precious development money. Every Commodore from 1986 and onwards had multi-point injection, so an '88-92 model Falcon with single-point injection is bad news... especially when the lighter Holden rivals also had 4 speed autos all along. It's in the past, so if we are going to bag Ford for it, let's start up on the '80s dropping of the V8 or the marketing of the AU as well...

reserved only for the poorest and most underpriviledged people in our society

Thanks for the compliment. Most EAs are in poor condition, but this has nothing to do with us here in the Club. The elitist will look down and dismiss our cars as underdogs, and dismiss us as either clueless or ill-funded. This is what drives me, as I love understatement. It seems a few people in Jap cars, newer cars or universally respected 'classics' will find out the hard way that the EA is the lightest modern Falcon and responds bloody well to turbocharging!

That leaves only one point needing to be addressed: reliability. A poor example will give no end of problems because the car was now particularly over-engineered (Australian cars are built on a pitiful budget by world standards, and the EA was arguably the most revolutionary Falcon of all time - put 2 and 2 together), most examples have been poorly looked after, and of course the cars are quite old now. My car has only had a couple of serious problems since I've had it, and both have been very cheap to fix. The only real factor is inconvenience, which is amply countered by the financial savings.

People who have more money and/or demand a greater level of reliability should look elsewhere, but the E-Series (including EA) is to my mind a great niche, and this Club is a great community.