Buoyed by the success of its Sierra XR4x4, it was only natural that Ford would capitalise on car buyers’ new-found fondness for all-wheel-drive and throw the advanced underpinnings under more versions of the family-focused model.
The XR4x4 first flashed its donor card with the April 1986 launch of the Ghia 4x4 Estate. Sitting at the top of the range and costing circa £15,000, it didn’t exactly bring four-wheel-drive within reach of mainstream Sierra customers, but it did enable Ford to offer an upmarket V6 estate car to replace the much-missed Granada estate.
The new estate was a lesson in discretion and refinement too, with only seven-spoke RS alloy wheels and a small 4x4 badge on the tailgate hinting at its performance potential on- and off-road. With its 34/66 per cent power split in favour of the rear wheels and Boge Nivomat self-levelling dampers, it was easy to
