I too would avoid the 1300 OHV, and opt for the 1600 or 2000 OHC instead. The 2000 Ghia would've been the top model followed by the GXL. As said earlier, corrosion was this car's worst enemy.

The 1.3 engine in the mk3 Cortina was the poverty-spec repmobile special and will have been thrashed - the mk3 wasn't the best Cortina by quite a way.

What was the best model of the Ford Cortina range, M1, 2 to 3, where rust and reliability is concerned. And is it better to go for the bigger engines. Also were the automatics any good?

Condition is all with a Cortina especially rust rust rust, however....

I am a fan of the MKII especially with the early 1500(port side) or 1600 engines(crossflow). Saying that the suspension (rear cart springs!) and steering(old fashioned steering box and idler arm) is old school and primitive. The auto brake adjusters inside the rear drums are not great but can be fettled and beware seized pistons on front brake callipers (they are twin pistons and don't slide) as if one gums up eventually it can break the brake disk (well it happened to me).The 1600E was the best but are overpriced these days. As for the Lotus...

As a useable car the versions with the 2.0 Pinto OHC were the best especially fitted with the fabulous progressive twin choke Weber carb. Manual or auto gearbox's are both reasonable and cheap to fix if they go wrong. This can be found in the late MKIII's (better than earlier ones), MKIV and the so called MKV. Early versions were known for cam and valve issues but this sort of issue has long since been sorted on surviving examples. Every second cam belt change it's worth dropping the sump and changing the oil pump drive shaft as these can fail with predictable results. When working on these engines cleanliness is important as cam oil jets can easily block. Rear axle suspension bushes are a known fail point.

There was a 2.3v6 MKIV which was great as an auto - usually Ghia and rare as hens teeth these days - it does rather like a drink though!

CAN I REPEAT though that condition is all especially re that RUST stuff - if you do manage to find a good one then rust proof to an inch of it's existence. If it has some rust areas, small bits turn into big bits and welcome to the Forth bridge. Saying that if it's lasted this long......

My previous ones vanished into a pile of dust (this is before I could weld though)

Edited by Big John on 08/04/2019 at 23:30