…and you have just less than ‘a bag of sand’
(I would take the Golf)
Its a no brainer, the rest are Fords
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The Volvo will still be on the road, the rest have probably been recycled at least twice 
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The Sierra is cheap for a reason - I would probably take the Golf.
I remember the Sierra from back then - fairly horrible to drive even the Ghia version. The Orion is an escort with a boot, and the Fiesta was a tiny town car. If the ‘auto’ in the volvo ad is for automatic aircon i.e. climate control rather than auto gearbox then that’s the one I’d pick, even though the Golf might be more fun.
It’s on its second clutch though which does not bode well for “one careful lady owner” status.
Out of that lot, I’d take the Volvo.
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They made, with some mods, quite good rally cars.
I had a Ford Orion 1.6 around 1988 when I was a contract manager/estimator for a building firm in Notts. It was a company car, almost new when I had it, and it was actually a decent car. It never gave any trouble and was a nice car to drive. It was powder blue and we called it the “Reppy Rion” for obvious reasons. You never see any now, I think the bodywork expired very quickly…
Strangely, the car I owned before that one was a Ford also, the first I had. It was a Mark 2 (I think) Escort Estate in red, and I bought it in the dark in Nottm for 300 cash.
It was a great car, it was spotless with no rot, and I was first to see it and just handed over the notes. I didn’t drive it first or look underneath it (not much point in the dark).
Before I took on the job that the Rion came with I drove it to camp/trout fish with it to Cape Wrath with my dog Chick, a GSD, in the back. I drove it there only stopping for fuel each way and it was perfect. On my return I put it in the Post and they were literally queueing up to buy it.
The back still had dog biscuits all over the place from the holiday when the first bloke came. I said “sorry, I was just about to tidy it up”, but the man just handed over the money (300) as there was already someone else waiting at the gate.
So let’s not get too sniffy about Fords (never had one since!
)
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I bought it from my father. He must have been rubbing his hands with glee…
I think my uncle had a Lotus version.
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Well, at least they were good for you.
I drove a couple of fords in the slightly later 80’s and owned a MkIII cortina for a few months (directionally, it was more like a boat than a car especially laden). A friend’s MkIII escort was OK but that’s it. In the early 90’s I used a couple of different Sierras (a 1.6L with shot suspension bushes, a GLS company car) that were universally horrible. I did also get to use a directors Granada Cosworth Scorpio (7mpg when booted according to the computer) that was actually pretty good but was anything but a standard ford.
So I WILL diss fords of the period, not that worse cars couldn’t be found.
We had an older ‘Chrysler’ Alpine in 1990. Driving up the M40 to Oxford to view houses in February, it started snowing hard, and after a few miles the engine began misfiring, eventually becoming so bad I had to pull onto the hard shoulder. I lifted the bonnet and found the distributor covered in snow and wet - cleaned it off, gave it a few mins to dry, then restarted and completed the journey with no further trouble. After that it was encased in a protective bag and gave np further trouble.
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The Sierras were pretty awful, it has to be said.
The MD at the building firm had a Cosworth (on the firm) - not sure what that was like apart from being noisy, but the MD, or “motormouth” as the joiners referred to him as, was much worse than any Sierra could be…
I think he got one of the first mobile phones as well, that was handy for keeping in touch with his mistress. 
I bought a 1.6 Ghia in 1986, it had the same motor as the XR3i. It replaced my Mk 1 Golf GTI and it was just as quick IMO. I bought it from a diplomat in the British embassy in Dublin. She used to buy a new car tax free every year, keep 12 months and then flip it on. I got the Ghia at avery good price.
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19 back in 1980 3 litre Capri sport. V reg dad gave it to me after driving it from new for 6 months. He bought a new Ford Granada Sapphire, blue and silver it had plenty of added options on it.
I’d just started playing professional sport when I got the Capri sport, that, along with the car meant one was never short of a young (and old) lady companion or three.
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