When my parents moved out, the 325is was supposed to go to me. Instead, it went to my brother. Finding myself without a car and not much money, I basically bought the cheapest thing I could find. Besides, my commute is only 6 miles down 35-40 mph backroads, whereas my brother's is about 40-50 miles on the highway. I'll probably be replacing it soon with a small-ish pickup truck, both as a daily driver and to take my bike to the track. I can feel my neck getting red just thinking about that.
You can also generally get a pretty nice car for the price of a cheap car plus a cheap bike. Some people's priorities are just a little different.
I'm not sure how quickly it does 0-60 but what I meant was, you would think a 1.3 Diesel would move about as fast as a snail, but rather surprisingly...it doesn't. My mums last car was a 2001 Peugeot 406 HDi. That too had 90hp, out of a 2.0 Diesel engine, yet the Astra has 90hp out of a 1.3 Diesel engine. Okay, so it won't keep up with my anything bigger on the road, but it definitely isn't slow for what it is. Unless you told the people around you, they would never guess its a 1.3, let alone a diesel.
little update on the cossie we are going for an engine swap from a chev to see how it all works out and its been de rusted and we got some WRC mudflaps
Don't use another car engine either use the original cossie engine and have the inside strengthened so it can withstand cam work and so on and have that completely tuned or get one built for you. If it is a sierra i think you are going on about keep it as original as you can. They are good cars and aren't many left in the UK so they are worth a few bob. So keep it as original as you can dont put a chevy engine in it.
Yer nicely restored cossies sell for pretty big money. If it was a bog standard sierra then yer, mess about with it, but probably best to keep a genuine cossie standard.
Tuned ones sell for a bit aswell. My half sisters dad's rs 500 cossie has a fully rebuilt engine with a chromo finish(Polished as some people say) and that can produce about 675bhp with everything tuned to the max but he has the turbos set down and a few other stuff put down so it doesnt blow up as quick lol and that car is worth about £15,000-£16,000 because it is mint condition and a very fast car also some people will buy pourly because it was featured in a few modifying mags. So people with cossies should keep them standard as much as possible. Don't know why they made a escort cosworth though because they are no where near as good and quick and is a remake of the sierra but isn't in the same league as the sierra cossie.
RS500's go for far more than £16k, assuming they are actually mint. Nethertheless, I'm sure it's a very nice (and scary) car!
The Escort Cosworth point though is wrong. They have basically the same engine, with the option of 4WD etc, and I expect they weigh less than the 3dr Cossies. Of course there was a 4WD Sapphire Cossie variant, but I imagine that was heavier again. The latest Reyland Cossie is pretty special