The stereo system was upgraded easily and the interior had plenty of places where wire could be tucked under to hide the installation. The dash was a wide flat surface with very little in the way of styling, but then again, such things were not so important in 1982.
The large guages read easily, with backlit faces and light up needles on the large analog plates. The information was just adequate, not too much or too little.
The gas mileage was around 16 in mixed driving conditions.
Mine was a light blue metalic, an original color of Ford in that era. It was in poor shape, but without rust. I used some Future 2000 wax to brighten it up and even got a reasonable gloss out of it with repeated cleanings and waxings. The car looked great, and the chrome fixtures were very solid. Unlike the 87 Camry, where the plastic fixtures would pop off if one hit a speed bump.
The suspension was spongy, but acceptable. I do not believe I had to do any repairs on this proven design when I had it. There was a suspicion that the engine was only firing on 7 cylinders at one point, and despite replacing the spark plugs, wires, and distributor cap it seemed to remain until the car broke down finally in an engine sieze.
I was dumb and young when I had it and I simply let it burn off all its oil in short white bursts of smoke when it started.
The car had HUGE interior space, of course. It was the choice car for TAXI's back in its day. And the trunk was so large I could comfortably lay down in it to install high power 6x9 speakers in the rear dash. The car accomodated 16 speakers total when I had it. My head unit was an old Optimus design (Radioshack lable), but worked pretty damn well considering its less than $200 price. It was a 160 watt cd player, a pretty powerful model considering its origin. I also had a 270 watt amp in the trunk running at 4 ohm resistance. This fed a homemade box and the pair of high power 6x9's I installed.
All in all, no regrets here. It was a good car fo the $500 I paid for it. And it was reasonably attractive in a sort of nostalgic way. I felt good driving it as the power and size of it gives the driver a lot of confidence and comfort.
