All this talk about Cortinas, I remember once having a brand new 2.0 GLX Mk3 hire car, all was going well until a dog ran out in the road - I was doing about 20mph. Slammed on the brakes and the metal trim under front bumper hit the road with a vengeance, thought I'd dug a trench with emergency stop, but merely removed all the paint.
That was when I realised that they absorbed bumps well because they had been built on the 'Detroit Dustbin' principle of soft ride naff handling, and horrible seat covers.
So went back to the good old solid Vauxhall Cavalier - those were the days, 72000 miles a year, wish Lexus had been around in early 80's