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The Ford Cortina was a car sold by Ford of Britain. The Cortina was produced in five generations (Mark I through Mark V—though officially the last one was the Cortina 1980) from 1962 until 1982, when it was replaced by the Ford Sierra. From 1970 it was almost identical to the German-market Ford Taunus, which was originally a different car model altogether; this was part of a Ford attempt to unify its European operations. By 1976, when the revised Taunus was launched, the Cortina was identical. In fact, this new Taunus/Cortina used the doors from the 1970 Taunus.

In the UK the Cortina models are:

• Mk I (1962–6) notable models were the Lotus Cortina and Cortina GT.
• Mk II (1966–70) Again a Lotus version was produced but the most admired was the 1600E.
• Mk III (1970–6) was an iconic 1970s' car. The Detroit-inspired "coke bottle" shaped Cortina was a huge hit amongst fleet buyers selling over 1,000,000 models. Top of the range were the GXL and 2000E models and there was also a GT. In 1973 the car received the overhead cam Pinto engine and a facelift. The three engine sizes were 1.3, 1.6 and 2.0.
• Mk IV (1976–9) was a conservative square-shaped style, again appreciated by fleet buyers. This spawned the first Ghia top-of-the-range model. A 2.3 litre Ghia version was introduced. These models were identical to the 1976 Taunus.
• Mk V (1979–82) A facelifted Mk IV in many special editions such as Calypso and Crusader. Officially, it was known as the 'Cortina 1980', rather than the Mk V.

The Cortina was also sold in other right hand drive markets such as the Republic of Ireland where it was assembled locally, as well as Australia (where it had optional 3.3 and 4.1 litre inline six-cylinder engines), New Zealand and South AfricaSouth Africa is a republic at the southern tip of Africa. It is bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the north-east by Mozambique and Swaziland. Lesotho is contained entirely inside the borders of South Africa. South Africa is one o, where it had a 3.0 litre V6Ford Essex V6 engine A V6 is an internal combustion piston engine with six cylinders in a " V" configuration. It is the second most common engine configuration in modern cars after the straight-4; it shares with that engine a compactness very suited to th. In the late 1970s, Cortina wagons in Australia were briefly built in RenaultRenault S. is a French vehicle manufacturer producing small to upper-midsize cars, vans, buses and trucks. Renault is properly pronounced "Rhen-oh" but some people incorrectly pronounce it "Reh-nought". Renault is known for car concepts like the Renault 1's local factory (now closed), as Ford Australia's factories did not have the capacity. HyundaiThe Hyundai Motor Company HMC , a South Korean company, is principally engaged in the manufacturing and selling of automobiles. It is part of Hyundai Motor Group. In 1998, Hyundai acquired Kia Motors. In 2000, the company established a strategic alliance in South KoreaThe Republic of Korea (ROK; Korean: Daehan Minguk ( Hangul: ; Hanja: )), commonly known as South Korea is a country in East Asia, covering the southern half of the Korean peninsula. To the north, the Republic of Korea borders North Korea, with which it fo also assembled the Cortina until the early 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends.

In Australia, rather than referred to by Marks, Cortinas had a two-letter code beginning with 'T' from the Mk III on. Hence, the Mk III was the TC, with a mid-life revised model the TD. The Mk IV was the TE and the Mk V the TF.

The first two generations of the car were also sold through US Ford dealers in the 1960s. The Cortina competed fairly successfully there against most of the other small imports of its day, including GM's Opel KadettOpel Kadett is a compact-sized automobile from the German Opel company, which is part of General Motors European division. The first Opel Kadett after the war appeared in October 1962. 649,512 cars were built until July 1965. It was later called the Kadet, the Renault Dauphine , and the just-appearing ToyotaToyota Motor Corp. TMC (In Japanese: ) is an automobile manufacturer in Japan, based in Toyota, Aichi. History Origins in Toyota Automatic Loom —1936 The origins of the company are found as an automobile section of Toyoda Automatic Loom, implemented in Ses and Datsuns ( Nissan), although none of them approached the phenomenal success of the Volkswagen Beetle. The Cortina was withdrawn from the American market when Ford decided to produce a domestic small car in 1971, the Ford Pinto.

The Cortina was Ford's mass market medium-size car and sold in enormous numbers, making it ubiquitous on British roads until 1982, when it was replaced by the Ford Sierra. In other markets, particularly Asia and Australasia, it was replaced by the Mazda 626-based Ford Telstar, though New Zealand did import British-made CKD kits of the Ford Sierra Turnier (estate) for local assembly from 1984.

The Cortina also raced in rally and Lotus did some sportier editions of the Cortina referred as Lotus Cortina.