Harkening back to the last COAL with the Blazer, it was the fall of 1995 and I was 29. After some personal reflection, I felt I had to get my life together with an eye toward being an honest to goodness grown up. I wanted to get debt free with the goal, someday, of buying a house. I had to find ways to cut expenses to improve my personal balance sheet. I figured car payment and insurance was costing me $350 a month plus gas, and that was a good place to start. The Blazer sold quickly, and I was out from under.
The solution, or so I thought at the time, was right under my nose. Dad and Mom both recently retired. Dad had a ‘92 Chevy Lumina and they were going down to one car and were ready to part with the 1985 Escort they owned since new, with barely 60,000 miles on it. I could have it for $700.00 and because it was from a relative, I didn’t have to pay sales tax when I registered it at the Secretary of State. Dad saved me the whopping sum of $42.00 on the transaction. Done.
I cannot recall what the onus was for them to buy the Escort over say, one of the GM J-bodies as Dad was a lifetime GM loyalist. Sister and brother had Ford and GM employee discounts they could pass on. It was the first Ford we had in the family since an old 62 Ford Falcon that was Dad’s get-to-work-and-back car in the mid-70s. Dad’s 76 Impala was at the end of the line and maybe they had no choice. But…had they waited a few short months into late spring of that year, the 1985 -1/2 model was a holistically far better car.
The “1/2” sported a new, more powerful fuel-injected 1.9L motor (instead of the carbureted 1.6L), new and improved suspension and a new front end as well as many minor upgrades inside and out. Sold as a nameplate elsewhere since the 1950’s, when it was introduced in the US in 1980, it was touted as one of Fords first World Cars. It was a massive seller everywhere. 420,000 Escorts were sold in 1985 in the United States. A total of 4.1 million Escorts were sold in the nameplates 33 year run in Europe alone.
The US and Euro versions looked vaguely similar, but from online research and reviews, it seems those Fords were made with far better components and engines, more variants, and were more capable all around. I believe my Grandfather, a very kind man who lived to almost 101, offered to purchase the car for Mom, saying she might as well take some of her inheritance when she could actually use it. Off to Al Long Ford as soon as the snow melted, and it came home.
True to form for my parents, it was a back of the lot stripper. It was Mom’s first (and only) new car just for herself. AM-only radio, and air conditioning, and that’s all she wrote as far as options. She had a barely 10-minute commute to work and was a very slow and careful driver. On paper a little runabout like this seemed to suit her needs just fine. But it was a hard life for the Escort. Almost no highway driving, lots of start/ stop and short trips and hours parked at work in the cold. Mileage accumulated on the odometer slowly, but with 4 seasons and long winters filled with salty roads, despite it living in the garage, mass rust came shockingly fast.
I knew what I was getting into with this simple and basic little car. Fun or exciting it was not, but it didn’t matter to me and I was glad to have it. It only had 60,000 Mom miles on it and it was reasonably maintained. All I was hoping for was a couple of years of trouble free, no car payment transportation along with good gas mileage (24 city/29 highway) and cheap, no collision coverage insurance. This car certainly had lots of life left in it, right? Weeks into ownership, the antifreeze started looking like 2% milk, and it was off to All-Nite Auto for a new head gasket for $700.00. As a side note, a few COAL’s back, I mentioned my Dad purchased from his brother Al, a pristine 1981 Escort. At much lower mileage it had a catastrophic failure… a cracked engine head that was over $1,000 to fix (or $2,300 in 2018 money).
I was now $1,400 into the car. Thinking I’d have it for at least a couple of years and surely it would be rock solid after this repair, I put a cheap tape deck to replace the AM one-speaker radio. After that head gasket debacle…. I have to say it was serviceable, started and ran, and never left me stranded. There were absolutely no redeeming qualities about the car, it was almost dangerously slow, even when looking at it as basic transportation. It did what I asked of it.
My apartment had a garage, use of which my roommate and I would swap use of in alternate weeks. It did not like winter. With a carburetor, you did the the old pump-pump-pump on the pedal, then start it. It needed a long warm up to normal operating temperature and would sputter and groan. I lived down a two-lane road and on those cold days it would take miles for it to reach normal operating temperature and go above 30 MPH, and a long line of cars would be behind me as the speed slowly crept up. On the other hand, it was great not caring about the car. I could forget to lock it – nothing worth stealing, and if a miscreant wanted it …well he or she could have it.
The days of the Escort were short. In the spring of 1996, one day I noticed the rear passenger wheel was splaying out. I figured maybe it needed some suspension work. I took it to K-Mart, where the Swedish-expat mechanic told me some bad news. The shock tower was rusted and was jaggedly tearing away from the rest of the car. This wasn’t something that he could fix, and it could be dangerous. What about welding it? Can’t weld rust to more rust. The car was toast! I needed a car that I could depend on, as I did travel around town for work. I guess carefree hooptee life wasn’t what I envisioned. It had to go.
In retrospect, the Escort was a terrible vehicle and the worst car I ever owned, bar none. I think how cars liked this turned people off to domestic compact cars and sent them, especially outside of Big 3 loyalist country, clamoring for Japanese car dealerships. It was an 11-year-old car, not even 70,000 miles on the odometer and it was ready for the crusher. I had the car for just over 7 months. As a cheap and cheerful car, it was a total bust. I wasn’t any better off financially, and now I had to get into car payments again instead of saving for a house. I wasn’t sticking my head in the sand and you gotta have wheels. But would I have better luck next time?
I bought an ’83 Escort L, you know, the really nice one, with 60,000 miles on it in 1991 for $650. It was manual everything. It actually ran well, though absurdly slow and seemed to have oddly spaced and tall gearing. It had a carbureted 1.6L four. Body almost like new. It soon needed a new front wheel bearing and new tires. I had this and an ’83 Cavalier I got for $700. The Cavalier was also the most basic model. It had 70,000 miles on it. So two blah cars to compare back to back. The Chevy had much more zip, with a fuel injected 2.0 (I think. It’s been awhile) It steered heavier than the Ford, was more floppy feeling in the body and was noisier. Roomier though, as it was a four door and the Ford a two door. Everything on the Ford felt nicer. Every control and panel and especially the doors felt and worked better. But the performance of the Chevy made all that irrelevant. The Chevy got better mileage too, and could do burn-outs all day. The Ford motor was an embarrassment and I was told that it had already had a head gasket replacement before I got it. Neither car was comfortable but the Ford was a little better in the seats. Since it looked better I let my then-girlfriend-now-still my wife use it because I wanted her to have the nicer looking car. Plus, I liked having the quicker Chevy. So, my verdict was the Chevy was all motor and the Ford better in the body. Both were very cheap too. But my ’79 Accord I had just prior to these two was so much more car. Of course it was an LX and had all the doodads. It had 5 gears and the other two cars had only four. But it was so rusty! It had only cost $750 in 1990 and took a lot of abuse. It did great reverse 180s. (the “Rockford”) It had 180,000 miles, ran perfect but burned some oil, and I sold it just because it was ugly. Not the shape. I liked that. But the corrosion was bad. Things were falling off. Crazy glue was holding half of the trim, mirrors, and a headlight on. So, if there was a car with the Ford paint, the Chevy motor, and the Honda comfort it would have been a nice car. Anyway the Escort died when I got t-boned by a then new Celica in 1992. I got hit on the passenger side when I was thankfully alone. (Girlfriend had the Chevy. We had switched because why not?) The Ford was smashed into about half it’s normal width. I had a football sized bruise on my leg where the passenger seat had intruded into the driver’s side. The rear wheel was crooked. The Celica sustained a cracked front bumper and was driven away. I will never forget just how the Ford was destroyed by a plastic 2 1/2 mph bumper. It was that flimsy! If it had been any 70s American car I’d probably have been killed. I’d be an extra hood ornament on a Granada or something. And then from whom would you read these looonnnggg comments?
This illustrates the nearly universal principal of TANSTAAFL: There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. When getting into a bottom-feeder used car, you are frequently trading one set of problems for another or, as in your case, one monthly payment for another.
“All I was hoping for was a couple of years of trouble free, no car payment transportation along with good gas mileage (24 city/29 highway) and cheap, no collision coverage insurance.” I feel even more proud of my Ranger for this very reason. Costing just over $10k ($10,010 to be exact, including sales tax) & having well over that amount saved up in my checking account thanks to a good-paying job meant I could simply write a check and the truck was all paid for–NO monthly payments needed! I actually needed help buying my Aerostar despite being MUCH cheaper ($1500 wholesale price), but 6 years ago I didn’t have the job I have now either. Insurance IS higher with the Ranger, but only b/c it’s much newer; a brand-new vehicle would be even MORE, let alone if it’s a high-end model with everything I don’t need (& more stuff to fail too). Given its good condition & buying it from a dealership that’s been around since the Great Depression, a base-model truck like this shouldn’t need any major repairs done to it for at least a decade. And even with temperatures getting closer to winter levels, I’m still averaging 26 mpg or better on my work commute every week, right in the ballpark with the EPA rating. More money left to save up for an even BETTER vehicle in the future, albeit similarly optioned if possible.
My Dad had an ’87 Escort two door with automatic transmission with 40,000 miles at the time. I drove it twice. Everything inside rattled, very underpowered, also felt like you were sitting on the floor. My Mom had an ’86 Tempo which was based on the Escort. That car was not a paragon of reliably or quality either, but felt more substantial and not as scary to drive.
I’ve managed to buy all but one of my cars for cash, no payments/collision/comp and it is a terrific feeling. My 82 Escort only cost me $100 to buy plus $200 more in repairs during the six months I owned it. Can’t ask for more than that. Never left me stranded, but always wanting more.
Looks like a typical Warren MI neighborhood. 8 and Schoenherr?
83: FYI, northeast of Ryan, between 11 and 12. Some of your cars pics reflect a similar looking neighborhood. I don’t live there now however.
I was at 12 and Schoenherr from 82 until a year ago. Know the neighborhoods well.
I love the rear view picture of the Escort with the old school dark blue Michigan plate – brings me instantly back to my childhood! I knew you were from Michigan before I even scrolled down to it when I read “Secretary of State” – a phrase that always gives people puzzled looks when mentioned anywhere else in the country.
One of my babysitters had a light blue ’88-’90 facelifted model that was very similar to this. These were EVERYWHERE when I was a kid in the ’90s, then shortly after 2000 they all went extinct.
My only memory of the car was when she turned on the rear window defroster one morning in the dead of winter… and the entire rear windshield over the hatch just exploded into a million pieces (presumably from a glitch causing the window to heat up too rapidly, I guess). Pretty much summaries these cars in a nutshell.
The exploding rear window was not unique to lower-end Ford products. My Dad’s new 1978 Continental Mark V had the same issue in the Midwest. My cousins in the back seat were showered with tiny pieces of glass when the window blew after the defroster was turned on during a cold winter evening.
When Dad told me about the Continental’s exploding rear window I thought it must have been a singular incident. Now I’m wondering – have others experienced or heard of it? Of course not an issue in SoCal where I’ve lived since 1972.
It’s sad to remember what a terrible time the mid 70’s to mid 80’s were for people who love cars, especially for those of us who grew up in the Glory Days®️ of the 60’s. The malaise era cars didn’t run because of the lousy pollution controls, and were ugly because of the tacked on I-beam bumpers. Inflation was rampant, and so American car makers cut costs everywhere to keep prices down. Interiors were KMart quality bordellos that faded, ripped, and snapped into bits.
Japanese cars with good quality were just a brief glimmer of hope on the horizon then, brief because they rusted so fast that you were soon left with a steering wheel, a pile of rusty metal, and a fond memory – oh, and the payments.
Ford, like an alcoholic, had pretty much hit rock bottom in the early 80’s, as the Escort demonstrates.
All this to say, that I still remember the great excitement and pleasure that I felt when the Taurus appeared. Ford had leaped into the future, cars were being properly made in America and things were going to be alright. That is, as soon as any of us could afford to get rid of our Escorts/Chevettes and buy one.
They weren’t terrible times if you owned SAAB Turbos!
This Ford Escort (and, to be fair, the GM equivalents) drove many moderate Americans into the hands of Toyota and Honda, never to return.
While mentioned a time or two previously, my in-laws had an ’85 Escort they purchased new. By the time I met the future Mrs. Jason in 1993, she was driving it and the Escort had racked up 212,000 miles by that point.
Rust certainly was not an issue for that tan Escort my wife was driving (a car dubbed “The Scrotum” by her brothers). Having driven the car a time or two, it drove well enough however it had an automatic and I’d never experienced a car that wound up so tight in first gear to upshift and totally bottom out. The gears were indeed very widely spaced.
In that cars lifetime, all it needed was a voltage regulator, a timing belt or two, and a few tie-rods toward the end. It was still running great, although using some oil through a minor leak, at 259,000 miles in July 1998 when some doofus in a Jeep Grand Cherokee turned left in front of my father-in-law. Both vehicles were toast with the front axle of the Escort being shoved back considerably.
No doubt I’m (again?) the contrarian, but my experience with these Escorts has been much more positive than that of others.
I drove my friend’s ’81 Mercury Lynx. (a rebadged Escort) a few times in the early 90’s. It ran properly but was terribly slow, with the 1.6 liter engine. I recall driving it down the highway at full throttle, mile after mile just to keep up with the 70 mph traffic. There was no reserve of power anywhere,
The was was rust free, reliable and well assembled. But there was absolutely nothing joyful about the driving experience with numb, dull steering and somewhat rough suspension. I know things were pretty desperate in 1981 for America’s car makers, but other econoboxes of the day were much better. Even my buddy’s Dodge Omni felt lively and sporty by comparison.
Your mention of the Omni is apot on. That was a car that looked good against the Escort from the beginning and then looked ever better as the cars aged.
The later Omnirizons were actually not bad cars. By the end of the line (I think in 1989?) Chrysler could spend some money on what was a very nice interior. They even had full gauges. With the 2.2 engine they were a good, cheap, car. Little old ladies in Victoria drove them in legions.
And any Horizon was better car than an early Escort, which were horrid in every way.
Severe rust was one thing when it just ate up fenders and floors (and things like brake lines) but another thing entirely on these unit structures of thin guage steel where suspension attachment points would dissolve and leave you with nothing drivable.
And years of low-mile all-weather use is not a good combination. Low mile old cars have their problems and regular use cars in salty climates have theirs. You combined the worst of all worlds with this one.
By 1995 we had sufficiently recovered from purchasing our first home and other associated life start-up costs to have bought, in late 1993, a new Dodge Intrepid, fully loaded with the more powerful engine, etc. It was a nice car for the time, but I had a habit of collecting speeding tickets. Not a huge number of them, but a few just the same. Due to some unfortunate sequencing of tickets and the application of consequent demerits, I had my license suspended for 30 days – despite no recent tickets at all. It took a year for my insurance to find out but when they did, the cost to insure the Intrepid far more than doubled, to the point where the insurance payment was more than the car payment. i was paying somewhere around $1000 a month to drive it, at a time when our income was stretched to accommodate it, and it made no practical sense – whether we could cover it or not. I advertised the Intrepid, sold it at a good price to the only respondent and went back to driving a 1979 Impala and our 1982 Fiat Spyder with minimal coverages. The Impala was bought for about $500, I spent a bit to fix some minor stuff and had it for several years. it was a great car for commuting to work, and a few years later I gave it to an employee who used it for several more years. The move out of payments and more importantly high insurance costs was easy, practical and emancipating.
A year or so after this, my insurance had dropped as quickly as it rose (due to the strange sequencing, once again) and I bought the first of several loaded Suburbans, Denali XL’s and the like. You do pay one way or another to drive – no doubt about it. My vehicular needs changed to the point where the Impala was no longer appropriate, and most importantly insurance costs were reasonable.
On the topic of Escort/Lynx, some good friends’ father bought them one new in 1982 as his two younger sons were entering or already in university and they needed a good commuter car. It was roughly $6000 and as basic as could be had – 4 spd, no power anything, no radio, no rear defrost and rubber mats IIRC, and it was awful. Quality was abysmal but the wimpy 1.6l engine somehow withstood incredible abuse.
The most memorable thing about this car was listening to the older of the two sons attempt to explain to his father how/why there were two sets of bare foot prints on the inside of the passenger side windshield – larger set pointed down, and a smaller, likely female set pointed up. While his brother (my buddy) and I had noted this and congratulated the older son, the father was far less celebratory in his remarks.
Speaking of Escort, does these European convertibles was made by Ford or some aftermarket specialists like Karmann or ASC as shown in the British tv series Dempsey & Makepeace?
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_293059-Ford-Escort-Cabriolet-1985.html
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_21609-Ford-Escort-Cabriolet-1984.html
Wow, I used to watch that show back in the day…The Cabrio was in fact a Karmann build and quite the looker.
Looking at that Escort brought back memories of many hot days molding those rubber corner bumper covers. I made literally thousands of those. I can remember Ford sending back thousands of them for “rework” after they developed a crystalline looking bloom on them, related to some sort of instability in the rubber’s formulation. Our solution? Rub them down with a solvent to dissolve it and shine them up, and then back to Ford. And hope they put them on cars before it came back.
Reminds me of my mom’s ’83 (or so) Escort wagon with automatic. What a POS to drive, with that weird automatic that split torque, so it felt rather like an ancient Hydramaic, quite mechanical. The shift from 1st to 2nd was always shocingly rude and crude. And so slooow. And the handling for a little car was crap too. No way to have any fun whatsoever. I rarely ever hated a car more than it.
Of course I was long past living at home, but I drove it a few times when visiting. My dad’s Zephyr with the 2.3 and stick shift felt like a BMW in comparison.
To think they (along with so many other Americans) traded in a still very nice condition ’73 Coronet wagon with a 318 and a proper automatic. Dark times.
It is a sad state of affairs, but driving costs money. My experience is you either wrench on an old car or pay for a new one. In my case, anyway, if I know I have a payment of X dollars due at X date, it is a lot better than perhaps being stranded at X location for X knows how long, and then the cost of X repair, for which you cannot prepare.
I find guys buy too much car all the time. If you are broke, for example, you can actually get a Chevrolet Spark in Canada for $9995. It works out to C$183 a month. However, most young guys will buy a $60,000 4X4 instead.
But don’t you know, that is what 84 and 96 month paper is for!!! Price doesn’t matter, just get those payments down!
I finance our cars using low interest money, as these rates are often bought down by the manufacturer and offered on promotions. I have money on a car right now at 0.9% for instance, which is sub inflation and therefor an immediate positive. I invest the capital that would have otherwise been used to buy the car and I am able to get a substantially better return than .9%.
I only ever use 36,48 or at most 60 month paper, no matter what. Some people have an aversion to debt, but I don’t – if it is used properly and is not used to support an otherwise unaffordable lifestyle. To me, being loaned money for a necessary expense at a fixed rate below inflation is an immediate win. On top of this, I can partially write off my cars so the paltry interest I do pay is reduced even further on an after-tax basis. It is essentially a free loan at this point. This is in no way meant to be advice, but it is an example of different factors in considering how and what to spend on car ownership.
For me, it is the price that matters, as I depreciate the car down against my business. Canada Revenue Agency doesn’t want any car over $50k to receive a full depreciation allowance.
I recently bought a new car, which was financed at 0 down and 0% for 72 months. I could easily pay cash, but it doesn’t make sense, as I can keep that money invested.
And I didn’t buy more car that I really needed.
I think the car you want is the one you need most of the time, so I tend to over-buy. I think we all do, when one considers that almost any bottom feeding slug of a car will do what we require of our cars 90% or more of the time. But so what, this is what discretion is for, isn’t it? If not, we’d all be driving a Spark or a Yaris – nothing wrong with these at all, but some buyers want something different.
If you want to talk stupidity in financing, lets talk about clowns buying RV’s and boats with 20 YEAR(!) paper, now that is total idiocy; the guy who finances like this obviously cannot afford these things and it is consumerism gone mad. I go to boat shows every year and they often don’t even post the price on them, just the payment amount. Pathetic and cynical.
My first brand new car was an ’83 Ford Escort. My former wife’s stepdad worked at Ford, so we got a substantial discount.
It was a little lighter blue than yours, with a nice fabric interior. Both of us preferred a manual transmission, so it had that. It was fully loaded for an Escort.
On paper, it should have been a great little econobox. But neither of us really liked it that much. It was transportation, nothing more.
Right after the warranty was out (and this was in the days of 12 month/12,000 mile warranties), the rear window shattered one winter morning when the defroster was turned on. I took it back to the dealer, and he finagled something with FoMoCo. It was replaced, no charge.
In ’85, we traded it toward a Ford Tempo. Basically the same car (but larger). We never regretted it. My former wife drove the Tempo until it couldn’t be fixed any more.
Havent seen an early model escort in a long time despite the large number that were sold. I recall a lot of first gen escorts in my high school parking lot 20 or so years ago.
Tough luck on that one. I hope the next car was better for you.
I had a 1990 Escort (which was a slight reskin of the 85-88) with a 5 speed manual trans. It was pretty peppy with the fuel injection (CFI) 1.9l and the manual transmission.
The automatic transmission with a carb engine in the early Escorts was a dog.
I do think some of the issues were the fault of the owners and not the car. You live in a state that loves rock salt. That will rust out a car in no time if you don’t give the car routine car washes. Maryland is like that also. On Christmas day last year if you looked out, you would think it was a white Christmas. However that white was not snow but rock salt from a few days before when it froze.
I find that during winter after the rock salt comes out, I need to take it to a car wash that offers an undercarriage spray as part of the car wash (aka the $9 and above car wash) every 2 weeks to push out all the crud.
I have done this every year for the last 10 years and I have had no rust.
I think my folks viewed cars are mules, born to endure. Cannot see my mother running her escort through the car wash in the middle of winter much less in the spring ,summer or fall. It certainly never got a waxing. As for me, I faithfully run my daily driver through the car wash once a week in the winter months as you do. Small price to pay…
You missed out on the improved 1985 1/2 Escort by half a year? That would have sucked.
And Michigan winters are tough on a car, let alone a craptacular one like the Escort.
It’s really saying something when the by-then aged Omnirizon was still a better car than the more recently introduced Escort. In fact, the littlest Mopar had gotten to be quite a good deal towards the end of its life with the value-oriented ‘America’ version that came standard with a bunch of extra stuff not found on strippo penalty boxes at the time, like a tachometer, 2.2L engine, AM/FM radio, right side mirror, cloth seats, rear wiper, tinted glass, etc.
I don’t remember when the Omnirizon America made its appearance (maybe 1983?), but I’d be willing to bet it was a big reason Ford had to upgrade the Escort to stay competitive.
The “America” was introduced in 1987 (when the Omnirizon was 9 model-years old), and was the result of moving the Shadow/Sundance twins upmarket, as they were originally intended as replacements. As the tooling was long since paid for, and by limiting the car to just one trim level (bye bye Omni GLH), Chrysler was able to add a ton of standard equipment, such as the 2.2 liter engine, 5-speed manual, tachometer, rear wiper/washer, stereo, etc., AND lower the price to just $5,499, or only $500 higher than a base Hyundai Excel.
This was the only time Chrysler utilized this very foreign concept, since the later Aries/Reliant America and the Shadow/Sundance America were just strippo trim levels.
You are bringing it back to me. This should not be surprising as Ford under Iacocca had kept the Maverick/Comet as a cheap compact for a couple of years after the Granada/Monarch came out in order to minimize stripper versions of the new car. Chrysler in that same period, OTOH, kept the Valiant/Duster/Dart available as a posh Brougham/Special Edition in 1976 while offering a stripper Volare/Aspen that made you pay extra for a day/night mirror and decent sound insulation.
The America version of the L body was a great update on the old 75-77 Maverick except that it was a better car in its segment to start with, allowing the Sundance/Shadow to come off as a nicer offering when it was introduced. But the America was even better in that Chrysler applied some Japanese production tricks like offering the car in a super-limited number of colors and option combinations, thus keeping manufacturing costs to a bare minimum. Iacocca did a lot right in these years.
It’s interesting to hear about just how much of a sales success these were when they were new. 2nd and 3rd gen Escorts are still running around all over the place (and I’ve had several), but I’ve seen maybe 3 1st gens out on the road in the last 4 or 5 years? I knew they were crap but they must have been really terrible considering millions of these things were sold.
My uncle likes to tell stories of the 1990 Escort he bought right before the new Mazda-based ones came out. Apparently the exhaust manifold fell off on the highway.