You may remember from my last post that I inherited an instant family, so to speak, and with it came a perfectly sensible family car. A white Escort wagon with a thrifty four cylinder, automatic transmission and not much else – but it didn’t really need anything else. On the surface it was a bland, boring little car that I thought I’d hate – bringing back memories of the CRX (can you tell I didn’t like that car??) – but in the end, I appreciated its “just the facts, ma’am!” approach: rock solid sensibility and thriftiness.
As a single mom with two kids, I’ll be honest – this car was an excellent choice for her. It consistently pulled mid- to- high 20s (24 with AC, 28 without) in the city, and 30s on the highway for mileage, and just about everything for it was cheap. I only had to fix a few minor things on it, and one major item – an exhaust manifold gasket – but I was pretty surprised just how cheap parts were and how easy it was to work on it. A shop had told her that the manifold gasket would be more expensive than what the car was worth to fix; well twenty bucks and a afternoon with an impact wrench in the driveway proved them wrong.
A bike.. fits???
Interior wise it probably offered less passenger space than my MX-6, but had the super handy utility of a wagon. For two young kids it was not only handy but also comfortable for longer trips, as I found out about six months into dating my now-wife. A death in the family called for a trip eight hours south, so I offered to come with. About seven hours into the eight hour trip I realized I was not only seven hours from home, but about to meet her entire family in one fell swoop. If you couldn’t tell, sometimes my impeccable judgement has lapses – but in the end it turned out great; my fears were completely unfounded and it further solidified my plans to marry her.
Of course when the time came for another child, the Escort wouldn’t be big enough for all three kids – so my wife got a pretty substantial upgrade. I took over the Escort shortly after starting a new job as it offered not only room to transport my bikes in a pinch, but also a substantial upgrade for me in the fuel economy department for when I needed to drive across town for work. Instead of mileage reimbursements being a net loss with the F-150, they made sense with the Escort.
It was definitely NOT a sports car, in fact it may even be considered the anti-sports car. Equipped with a mighty 2.0L four cylinder pumping out 110 horsepower it did just fine in normal driving and on the highway thanks to a 2600-ish pound curb weight. Pushing it, though, didn’t yield much more other than noise.. a noise of which did not rival throaty fours in sports coupes. It rivaled the sound of explosions and critical failures, so I never really pushed it much. And it was just fine with that.
Big man in a llliiiitttlllee car…
Sensible, reliable, and economical all while being cheap enough to not worry about leaving at work. What could be better!? My main, or only, gripe was that with my 6 foot 2, then-350 pound frame it didn’t leave much in the way of spaciousness. And let’s face it, I looked goofy driving the thing. Through the year it was my main ride, I kept looking around for something that would do the job of both truck and car, yet finding everything was way out of my price range.
Sure enough, life happened in such a manner that a replacement literally fell into my lap and proved to be a perfect stopgap. While the Escort took us to our wedding, and took a very panicked me home to take my wife to the hospital to deliver my youngest son, it was time to put it up for sale. While selling a pickup during the high gas prices of 2008 was nearly impossible, with the Escort I had a line of really weird people from Craigslist waiting to try it for the $2,400 asking price. It took about two days, and it was off to live sensibly with someone else.
And in its place.. another car I thought I wouldn’t really like, but came to appreciate. Another one that was also shockingly reliable, even somewhat frugal, and quite comfortable which of course lived at work while I continued my cycling madness. Not to spoil it completely, but it was even another white Ford.. but what?
Just a few blocks from where I live is this car’s (slightly) older sister: an earlier Escort wagon, also white and also automatic. Did Ford even make more than a small handful of these wagons with the manual?
In 1989 I went looking for a new car and considered an Escort GT. But at 6 foot 4 and 225 pounds I couldn’t really fit behind the steering wheel. I don’t know, but would think anyone over 5 foot 10 would be brushing the headliner and/or the steering wheel.
The CR-X is greatly missed. The Escort, not at all.
I’ll say two things in support of Escorts and detail how I killed one. My mother had a first-gen Lynx she loved, loved, loved and even ordered it with special paint, a greenish-bluish color. With snow tires it was a crazy little car, but that’s also why she loved VW Bugs.
My TV station had a 98 Escort, just the sedan, and it was used hard but always repaired. It got to the point where the little thing was unsafe but that’s never been a reason for them to get rid of the cars.
There were severe thunderstorms in the forecast in eastern Orange County, which I am very familiar with. Since the 4wd was tied up, I threw everything in the Escort and drove it out. The sky looked really ominous when I got to a place called Rhoadesville, so I stopped, got out and shot some video. Then all the light went a sickly green color, which I knew from my time in TN as a sign to GTFO. I knew I needed to get to high ground so I gunned the engine (what a noise) and blew down the road. I made it about a mile when the storm hit and all hell broke loose. The car was rocking back and forth, trees were falling and the water was ponding.
When the thick of it blew over, water was up to the doorhandles on almost all of the roads. I would stop, wait for another person to come along in a taller car and see if I could make it. The rain blew in through the poorly sealed windows and the interior was soaked, like I was.
When I finally made it back, I learned I was in a mini-tornado. I could believe it. The Escort never failed to start and was kind of fun and zippy plowing through the water. BUT the next day, it refused to start. The engine was gone. I killed it – probably before it could kill someone else.
I’ve always thought one of these would make a great city car — good cargo space, easy/cheap to fix, probably zippy enough around town. My impression of these is that they’re reasonably reliable for their era, too.
Yup, solid little run about. I killed mine with lack of cooling system/transmission maintenance (transmission cooler was embedded in the regular radiator, so neglect the cooling system flushes and you cook your transmission) and too much highway travel. It never was happy with western interstates and 75 mph speed limits.
I think they were Great Little Cars. In fact they are based on the Mazda 323 which was based on the GLC. Ford threw in it’s own 1.9L engine to offer more low end torque as a better match to the automatic. They also upgraded the paint on the hood to make it less prone to chipping.
On the downside there were the Ford electrics. Near the battery there was a grounding point that caused trouble when corrosion set in.
A guy at work had one and sold it to another guy who worked with him. It was that guys family transportation for the 5 or 6 years he was here. He offered it to me, but I declined and he sold it to another young guy. I kept seeing for many more years.
In my book this car was a great success for Ford. It is an under-appreciated vehicle.
Yup, great no frills car for around town. Long trips, not so much. I once had the opportunity (?) to spend 6 hours in the front passenger seat of a similar Escort and it was torture. I’m 6’2 as well and there just wasn’t enought space for my legs.
Wolfgang:
I thought the GLC was a RWD car?
The first generation was RWD. The gen2 (for the US) was all-new and FWD, and still marketed as the GLC. The gen3 switched to being called the 323.
Thanks, Paul.
Here is the CC on the GLC Gen2:https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-1981-mazda-glc323-truly-the-greatest-little-car-of-its-time/
I wonder if that white Taurus in the driveway of the top picture is our author’s next COAL.
I did not notice the Taurus but it would fit Ben’s clues: “shockingly reliable, even somewhat frugal, and quite comfortable”
The tension is unbearable!
Mrs DougD just said we’re all nuts… As if we didn’t already know.
Mrs DougD is a wise woman!
In the late ’90s these (although usually green) were the only rival to Subaru Imprezas as the official VT state car. There is a garage a couple miles from here called “Just Escorts” who’s passion is building street rods but they pay the bills with Escorts. A friend figured their specialization kept his on the road 3 years longer then it would have gone for peanuts. When his (green wagon)Escort succumbed to road salt he just gave them his car out of gratitude, and so its remaining parts could be put to use.
There is a garage a couple miles from here called “Just Escorts”
There was a used car lot in Kalamazoo that specialized in Escorts. One day I happened to take a different route to my Aunt’s, and saw this lot with at least 20 Escorts. Checked out their web site that night.
They got away from the Escort obession when decent ones got too thin on the ground.
I think the frequent blasts down the freeway from Motown to Kalamazoo were the root of my 02 Escort’s bearing issues. Because I didn’t want to drive the Civic hatch in the winter, the Escort got all the salt, and, because the Escort had air, cruise and a cassette player, it was also the road car in the summer. Probably 90% of the 60,000 I put on it was flogging it down I-94. Long before it got to the 85K it had when I sold it, morning starts were greeted with a klunk, klunk, klunk until the oil pressure built up.
Had some other gremins…ABS…cruise…struts…idle air valve…ABS again, but the car had an appealing crudeness to it, and a feeling of utter invisibility. I could drive through a sketchy neighborhood in Detroit, and not worry because noone would attack it for being foreign and noone would attack it for being worth anything.
My grandmother had an Escort of this generation, which was her first and last Ford. She bought it when it was only 2 or 3 years old, trading in both of her and Grandpa’s previous vehicles once he could no longer drive. (’93 Protege LX and ’88 Voyager LE). While I don’t remember exactly what went wrong with it, but I do remember her declaring it the worst car she had ever owned. After about 3 years (a very short term of ownership for her) she traded it on a ’99 626, which was far better.
Seems like her experience was not the norm, given the majority of the comments seem positive!
I was very sad when Mazda and Ford got a divorce. It always seemed to me (and I’ve really been a fan of Ford) that the relationship greatly improved Ford’s small cars in the ride and handling department (more Asian/European). Less sharp than a Mazda but less “SMALL CAR WITH BIG CAR RIDE” than what GM and Chrysler were pedaling.
Nowadays, 2000-07 Focus wagons are the choice for small businesses. See a few loaded with boxes or equipment, going up and down I-294.