I really wanted to like the Escort when it arrived in 1981. Just like I really wanted to like Ford then. Ford was just coming out of its dark night of near-bankruptcy, having been taken down by one too-many of their notorious 1970s bulge-mobiles. Their new president, Donald Petersen, was my kind of guy: no BS, soft-spoken, and a genuine car guy. And he had some serious cleaning up to do after a decade of Lido and Hank’s self indulgent ways. The all-new fwd Escort sounded so promising: a clean sheet design, a genuine VW Golf/Rabbit competitor, a world car, no less. Then I drove one, for two weeks. And I’ve been hating on this generation of Escorts ever since. First impressions are lasting ones indeed.
Ford made a lot of hoopla about the new Escort being a World Car, a mostly new concept at the time for one of the Big Three. Not totally, of course, as GM’s Chevette was an Americanized Opel Kadett. But this was different, a new car designed from scratch to be built globally by Ford and its affiliates. Of course, GM was doing the same thing with its J-Car program, which arrived just one year later.
The problem with the Escort was the classic one of too many chefs engineering departments spoiling the stew. Ford had never really tried this before, and the (once) all-mighty hometown team probably had some issues sharing responsibilities, or at least coordinating them. Who knows how it all went down, but the end result was…
…that red 1981 Escort hatchback waiting for us at the Hertz lot in Denver. By that time, I had read a few things about the new Escort in the magazines, but frankly, nobody wanted to be too terribly harsh with it, being that Ford’s future existence (and advertising budgets) were practically riding on its knock-kneed stance.
Yes, the new Escorts had a peculiar tendency to exhibit positive camber on the front wheels, and negative camber on the rears, as in this white coupe, which is serial number 1. That might not necessarily be the end of the world, but in the case of the Escort, it was an all-too effective tell-tale of its road manners: confused, bungling, idiotic.
We were on a two-week vacation in the Rockies, staying in some friends’ rustic cabin right up near the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park. I figured the Escort would not only be cheap, but fun to drive on all the endless mountain roads in that part of the world, a driving paradise. Especially so in the fall, when all the tourists were gone.
I figured wrong; the Escort was ill-suited to the task. And it wasn’t just the very unsorted-out suspension, which made it feel like it was sick, staggering around corners and bobbing on the straights. And that was before we ever left the airport!
Time to get on the highway, and the Escort’s other infirmities quickly made themselves known. Our rental had a stick shift, as I had requested, wanting to make the most of its obviously none-too powerful 1.6 L CVH four. What was Ford’s idea of a stick shift? A super-wide spread four speed, making it essentially a three-speed with an overdrive. Just the ticket for those impressive EPA numbers for the ads. But the worst possible gearing for a 69 hp engine in the high altitude Rockies. EPA-hyping is an old trick, and in this case a hellish one.
Especially since the CVH motor was a gutless lump, which made horrendous noises as it slowly crawled its way up into the rev band. No wonder its acronym became to stand for Considerable Vibration and Harshness. The drive up Hwy 36 to Boulder that night was a major letdown, and an ugly foreshadowing of things to come. The coffee-grinder under the hood couldn’t handle it all in third gear, and second was too low. The spread between the gears was ridiculous, essentially a six-speed with second and fourth gear missing. A seven speed with second, fourth and sixth missing? You get the picture.
I knew this road like the back of my hand, and used to be able to rip up it in my big-bore 1350cc VW Beetle flat out in fourth. Maybe if I trusted the Escort’s handling better, which felt like it was walking on stilts, I might have been able to take the curves flat out in third too. Not tonight, in this car.
Turns out that Ford just barely killed a 1.3 liter version shortly before going into production. Now that would have really made an impression. Good call. Meanwhile, the Euro 1.9 liter Escort Mk III was making 90 hp at a minimum, and more in the higher output versions.
It’s not like the Escort kept us from having a good time – hiking, that is. We drove it all over Central Colorado, and it was an endless exercise in frustration. And Ford was taking on the brilliant, fuel-injected and superb-handling Rabbit/Golf with this? Good luck.
Well, in a way, Ford did luck out. Timing is everything, and the Escort arrived at exactly the second moment in time when Americans were freaked out about rapidly rising gas prices. Folks were practically giving away Grand Torinos, Elites, and such stuff in order to stuff themselves into an economical Escort. And it said Ford on it; nothing exotic or foreign for these folks! The Escort sold like warm corn dogs at the Iowa State Fair.
Like my mother: she dumped her ’73 Coronet wagon and bought an Escort wagon in 1981 or 1982. Well, the Coronet was bigger than she needed, now that most of the kids were gone. And of course, it had to be an automatic. So on my next trip home, I had the joy of trying it out. I can’t quite decide which was worse; that wide ratio stick or the automatic.
The early (1981 – 1985) FLC ATX was a torque-split automatic, meaning that a percentage of the engine torque bypassed the torque converter, in the pursuit of that ever-important EPA number. It felt very much like an old original Hydramatic: quite mechanical, with rather abrupt shifts, and lots of gear whine. The new World Car? I hadn’t expected that. By 1986, fully-hydraulic slush-boxes were back. But by then I was long gone.
OK, I was spoiled by all the that damn furrin’ machinery I was driving or exposed to in California at the time. Which means that as Ford slowly fixed all of the most egregious issues of the early Escorts, I had long lost interest in it. And even though Ford did consistently improve it, let’s face it, the Japanese competition was a very fast moving target during the eighties, as the 1984 Civic makes all-too painfully clear. This generation Escort was perpetually playing catch-up.
In 1983, the GT came along, which is essentially what the Escort should have been all along: genuine fuel injection, which added 20 hp to the paltry base engine. And a five speed, I assume. And a sorted-out suspension, I sincerely hope. I can only speculate, because I never got in one again. Which I possibly regret now, as some folks speak fondly of them. Did the engine speak fondly yet too? Not from what I hear.
That might have been more the case in 1985, when the Turbo GT appeared. Turbos have a knack for making certain rough engines sound smoother, and that’s what this one did. With 120 hp, it was undoubtedly brisk for the times. And apparently, it’s very easy to squeeze out twice that much, as the basic CVH engine is quite tough, when its not spitting out valve seats or blowing head gaskets, anyway.
The Escort kept morphing, seemingly year by year. Like a new rear roofline on this one,
along with a new rear end.
The interior followed a similar line of evolution, from cheap red vinyl to cheap corporate gray Ford mouse fur.
My younger brother bought a Pony version of one of the latter years as his first car, and was quite happy indeed. It was a reliable, cheap and economical set of wheels. I’m sure there’s many others out there with happy gen1 Escort memories. Not me; I was robbed of of them by my first impression. I did give Ford a pass, by buying a ’83 T-Bird TC just a couple of years later. They were trying harder by then, although my Bird was hardly a highly-refined vehicle.
Exactly ten years after my first Escort outing in the Rockies, my parents threw a family reunion in the Rockies. My rental was another dud, a (Daewoo) Pontiac LeMans. But theirs was a brand-new first-year 1991 gen2 (Mazda 323 based) Escort. I drove it a few times, and that certainly left a mighty fine first impression. There are second chances in life after all.
Another example of how the differences between European and American manufacturing can ruin a car completely. The Euro Escort was a decent car, fully competitive against the Golf and it’s likes (as was the Opel Ascona J-car.) The Golf finally came out on top, strangely enough helped by the fact that Ford imported Brazilian made Escorts, that were complete rubbish (allthough they looked exactly like their European brethren) which just ruined what little reputation for quality Ford may have still had at the time…
Absolutely, the Euro Escort Mk3 was (from memory) the most competent and serious competitor to the Golf through the 80s. A well remembered, class leading car on this side of the pond.
There was a neat summary of the competition between the Golf GTi and the Escort XR3i on the former’s episode of Clarkson’s Car Years, it’s here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pqem4I0QYI
…on YouTube if you skip to around the 2 minute mark (alternatively skip in to 1 minute 50 to see Clarkson getting punched in the face, always worth watching).
Essentially the Ford & VW were viewed as equals in the UK, the only difference being in their images.
Strange to read that the US spec version was such a failure, but it can’t have been too many chefs engineering departments spoiling the stew if the recipe baked to perfection in Ford’s European kitchens can it? Perhaps US Federal regs spoiled the mix? Or perhaps Ford just figured they could get away with a half-arsed version over there. Shame either way.
A friend who had a worked MK1 Escort rally car rented a XR3i on a UK trip and thought it was pretty good not something we got here new tho.
Agree totally. I had an ’86 Escort automatic; loved the hatchback but hated the noise and vibration. (And it had no a/c, a big drawback in the Las Vegas desert.) The engine finally gave up, and I traded the Escort for an ’82 Granada–a better car. I must have been impressed with the 2nd generation Escort, because I bought a ’93 LX automatic in 1996. Very nice car to drive and virtually trouble-free. But I traded it in for the first of three Saturns, and never looked back.
Still, the second-generation Escort was a very nice car.
Escort GTs were very popular when I was in high school, I knew several people who had them… apparently they were cheap enough for some people to justify buying for a teen, or stylish and cheap enough for a couple friends to buy as thier first new car after high school. You would see them all over the place.
I dont remember them being terrible, they were not too fast but probably as fast as a GTI or Civic Si. The handling was wallowy though, they didnt have the tight feel, although they looked pretty cool with the body kit. IIRC, they decent aftermarket support, but i didnt pay them too much attention.
In 1986 one of the Mustang mags tested a Escort GT against a Golf GT. The Volkswagon was a little faster (not much) and did turn slightly higher G’s in cornering (again not much difference). But the Escort was several hundred’s of dollars cheaper. The Volkswagon did have the wheel lifting problem though.
My dad bought a white base ’86 Escort left forlorn and lonely on a new-car lot in early ’87. It was his first brand new car. My chief memory of driving that car is how you could hear the gas sloshing around in the tank. This Escort replaced a Renault Alliance. Even though the Alliance was slug slow and was self-destructing as they all did, it was a much more refined car than the Escort.
Dad later bought a ’91 Escort — a much better car. And now he drives the Escort’s spiritual heir, the first-gen Focus. Clearly, he’s found his groove.
Now that you mention it, I think I , too remember hearing the gas sloshing around in the tank.
Not all that reassuring, when you know this car replaced the Pinto!
I drove one of the first Mercury Lynx models in 1981. A co-worker let me use it to run an errand, so I did not drive it too far. My memory of the car is that I found it to be a disappointment compared to my mother’s 1980 Plymouth Horizon. I recall the Lynx as being slower with a rougher engine. The Horizon seemed better finished and more substantial. I recall the Lynx’s handling as feeling a bit twitchy, and not as settled as the Horizon.
The Fords coming out at that time had kind of a sparse, minimalistic quality about the interiors, that I was not crazy about. Were they going for a euro-vibe, or was it just cost cutting? I never knew, but the Horizon interior (while not broughm-ly) had a more traditional American car sort of feel, and seemed a little higher up the price ladder.
When I took the Lynx keys back to the owner, I politely told him what a nice new car he had then shut up, and never had a desire to drive another.
Did the Horizon have the 2.2? That would have made a heck of a difference compared to the Lynx. The Chrysler L body also had a better interior than most of the U.S. (and some imports) cars in it’s class at the time too.
In 1980, the OmniRizon only came with the 1.7 made from blocks purchased from VW. VW was contractually obligated to supply 300K blocks per year, and with gas prices and demand for their own cars high, would supply no more. Chrysler started offering the 2.2 as an option as soon as it was available in 1981. I never drove one with a 2.2, but figured it must be pretty quick, as the 1.7 was not really a slouch. The 3 speed Torqueflite transaxle must have had much better ratios than Ford put in the Escort.
Also from 1983 to 1986, there was a 1.6 engine from Peugeot who replaced the VW engine.
And I think the 2.2 turbo under the hood of the Omni GLH and GLH-S might be more quick as well. http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/01/21/class-of-86-dodge-omni-glhglhs/
I used to own a ’90 2.2 Horizon, they’re not remarkably quick with an auto, but with a stick its 0-60 in 8 seconds, with an auto I’m guessing 13 seconds (for an auto with power steering and AC, also rare mud flaps).
I spent too much time crammed into these things in the 80s. I agree with JP – the Horizon was roomier, quieter, more tossable and quick enough once they settled on the 2.2. Of course, a Sentra or Civic was a Benz compared to any of the Big Three econoboxes.
A friend had an ’81 Mercury Lynx wagon – he lost it – but found it among a sea of look alike Escorts. It was “the missing Lynx”. !!
I am continually amazed at the variety of very old Japanese cars you come across for CC, mostly because growing up in Toledo, OH all I ever saw were these things, K-cars, and various badges on Chevy Cavaliers. Oh, I shouldn’t forget Jeeps. SO many Jeeps. By the time I was in high school, pretty much any car produced prior to 1990 was rusted through and/or didn’t run, but with the large amount of domestic iron moved in that area there were still survivors from the Big Three, including lots and lots of Escorts. They always seemed a little bland and passionless, and after reading this I suppose I will go with the feeling.
So many Jeeps in Toledo, especially parked next to a church would cause one to say “Holy Toledo.”. The puns will cease for now. Unless the church burns, then it’s “Holy smoke!”
I can go home now – my cage is clean.
The mother had the ’85 two-seat EXP version along with an ’88 after the ’85 was totaled in a rear end collision. 5-sp manual with the 1.9L 4cyl was great on gas and moved well enough to get me through college when it was handed down to me 4 years later. Was also a great vehicle in the WNY snow. The only time it struggle was when there were two kayaks and two mountain bikes on the roof rack.
I painted it a solid color and most people at the time asked me if it was a Mustang. I enjoyed having something unique and the huge rear hatch was great for the audio phase I was going through at the time.
rear view
Nice looking ride! A buddy of mine had an 85-86 GT with the 1.9 at the time I was tooling around in my Lynx(1.6). That thing would smoke me.
I didn’t quite understand the EXP. Looking back maybe Ford was trying to prepare us for a FWD Mustang that may have been in the works for a few years later?
Very nice looking EXP… in glorious 80s monochrome too! I always liked these, the early ones had a unique grill and headlights that looked cool, and I loved that fastback look.
@Sean — The EXP was Ford’s answer to the CRX.
@mnm4ever: The CRX wasn’t released until 1984. The original EXP was on sale in 1981. At best, it was a competitor for the original Prelude. But not a very good one. The original Escort drivetrain was way too weak to really propel the EXP to any kind of fun.
The first car I ever owned, 1995 up to 2001, was a black/with grey rocker panels and red pinstripe ’87 EXP sport. Had the ‘High Output’ 1.9 EFI engine with a 5-speed. Man, I loved that car. Maybe it was because it was my first and because it was pretty rare, even for the mid ’90s…you just didn’t see many EXPs driving around. It looked like a mini-Fox body Mustang GT. It was good on gas, easy to work on and pretty good in bad weather. In the 6.5 years I had that car (nicknamed the ‘Rocinante’) we had some good times. Went to college with it and back home. It had a habit of eating up tie-rod ends and wheel bearings and the exhaust would rust out on schedule about every 3 years or so. It left me stranded a couple times… once was an ignition switch, the other a vaccum hose. It was constantly rusting too…the hood was redone and the side door frames were replaced with new welds from a doner car in summer 1998.
I had it repainted all black in 2000, had rear window louvers and a custom dash board cover with ‘EXP’ embroidered on it, and upgraded Hella foglights. I had the engine replaced with the nonfunctioning A/C left out to lighten the car up. Unfortunatly, all of this was a waste of money because the rear-strut mounts were rusting out underneath causing the back end to slowly start to cave in and danger of the whole rear end collapsing onto the back tires. Since it would have cost a small fortune to have new panels welded in, I ended up selling it to a body shop. That car broke my heart, I had intended to keep it for awhile after all the upgrades I spent on, but didn’t know about the infamous rear strut cancer that all Escorts in the northeast get.
I’m pretty sure it was recycled a long time ago now, but I still have the pics and memories…. the rides to college….the summer rides to the beach with the sunroof popped….the night rides to the drive-in….doing FWD donuts in the snow-covered parking lot at work…
I bought a ’93 Ford Probe GT to replace it. MUCH smoother,mechanically advanced and faster car than the EXP was in every respect. Although THAT car also cost me a fortune in maintainence, but that’s a story for another time
Nice one Paul! A friend had an 81, which her father had bought extremely cheaply at govt auction. A couple of memories sprang to mind which I hadn’t thought of in years:
The early 3 speed automatic was awful, awful awful. The gears were so widely spaced (again, probably for EPA numbers) in normal driving it would wind right out in first, then a great big slidey gearchange into second and it would chug along.
Next up was trying to change the waterpump. I have uncommonly long and skinny arms, but we were seriously considering grabbing the torch and cutting a hole in the side of the car to get at it.
Escorts did get better, although not nearly fast enough. I guess that torch got passed to the Focus (did I ever mention we LOVE our Focus ZTS?)
I drove a then-fairly-new ’87 for about 40,000 miles over a year and a half. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good car–efficient, comfortable for a small car, and mine was rock solid reliable and easy to maintain. Oil, plugs, brake pads/shoes, and a regular timing belt change was all, and I passed it down the family chain with 105,000 on the dial. The only complaints I’d have would be lack of horsepower and those infernal federally mandated automatic shoulder belts. It was great in snow, and the mpg was great for a student having to pay exorbitant NY thruway prices (33% higher than my home state of TX at the time).
(I don’t recommend pulling a U-Haul trailer through the hills of TN in one…been there, done that)
My BIL had one of these. He was a WW2 vet that was just getting used to the fact that the Japanese had good cars. He owned a Toyota and loved it but hated Mitsubishi (makers of the Zero).
He was very happy with his new escort of approximately the same year as the poster child here (the top one). He was despondent when he was told that it was chock full of Mazda. I hear Brazil here so maybe that was wrong but he believed it. I was real busy at that time just learning how to earn a living (just recently Navy retired) so don/t know much about it. He kept it for over 20 years. Actually think he had it still when he died a couple years ago.
It was being driven just one state east of your experience. Amazing how driving conditions play into our impressions of cars. Flat two lane blacktop of western Kansas made this thing seem very good for an old guy like him. It sold me on 4 cyl cars as well.
Good choice for subjects. Different cars like this make this site the most interesting of it’s kind. Keeps me coming back!!!
I think you’re confusing the gen1 with the gen2 Escorts. The gen2, which came out in 1991, was essentially a Mazda 323, with the Ford motor in the base models.
The gen1 Escort, of which we speak ill of here today, was a 100% Ford effort and product, for better or for worse.
Not exactly 100% Ford, not sure exactly how and what went down but there were parts on the early 323 that carried the Ford logo buried under that hood.
It was supposed to be far less Ford and a whole lot more Honda Civic when it was designed.
Yes Honda was supposed to supply engines and transmissions (reportedly at $500 a set) But Mr Ford said no way in @#%$ is a car with MY name on it going to have a %#@*&$ Japanese engine. (never mind that the Courier was an entire #$%^& Japanese truck with a Ford badge stuck on it) The ink was supposedly dry on the contracts and Ford once again walked away from a project with Honda having pumped development $$ into them.
So the CVH was hurriedly designed and thrown into production with the minimum of durability testing. It is surprising that it turned out as good as it did.
The original CVCC engine was also partially bank rolled by Ford when they took their PROCO project and essentially dumped it in Honda’s lap. In this case the reason I heard that Ford walked away was the fact that it wouldn’t meet emissions regulations w/o the catalytic converter for more than a couple of years. So the added complexity and cost to produce the engine was darn near as expensive as the cat and they didn’t see a long term life for said technology.
The early KA/KB Laser was sold as a Ford in Australia/New Zealand but it was pure Mazda323 in design
I think it was the Mazda base that made the Lasers as good as they were! (same thing today with the 323-Focus). The gen-1 Laser and 323 sedans were the same but the 5-door hatches had their own unique rear ends – the Laser had the extra window in the C-pillar. Same with gen-2 where the 3 and 5-door Lasers has unique sheetmetal – and is much prettier than the 323 too. Do you remember the 80s Laser TX3 ad Bryce? “What a performer for a non-conformer…Laser TX3!” Car below is for sale near my place.
I remember the ads and the cars good one are rare now. Lucky thing living down under we didnt get the awful US versions our Jap Fords were good cars generally.
I wonder if Henry Ford II founded then the Brazilian Corcel sold in Brazil was a former Willys-Overland do Brasil design inherited from….Renault?
Then we could wonder what if Ford had bring the early European Escort (who was a small RWD models known as MkI and MkII) here in the early 1970s in North America?
Interesting reading. Do you mean the rwd 323 or the fwd, because there was a Ford-badged version of the latter, the Laser.
I think in Australia the 1990 3rd gen Laser was when it went off the boil, it was just not quite the same as the earlier models, losing a bit of space & fuel efficiency. Perhaps it was other cars such as the Corolla and Nissan Pulsar that overtook it.
Agreed. The 3rd gen Laser was ugly compared with the earlier 2 generations. Had the same floorpan as gen 2 though, hence the bulbous body sides with the narrow track. A good mate of mine’s mother has a gen 3 that her mother bought new in 1990. It’s mint, but still ugly (that flat-top wheel arch and the rear pillar being the standout uglifications). My cousin’s ’89 gen 2 was a much prettier and nippier hatch.
Remember the other ofshoot of the Ford-Mazda orgy….the mexican made Mercury Tracer?
It’s a shame you didn’t get one from just a few years later. When they added the 5 speed gearbox it became a decent car. Dad bought an 83 Lynx L 5 speed brand new (Black with the infamous Porno Red interior) and it turned out to be a great car. Though I dispatched with it pretty quickly after I got my license, had I not been an irresponsible oaf of a 16 year old that car may have lasted 15+ years.
I couldn’t imagine finding one of the turbo Escort/Lynx cars. I’d love to have one but I’d be willing to bet they all burned up from turbo failure or went to the scrapper from head gasket failure long ago.
I hated, hated, HATED this car because the clowns at Ford replaced the Fiesta with THIS. This was like being promised a date with Angelina Jolie and going home with Aunt Bee. The fuel mileage was terrible compared to the Fiesta, the ride and handling were dreadful and …I can’t go on. This car just reeked. I hope FoMoCo lost money on every one it ever made.
BOO !
Yeah, the Escort was quite a disappointment primarily because its predecessor was so markedly different. Granted, the reason the Fiesta was such a tossable, fun little car was because it was such a lightweight, rather unsafe tin box (a big reason it had to be replaced was the thin doors wouldn’t meet side-impact standards).
Still, the Escort was downright ponderous and un-fun in comparison.
Nice article, but no mention of the diesel option. I almost made the mistake of buying one back in ’85. My ’79 Pontiac Sunbird had been totaled in an accident, and, since I was in my last semester of college, thought I could get a new car to replace it.
Drove the Escort diesel .. slow, as to be expected (at the time, my folks were driving a ’72 MB 220D, so I was used to the lack of acceleration). Other than that, I don’t recall much in the way of positive or negative reactions.
My folks finally talked me out of the purchase, as I would be committing to payments but didn’t yet have a job lined up, post-graduation. This, as it turned out, was a good decision, as I ended up getting a year old Accord LX hatchback instead after moving back to my home town after graduating.
In 1981, at age 16.something, when these cars came out, my dad and brother had successfully convinced me that Japanese cars were all a conspiracy and the only reason people bought them was their drinking water had been poisoned. I saw all the hype and I really wanted to believe Detroit could make as good a car, nay better, than anyone.
Then low and behold my girlfriend’s Granny bought a loaded 1981 wagon, in the red and porno red interior, with an automatic. Of course I got my hands on any new ride as soon as it got near me, so I got the keys and off we went. It was one of the most sobering moments of my life. The seat was torturous, the interior materials dreck and the car handled like it was on stilts but worst of all was the drive train. The motor was a shaking, droning lump and the ATX transmission was the worst I have ever experienced. I was shocked that any car company could ever try to sell something like this. However, it didn’t matter much since Granny loved it. Unfortunately, Granny kicked the bucket soon after and Ford lost a customer. My girl was offered the car but it was so bad she chose to keep driving her hand-me-down Volvo 245 GL wagon with four speed plus overdrive. An infinitely better car in every way.
In comparison, although the Citation actually drove pretty well when new, the Escort was horrid. My faith in Detroit was forever shaken when I got my hands on a first year J car not long after my Escort drive.
I later drove a 1.9 litre GT and it was a much better car but not nearly as good as my 1986 Jetta. The Jetta was not reliable but at least it drove really well when it wasn’t in the shop for warranty work. The Escort GT cost more, too boot.
It is crap like the Escort and J car that has made me decide to never, ever, ever buy a car from the “Big 3″ ever again. I but Japanese and drive happy. That is what I really need.
Another reason I was a Chrysler fan for 20 years! And I thought the GM X-cars were bad. The only thing the later models had going for them was the pop-out back window option along with optional vent windows. Evidently people bought them in droves, but I don’t think the Asian cars were all that good back in those days, either.
Don’t even get me started on the Tempo/Topaz twins…I’m sure they had their merits for some, but me? Not a single one. Another reason why I absolutely hated Ford back then. Ugh…
Ugh Is Right, Tempo, Topaz, and This Escort as the base….
I wanted To Love The Escort Too. Like the author, my parent, Dad, traded in his 2nd Blue Pinto for a first year pastel blue Escort, It HAD to be better right.
Well, its Looks weren’t… in that awful pedestrian flat blue, and that chunky plastic dashboard…. iT actually felt like a step down from the Pinto.
A to B was my Dad’s use for the car appliance.
He Bought another, and another, both blue, White is too Dull he said.
When his new, fourth Wife needed a New car, I think he thought he was spoiling her by getting her a Pretty Red Lynx….
Everything in these cars seemed cheap. I couldn’t believe he actually thought the Lynx was a pretty swanky car…
Memories…. get in the way of ever wanting one of these.
Yeah, riding in my carpool driver’s Tempo I made the observation that Ford’s tempo was adagio or andante.
Ugh is double right. I had a Topaz for about 6 years. What’s really bad is I convinced my mother to buy the car originally. We passed up a very nice Cavalier and a Shadow for this? I’ve outlined my issues with the Topaz on other occasions, and I don’t feel like re-hashing all of it here. Let’s just say, it was my last Ford for a long time. The sad part is, I grew up in a Ford family. Now none of my siblings or I have a Ford in our households…
I wouldn’t mind having a first year EXP with the turbo mill from 85 stuffed into it.
I’ll count myself lucky that the only Escort I ever drove from this generation was a UK spec Orion (4 door notchback variant) which was bland but competent. I do recall a friend in high school (early 80′s) whose family had a super stripper Escort but he didn’t complain much, then again he bought a Harley in college so he had a high tolerance for NVH and low standards for handling.
The Focus is still better than any Escort sold in the US, except some of the 16V Mazda powered gen 2s.
Was there ever a reason for the camber issues on the Escort? Also, I recall when I was younger seeing many Tempos and Topazes suffering from the same from of consumption, although in their case it always look like they had suffered a failure.
I’m thinking it was an assembly issue or possibly an issue with a repair or bad alignment job. Our 83 never showed those issues, nor did my buddy’s GT.
Well,in defense of the Escort, it appears to keep its cattywampus alignment issues well hidden. The Tem-paz other the other hand, was pretty obvious.
In my many travels and stations over a thirty year period in the service of my nation (U.S.), while living and working in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, while driving down a country road a stone’s throw from the North Carolina border, I happened upon an early ’80′s Escort wagon with a very obese woman behind the wheel and her equally obese friend in the passenger’s seat.
The whole offset camber/caster effect of these cars unladen took on a reverse cartoon like effect plus an 18 degree in motion nose dive with these two on board. In driving these cars as rentals at the time, I didn’t think they were all that bad as I had a most unpleasant experience being saddled with the penalty box of all cars sold in North America circa 1976-1986, an automatic Chevette. Now THAT’s a penalty box!!
Probably the positive camber was to make the manual steering lighter
OMG what a disaster Escort is a storied name in rallying Escorts swept all before them from introduction in 67 they were weapon of choice fitted with various Kent OHV engines the MK1 soldiered on untill 73 or so then the MK2 appeared slightly heavier but could be got with 2,0 pinto OHC engine and there was a RS version but with great RWD sideways on gravel handling these cars were a lot of fun to drive too fast for the conditions tough reliable slick 4speed close ratio gearboxes and easily modded engines they are still a popular choice for boy racers to hot up, BUT it was all over in 81 Australia and New Zealand got FWD Ford Lasers a rebadge of the Mazda 323 there was a warm version with twin carbs but for rally competition it was all over for Ford out here small Fords were mazdas from then untill something went awry in the 90s and Euro Escorts reappeared.1980 UK type Ford Escort pictured
Don’t know about NZ but we kept the Mazda based Lasers in Australia until the first Focus arrived here in 2002.
It is ironic that in 1990 the European Escort went its own way but the Laser & US Escort converged, and the US model boomed but it fell off the boil in Australia, I think it just moved away from the sweet spot of the earlier cars, eg gaining 3-400lb.
Just doing a bit of googling to work out the relationship between the Escort & BD 323, and found the second gen Laser was sold in the US as the Mercury Tracer which I wasn’t aware of.
NZ having its own crowded car market had Lasers and UK Escorts new plus used import Escorts from Japan and used Mondeos diesel and petrol But and its a big one there are no parts available from Ford for the JDM models and yes they are slightly different so certain year models are one to avoid and sell cheap. Plus we have all the various JDM Mazdas that OZ never had. Yeah eventually the little Laser gained some weight but the early ones had a few things missing to make em cheaper and lighter quite a lot of body stiffening was omitted from the OZ versions they were quite the death trap if you hit something hard. A friends son rolled a 90 model down a bank and totalled it he was unhurt and although unroadworthy the car still ran and drove with the hatch removed it became a firewood ute so all that extra metal worked.
The U.S. Mercury Tracer of the day was very much a slight rebadging of the 323. Hecho en Mexico. The Tracer Sedan was identical to the U.S. Escort, as it was very much a 323 under the skin.
Probably went as a Mercury to give the Mercury Capri some company that was another restyled 323
I bought a 1981 Mazda GLC which I had left at my parents house and My Dad Drove it to me 130 miles away.
Being use to his own American Bias, and having driven his Escort 6 months, He Had To admit the GLC was solidly put together, I am sure he felt a tightness and handling that he had never attained in his last 3 new Fords.
When He handed over the keys back to me, he said ; “Take care of Her – You are starting out life pretty High on The Hog”
I can still remember exactly where, near South Station in Boston he had said this…. I
remember thinking ” High on the Hog?’ as I got into my new wheels – the base GLC may have lacked carpeting, or much of any the amenities that we expect today, but Boy Oh Boy Was I sure That I was driving something far better than The Escort.
I was always careful not to rub it in his face… Oddly enough despite this great GLC and a later Mazda MX6, all my other cars have been those dreaded Domestics, mostly because I much prefer the American Cars for some reason even I don’t understand. In my head I still believe the Japanese cars to be far more reliable and better built.
But I sure as heck don’t want any of the remaining “USA”3 to go away.
I owned a 76 Uk Escort like the one pictured in my lats comment 1600 Kent engine huge wide tyres went from that to a 82 RWD 323 panelvan a major improvement in driveability
The 1st Gen Escort is underated, only that people look at it with 20/20 vision. But it was worlds better than Pinto it replaced. And certainly the Chevette!
First car was a Mitsu based Plymouth Champ, that Car and Driver loved, but it fell apart after 50k. [Not surprised they are not a major player anymore] Next compact was 86 Escort GT and it was a Porsche compared to the ‘C&D special’. Just had little things break, but no major component failures as Mitsu had.
Honda Civics may have been more refined then, but look at them now, playing ‘catch up’ saying ‘we promise will fix Civic for 2013-14′. What happened?
It’s just the common progression of things. You get successful, the next thing you know you get complacent, you and your customers think you can do no wrong, and the product starts to suffer. They and Toyota have just taken some plays from GM’s book.
In 1982 I bought my first new car: a red/red 1982 Capri 5.0.
In the show room was a black Lynx. The price difference wasn’t that great (my Capri wasn’t exactly loaded–manual trans. wheel covers, no P/W, and the Lynx had most of the available options).
I even drove a Lynx to make sure I was making the right decision—the Lynx seemed so much more practical, but ultimately ——–no comparison!
Confession Time: I owned not one, not two, but five Escorts between 1989-1998.
Okay two were parts cars, but the other three in order was an 82 with 4 speed standard, an 81 with the dreaded 3 speed auto for my girlfriend, and an 86 4 speed “Pony” edition to replace the 82.
They weren’t my first choice for a car, but buying a Civic or a 323 was out of the question due to high resale and insurance costs.
At the time I really liked them; cheap to run, fairly reliable and they taught me to tinker which is a must with these cars or you’ll go broke fast.
The 1.6 litre 81-82 models were loud, slow, poor handling ,had head gasket and timing belt issues, not that great on gas, and utterly disposable.
The 86 had the 1.9 litre and was marginally better as a car but started falling apart (especially the interior) at the 160000 km (100000 mile) Quality is Job One, ya right.
Those Escorts filled a gap for me and did their job but after buying an 1986 Mazda 323 to replace the 86 Escort, you knew immediately what was the better car, it wasn’t even close.
Wow, you must be a glutton for punishment!
Kidding aside, the eighties were a very difficult time for the domestic OEMs, and the transition from the leftover 70′s to something similar to what the Japanese were building for many years was painful. It’s not over yet, either.
I owned a stable of K-derived cars, so I had my issues with them too, from 1981 all the way to 2007 when the last one died at 15 – a 1992 LeBaron convertible! Sniff…
Zackman, I’ll agree with you on the ’80′s (early ’80′s anyway) to be a low point for North American cars. I was Japanese that decade, save for the ’83 Dodge D-150 Slant Six Truck I had (outstanding, once the lean burn issues were sorted out which meant an advance on the timing that made running super unleaded a must) and between late summer ’82 until the fall of ’83 before the Mopar, I had the worst POS car – an ’82 Norwood built Camaro.
Although all it’s many woes were covered under warranty (the tow truck trips were not), two main oil seal failures, shift linkage disintegration and many other bugs (loose and falling off trim and moulding pieces interior and exterior), well, suffice to say I saw the writing on the wall and traded it.
Although I was smitten with the midnight blue Dodge truck, the dealer really was pressing HARD to sell me the ’83 Mirada sitting next to the truck on the showroom floor (Tidewater Dodge, Norfolk, Virginia, October 1983).
The dealer gave me a huge sack of “New Chrysler” corporation car care products and threw in a casette AM/FM stereo at no charge. The Mopar truck was listed about $1200.00 or so less than an at-the-time comparably equipped Ford or Chevy truck.
I did visit the local Ford dealers at the time; Escorts and Mustangs were flying off the lots along with the locally assembled (Norfolk) F’ies.
Your comment reminded me about what my mechanic called an Escort: a beer can – throw away when empty.
I remember that this generation of Escort was supposedly designed in parallel with the Mazda 323 so that some parts , like the transmission, were interchangeable. The motoring press crucified Ford for the road manners of the early cars, and Ford had to update the suspension geometry PDQ. Base engine in most markets was a pushrod 1.1 litre, that 1.6 CVH engine was considered too powerful for a car of this class, and few were sold in places like Ireland. The contemporary Opel Kadett was a far far better car.
The US Escort may as well have been from a parallel universe the Mazda was a bloody good car and even flung together by Ford OZ with some gussetts left out to drop the weight they were ok but these US versions sound like the exact opposite of a reliable fun to drive little car.
It seemed that until 1983, American/Canadian/Mexican Ford cars were “four speed stick” only (on floor sticks anyway). That is an apt and accurate description Paul, that these period Ford 4-speeders were a 3-speed + overdrive. Ratios were as wide as Nebraska. I know as I did drive a period (’81) Lynx and (’81) Lima 4cyl Mustang. Steering was slow and heavy (non p/s – especially on the Mustang).
No one has mentioned the interference motor with a penchant for eating cam belts before 60k miles. I knew a few people who had the unfortunate experience of the motor just ‘shutting off’ going down the highway, then discovering that the repair was quite expensive.
This car was one of the under-performers from FoMoCo. I remember how the USDM Escort was being hailed, but having relatives in Germany, I could see what they were getting was far better than what was being offered here. I can remember repeated promises from Ford America to bring over European Fords. I sincerely wanted an Escort XR3, but it never came. Instead we got the Sierra, but with a Pinto motor and the Scorpio, again, another oddball that was expensive and kludged with motors that were US certified.
I kept hearing those same promises from Ford over and over again during the 1980′s, and finally in the late 80′s I quit listening. To me, the super Escort that I wanted was being built by Chrysler in the US, no less. I still miss my Lancer ES Turbo, an incredibly practical car that drove well and quickly. It was everything the Escort, Tempo and frankly the Mustangs were never capable of becoming.
I knew several people with this generation of Escort, they were all underpowered and generally unremarkable. I can understand why people would gravitate to some other package, because these cars weren’t getting it done. These cars were the poverty or commuter specials, no one aspired to own one of these.
Unless you had to walk everywhere…
The Lancer ES Turbo was a considerably more expensive car than the Escort, so that isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. The Mopars that competed directly against the Escort were initially the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, and then the Plymouth Sundance and Dodge Shadow.
When the Escort debuted in late 1980, the Omni and Horizon had been on the market for about two years (they debuted in early 1978), so some of the bugs had been worked out of them by that point. Still, they were hardly quality champs. My strongest memories of those cars are of our neighbor’s Horizon, which died in our driveway (he carpooled with my father) and the Horizon driven by my best friend, which kept stalling at red lights and popping exterior door handles. Both were bought brand-new, and the problems started almost immediately.
Once Ford got the Escort sorted out by 1986, it was no contest. The Omni and Horizon were both dated and unreliable. The Sundance and Shadow weren’t much better. Believe me, no one considered Chrysler quality to be superior to Ford quality by the mid-1980s. At least, not where I lived.
Interestingly, in the August 1981 issue of Popular Mechanics, the magazine asked several, non-professional testers to test drive and rank small cars on the market at that time. The domestic entries were the Mercury Lynx RS, Chevrolet Chevette and Dodge Omni.
The overall winner, by far, was the Honda Civic.
The highest ranking domestic was the Mercury Lynx. What is interesting is that these non-professional testers also criticized the handling, but praised the seats.
The Omni placed dead last – even after the Chevrolet Chevette. Just as everyone loved the Civic, everyone hated the Omni.
For what it’s worth, the Fiat Strada and Renault LeCar placed ahead of all of the domestics.
@Geeber: You’re correct about the Lancer vs. Escort not being apples to apples, but I had hoped I could get a hot hatch from Ford. The Lancer was what I was looking for from Ford, but never materialized.
I’m not so quick to criticize the Omni-rizon, as they were ahead of the curve when released, and were improved with revisions. I commuted with a guy that had an early Omni that went well over 200K in it’s lifetime, but to be honest, I don’t remember the service history. I knew a number of people that had some variation of the L-body, it seemed to me that the car held up as well as people treated it. Many were treated poorly, though.
I’ll grant you that by 1986 the Escort had hit it’s stride, and the Omni was on the glide path. I will disagree with you that the P-bodies were much improved over the L-bodies, and probably bested the rest of the domestic competition. But by then Honda had it’s class redefining Civic line going full steam, and no one could catch them at that time.
Geozinger,
I liked the Dodge Lancer, and always wondered why Chrysler was so quick to abandon it. It was a very handsome car, and just the right size.
The first Escorts were very troublesome cars, and the chassis tuning was terrible, as Paul notes. Car and Driver trashed the 1981 version largely for that reason, and even the non-professional drivers in the Popular Mechanics comparison test picked up on this flaw. But Ford did make improvements for 1982, starting with revised chassis tuning, and introduced the five-door hatchback.
Three things saved the Escort. One, virtually of the domestic front-wheel-drive small cars released in the late 1970s and early 1980s – Omni/Horizon, X-cars, Escort, K-cars – were initially troublesome. So the Escort didn’t really stand out as being all that terrible compared to what GM and Chrysler were doing at that time.
Two, Ford did work to the improve the Escort’s flaws, so that, by the time the 1985 1/2 version debuted, it was a solid (although hardly exciting) small car.
Three, GM dropped the ball by continuing the doddering Chevette way past its expiration date, and then filling the segment with the captive-import Chevrolet Spectrum and Corolla-clone Nova, neither of which gained any traction, probably because GM did very little to promote them.
As I said, the 1985 1/2 models bought by friends and relatives all gave good service. Exciting? No, but they got the job done (these were either the Pony, or the mid-level models). My father’s Pony soldiered on with minimal care and maintenance, and my friend’s 1989 five-door hatchback was also a trooper, and kept running even though he did the least amount of maintenance possible. Some late 1980s models are still on the road around here.
The Sundance/Shadow were cut-down K-cars, if I recall correctly, and weren’t necessarily bad, but Chrysler quality was still very inconsistent in the 1980s, and the cars seemed somewhat compromised by the platform sharing. I would have taken a late 1980s Escort, properly equipped, over one of the Mopars.
Had one of these, a 1985. Had a new job and needed a reliable car in a hurry.
I didn’t expect it to be a sports car. But even for someone who’d been driving both a Chevette and a Pinto, neither of which were known for sporting road manners, the Escort was…well, calling it a disappointment is an understatement. It was one of the most unsteady, unsporting cars I’d ever driven…and that included a ’73 Torino and a Kaiser Wagoneer.
Had the four-speed. The clutch, with its automatic-adjusting cable linkage, had this feeling in use…like something was about to break. Never did, in 80,000 miles; but there was NO getting used to the riding-on-ball-bearings feel the steering gave. Had manual, which was stiff with minimal road feel.
No torque steer – there wasn’t enough power for that. And no rust in four years of abuse…yeah, it never saw the inside of a wash rack. Think I’m gonna spend $10 washing THAT?
Mechanically, the only thing to hit me was that one cam wore almost round…the cams had relatively little wear, but the thing went lame and there it was. No, Ford wouldn’t consider a manufacturing defect. Out of warranty, out of luck.
Sold it for $1800; a fair price (which I aided with some extralegal mileage doctoring) What it was was a transportation appliance, and put in that light, it was a reasonable package.
Sporting customers should have looked elsewhere – and did, and do. Cars like that do damage to their maker, long after the last one’s been fed to the shredder.
The first year of this car was a disaster, as the story notes. But, if I recall correctly, not all of the buff books muffled their criticism. I seem to remember Car and Driver giving it a very harsh review.
This car was big news in the fall of 1980, as the domestics were reeling from a combination of a severe recession, the second fuel crunch and strong inroads by the Japanese in the subcompact segment, so that review stung. It didn’t help that Chrysler was surviving thanks to government largesse and Ford would have gone bankrupt, too, if it hadn’t been for its European subsidiary. The Iranian Hostage crisis just added to the gloom.
Ford, to its credit, improved the car over the years, and by 1986, it was a good car. My father had a 1986 Pony bought as a one-year-old used car, while an aunt had a 1987 wagon. A friend had a 1989 five-door hatchback. All gave very good service – they all ran for well over 100,000 trouble-free miles. These cars weren’t coddled. My father, in particular, beat the daylights out of his car.
Only problem was that, by 1986, Honda was making GREAT small cars with the Civic. Still, by 1986, the Escort was the best domestic small car on the market, and, for a fair number of folks, that meant something.
And what was the sad excuse for paint that Ford slapped onto these poor things? Every one of the early ones you see looks like that faded red sedan and chalky brown wagon — and has for a long time.
A lot of the paint problems can be traced to the good old EPA and them regulating the emissions from the painting process. That meant new, often water borne, paint formulations that many times weren’t fully tested and weren’t always that compatible with all of the products. There were lots of GM vehicles in this era where the paint came off in sheets.
My brother’s first real job was in the paint dept at a Chevy dealer all he did was strip paint off of white trucks for warranty repaints.
Reds in general and any color that has red in it like browns fade much more rapidly than most other colors when it is not a base/clear system.
Yes, the initial years of the waterborne basecoat/clearcoat paints were a disaster for everyone. My old Lancer developed a severe case of “sunburn”, where the clearcoat failed and started to flake off, like a person’s injured skin. It seems to me most domestically (US) made cars had some version of sunburn or outright paint peeling during that time. Cars built in other regions of the world had much better paint, but they weren’t forced to use then new EPA friendly materials, either.
This is true; Pittsburg Paints was the major supplier at the time for the domestics. The switch to a more environmentally friendly blend was the reason for that mid-late eighties peeling, chalking and fading. I usually see blue cars with this malady more often than not.
According to Wikipedia, the Escort had been around in Europe since 1969 and was originally a conventional front engined, rear wheel drive model until it was totally redesigned in 1980-81 and went FWD for the first time.
It’s sad that while it was supposed to be Ford’s “world car”, it appeared to be anything but for they obviously mucked with the US variant to the point where it was not all it was being sold as.
I’ve ridden in a friend’s 81 Lynx wagon, an automatic in that cute red paint with matching red interior many years ago. I don’t recall it being overly noisy but it wasn’t overly fast either. He unfortunately wrecked it up enough that it was replaced with I think an ’81 Citation that he also wrecked and now doesn’t drive anymore.
Anyway, I’ve always liked the basic looks of the car even if the interior wasn’t as nice as some. That said, it didn’t look nearly as dated or antiquated as the interior in my youngest sister’s 86 Tempo though.
I got to drive one briefly once for it was being sold by some insurance company and it WAS a manual too but sadly, I could not afford it and it was an ’83 Escort 5door hatch in that 2 tone blue. It was quite nice looking actually but alas, it was plagued with the dreaded head gasket problems that finally were resolved by 1987, or so I’ve been told.
The big thing with the US spec cars was what they decided to do with the suspension and the drive train, sad really as the car obviously had potential but Ford botched it up good by making the ride overly soft for starters.
As for the EXP/LN7 twins, have always loved the original EXP/LN7 best with the bug eyes and loved it the day I first laid eyes on the ads for them.
Escort badge first used in the mid 50s on a stripper 100E Ford became a stand alone model 67/68 to replace the Anglia as MK1 . MK2 appeared 75 I think redesigned in 81 with FWD.
My friend’s mom has an early Mercury Lynx. It was a sport model with red paint and black sport stripes and a black, grippy, cloth interior. Looked sharp, but I remember going up a long hill on the way to a park one time and it kept shifting in and out of gear(it was an auto), jerking back and forth as it did so. It was quite a neck snapping event. You could tell she was embarrassed and she apologized for the jerky nature of the car. I don’t think they kept that car more than two years.
My first new car was an ’82 Escort 2 door hatch with a 4-speed. I don’t recall it being particularly bad to drive (of course it was replacing a ’67 Falcon van) but it absolutely nickel and dimed me to death.
Just after the 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty expired it ate a water pump, which required unbolting the rear motor mount and jacking the engine forward so the pump mounting bolts would clear the shock tower. This was followed shortly by a leaking steering rack, rear strut failure that cupped my Michelins, a broken driver seat frame, failed hatch struts, failed heater core, failed radiator. Thiss is not the complete list of failed parts in 6 years of ownership.
The factory sent me an extended warranty for the timing belt, so I was actually pleased that it failed at 4 years 10 months – unitl I read the “or 50,000 miles” detail. The 1.6 is an interference design, so I got to learn about replacing the 5 bent valves.
“Quality is job 1″. HA! That car was a POS. I swore I would never buy another Ford, however I have now been driving my ’01 Focus 5 speed wagon for 10+ years and love it. Ford got that one right.
I drove a 94 Escort for 123K, all the way to 210 K miles. I had the 5 speed, sunroof and 1.9l engine. I put a GT gas tank in for 3 more gallons, and GT seats for more comfort. I stopped short of going with the wheels and suspension. It handled well but not as good as the 93 Gt a family member owns. The 1.8l Mazda mill lacks low end but does pull to 7 K well. The car handles better than it accelerates, I would not consider it fast off the line.
The Mazda influence made these reliable cars. They are good used cars and are cheap to own, fix and insure. I got 40 MPG right to the end, sometimes 42 without the AC.
Only new car my wife & I ever had was a 851/2 Escort. Two tone dark gray & silver w/red interior and vent windows! Reliable, ran great and terrific in the snow. Had to trade it when we needed a larger car but no complaints.
My first new car was a 1985 Escort two-door hatch base model. All white, no trim. Same moody 4-speed stick referenced in the piece. Tan interior. Cloth seats. AM radio. No A/C. Strangely attractive in its sheer boxy simplicity, but it was a veritable limo compared to the heep I traded in — a ’66 Malibu so rusted out that passengers had a view of the pavement below and rode gambled on CO poisoning because of a trunk that 20 years of Midwest weather had turned into Swiss cheese.
I owned that Escort for about six years and got nearly 200k out of it. Sold it to a kid for $500, and I heard he totaled it a week later.
When I got married, my wife brought her practically new ’91 blue Mazda Escort wagon with all the trimmings. I liked that car, too, although, we traded that off when the A/C quit (a necessity on any car she drives).
“the new Escorts had a peculiar tendency to exhibit positive camber on the front wheels, and negative camber on the rears, as in this white coupe, which is serial number 1. ”
Nice long article, but…
No, the white car is sitting off the ground at Henry Ford Museum. The suspension is hanging at full rebound! They raise the vehicles to keep weight off the tires (note the black things under the control arms…). I stopped reading at that point. Not sure what other BS I might find.
Take a closer look: those “black things under the control arms” are very clearly positioned under the outer ends of the control arms, not on the body or elsewhere. And that is far from full rebound, in any case. Ever jacked one up to change the tire? I have.
Anyway, even if this static display for some reason is riding a bit higher than typical, the point is that this positive camber attitude was common on early Escorts, which is why I made a point of it.
Dude,
I’ve ridden in them, driven one once and have seen them being driven, even a nice looking white hatchback sometime last year from early in its run do just that, when you step on the go pedal, the car hunched down on its rear tires, the front raised up and you got the negative camber result up front.
I just figured it was a characteristic nature of older FWD cars as you don’t see that now anymore that I’m aware of.
This was more pronounced when they launched from a dead stop but when sitting, it was not as obvious in some angles.
Still liked them for what they were though.
My very 1st car was a 1985 1/2 Escort that I bought for $3,500 in 1987. My father, who owned a ’73 T-Bird, at first derided it, calling it a “wheelbarrow”, but he enjoyed driving it on various errands. I really had no problems w/it until near the end (I owned it for 12 yrs.) when it rusted from the inside of the body. I traded it in for a ’89 LeBaron Turbo GLC (that’s another story).
I came very close to buying a loaded ’84 Escort with cruise control and if I remember right, a tilt wheel. It was an automatic with am/fm and every little piece of chrome trim available. It even had a little overhead console with a clock and a cubby. What I vividly remember is the absolute lack of performance the car had, so much to the point I made a comment to the salesman who replied it would get better as I put mileage on the car and got it broke-in.
I went home that night, thinking about that pretty little beige coupe but I couldn’t get the lack of get up and go out of my mind. Not that I drive fast, mind you, but I do like to have a car that will “step out.” At the time I was driving a loaded ’80 Mercury Monarch Ghia with all options including a Quadraphonic digital radio (first year available) with 8 track. I just couldn’t let my little Mercury go for this thing.
For a couple years afterwards, I saw this particular Escort around town driven by a senior citizen. This person looked quite happy with their little Escort and I believe they were meant for each other.
I just bought a 1985 ford escort, mint condition. It drives good untill I need to go up a hill…… What’s up with that????
my first new car was an 1985 1/2 escort, maroon in color. only extra i got was auto trans. no a/c. drove it to death as a pizza delivery driver for 7 years. never knew the correct mileage because the odometer cable snapped at about 65K, i drove it for 4 years that way. eventually got it repaired, and it had well over 130K miles on it when i traded it in 1995. that thing got awesome gas mileage,but you;d go deaf from the road noise. to combat that i upgraded the entire audio system, 1000 watt rockford fosgate amp, huge mtx speaker box with twin 12″ woofers, 3″ midrange and a pair of tweeters, in addition to replacing the door & rear speakers with kenwood’s. replaced the head unit with a kenwood detachable face-plate w/ cassette and added a 10 disc cd changer under the seat. the system soon became more valuable than the vehicle itself. i have a lot of great memories with that car. it may have not been the best engineered vehicle that ford has produced, but it sure took a beating and kept on coming back for more.escorts were all you saw on the road for years, before the chevy cavalier took over – another econo-box . but they were serious brake-eaters.