It’s shocking how short the second-generation Ford Escort was. I suppose that’s true of many subcompact cars of 20 and more years ago, but cars have gotten a lot taller since then and few of these long-ago little cars still roll. The car that supplanted the Escort, the Focus, was among the first to go taller.
The growth hormones Ford fed its subcompact gave it a presence the Escort lacked. That Focus is just four inches taller than this Escort. It is only negligibly wider, and while the sedan is four inches longer the hatchback is two inches shorter. Yet when you look at a second-generation Escort through modern eyes, it looks like a clown car.
I was so taken by this itty bitty automobile that I didn’t bother to photograph the arguably more interesting Mitsubishi 3000 GT parked next to it. I’m not sure I even noticed it, so consumed with this little Ford was I. For I remember driving my dad’s second-gen Escort hatchback while he owned it and never for a minute thinking that it was unusually tiny.
I do recall thinking that the era’s small-car interiors, which the Escort exemplified, were awful. Surfaces were either fuzzy or hard and were all the same color. But hey: this car’s a five speed! Props to the driver! This one’s certainly a 1996, by the way, because that was the only year the sedan was offered with a spoiler and alloy wheels.
Terre Haute, Indiana
April, 2016
These were good cars.
The earlier years had those horrible automatic seatbelts, so this one’s airbag marks it as a later year within this generation. They would feel very small on the road, surrounded by today’s bloated SUVs. The five speeds were legit and shifted well and could scoot these little cars effortlessly. The interiors were roomy and the trunk was large for a car this size.
Ford cheapened the later years of this generation, and then with the next generation of Escort, made them larger and even more cheap.
The earlier years had those horrible automatic seatbelts
Ironically, the Australian-built Ford Laser (third generation, 1990-1994), has three-point seat belts from the start.
Unfortunately, all of the USDM second generation Escorts, even the later ones with airbags, have the automatic shoulder belts. I believe Canadian market models had conventional belts from the start. At least their Mazda siblings were done this way.
Yeah my mom’s 95 wagon (CDN model) had normal 3 point seatbelts. You could always tell a gray market US car by the weird auto belts. Good little wagon that was great on gas but a bit underpowered compared to my GTI with headers.
I have been living that size difference up close and personal this summer. My daughter is out of state at an internship this summer. I swapped my Honda Fit for her 98 Civic sedan for three months. What. A. Huge. Difference. Uncomfortably-close-to-sixty-year-old-me has been experiencing how much harder entry and exit was in those old ones. My Fit is so easy to get in and out of. The Civic – it is damned near as much effort to get in and out of my Miata.
You mention the nasty interiors of 90s subcompacts – I would modify that to *American* subcompacts, particularly Ford after Jacque Nasser’s cost cutting there. My small car experiences were with Hondas and they offered some pretty nice interiors in that era. In general I considered these a major downgrade from the Civic/Corolla.
Well yes and no about the interior. This car did overlap the 4th gen(by one year), 5th gen(92-95) and the 6th gen(by 1 year) Honda Civic. The Escort had better seats then the 4th Gen Civic. However the 5th Gen Civic had much better seats then the Escort)heck it had better seats then a lot of cars) but the 6th Gen Civic had just as bad seats as it was cost cutting time at Honda(high Yen)
The Escort(in my opinion) had better seats then the 88-92 and 93-97 Corolla (which felt like the seat was fabric covered rocks). I would venture to say that the this generation Escort had better seats then the 98-02 Corolla
The height difference between your Fit and a 98 Civic sedan is about 5 inches, 60″ for the Fit and 55″ for the Civic. Enough to make a big difference. Small cars used to be quite a bit lower than they are now.
Your Fit is only 1 inch taller than a 2018 Prius, which is 2 inches taller than a 2001 Prius.
A 2018 RAV4 crossover is 5 inches taller than your Fit, which sounds unnecessarily tall.
And that Fit is damn ugly
I had a 1997 wagon in the close top of the line LX trim for a while. I did not find it overly small although it was primary a commuter car. The chassis was quite nice (Mazda under the skin) and the five speed a good unit but the Ford engine let it down a bit.
I can actually see a early 90s Ford Laser in those pics that was the Australian rebadge of the Mazda sold in the south Pacific, later the NZ market got the UK Escort as well talk about a crowded market and Ford competing with itself the UK model had better handling and road manners but the engines particularly the diesels werent very durable. my BIL killed several near new as company rep cars, thats what the Focus replaced here along with PSA/Ford diesel engines which were a huge improvement.
I think it is a Ford Laser, essentially, just sold under a different name here in NA. I know these Escorts were Mazdas underneath too.
This model of Laser always seemed to have little roller-skate wheels what seemed lost tucked way in under the bulging sides. And the sedans annoyingly had the C-pillar painted black; it looked just so disjointed and made the resolution of the beltline through to the trunk look awkward and contrived. Looks much better in body colour like here. Still not going to win any prizes for world’s prettiest C-pillar, but less awkward.
Those wheels were offered on sedans as early as 1992, but I seem to find them mostly on LX Hatchbacks. 1996 was definitely the only year a sedan could be fitted with the wing. They’re surprisingly roomy for what they are, at least compared to my Mazda MX-3 which is essentially a platform mate. I like them. The best were the Mazda BP powered LX-E, GT, and Tracer LTS, so as long they were not automatics.
Yes, these cars were small, but the generation that preceded this one was even smaller.
In 1989 I went looking for a new car to replace my 7 year old, and pretty tired J2000. My 1st stop was the Ford dealer as 1 in my area had 2 Escort GTs and I thought that one of them would suit me as my next car. I could just barely squeeze behind the wheel and didn’t think driving that car even a short distance would be possible as the steering wheel had almost no upward travel in it’s adjustment. And to add insult to injury, the steering column stalk on the right side of the steering column hit my knee like an arrow with any type of bump or jar in the road during the test drive. I then stopped at the Honda dealership and tried a new Civic. The Civic was roomier once behind the wheel but being a 4 door versus the 2 door Ford caused me to bang my head or my shoulder nearly every time I got into the car. When I bought a 1997 Civic 2 door, I didn’t have nearly the problems getting into the driver’s seat of that car versus the 89. The 97 besides having 2 longer doors was also taller than the 89.
BTW, I would love to own one of these “clown cars” but only so long as it is a GT or LXE (both with the Mazda DOHC engine and a manual transmission) and/or maybe a wagon.
These can still be found, occasionally, in my area but almost always with very high mileages and automatic transmissions….yuck.
This is certainly a late version, only the last year or two of Escort sedans had the amber looks-like-a-separate-turn-signal-but-isn’t reflex strip; hatchbacks and wagons had the real thing all along. And on top of that the sedan was originally Mercury Tracer-exclusive with the hatchbacks Ford-only (as they remained) and the wagon initially the only shared body style.
Sometime and somewhere CC needs to compile a fake amber turn signal indicator hall of shame. ’76-’77 Vega, later Dodge Spirits, this Escort, what else?
’75-’77 Mercury Monarch.
’12(?) through ’16 VW Tiguan: the amber compartment is an actual, real turn signal…outside North America. It’s not used here; the brake light is flashed instead because the amber part isn’t big enough to meet the American lit-size minimum. Neither are a whole bunch of brake lights and turn signals highly present on American roads, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯
A variety of semi-recent Mercedes models with incandescent turn signals: colourless lens compartment with an amber bulb inside…that isn’t used even though the compartment is clearly big enough. Instead the brake light is flashed because, as it has been explained to me by more than one Daimler staffer, they don’t want to have some of their models with red and some with amber; that would look uncoordinated.
Forgot about the Monarch; weird thing is that in the similar Granada the amber turn signals were real.
I would have thought Daimler would have considered the US market big enough to make the lights big enough to meet DOT regs.
My son once had a 1998 Escort. You could not kill that car. It was impossible. Started every cold morning and did everything it was asked to do. 5 speed tranny with a 4 banger and it would go all day. When he sold it he got about what he paid for it 5 years earlier as a used car.
I do agree with JP that cars of that vintage, and including my other son’s 2004 Civic (still going strong) that ingress and egress are a challenge compared to taller cars of today. Having 60 years in the rear view mirror is testament.
A buddy of mine had a ’95 Escort wagon with the automatic for about 5 years, from ’08 or so. It always looked so short, but it never felt like it was seriously hurting for room inside. We’d pretty regularly pile five gamers in it to go out for dinner or whatever, and it could manage. Our 400-pound friend rode shotgun, then it was me (back when I was skinny) and a couple of 300-pounders in the back. It was cramped, sure, but the car’s owner and I were the only ones that weighed less than 200 pounds, too.
I will say, these things were damned reliable. My friend’s made it to over 200,000 before the electrical issues sidelined it.
Shame they don’t make cars like this anymore-inexpensive, simple, and reliable. Easy to live with. My friend still occasionally comments that he misses that car.
I bought a ’92 Escort sedan mainly because it was the only compact with a automatic overdrive transmission at the time. Also, I liked it because it looked like a little Taurus. The transmission failed due to a bearing that decided to disintegrate and send fragments wherever the fluid traveled. (It was replaced free of charge when I argued there was no abuse or neglect that could have caused this.) I donated it after 12 years and 130,000 miles because the head gasket failed. I blame myself for that because the coolant thermostat seized in an open position and I never replaced it.
When the Escort was replaced by the Focus, it was still competitive. A lot of people felt that Ford should have kept the Escort in production as a smaller, lower-priced alternative to the Focus. Ford was doing a lot of house-cleaning at the time, but I think keeping the Escort in production might have worked.
They did! The sedan was a fleet-only entry for a year or so and the ZX2 coupe lasted through at least 2003.
I probably had low standards back in the 1990s, because I thought the Escort’s interior was pretty nice. But then again, maybe I was comparing it to the previous generation Escort — which, instead of “fuzzy or hard” had surfaces that were “hard or harder.”
I had an ’89 Mazda 323 (Protege) that turned out to be one of the best cars I’ve ever owned.
The Escort is basically the same car.
Very accurate observations. I remember these cars well as they were ubiquitous in the 1990s. Even then they seemed tiny but versus today’s cars, they are utterly minuscule in presence. I honestly think that the shortcomings and overall poor image of small cars from decades past is partly responsible for the rise of the small CUV and overall consumer impression that even the tiniest of CUVs is more car than a small sedan offering more space.
I had a bright purple 96 LX wagon with a 5 speed for a while. Awesome little car.
Wish I could find another one that wasn’t ragged out.
I had an Escort sedan, a 2002 fleet special. It had cheaper, plain grey, upholstery and the fabric inserts the retail grade cars had on the doors were gone. Went well enough, mostly. Switching from the Escort to my 98 Civic was always a treat because the Civic did everything better than the Escort.
Had a personal demonstration of the size comparison at the local K-Mart when it was having it’s liquidation sale. A late 90s Escort, parked next to a first gen Focus. Yes, the Focus looked huge in comparison.
Ford sold a bazillion Escorts over the years, so just about everyone had one or knew someone who had one. At the last place I worked, two coworkers had 97-98 sedans and one had a 96 hatchback. Yes, one day, I nearly tried to unlock the door of the wrong white Escort in the parking lot at work.
The first gen Escort gets a lot of love too. I posted some pix of the Ypsilanti orphan show on a FB page last year. The run-away most liked were my pix of this original Lynx.
Bonus points for this one having the optional front vent windows. 2 door hatchbacks like this one had optional *rear* vent windows too. Are there any modern 2-doors with six openable windows?
Bonus points for this one having the optional front vent windows.
The optional 5 speed manual wasn’t that rare, for the mid 80s, but cruise control in an econobox?
These cars could be optioned out quite nicely, although most people who bought them went for low price over frills. This car looks like one of the rare uplevel models, maybe even a Mercury-exclusive LS that had no Escort counterpart. Other rare items seen here are the full burled walnut woodgrain on the dash and console (top line Escorts had cheaper-looking fake wood and less of it), the tach and temp gauges, a graphical warning light cluster on the console, cloth padding on the doors (mostly LS-only) and thicker carpeting. If this were an ’81 or ’82 it would have had thick crushed velour on the seats (including the side and back) in the same sew pattern, but it was toned down for ’83. The center armrest was new for ’83 though. I think I see the “concert sound” audio switch poking through that lights up when you pull it though the sound still wasn’t that good, plus intermittent wipers. This car likely has the single front map light that could aimed in any direction, and a tilt wheel whose pivot point was just behind the wheel itself; the column stayed put. The 5-speed wasn’t available until 1983; the ’81-’82 made 4-speed manual buyers choose standard long or optional “sport” short gear ratios; the former felt like there was too large a gap between gears; the latter felt like a normal 5 speed gearbox but missing 5th gear.
The real unicorn on ’82-ish Escorts and Lynxes is the optional sheepskin-and-leather upholstery (ivory sheepskin, black leather and trim), optional on all GL or higher models in both brands. I’ve NEVER seen one so equipped, even in a photo.
I shopped this car extensively but decided on a then-new Pontiac J2000 LE instead. The Lynx probably would have been more reliable.
The final, ’02 ‘Scort sedans went really cheap with seat fabric, in mono-tone grey or tan. No patterns at all.
But, one unique color offered this last year was Grabber Green.
I had a ’96 Escort wagon with the 4-speed auto, pw, pl and AC (which never worked since the car was 9 yrs old when I bought it). Had the same interior as the featured car and was a gem, I kept that car 8 yrs until it was literally falling to pieces with rust. Best car I ever had. I miss it.
When you say the Focus hatchback was 2 inches shorter than the Escort, are you comparing it to the Escort hatchback or this Escort sedan? I recall the Escort 3 or 5 door hatch was shorter than the sedan or wagon, and quite a bit shorter than the Focus hatchback too.
I did some online research that yielded my length numbers, and for the 2nd gen Escort it didn’t differentiate by body style. Perhaps my source wasn’t exactly right.
Those bumpers stick out a mile. Botox much?
I can really relate to being so mesmerized by one CC that you don’t notice another cool car right next to it. I’ve been better at this recently.
New dictum: If you see a one CC, another one may well be in the vicinity!
These were great bang for the buck used cars. Mine was a 94 4 door with an automatic. I would have liked a manual but the one I got was too good to pass up. The owner apologized for not having the car fully detailed before I came. The car was 1200 bucks with a tick over 110,000 miles. The 1.9 CVH is not at all smooth but it got 31 mpg in the city. Ford was selling the base models for around $10,000 new and you got a lot of car for the money. A lot of people liked the Hyundai Accents in this vintage but i thought these were far better cars for not much more. The 98-02 era ZX2s are a LOT of fun with manuals. The Zetec likes to rev and the handling is very good with decent tires. It’s not Sentra Se-R or GTI level but it’s a lot closer than you would think for a pretty basic car. I’m a bit of an Escort nerd.
These were once everywhere, and I remember my raised eyebrows when the noticeably taller Focus showed up.
Several above note their spartan durability. It’s still not hard to find one under 100K miles that you could cheaply run for a good long time, even here in Great Lakes salt country: https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/d/1800-obo-1998-ford-escort/6659845871.html
I daily drive a ’96 LX wagon with 180K miles. I love it. It’s been a great car and it’s inexpensive to maintain. They are still all over the place here in Portland. Mine is the dark blue one.
I’ve always liked those wagons. I wouldn’t mind having one as an emergency backup car and a car to use for those runs to Lowe’s.
+1 for another wagon fan! I suspect the “all-one-price” promotion (1992) led to a bunch of people saying “why not?” and popping for the wagon:
We had a 1995 LX 5 door hatch for years and I can attest to it being a clown car in a good way (unlike those 90s Pontiacs with the hideous plastic cladding and Gulag Grey interiors). We could cram an amazing amount of stuff and 2 kids in car seats into our Escort, clearly disproving the prevailing view that you needed an SUV or minivan. I remember the astonished looks in the parking lot at Willamette Mission when we produced a Burley trailer, a folded trail-a-bike and a medium sized picnic from the back of the escort, along with 2 bikes on the roof and a car seat and booster seat in the back. I also remember a winter trip to Mt Batchelor where we crossed the Santiam Pass in a snow storm, drove up to the ski area in another snow storm and got out of the parking lot while others were spinning their wheels and did it on all season tires without chains.
On the down side ours had a seemingly cursed automatic transaxle and an appetite for radios consuming 3 in 15 years of ownership. We also had to replace the crankshaft pulley every 50,000 miles as the rubber insert would pop out.
My mom’s last car was a ’96 Escort wagon with a stick, she drove that little car until she was 81 and she drove it like a pro. She gave up driving not because she couldn’t any longer, but because 1- she really didn’t need a car any longer, and 2- the trusty little car was just getting too rusty. My mom drove 60+ years and NEVER had one single ticket. Ever.