Ah, the Escort. Player on the world stage. Ready for anything. But at the end of the night, left alone here in the yard. Ford made a splash with the supposed “World Car” Escort, although in reality it shared precious little with its namesake across the pond. Over here we really only ever got neutered, “safe and sane” examples. Even the GT versions weren’t anything overly hot, more show than go. The Turbo GT? How many ever left the showroom or even entered it? However, as a basic commuter or run-around car for a budget conscious shopper that for some reason didn’t have a Toyota, Nissan, or Honda showroom nearby, this was still a big improvement relative to what came before.
While the whole Escort range in these early ’80’s years wasn’t unattractive and featured generally modern styling reminiscent of the Euro version, the wagon especially managed to look good, solid, and like a decent proposition. Even with a modicum of US-market gingerbread, it didn’t go overboard with it.
No, I shan’t tease you any longer, once again we have a vehicle with a red interior that looks almost showroom fresh. Actually that’s not just red, it’s “Canyon Red” in Ford-speak, paired with Oxford White as the exterior color like any contractor grade F-150 or Ford van.
This here is a GL trim level, the Escort was available as an L, GL, LX, GT and Turbo GT, although the latter two were not available in wagon form. In fact I don’t believe I’ve seen an Escort Turbo GT although it exists in the brochure. The GL though has many of the basic creature comforts included and was a decent middle of the road option. The GL was also the only trim level that was available with a “Squire” option, a decidedly non-euro woodgrain exterior trim package.
Instead, this one sports optional mirrors in body color. According to the brochure “bright”. i.e. chrome are standard and there is an option for “racing” mirrors and yet another option for “sport” mirrors. The “racing” version apparently comes with a convex one on the right side, the “sport” one doesn’t specify. Does the average Escort wagon purchaser really need three mirror options on one trim level? I spent way too much time looking at the brochure, just astounded (and jealous, frankly) at all the ways you could option your cheap wagon back in the day.
The seat upholstery looks wonderfully durable and actually comfortable in the way that many fabrics of yesteryear were. There’s a whole lotta red goin’ on here, folks, but at least the shifter gets a mini console around it as opposed to the Fairmont we saw a few weeks ago where it just kind of poked out of the floor. The steering wheel contains the Ford “Fingertip Speed Control” buttons, there’s space for oddments on top of the dash and also fairly plush looking carpets.
However, fairly sad-sack instrumentation remains a hallmark of the domestic budget class. As is fairly common on European cars at least, the speedometer seems to have little markings on it that may indicate the shift points for maximum economy but they look a bit weird here, with perhaps a range at 10-15, another at 35-40 and another around 75mph which seems somewhat odd. The first two also have two dots each, the last has one dot.
But perhaps it’s for something different as these cars also had an upshift indicator light that came standard with the manual equipped 1.6l cars. Not much excitement overall but at least it’d be hard to run out of gas, that gauge is a tough one to overlook.
Unfortunately we can’t figure out the true mileage from this odometer…
The center stack has all kinds of goodness, the buyer here went all out. First, an AM/FM and Cassette stereo unit. And then they sprung for the A/C as well. And this car has a 5-speed, still not always standard in this class at the time. The cigarette lighter is buried all the way at the bottom just like in the Fairmont.
And up above, next to the piece of clear tape covering up a minor wound, is the upper console, with date and time displays as well as map/reading lights, all with a red surround. This is the kind of stuff that costs a manufacturer money, stocking all these little optional parts in various colors, no wonder we only have two interior colors nowadays and something like this would just as likely come in black or be engineered into the headliner to avoid the colored surround trim piece altogether.
It’s pretty snug back here, but the seat folds 50/50. No cupholders, lap belts only. At least the windows roll down, albeit manually.
Even the messy cargo area has plush-ish carpet on the hatch as well and there’s a cargo cover, not currently deployed with what looks like a full size spare under the floor area. Ford advertised a total of 58 cu. ft. of cargo space back here, presumably with the rear seats folded.
Remember the 5-speed? That denotes this engine as being the High Output 1.6l for high-altitude states as the regular 1.6 CVH four wasn’t offered with the 5-speed. So this engine produced 80hp as opposed to between 65- 70 for the standard one. There was a fuel-injected version available but you had to step up to at least the LX trim level for that.
Lots of rock chips but that’s nothing unusual here in Colorado. The passenger side headlight trim looks a little askew but that’s because it was laying on the ground before I propped it back up there for the pictures. Overall this looks in fine shape.
Purchased at Dave Taylor Ford in Longmont, CO, this one then appears to have spent time in Laramie at UW, and then there’s also an Indiana University sticker. The body looks in pretty good shape so I’m guessing a quick grad school program in Indiana. Much longer there and this wouldn’t have made it back without a few holes in it based on the stories I hear from the Indiana CC Field Office.
I kind of like it. I don’t know if I would actually like owning it but it looks like a generally well taken care of car with a lot of utility and a decent number of frills for a 35-year old car. What goes wrong on these? Or is it just another case of can’t-find-anyone-that-wants-a-stick-shift-wagon-with-a-red-interior? It even has a roof rack!
This ad’s from the year before but still basically the same car. Apparently nine out of ten buyers liked it so much they’d buy it again according to an unnamed survey. The “FS” engine is the “Fuel Saver” engine, mated to an extremely high 3.04 axle ratio (as opposed to 3.73 on our example and only available with a 4-speed but not in California or High Altitude areas and absolutely certainly positively not in the higher altitude areas of California itself.
Assembled in Wayne, Michigan. Sadly, not much demand for this particular Escort’s services. Or parts. This one’s been sitting here for a couple of months now and not much has changed beyond the rear badges having been pried off and one of the windows mysteriously breaking. At least we get to enjoy the pleasure of its company on our screens for a few minutes.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
Related Reading:
Carlsberg66’s COAL on his 1985 Escort
PN’s CC on the entire 1981-1990 Escort generation in the U.S.
My first gf’s grandmother had one of these early Escorts. Hers was a five door sedan with the weird split torque automatic they had. A worse car I cannot recall driving. The engine was rough, wheezy and didn’t produce much power.
Upon granny’s demise, my gf got the car. She hated it so much she quickly traded it on a 1986 Mazda 323, which was everything the Escort was not.
Not much had changed on the outside since the 1981 model – a new grille insert is the only thing obvious – but the interior was entirely redone by 1984 with a new BMW-ish dashboard, new door panels, and revised seats and trim. The 50/50 split fold-down rear seat was new in either ’83 or 84, don’t remember, and with it a new folding setup where the seat cushions first folded into the footwell, then the seatback folded down where the seat cushion used to be, yielding a flat floor. On earlier Escorts only the seatback folded, and that section would be about 6″ higher than the main luggage floor. Despite the many improvements throughout this generation Escort’s run, they seemed to be perennially not as good as its imported competition.
Most Escorts I saw were low trim levels. Some mid-range GLs. The luxury or sport trims were both rare.
The rear view of the tailgate, bumper, rear window, taillights looks astonishingly similar to Chrysler’s K car wagons.
This one looks so clean I bet that’s the correct original mileage, Granny’s old car given to someone who didn’t know / care about the cam belt needing regular replacement , it snapped, bent all the valves and here we are .
A shame as this one ispretty in white over red and all the little extras make it nicer .
I’da saved it had it tuened up here, a valve job and timing belt isn’t much .
Yes, these were incredibly crude -but- America was looking for just this sort of low buck transport at the time and they sold really well .
No dents / rust & good upholstery means it should have been saved even if just as a movie rental car .
-Nate
I was wondering what put this car here, and if the engine is interference then yeah that would do it for most people. Too bad because this thing looks amazing, looks almost like a new car still. I always liked the Escorts up thru the first half of 1988 and I would have saved it. Last time I saw one in the wild was like 15-20 years ago, it was a clean light blue wagon, and it was a rare sight even back then. Last time I saw a pre 1985 1/2 facelift model in the wild was probably in the early 90s. They were everywhere but didn’t last long.
I’ve never driven one so I’m not sure what the knock-kneed stance felt like that way. But I’ve ridden in them and they rode better than the J cars and K cars I’ve ridden in. Ford seemed to care more about ride than the rest of Detroit. Pretty sure all Ford’s FWD 80s cars got 4 wheel independent suspension, including the cheap little Escort. Even going back to the front twin I beam on the trucks.
I always hated the 1st gen US Escort’s quasi-trunk/hatch design (really, on any vehicle like the Dodge Caliber and Chevy Malibu Maxx). But the Escort wagon is actually okay, especially an early version without the motorized mouse belts in lieu of airbags.
If someone was handy with a wrench and a place to work on it, this looks to be in good enough shape to be worth saving as a daily-driver, beater sort of ride.
FWIW, although it looks like an AM/FM/cassette radio, that bottom slot is just a balance control for the speakers.
Yes, well preserved for it’s age.
This one showed up at an event in the parking lot of the AAA building in Dearborn a few weeks ago.
Knowing my taste for cheap and cheerful, small cars, a friend teased me with an 83 Lynx, on offer in Ann Arbor, a few years ago. I looked at the pix, and said “I know that car”. I had seen it at the Orphan Show in Ypsilanti a couple years earlier. Actually thought about bringing it home, for a couple nanoseconds.
Also with a red interior, even a vintage 80s cell phone mounted between the seats.
After my father in laws 1979 Fairmount wagon was totaled, he found a two year old 83 Mercury Lynx wagon. It was actually too be driven by his partner in the hardware business, his brother in law. But he drove it the first month to make sure any issues could be corrected. I remember he hated the way the automatic transmission shifted. Two trips to the dealer netted in finding out that was just the way they were!
It seems like that car was around for 3 years and he never had any issues.
Boring, cheap but handy for the business
My first car was a 1982 Escort wagon. It had the HO engine and a close ration 4-speed manual. It was reasonably quick even in 1989 when I turned 16 and got my license. The interior was quite roomy and comfortable, though the short gears and free breathing engine were a bit invigorating on the highway. While I don’t know that I would want that exact car back now, the general theme of a small, sporty-ish wagon that makes the most of its space is still quite appealing.
That’s a clean little well-equipped wagon! Too bad it ended up there. Mileage would most likely be 110,xxx.
I drove and nearly bought a Diesel Escort Wagon in ’84. They had the wonderful Isuzu Diesel, with 2 oil filters, and capable of an almost constant 50mpg, and it had more torque than the Rabbit Diesel we did end up buying! 5 speed, AC, cloth seats, high altitude version, would have made for a good little wagon in the day. Thanks for noticing!
When Chevy took back the fleet’s horrific Citations, my employer scrambled to find new wheels. J2000, Cavaliers, and an Escort. Always out of town, the Escort was left without a taker. My boss apologized, but the Escort ended up being the best. I put 50,000 a year on cars and the Escort did a good job. Problem was that it was an automatic and the Rockies are high. So it struggled daily going over mountain passes.
The Escort rode well. I had to recline beyond the B pillar to fit into it, but was comfortable. Gas mileage was excellent. Ford had a better car than most in that size.