(first posted 6/1/2016) Gads. A Ford Escort. There are infinitely more interesting cars in my photo archives I could write about, such as a 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado or 1973 Mercedes 280C. Yet, much like flies are drawn to freshly dropped organic fertilizer, I find myself compelled to write about a Ford Escort that is nearly old enough to legally drink in most states.
Maybe I’m lured in as this petite Ford is likely near the end of its two decade existence and being viewed by people around the globe may be its last hurrah before getting shredded up to make dishwashers; it has a handful of parking tickets under the wipers, leading me to think it may be abandoned. Some people celebrate life after one has ended so maybe this is just feeding my inclination to be proactive.
Or maybe this Escort hits way too close to home.
It doesn’t really matter – I didn’t own one. Mrs. Jason did. And, like her neutered and overweight tomcat, it entered into our marital property pool subsequent to our nuptials in 1998.
Mrs. Jason had been determined to buy an Escort and would seriously entertain nothing else. When we met, she was driving the 1985 Escort her parents had purchased new and it had accumulated a mere 212,000 miles by that point; it was still puttering along quite remarkably well at 252,000 miles when she went to work after college in August 1996 soon before her shopping commenced.
Her rationale was, unlike multiple other makes, no Ford had ever left her sitting and in its entire life up to that point the old tan ’85 had required nothing but a few timing belts and a voltage regulator. The only real gremlin with that ’85 Escort was its desire to partake of 20W-50 weight motor oil that was thin enough to lubricate but thick enough to not perpetuate a few minor leaks if driven over 65 mph.
Forking over $9,600 dollars for a leftover white 1996 two-door LX, the future Mrs. Jason helped make room on the lot at Pundmann Ford in St. Charles, Missouri, for the latest, greatest, all-new 1997 Escort. I have always preferred the 1991 to 1996 Escort over the 1997 Escort as to me it looked like a dumbed down Taurus.
Did the future Mrs. Jason care her new Escort was based upon Mazda underpinnings? Not a bit. Did she care its 1.9 liter engine had a Jekyll and Hyde persona, triggered at about 3000 rpm? Negatory again. She had strong reason to have trust in the brand and the price was better than the competition at the time. Money talks.
The future Mrs. Jason’s only concern was it had a five-speed manual transaxle and she wasn’t well versed in driving anything with a clutch.
This is where my respect for her Escort started to sprout. A few days and several hundred miles after she bought it, we went for a ride – my first time in it. With Mrs. Jason having taken the well-meaning but totally asinine advice from her friend Laura on how to operate such a critter (“rev it up until the tachometer is pointing at the 2, then let out real quick on the clutch”), I quickly realized this Escort was deceptively stout in the areas that mattered most.
That, and I needed to politely coax this behavior into something less harsh for everything and everyone involved.
Thankfully, Laura now lives in San Diego, meaning she is too far away to do any harm. The first time I met her (and her newest in a string of boyfriends) at a restaurant she said something profoundly snotty to Mrs. Jason. Not batting an eye, Mrs. Jason later settled the score by asking Laura quite loudly if she had overcome that nasty case of crabs somebody gave her. How can anyone forget such an encounter?
It’s as likely to be forgotten as the little white puddle-jumper that carried Mrs. Jason (and I) from being singles to being parents. The Escort served flawlessly through that special time in life that quickly whisks a person from being a carefree young adult into bearing great responsibilities.
There was the time shortly after we married when we were driving up I-55 in a profound thunderstorm. We were startled when lightning hit that huge tree adjacent to the right-of-way and unable to avoid the major chunks of tree blown onto the interstate. The sound of a large clump of wood hitting the side of the car was deafening, lessened only by the relief it had not hit any of the glass that gave the Escort such admirable visibility.
Inspection at the nearest interchange outside of the rain yielded nothing but a small indentation in the metal near the fold-out rear window. It hadn’t even broken the paint.
What really triggered this flood of long-dormant memories was the third brake light, which seemed to be sticking up like the thumb on a hitchhiker. Looking quite awkward as she sits, at some point in the past this Escort had a factory mounted spoiler enveloping this light. Removing the spoiler on these Escorts isn’t very difficult; I managed to do so with nothing more than a garage door.
Having returned from the grocery store, I had the hatch open and hit the button to close the garage door motor. The horizontal ribs of the abnormally short door connected with the spoiler on the Escort. This touch was accompanied by a loud pop and it yanked the spoiler right off. Witnessed by Mrs. Jason’s father, he speculated in amused concern about the degree of peeved Mrs. Jason would be. The repair took less than five seconds; I lifted the spoiler and popped it back into its mounting holes.
With a distinct plasticky snap, the spoiler went back on and stayed put until the bitter end.
Such obviously hasn’t been the case here; the spoiler is resting on the front seat of our red and black Escort.
For an inexpensive car, this interior was always a surprisingly pleasant place. The seat cloth wore like iron and the console was polite – unlike contemporary consoles that are nearly as invasive as a prostate exam. The 1990s were a good time for Ford – well, most of the 1990s, anyway.
Looking further at this finger laden picture reminds me of the only foible Mrs. Jason (and I) ever had with her Escort. Early on, it was finicky about going into second gear. A trip back to the dealer mostly fixed it. Going into second gear was never as effortless as the other gears, yet this smidgeon of resistance never got better nor did it ever worsen. By the time we married, the car was two years old and its journeys into second gear had simply become a part of its personality.
Perhaps that would be unacceptable to some, but it was a quirk of its being. It was rather like your main squeeze having a freckle that amplifies their physical attributes. Yes, I have become quite fond of the car now that I sit here writing this. Like a recent article about a 1968 Ford LTD, it has simply taken me a while to feel the love affection.
But I’m not viewing the past through rose-colored glasses. My memory is intact and this is perhaps my least favorite angle of this generation of Escort. I spent a long time looking at Mrs. Jason’s from this angle when replacing the timing belt one long evening many years ago. It was a preventative maintenance maneuver on my part, but replacing that belt was a first-class pain. That pain wasn’t just located in my hands, either.
Unlike this poor forlorn Escort, the spare tire on Mrs. Jason’s version never saw the ground. For that matter, it may have never seen daylight under our tutelage.
When we sold this car around 2004, it was the last four-cylinder car we owned until late 2014. While the Escort was a highly reliable car with delightful driving dynamics, the general lack of power infuriated me one too many times and Mrs. Jason had tired of putting an infant in the rear car seat. For my part, I swore I would never again possess a four-cylinder powered car. Why? At that point in time I had yet to experience any four cylinder by any manufacturer that adequately powered the car it was propelling. I was tired of driving underpowered cars plus was I was no longer willing to place my family in one.
Regrettably, we sold the Escort to Mrs. Jason’s oldest brother.
After his wife promptly sideswiped the bollards around a gas pump, he then proceeded to put another 200,000 trouble free miles on the car, overworking it nearly every step of the way. The old Escort gave up the ghost one day a few years ago, suddenly losing power and struggling to pull herself home. After a tortured sabbatical being parked in his driveway, it went away to some fellow who had some type of plan for the old Escort.
Little Escort, may your destiny surpass that of your white hued sibling. Happy trails, little feller.
Found April 2016, adjacent to the Cathedral Basilica, St. Louis, Missouri
That looks remarkably like a gen 3 Ford Laser circa 89-90, given they were both a Mazda before the Ford badges were attached, quite good cars from the little Ive had to do with them.
That’s because it’s the same car, albeit North American-built Escorts received a different 1.9 four-cylinder.
After this generation, the Laser and Escort went their separate ways although were still based on Mazda mechanicals. Then, after a few years, the Focus became Ford’s global compact.
I recall Aussie magazines decrying this generation of Laser as being “Americanized”. It replaced the also 323-derived KC/KE Laser, which was sold as the first-generation Mercury Tracer. For all that hand-wringing some Aussie journos did, these were good cars by Australian market standards and were an excellent compact offering in North America. The quality and charm of a Mazda but the dealership network of a Ford.
Sadly, the ’97 Escort lost the hatchback variant but kept the wagon (we never got the wagon in Australia) and had very mature styling. Perhaps too mature, but hey, in terms of its exterior and interior design it fit in very well with contemporary Fords.
Great article! From what I’ve heard from/about Mrs. Jason, she’s a wonderful lady. You’re a lucky man!
I wonder if your COAL story would have been different if she had owned a particularly reliable example of a Cavalier or Omni in the 1980s, and that had engendered such brand loyalty in her that she had instead bought an outgoing Cavalier or Shadow in the mid-1990s.
Has Mrs. Jason become more interested or knowledgeable in cars during your years together? I know presently what it’s like to be with someone for whom cars are neither a hobby nor a field of interest. The difference between you and I, though, is I don’t have a classic car in my garage!
I knew Mrs. Jason was a keeper from early on, helped as she fit my favorite profile of a tall, dark headed woman.
On the other hand, I flew in the face of her ideal mate – she didn’t want a car guy! Perhaps my raw animal magnetism won her over. In our time together (we met in late 1993) she has become somewhat more cognizant of what cars are, but still not of the degree I have tried to coax out of her. That said, she does have two automotive goals in life – to have a Ford Model A at some point and to also have a big 1970s era station wagon.
That’s a great question about the Cavalier or Omni and I’m not sure I have a good answer. I think such an experience would have helped, but whether or not it would have been the same is hard to know.
Wow, Mrs DougDs goals are to have a Chevette, and an enormous 1960’s station wagon.
These particular Escorts were great, some of our friends had one, they are eco-warriors (who are notoriously poor at vehicular maintenance) and that Escort endured years of overloading and neglect.
She wants a big ’70s wagon? She’s a keeper for sure!
I have heard alot of good reviews for this generation escort. So i am keeping it on my radar for a future daily driver.
I want those wheels. They fit on Tempos and are lighter than the Tempaz version.
Driving a ’99 Tracer lately and I like most things about it, except that for the amount of stuff I haul I would be better off with the wagon than the sedan. I’m impressed with the fuel economy (managed over 50 mpg on a couple tanks but most of the time it’s in the 40s) and that’s with the a/t which is light years ahead of the Tempaz a/t as far as ratios go.
These wheels fit on Contours too. I am looking at them in our driveway. Those are nice looking wheels.
Those wheels will not fit on a Tempo/Topaz or a Contour/Mystique without an adapter. The 91+ Escort/Tracer had a 4x100mm bolt pattern. The 81-90 Escort/Lynx, 84-94 Tempo/Topaz, 95-00 Contour/Mystique/Cougar all had a 4x108mm bolt pattern.
This particular style of wheel from Ford first debuted on the 1986 Ford Tempo GL Sport/Topaz GS Sport. They were just a cast aluminum wheel. They continued on the Tempo GLS/Topaz XR5/LTS from 1988-1991. In 1992 they were dropped from the Tempo/Topaz.
In 1993, the same style wheel came out with a machined face (like pictured), and was available on the 93-94 Topaz GS coupe (in the US) and the 93-94 Tempo/Topaz with a sport package in Canada. The same wheel was also available on the 93+ Escort with the sport package, but redrilled for the 4x100mm bolt pattern for the Escort.
IIRC, power windows and door locks weren’t offered on any Escort until the ’97 redesign. That’s pretty well unheard of today.
Interesting too that these cars got dual airbags in ’94 but kept their motorized shoulder belts all the way to the end.
There’s a diagram with a power window switch cluster in the manual for my old ’95 Escort, and I believe that at least the Escort GT could be ordered with power windows. My aunt had a fairly well-equipped ’91 Escort LX with power locks and cruise control (but crank windows and a 5-speed).
Yes this generation Escort could be equipped with power windows and door locks, though it wasn’t common.
I had a bright purple (factory color) 96 LX wagon when I was in Germany. It was a US spec car. It had power windows and locks cruise control and was a 5 speed. Great little wagon. Pretty rare color and options from what I’ve heard. Great car until it broke down right before I was supposed to PCS back home. Couldn’t ship a non running car
Thanks for this great story of spectacularly inexpensive underloved American cars serving far longer than we have a right to expect them to. Midyear 1985 is when the Escort gained the 1.9 CVH engine, so it is possible that your wife’s two cars shared an engine. As William points out above, the 1.9 was unique to American Escorts and probably helped immeasurably with the American take rate on automatics. I suspect if manuals were as common in the USA, the small Euro sized engines would have come with them. We see in the Escort GT of 83-90 how much more successful the HO 1.9 than the earlier 1.6 turbo.
But John, don’t you usually dislike when American automakers introduce global cars? I seem to recall you, for example, disliking the global Contour as it replaced an American designed and engineered model. Or does this perhaps earn more of your respect because they kept the same basic underpinnings and stretched the life out until the turn of the century?
To some extant, you are right. The long life of the American Escort line saw enough Americanization that it earned respect. The 1.9 being a great example of an engine that could have easily been done but would have never been considered for European an Asian drivers. In the USA it was a durable and much needed improvement over the 1.6 that was a big engine in most Escort markets.
Imagine instead a 96 Escort with the 1.5 the USA Protégé had in 1996. You gained 4 horsepower 92 versus 88 for the 1.9 but at 1100 rpm higher. The torque is where the advantage of the 1.9 shines, 12 foot pounds more torque at a lower rpm. The cars weigh the same and roughly achieve the same epa numbers. The trade of more pleasant high end power for a slower more frustrating commute is not a good trade for the USA market. Jason found the power lacking and this chased him away from fours. Would 12 foot pounds less torque earned more love. I would guess not.
You are also correct that I bemoan world platforms and Ford has been guilty of this even with the previous Pinto owing much to Euro Escorts. Some believe some magical formula exists where Euro handling, Japanese component quality, American climate control can be assembled cheaply in China and sold for cheap worldwide by some faceless conglomerate that doesn’t offend whether you vote for Brezhnev or Nixon. My feeling is we lose much when persueing this.
I don’t mean to sound like a redneck or troll as I have been called here. As more big three USA plants like Lordstown and Lake Orion on the chopping block and the only safe ones make trucks that I am just not into. I know similar things are happening in Australia and Europe. I am sorry to see this and the bemoan the world cars that have now mainly replaced them.
There’s a bit of a false dichotomy here because the 1.9-liter CVH engine was just a bored-and-stroked version of the 1.6-liter CVH widely used in European Ford products of the time, its extra displacement serving mainly to compensate for the more restrictive emissions controls and heavier safety equipment of North American models.
Complaints about the 1.9 tend to center on its lack of table manners rather than its displacement or output. The CVH engine was not an especially refined engine in any form, so I don’t think the 1.9 was really much worse than the 1.6 in that respect.
The ’85 had the 1.6 and an automatic while the ’96 had the 1.9 and a five-speed. The only real commonality was both were Escorts, both had two-doors, and both went well over a quarter-million miles.
The ’85 died at 259,000 due to an errant Jeep Cherokee hitting it head on; otherwise given its condition at the time, 300k would have been easily attainable.
259k on an 80’s Escort is rather remarkable–she must have gotten a particularly good one! My dad owned an ’83 Escort (purchased used in ’88) and, while quite reliable in general, it expired suddenly in 1994 when the timing belt snapped. The car had less than 120K on the odometer so it wasn’t quite due for belt replacement yet (60k interval if I remember correctly).
Everything about that car felt cheap, too. Reliable until it died? Yep. Pleasant? Not so much.
A friend of mine had a 1989 Escort five-door hatchback. When its timing belt snapped in the late 1990s, with over 100,000 miles on the car’s odometer, he simply had it replaced. The car gave him two more years of service while he attended flight training school in Florida.
Did the snapping of the timing belt ruin the engines of early North American Escorts? That wasn’t his experience with this 1989 Escort.
The early 1.6 engine (’81 to ’85 model years) was an interference design, whereas the 1.9 (’86 onward) with its raised deck was not. He was lucky he had a later model!
I am impressed that the 1.6 had such a long life. A friend in college had an 81 that died from a cracked engine block at low mileage. That gave me an impression that the early CVHs were weak motors.
Fun read.
More than a quarter million miles in any car short of a European Mercedes Diesel 240 or 300 taxi is amazing.
Kudos to the owner(s) who serviced them and the driver(s) who drove them properly.
Obviously Laura never drove either of these Escorts, and I hope she got over that nasty case of the crabs. ;-}
Interesting to hear of one’s lengthy personal experience with this car. Of the several people I knew to own Escorts, I never discussed the car with them.
These generation Escorts naturally used to be all over the place, but it seemed like 99% of them all disappeared in the early 2000s. I see one every once in a while, but it’s not often. I agree that this generation was much more appealing than the 1997-2002 generation, which oddly enough, there still seem to be a lot of kicking around.
I have been a passenger in one of those final generation Escorts and have driven its successor, the first generation Focus. Let’s just say I couldn’t wait to get out of either of them.
Maybe it’s just me, but when I see an example of this generation of Escort these days, half the time it’s a wagon — which is surprising given that wagons couldn’t have made up more than 15% of Escort production in these years. I suppose folks who own small wagons have an incentive to keep them going, since there’s few viable alternative newer alternatives.
The only Escort of this era that I drove was a GT — which I really liked. I would have considered buying one if I had been in the market for a new car back then.
Wagons made up only 15% of the production? Don’t forget that for sometime, Ford did something very unusual, offering all three body styles for the same $9,999 price. That made the wagon a bargain, one both of my SILs took up. And I saw an unusually high percentage of wagons of these; maybe it was a West Coast thing.
Both of their Escort wagons gave them great and long service. These were quite decent cars, and the wagon was a genuine bargain at $9,999.
You’re right. After looking into the numbers, it appears that wagons made up 32% of 2nd-generation Escort sales (583,000 out of 1.8 million cars). The wagon sales really shot up in the 1993-96 timeframe, so maybe that’s when the bargain pricing began.
The wagon was the 2nd most popular of the 4 body styles (3-dr hatch, wagon, 5-dr hatch & sedan respectively).
For the entire 1st generation (1981-90), wagons accounted for only 17% of total sales, so that’s a pretty significant change.
I’ll second that. The majority of these Escorts I do still see are wagons.
My Dad had a four-door Escort of this generation that was a great car. My observation is that the Escort and Focus wagons were most often bought by older folks, who keep them for years, which may contribute to their longevity. On the other hand, the cheap 2 doors are bought by young people, put through hell, and sold down the line, where keeping up with maintenance is not a priority
The 1.9 litre wagons from the ’95 era were truly outstanding… I paid mine off in 2 years and drove it for 16 years… with no mechanical repairs except the timing belts every 80K or so, one new clutch and a radiator… it started every time without fail, was maintenance neglected for 14 years and still ran reliably till I gave it away to a guy who could only afford the liabilty insurance on it… everything including the air conditioner still worked like new… it still had the original michelins with tread left on the rear after 16 years…even though they were only supposed to last 80k ( I insisted on those michelins when I first got the car…and replaced only the front ones that wore out faster…never had them rotated) … when the insured value was less than new tires, I finally bought a 2011 Kia Soul…(closest substitute for the escort) 7 years and 3 more years on the drivetrain warranty it hasn’t had a single problem… If it lasts as long as that escort I will be amazed and thankful… but a busted timing belt can ruin the Souls 2.0 liter… keeping fingers crossed, and the fluids changed on that one… and at 100k replacing the timing belt on schedule…it was only sub-compact with ABS discs on all 4 wheels standard in its class that year, just like the escort wagon that save me from an accident more than once!!!
My mother purchased a 5-door one of these new in 1991. She had rolled her 1989 Escort (nose to tail) due to hydroplaning in a rainstorm. She figured the last one saved her life, so she’d get another. She owned it for 7 years and about 250k km.
In the beginning, she wasn’t impressed. The first significant rainfall revealed that the windshield was not sealed at the factory. There was no weather stripping around it, so the dash and her lap got nice and wet from the trip.
After that was fixed under warranty, it was pretty trouble-free.
This was the vehicle I learned to drive on, and I drove it whenever possible until I got a car of my own a year or so later.
Ah, Escorts. Between Mrs. Aaron and I, we have had four, ranging from 1991-1998. Two blown 1.9 head gaskets, one and a half bad transaxles, three bouts of constant downshifting for hills, one deer, one old man rear ending, three timing belts, three frozen parking brake mechanisms, two rattle can or Sharpie paint jobs, four awkward brake pedals made for people with tiny shoes, four electrical systems that became wonky below 38 degrees Fahrenheit…I have a love/hate relationship with these things, mostly hate, but I’ve sure driven them a lot of miles.
What I find more interesting about this Escort is its similarity to the MK4 Euro Escort, design-wise speaking.
Despite being a Mazda, thus completely unrelated to the Euro Escorts, this US Escort kept more design cues from the MK3/4 Euro Escorts than the contemporary MK5 Euro.
We had 4 Escorts in the family but none of them were the US version as here in Brazil we only had the European one, at least the design, as being in South America, some of those oddities that only happens here affected the Escort too. The 1st one was a ’85 MK3 XR3, the 2nd was a ’88 MK4 XR3 Cabrio, the 3rd was a ’93 MK5 XR3 and the 4th and last is a ’98 MK6, which I still own.
Now the South American oddities: Both the MK3 and 4 were equipped with a Renault Cleon-Fonte 1.6 8V engine, the MK5 used the VW/Audi EA827 2.0 8V and the MQ transmission from the VW Golf, and only in 1997 with the launch of the MK6 that the South American Escorts received a proper Ford engine and transmission, the Zetec 1.8 16V coupled to the iB5 manual.
But I see some US Escorts here sometimes, I must have saw at least 4 of them on the last 20 years and it always intrigued me why someone would import these cars, as they probably came here through independent importers, and here this is a very expensive and bureaucratic service.
I saw several US-market Escorts in Poland in 2013, and I was also confused as to why someone would import one.
I’ve seen a jellybean Taurus in Ukraine as well!
You could buy a two door Orion as well in South America I think? Was it badged the ford Verona? Seem to think they did a VW badged one too. South America is great for oddball cars. Much more interesting than here in Europe!!
Disagree with the premise that these are the ‘only worthwhile Escorts’. The ZX2 made in the early-00s were real sleepers and screaming bargains among sporty FWD econo-coupes.
Seems like there are still a handful of these around, more so at least than contemporary Cavalier/Sunbirds or Sundance/Shadows. A competent little compact, from all indications, and a relatively good-looking one for the time. Let’s not mention the brand dilution the Mustang suffered by the fact that the ’91 Escort looks too much like the contemporary LX. Oh wait, I just did.
The generation that followed this is, as I gather, not as well regarded. My grandmother had one–after my grandfather stopped driving, she traded both their cars (’93 Protege LX and ’88 Voyager LE) on a lightly used Escort. I think it was a ’97 or ’98. And how she disliked that car! Dynamically its biggest flaw might have been the fact that it wasn’t a Mazda (following said Protege and a ’79 GLC wagon before that) but it was also quite unreliable for a new-ish vehicle. That Escort was gone by 2000 in favor of a ’99 626.
One of my college roommates had an Escort like this, a 2-door hatchback in sort of a burgundy color as I recall. At one point I convinced him to teach me to drive stick shift in it, in exchange for some beer (enjoyed later, of course). At the time and in retrospect I was/am impressed with how well that car drove, and how forgiving its transmission was! It also had a surprising amount of space – he would load all of his worldly possessions in it and drive it between Indiana and Atlanta every year. I wish that small hatchbacks with good all-around visibility like this were still available new, I might consider one.
This great piece had everything. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud on a packed morning train. Mrs. Jason’s Escort earned your respect – I love that. One of my post college housemates owned this generation of Escort Pony to replace the Saturn SL her boyfriend had totaled. Even though that car was as basic as any modern Ford ever was, she seemed to really like it.
Seeing this Escort opened a flood gate of things I had forgotten about. It’s odd how things work – I’ve been sitting on some of the other cars I mentioned for well over a year and simply can’t find the creative spark. I see an Escort and my mind is popping faster than a spark plug at 6,000 rpm. Scary.
I had a 1999 Escort wagon, loved it. 2.0 SOHC four speed auto, and yes the fact that Mazda did most of the engineering was the best part of the car. A Mazda Protege5 at a discount.
I’m so lucky my ex-wife passed away about a year after our divorce. She was determined to stay in the town we both lived in.
I’ve liked the U.S. Escort through all it’s generations and came close to buying one a few times….pretty much whenever a new model hit the dealerships. But I never could get comfortable behind the wheel.
My family would own nearly a half dozen Escorts, mostly the 1st generation models, and all either wagons or hatchbacks….and all with manual transmissions.
All were reasonably reliable, especially considering the abuse they suffered from drivers who refused to read the owner’s manuals.
Ford Escort: Ignominious transportation for the dollar-challenged, or overly-patriotic non-enthusiast. Frequently invisible.
By ’96 there were too few (IMO) 2-door, front drive, 4 cylinder hatchbacks left on the US market. I was never a fan of the Escort in particular, but I’ve got to give Ford props for keeping this bodystyle going when others had pretty much abandoned it. I may be in the minority, but this is a combo that I’ve always found very practical without the poseur CUV thing going on. I’ve actually been tempted by a few Kia Rio/ Hyundai Accent 2-door hatches recently. I guess it’s a throwback to my early 80’s coming-of-driving-age, but I just really like a modestly powered 2-door hatch with good traction and a 5-speed. Simple “Old Fashioned” goodness in my book.
I had a 1996 Escort LX wagon, loaded with pw & pl and air and the 4-spd auto. I loved that car! Bought in Jan. 2005 and kept for 8 1/2 years, you just couldn’t kill it. Absolutely without a doubt the best car I ever owned.
I’ve always been an Escort fan although I’ve never owned one and can’t actually really recall ever driving one either, weird. One of my favorite car related stories ever is one that was published in CAR thirty years ago where they took it upon themselves to drive a base Escort 5000 miles in one week around Great Britain. I still re-read it every few years and am trying to figure out a way to scan it and put it up on here (it’s an oversize magazine which causes my scanner issues)
Anyway, your story was a wonderful story of remembrance and also of that time in one’s life where so much is happening in such a short timespan. No matter how the car was, it will always be an overall positive based on how the other things worked out. You clearly did not feel much for the car when you owned it but one can see the obvious nostalgia after the passage of time. Thoroughly enjoyable and having met Mrs. Jason in person only makes it more so.
Thank you. Mrs. Jason loved that car a bunch. We still have the window sticker for it, which she laminated right after buying it. It’s likely the best preserved Escort window sticker in existence. And, like you have experienced, too big for my scanner.
While I don’t have the window sticker, I did laminate the build sheet for my Ranger to preserve it.
If the scanner won’t do it try photographing the article. It should work.
Download CamScanner for your phone. It takes a picture, and then unskews it and saves it as a pdf so it’s darn close to how it would come out of a rel scanner.
Gotta show some love for the prior generation, too. I drove an ’89 Escort Pony for years; 4-speed manual and manual steering. I can attest to the stoutness of the drive train; that poor car took all my teenage abuse and only needed a timing belt around 90,000 miles. I loved that car’s simplicity.
The 97’s were not just ‘dumbed down Tauruses’, but had updated 2.0 motor and other enhancements. Don’t judge a car solely on its looks.
Fantastic story! I had no idea these Escorts were among the cockroaches of the motor vehicle world.
Despite the ugly CHMSL sticking off the hatch, the lack of rear spoiler actually looks pretty good on this bodystyle
Like your Escort, i think every stick I’ve ever driven has had some reluctance about going from 1st into 2nd gear, at least compared to the other upshifts. Never been sure if it is my imagination or if there is a simple mechanical explanation for it.
Nice tale – actually you really like these cars but know that they are not an example of Ford challenging themselves to achieve for best in class. They saved that for the 1998 Focus, and got a home run.
Here’s hoping modern Fords can do the same sort of mileages. I’ve been a Ford driver since 2001 and have put something like 360,000 on 3 cars – 2 Focuses and the current Fiesta diesel. Reliability has been absolute (one unscheduled shop visit in 2005 for a faulty ignition coil), no exhaust replacements and the current Fiesta feels like it has another 115,000 miles in yet, with no concerns.
I have never owned one of these, but am inordinately fond of them BECAUSE of their Mazda 323 underpinnings.
My ’89 Mazda 323 sedan was one of the best cars I’ve ever owned. And these remind me of it in oh so many ways.
I drove a late 1990’s model once, it was in about the same shape as the car in the photos with multi colored body panels. This one had I think hit a deer, the airbags were blown and were hanging out of the dash and steering wheel. Steering and brakes only responded marginally to inputs…despite the owners insistence that the front end had been “rebuilt”….Needless to say I passed on buying it.
I once drove a female band member’s ’91 Escort wagon, an LX I think. I recall the steering being remarkably accurate and full of feel, with clear and nuggety road feedback that was not too dissimilar from what would later be celebrated on the redesigned, Euro-centric Focus.
Not so celebratory was the horrific NVH of the 1.9L Four. Hers was an automatic, and I remember the vibrations being so intense at idle that both the interior and exterior mirrors shook to the point of obscuring the view rearward. In motion, it got better.
The Escort I really wish I’d driven, though – and never did – was the LX-E (there was an equivalent Mercury Tracer model) which had a DOHC Mazda Four under the hood. If I remember correctly, they did 0-60 in the mid-sevens, which was really quite remarkable for the time. In fact, it would merit comment today, considering that the cars also had nice seats, ride comfort, and visibility, and would make fine daily drivers. Surely, those are worth well more than the powder required for their destruction.
My grandad had one of these, a light blue two-door. It replaced a first-gen Escort, if I’m remembering correctly. His Escort was the car we drove around in when I was a little kid, until it ended up getting totaled. He replaced it with a used ’95 Civic (which, many years later, became *my* ’95 Civic).
All that is to say, I have lots of fond memories of riding around Memphis with my grandad in one of these Escorts, especially in the summers (he was a teacher back then, before he retired) when neither of us had anything better to do than go to libraries and museums.
i had a very trouble free 92 escort LXE. this was the sedan w/ the mazda 1.8 DOHC. with 127 HP it wasn’t a hot rod but no complaints about being underpowered. i always found these gen 2 escorts to be very comfortable and with the sportier suspension entertaining. now drive a zx2. this is a 7 sec. car and light on its tires, very tossable.
My wife and I bought a 4-door hatchback new in 1995 (just a few months after we got married, the first brand new car either of us had ever bought) and had it for 12 years. It was my wife’s daily driver from 1995-99 and my daily driver from 1999-2007. Over the 12 years that we owned it, it was largely a trouble-free car.
As we were shopping for a new car in 2007, we would have logically used the Escort as a trade-in. But I was instead thinking about keeping it as a third car. Remember where gas prices were going in 2007; the Escort got much better gas mileage than we anticipated that the two main vehicles in our resulting fleet would. The Escort also seemed to be in solid condition, didn’t have especially high miles for a 12-year old car (the way we had used our two vehicles over its lifespan, it had often been the “second car”, and a result only had something like 97,000 miles on it), and would have been relatively cheap to insure.
One night, however, while starting it up to leave a dealer where we had been looking at the vehicle that would ultimately replace it, the engine grenaded spectacularly. There was a loud thunk as the engine’s internal parts struck the underside of the hood. It was if the car knew it was about to be replaced, and had decided that it “wasn’t going out like that”. It was disappointing to have the motor fail catastrophically at such a relatively low mileage level. To be fair, the car was at a fairly advanced age regardless of its mileage, and we were essentially done with it as a daily driver at that point, so I can’t complain too much. But suddenly, both keeping it as a third car or using it as a trade-in were no longer really viable options. I ended up giving the car to my mechanic. I think he was originally planning to sell it as a junk car, but his shop determined that the car was in good enough shape and had low enough miles that they could rebuild or replace the engine and still make a profit off selling it.
When we had the car, I was aware that it had some Mazda DNA, but never understood how much, and knew nothing of the history of rebadged Mazdas in this class that Ford had been selling in Australia. I think Ford really made an effort to spin these cars as having more “North American Ford” in them than they really did. This was helped by the fact that the styling was significantly different from the equivalent Mazda models, and by the use of the 1.9-liter four that was carried over from the previous generation of Escort.
One issue that I do remember with this car is that it seemed to need brake jobs constantly. I remember once saying to my mechanic, “I don’t know if it’s the car, or the way I drive”. His response was “I think it’s mostly the car”. He was probably right, because I haven’t had that problem with any other car I’ve ever owned.
I remember the car as being very sluggish. I would often enter the Massachusetts Turnpike via an onramp that was followed by a long though not especially steep upgrade. It seemed to take forever to get up that hill. The ’90s marked the start of a new era of new engine technology which would allow manufacturers to get a lot more power out of engines than had been the case it the ’80s. The 1.9 used in these was a relic from the ’80s that survived several years into the new era without being upgraded or replaced. As my wife and I had been used to driving cars from the ’80s with anemic four-cylinder engines, the Escort didn’t seem unusually underpowered to us at the time. But in contrast with the vehicles we’ve driven since, it certainly was.
We tend to keep cars for a long time, buying new ones infrequently. The next time we were in the market for a new vehicle after 2007 was in 2013, and we ended up buying a Ford Escape. I was looking to get back into a smaller 4-cylinder vehicle, and I think the memory of the Escort played some role in giving Ford another try.
Here’s your useless trivia for today…I am told that several of the Pundmanns from Pundmann Ford are deaf and have been from birth…apparently it’s a hereditary trait that runs in their family.
My 85 and a half Escort was the first car I had owned with A/C, bought it in 1988 or so from Royal Midtown Chrysler Plymouth on South Kingshighway across the street from the old Kriegshauser Mortuary.
I don’t know how I did it, but I never finished typing my post above…my Escort was a steaming pile, with dealer-installed A/C that would only blow right on my face, 4 speed manual, leaking water pump, leaking headlamps, just a terrible car.
Having said that, my 2000 ZX2 was an amazingly tough little car, and was running very well when it got traded in with 180,xxx miles on it. Lots of Mazda DNA is likely why it ran as long as it did…
A coworker had a 96 2 door hatch. The engine survived a broken timing belt, but at something like 203,000 the automatic trans decided to stop transmitting as the car lost drive on the freeway during the evening rush hour. Bill coasted to the shoulder and that was the end of the road.
I had a fleet only 2002 sedan. Bare bones interior and seemingly devoid of sound insulation, but the high zoot option package of power windows/locks/mirrors, cruise and ABS. Bought at 2 years of age, 23,000 miles for a pittance, iirc $7,500, with a year to go on the original factory warranty.
The good: a stout body structure with doors that closed solidly and a/c that shames my fancy VW.
The bad: engine vibration at idle that shook the steering wheel to a blur, OEM shocks that lost gas pressure at subfreezing temperatures so the front wheels would dance uncontrollably until the agitation finally warmed them up enough to work some 75 miles down the road, and somewhere around 60,000, a cold start bearing knock, in spite of 3,000 mile oil changes, that would wake the dead until oil pressure built up enough to quiet it.
Sold at some 86,000 miles, with warped brakes, bearing knocks, a glowing CEL from a leaking idle air valve and an occasional ABS fault light. It met it’s end some three months later. A VIN search on the net yielded this pic.
Had a white one too, a company car. Indestructible, buzzy, but a nice Mazda platform. Ford US 4-cylinder engines were still pretty agricultural, but the blue velour seats and strong HVAC kept me comfy. Hard braking always jacked it up at the right rear. Oh, and a long screw stuck several inches out of the b-pillar, like it was there to guide the seat belt.
I’ve had a couple of Escorts and both treated me exceptionally well. My first, an ’84 3 door with a slushbox, put up with some ungodly abuse. I was doing handyman type work at the time (late ’80s) and loaded it to the gills on many occasions. I’d think nothing of throwing 10, 12, or more 80# bags of gravel mix, 20 bundles of shingles, 4×4’s, or whatever was needed for the day’s work in the back of the thing. Oh, she’d grumble and cuss, but she never let me down. Sold her for $100.00 with over 260k miles on her weary bones. My second one was a ’97 stick sedan that was an emergency purchase back in ’08. I had a Grand Marquis at the the time that had just been totaled and needed some wheels quick, and when the ’97 was offered to me for a paltry $200 I jumped. She had a major p/s leak but came with a new pump that I soon installed. Maybe a month after I bought her I got sideswiped by a Town Car. The lady’s insurance gave me just shy of $1100.00 for the damage (which was very minor) and for some odd reason they didn’t total the car! Pocketed the insurance check 🙂 and keep driving her until I bought another Panther (an ’05 P71) and put her up for sale. One of my coworkers needed a car for her son so I told her to make me an offer… she offered me $1100.00! Bonus! Got the car for $200, and got back almost $2200! Not bad, eh 🙂 ?
I love making money on cars…my ZX2 had been paid off for years, I got sideswiped one evening and rear ended the next afternoon, pocketed $4600 between the two claims and kept the car…albeit with a salvage title. My best was an ’86 BMW 528e, paid $1000 for it, drove it for nearly a year, got hit. The woman’s insurance company was befuddled by how to value the car, so they got a valuation out of the NADA classic car guide, and offered me $4800. The sold me the salvage for $300, which I resold for $600…as much as I liked the car, I really needed the cash, and the timing was magnificent.
We moved to VT in ’96 when the Escort was practically the state car. A couple years after we arrived there was an announcement of a prison break, the escapees were last seen driving a green escort. “Great” we thought “that narrows it down to a quarter of the cars on the road.”
A friend of mine had a ’95 Escort wagon (in green). It was kept on the road by a local garage called “Just Escorts”. They worked on so many of them they could diagnose and fix them so fast they could charge peanuts. Usually they would bring it in for, say an oil change, and while they were changing the oil they would also replace a missing piece of trim from the bone yard out back gratis. Despite how cheap it was to run and repair 170k miles back and forth to upstate NY kept the tinworm well fed.
They were sitting in a local park eating lunch when his wife looked at the fenders and commented on the bubbles that were turning to holes. They walked around the car agreeing that the bubbles were holes, and the little holes were big holes. They resolved to start car shopping soon. Picnic done the got in the car turned the key and heard a loud, probably expensive bang. They called a truck that hoisted it up onto the flatbed, and as it pulled forward the car fell off. Only 2 shocks went through their mounts, but it left an escort wagon shaped rust patch on the grass for days. They wound up giving the carcass to Just Escorts.
It was kept on the road by a local garage called “Just Escorts”. They worked on so many of them they could diagnose and fix them so fast they could charge peanuts.
I was motoring along Miller Rd in Kalamazoo, in my Escort, in the late 2000s and passed a dirt used car lot that was packed with Escorts, like 10 or 15 of them. Two weeks later, I was in Kazoo again and made a point of taking a good look at that lot as I drove past. It was not a mirage, nothing in the lot but Escorts. Looked up the lot’s web site when I got home. Sure enough, the guy billed himself as an Escort specialist. He didn’t carry anything but Escorts until decent ones got too thin on the ground.
My mom’s last car was a ’95 wagon. She gave up driving 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 81, not because she couldn’t drive any longer, but because she couldn’t justify the expense of owning car she seldom drove. We unfortunately had to junk it upon its retirement as the rear strut towers had extensive rot. Oh, did I mention it was a stick? Yep, my mom loves stick shifts 🙂 !
Owned three Escorts and the last one is still in service.
Bought my first new car, a 1987 black exterior with red interior 2 door – beautiful car but it seemed to bog down with AC going; saw the new 1988 1/2 Escort GT – had to have it – it was a great car when it ran – all problems were assembly issues that were fixed by another dealer with 60,001 miles (car had a 60k) warranty. That dealer fixed everything at no cost and none of the original issues ever repeated (selling dealership replaced the parts that went bad but not the causes of re-occurring issues).
After a while I bought a stripped 1997 Escort LX – one of those “from $9,990” teaser cars. It was built in August 1996 so its 20th birthday is fast approaching! With over 170k miles, it still looks and drives like new – easily 47 mpgs average each tank with best being 54 mpgs on the highway. I’ll likely be a 90 year old man driving a 50 plus year old car – unless it is totaled in an accident, I’m keeping this car. Never the best, but it is dependable, cheap to run and to insure, and I’m used to it.
I always thought these cars were underrated. The 1.9 was coarse but anvil tough and would pull higher gears around town. The 5 speed had a slick gearchange, and the handling was better than the Corolla. You give me a 90’s Escort with the Mazda twin cam and a 5 speed and I’ll all good. Given the price difference, I might even choose it over a Corolla.
Great article, I enjoyed reading it!
I bought a 95lx for my wife in 96. We drove it until last year, then rust made it unsafe (strut towers and rear control arms). I couldn’t find what I wanted to replace it with- all the new cars suck! Then I replaced it with another 1995 bought from EBay! That’s right, I found an EXACT COPY of what I had. Same color, same options, hell it came off the line 8 days after the first one!! It only had 84,400 miles on it!! I’ve had it for a year and a half and it still drives tight, like a new car. I haven’t gotten the 40-50mpg others say they can get on either of my Escorts, But, I have had mine to the governed speed (110).
Like someone else said here, I’ll be a 90 year old man in a 50 year old car!!
Someone else’s comment brought me back here. I just took my Escort from Chicago to Arizona (3500 miles round trip). At 75-85mph (or more) I barely burned 1/2 a quart of oil. I didn’t quite get the expected miled I wanted, but with a 35-50 mph crosswind, running 80 mph with the A/C on, I think 28 MPG wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. Once I got out of the crosswind, it went back to 35 MPG. I’m going on 135,000 miles now. The car will outlast me!
I can relate, the original US Escort from the 80s was pretty dire. These are Mazda 323 based and generally solid although the Ford CVH engine is noisy and vibratory so the “sporty” ones with the Mazda twin cam are better. We had a 95 LX hatchback so it had the 1.9 and apart from spitting out the rubber insert in the crank pulley every 60,000 miles (convenient reminder to replace the timing belt) It held a family of four, and a surprising amount of stuff and was comfortable with good ergonomics. We got 15 years of service out ours before scrapping it and going to only one car.
The later 99-01 Escorts used the same platform but felt cheaper and didn’t drive as well.
I owned an ’82 Escort GT from new for 8 years. The “GT” moniker was mostly unknown until a year or so later. A four speed trans, as the five speed had not yet appeared. A larger carb, camshaft, higher compression pistons and exhaust header gave it a whopping 80 hp vs. about 66 for the regular 1.6 CVH. The lack of a 5th gear kept the engine rpm’s up high enough to make it a serviceable road car. 80 mph was all in and for rare occurrences. Still, it returned low 30’s mpg. The 5 speeds could approach 40 mpg.
I purchased it as a real lot queen in early 1983 as an ’82 leftover. $6500 from an $8200 sticker. No one would pay $8200 for an Escort in 1982.
Other than the tinker toy quality tie rod ends, it was nearly a trouble-free car for nearly 100k miles. Frequent oil changes (no more than 2.5-3k miles) were a necessity as the CVH was a notorious oil sludger. Of course, the timing belt and water pump changes were required as well. Quirky Ford wheel alignment specs caused rapid tire wear. Essentially, Ford wanted the Escort to understeer profusely as not to scare first time US small car owners. The only way around that was to install Euro spec struts without the built-in evilness.
Experiences with family and friend’s later 1.9’s proved them to be even worse oil sludgers among the average demographic. Also, considerably harsher running than the 1.6 due to the displacement increase on an inline 4. The very late models with the Zetec engine were well known for catastrophic engine failure from a dropped valve seat.
An uncle of mine ran a couple of Mazda diesel equipped 80’s Escorts into the ground. Quite reliable, 50 mpg. The cylinder heads tended to crack at about 150k-180k miles, however.
I believe that the GT versions were the first to get the Mazda underpinnings about 1991. Also, the superior Mazda 1.8 twin cam. The Mercury Tracer had gone Mazda 323 a year or more earlier.
Of all the many millions (5M?) of Ford Escorts produced for the NA market, Ford is said to have lost a unit average of $500 on every one. Ode to CAFE necessity.
I liked everything about these cars, except the over the shoulder automated mouse track. Those were awful.
We rented thousands of these for many years without a problem.