Photos from the Cohort by Hyperpack.
This is a pair of siblings I haven’t seen in a long time. Two Dearborn products from the early 1980s; a Ford Escort and a Mercury Lynx next to each other, making quite a couple. Furthermore, the derelict pair carry that oh-so-early-’80s shade of beige I think 90% of these came with.
Talk about a time capsule… that still feels anchored to today. After all, these are no pristine car show examples. And while looking remarkably intact, the passage of time is undeniable in their present condition. Looking at them is like finding an old high school photo, all cracked, discolored, and covered with mildew.
I won’t lie and pretend I was ever a fan of these. I never paid attention to them back in the day and I always thought they were rather unremarkable cars. Which they were. But I guess that makes them all the more extraordinary now. Who really worries about preserving the common and humdrum? No one, that’s usually who. So the fact that these two survived, and are sitting side by side, is all the more extraordinary to my eye.
Still, could there be an early ’80s Escort/Lynx fan out there? As odd as that idea sounds, humans are a varied and unpredictable lot. Such a thing could explain this pairing. Or maybe a compulsive hoarder bought the two and tossed them together, as it naturally should be done once a matching pair of anything is found.
Here’s another Dearborn product uploaded with the same batch of photos that I assume sits nearby. An early Mercury Topaz in a shade of blue I don’t ever recall seeing. Not that I was paying that much attention to these cars then. I mean, it was a Topaz after all.
These I’m more familiar with, as I spent many hours as a passenger on a similar vintage Tempo during my college years. And well, that one was beige. Had to be!
Talk about a car I’ve been trying to forget. A decent appliance to get you places, but so bland, that I still struggle to come up with words to talk about that dull lump of automotive oatmeal.
Wait, I started this piece sounding far more positive. So I better get back to the econobox pair, which together remind me of the parking lots of my Puerto Rican teenage days. The once-common, now uncommon, that if seen, fills empty blanks on your memory and reawakens long-gone sensations.
So, I honestly never thought I would be kinda glad to see an Escort/Lynx pair surviving to this day. Particularly in that shade of beige, or chamois, or whatever Ford called it.
Not that I’m jumping joyfully or anything like that. But it’s odd to think that of these Dearborn siblings, I care far less about the one I’m more familiar with. But such is our relationship with objects. Some are distant reminders of the past, awakening dormant neurons and bringing us closer to moments long gone. Others, well, only bring back hours of trite idleness we have no interest in recalling.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1981 Ford Escort – You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A Good Impression
The Topaz was more like the younger second cousin, not really a sibling to those two. The Ford Tempo was the real sibling to the Topaz, and a bit later we were treated to the Contour/Mystique dynamic duo. Thankfully, the majority of them have died and gone to automotive heaven, even here in my decrepit neighborhood. I briefly owned a couple of used Escorts back in the early 90s, but I got rid of them rather quickly, because they didn’t measure up to my beloved Fiestas, which were rudely replaced by them in the USA around 1981.
We had seemingly an endless supply of those going through the family car lot when I was a kid. I remember their simplicity and shaky 4 cylinders rattling around the lot. I bet these have little in common with the ford escorts from the UK?
Yes – I don’t think that they have much in common with European Escorts, even though they were originally meant to be similar. It’s still nice to see them – there are Ford Escort owners clubs, so I hope someone will save them.
There used to be a US Escort parked near me back in the ’90s. Don’t know where it came from, or where it went. Although they appear fairly similar in photos, it’s visibly larger than the Euro version in person. Even without one side-by-side to compare, it’s pretty obvious. I could easily believe there’s no commonality at all, although the wheelbase is actually identical.
What I find striking is how little differentiation Mercury had from Ford by this point. Let’s see, there’s a different grille insert and clear rather than amber front/side marker lamp lenses. Yet Mercury trudged on another few decades like this.
That was really always the case with the bottom barrel Mercurys, the Bobcat was no better, nor the Mavcomet. Plus GMs H bodies from the 70s and J bodies from the 80s didn’t really set the bar high either, and lest I bring up the K cars/omnirizons
True, and this said volumes about how Detroit perceived small cars at the time – the big and (to a lesser extent) mid-sized models were worth differentiating but the small ones weren’t, ignoring that that’s where an increasing percentage of buyers were. But even by ’70s/’80s GM/Ford standards the Escort-Lynx differentiation was pathetic. At least the Bobcat had a distinctly different Lincolnesque grill that wouldn’t directly interchange with the Pinto grille; I’m pretty sure it and the Comet had different hoods from their Ford counterparts as well. GM always had the most differences between divisions; even though the H and J bodies were low points, the Buick V6 wasn’t available in the Monza, and later years had distinctly different front clips. The J bodies also got more distinct interior trim on high-trim models, completely different front clips, taillights that were shaped differently, and sometimes different engines and dashboards. Chrysler had given up differentiating Dodges from Plymouths from the mid-’70s onward, with only grille and taillight inserts (and a few trim pieces on high-trim models) being unique. As pointed out by another poster, even the Pentastar logo was shared.
I wonder if customers could get pretty good deals on Lynxes? After all, I’m sure quite a few dealers got stuck with various types of Lynxes, and who on earth thought of visiting their local Lincoln-Mercury dealer for an economy car?
I got a great deal on an ’89 Tracer even though unlike the Lynx it was nothing at all like an Escort – it was more like a Mazda 323, but almost nobody looking for a Civic or Corolla competitor thought to drop by an L-M dealer, and being a little-known model in only its second year, and with Mexican manufacture making it exempt from the “voluntary” Japanese import quotas in effect at the time, paid much less than a comparable Mazda would have cost.
I think your Tracer was actually the Mazda 323 design…not sure about Escort that year but my friend (who actually owned both the Plymouth Sapporo and the 80’s Dodge Challenger back to back) sold the Challenger to buy a new ’88 Mercury Tracer with some favorable stock proceeds…and it was cousin to the 323. Odd, my middle sister owned an ’86 Escort…I’m not sure when the Ford was given the 323 treatment, could it have been sometime in the 90’s? I think eventually both were Mazda design, but not sure when the transition occurred on the Ford (think it was 88 for Mercury).
Guess we were a Ford family back then, my Mom had a new ’88 Tempo, which was just a stretched Escort….not much of a car, but I used to borrow it after she retired when I was working on my own car and needed a parts runner (only have 1 car at a time). I kind of paid her back for her kindness once my sister moved in and they shared the Tempo, I took to fixing some of the things that were wrong with it, the fuel release button in the glove compartment didn’t work so they had been opening the trunk to get to the manual fuel door release; can’t remember what the fix was but it wasn’t too bad (probably a relay). Also got one of her power locks working (bad switch) and changed out the aero headlight (wish they’d stayed with sealed beams). Kept the car till 2009, what did it in was bad AC compressor, we didn’t want to replace it but AC is pretty important in central Texas in summer…Texas had a state version of “cash for clunkers” that the Tempo qualified for (it got too good gas mileage to qualify for the federal version) and she got an ’09 Focus new as replacement after 21 years.
My sister’s Escort was similarly not a bad car…not as nice as a 323 or Tracer, but pretty dependable, other than the fuel system (she needed to have an electic fuel pump added inline) and ignition (hybrid IC module went out on it) but nothing too unusual.
People probably think I’m wacky, but I wouldn’t mind a 2017-2018 Focus Hatchback to replace my Golf. I don’t really want a CUV, and hatchbacks are almost extinct (except for the Mazda 3 or GTi)…but I also want cloth instead of vinyl seats. Yeah, I’m picky. Also have to get automatic (no one in my family drives standard and I’m getting to age where that isn’t practical ) but I’m leary of Ford’s powershift automatics, too bad they didn’t keep the old low-tech automatic…but I don’t want to buy a Focus from the 200x, a bit old for my only car.
Wonder what my buddy is driving now? Lost touch with him.
I was a fan of these as a kid in the 80s. I especially liked the 85.5-88 Escort, with the updated nose and wheel center caps. However grown up, reading all the hardships about working on these and driving them, they lost the luster. I had a chance to get a pair of mid 80s Escort GTs for like 3k, but as pretty as they are to look at, someone else can own them.
As far as the Topaz, my best friend had an 85 in high school. It was a good car for years and we drove it all over the country. But something finally blew in the engine and he junked it. There was one girl in school who had a Tempo. She stopped in the 7-11 and came out to find it on fire.
The guy with the Topaz, his sister had a Lynx. Probably the only one I’ve ever seen. Barely could tell it from an Escort. GM gets ripped all the time for the badge engineering, but at least they put unique front and rear sheetmetal and interiors and wheels on each brand for the most part. Not so with the Lynx, or many other cars. Heck, Chrysler did it and didn’t even have to change the Pentastar badges. A grille and name badges and that’s it.
After my 1982 Citation fell apart and died during its inaugural Freshman year, my company hauled it off and quickly replaced it with a 1982 Escort. None of my supervisors were happy with the switch and felt sorry for me. That is how I felt when I was first given the keys to the Escort.
But I discovered a good car. It was a smaller car than the X Car, even though the driver’s seat was scooted back past the driver’s door to accommodate me, it ended up being a very decent little car. It was as airy as the Citation but had a higher quality interior. The seats were better, the plastics were firmer and higher quality and the seams were tighter. After years of Pintos and sub-par Fords, the Escort was quite a revelation – a Ford that worked and was dependable.
My territory was all of Colorado, and I drove the Rockies daily. What was sub-optimal for the Escort was that it had a automatic, not manual, transmission. The company just ordered a car for the Front Range and Denver, not for mountain driving, which is what I did. Yet, even with the automatic, the Escort was OK. Not as great as if it was with a manual to get over the mountain passes – but OK, and not as bad as other cars struggling alongside me to make it through Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70. It was a better engine than the Fisher-Price Corn-Popper in the Citation what I swore was going to blow up every time I had an incline.
The lease on the Escort was up after a year, but after weekly breakdowns in the Citation, it was a suprise to me that the Escort survived all the mountain trips without a break down.
More than one supervisor back in Denver would ask me what I thought about the car, and I would surprise them with a big thumbs up. They all knew about the cursed Citation, as we had a fleet of those lemons for the 1982 season until they were all towed off – and was interested in my experiences with the little Ford. They promised me a better car and that meant I was blessed with a Mercury Cougar sedan the following year.
Folks who don’t remember these times have no idea how my generation was raised with very low expectations on cars. Mountain driving is hard on them. I put 60,000 miles on cars each year and until the Escort, and the Ford Futura that came before the Citation, I lumped all Detroit cars as junk and undependable rides. So Ford was really the first Detroit company that proved to me that they could build a car as good as the imports.
When the Citation fell apart, it was the norm. I didn’t expect new cars to just run for years without breakdowns. The problem with the Citation was the weekly breakdowns. The entire fleet of Citations broke down to the point where the Chevy dealer just gave up on servicing them and hauled them away. Most of the Citations were replaced by the newer Cavalier and Pontiac J2000/Sunbirds. Because of my auto needs, I ended up with the Ford Escort and it was a surprising good fortune.
The Fox Fords like the Futura and the Cougar were also good cars and did a good job. I would get one today even 40 years later.
They might look unremarkable today, but 40 years ago they were indeed remarkable.
I got my first “real” job in October 1982 and went out looking for cheap and reliable transportation. Coming from a GM family, I went and looked at the Chevettes that were out at the time. Then for laughs I went down the road to the Ford dealership and looked at the Escort. The differences were astounding. The Escort’s paint was perfect compared to the Chevette’s orange peel on the hood and roof. The tape stripe on the Chevette was peeling off already, while Ford actually painted their stripes. The Escort’s carpeting was perfect while the Chevette’s was frayed. Ford Credit gave me a great interest rate for the time, and a $200 dollar rebate. I took the deal. That Escort made me a Ford Man for a decade and a half, much to the dismay of my family.
I would agree with your thoughts on the build quality and general reliability of the early Ford Escorts. The carpet, cloth upholstery and paint on my ’82 were better than the class of car. Later ones, maybe not as much, as the expected financial losses per unit added up.
The Escort in your posted photo seems to have the same 13-inch alloy wheels as my ’82 GT model had. I had never seen another Escort with those same wheels in the 8 years that I had mine.
I bought a used Lynx in 1990. It was an ’81, I think with the 4-speed. I replaced the cracked aluminum cylinder head and drove it for 3 years. I would try to hold 4th gear climbing Chinook pass near Mt. Rainier, but would have to shift down as the little 65hp 1600 didn’t have quite enough oomph. After 3 years, it was chocolate milkshake coolant time. My father in law offered to trade his 88 Dodge Aries straight across fir the Lynx, and as a 4th year teacher with a new mortgage and new son, I jumped at the chance. Ironically, the Aries made it only 2 years before blowing a head gasket itself.
I remember the difficulties finding a used cylinder head that wasn’t also cracked and paid $350 in 1990 dollars for it (close to 875 simoleans in 2024 ). Not my best auto purchase, but still better built than my ’74 Pinto.
I’ll cautiously raise my hand and admit to being a new Escort buyer. I owned it for about 8 years and had decent service with it. Mine was a very left over ’82 GT purchased in Spring ’83. Being a scarce ’82 “GT” 1.6, it had a silly sticker for an Escort but the price had been substantially lowered. A larger carburetor, different camshaft and factory exhaust headers brought it up to a whopping 80 hp from the standard 67 hp. Ford had not yet added a 5th gear to the trans. FI was still a bit off.
Other than the tinker toy quality tie rod ends and occasional wheel bearing replacements, it was a reliable car for about 95k mi. I still saw it around for years after I sold it, decaying in appearance. The IRS made it poor man’s long road trip car, which I did a number of times. The Ford CVH engines were known for being sludgers (especially the later 1.9 lt) but I never had that problem. I did 3000k mi OCI’s and use was normally about 10 mile minimum warm up.
I believe that the early Euro/UK Escorts were quite similar to the US model. The biggest difference was the lack of Euro/Brit emissions regulations in the early ’80’s. The smaller CVH engines were base. 1.1 lt and 1.3 lt? The sportier ones got a 1.6 lt. There was a tiny trade in importing engine and suspension components from the German version to the US. Higher HP and much better handling from their XR model. Sadly, the US model had pretty bad understeer, intentionally designed in by US Ford. Purportedly, to not make things too scary for first time US sub compact buyers. That resulted in possibly the worst tire wearing auto ever sold. The Euro struts would eliminate that at substantial cost. When they began using the Mazda 323 chassis and suspension (1991?) that problem was gone.
A buddy at work purchased a GT about the same time, really wanted a Thunderbird TC but money was tight. A neat car and he enjoyed it. I believe he had the same issue with tires and only a failed fuel pump that was replaced under warranty.
The Escort in these photos is a duplicate of one my in-laws bought new in 1985. Options were limited to a/c and an automatic.
When I first met my now wife, that Escort had 212k miles on it. She was the primary driver by this point. After she got a job in 1996, the Escort went back to her parents. In July 1998, a Jeep Grand Cherokee made a left turn in front of my father-in-law on a rural two-lane road. He had little time to brake from his 55 mph speed.
The impact shoved the Escort’s front axle back about 18″. My father-in-law was very sore from it all but had no injuries. At the time of its death, that Escort had 259k one-owner miles.
During his ownership all it ever required was a couple of timing belts (having a 60,000 mile life expectancy), a voltage regular, and one set of tie rods. It was using oil by this time, but it always started and was still highly reliable.
While these were not my cup of tea, I have tremendous respect for these Escorts – or, at least, the beige one my in-laws had.
“Beige” and “Burgundy”,are the two colors I remember most. “Merc’s” used “brown” too. Usually they were ‘beige” inside.
Great. As long as you only look at and don’t have to drive them.
Yes, these wre sturdy little hair shirts indeed .
I didn’t mind the buzzy 4 cylinder engine and entire interior was comfy and long wearing, everything a “Low Cost” (cheap) car is supposed to be but rarely is .
At the time (1982) the styling was acceptable .
-Nate
Mercury actually shifted a decent amount of these (65-95k) a year. Topaz was similar,
I think back in this time there was a slightly upscale buyer who had gas price PTSD who refused to buy foreign. I prefer the Omnirizon or a Skyhawk to these going back to that time.
Fast forward to 2024 and Ford has no entries in either the import-only compact sedan segment or the GM-dominated mini-crossover segment. And definitely not sure how Lincoln dealers are surviving with their weak volume sans Mercury.
I think your Tracer was actually the Mazda 323 design…not sure about Escort that year but my friend (who actually owned both the Plymouth Sapporo and the 80’s Dodge Challenger back to back) sold the Challenger to buy a new ’88 Mercury Tracer with some favorable stock proceeds…and it was cousin to the 323. Odd, my middle sister owned an ’86 Escort…I’m not sure when the Ford was given the 323 treatment, could it have been sometime in the 90’s? I think eventually both were Mazda design, but not sure when the transition occurred on the Ford (think it was 88 for Mercury).
Guess we were a Ford family back then, my Mom had a new ’88 Tempo, which was just a stretched Escort….not much of a car, but I used to borrow it after she retired when I was working on my own car and needed a parts runner (only have 1 car at a time). I kind of paid her back for her kindness once my sister moved in and they shared the Tempo, I took to fixing some of the things that were wrong with it, the fuel release button in the glove compartment didn’t work so they had been opening the trunk to get to the manual fuel door release; can’t remember what the fix was but it wasn’t too bad (probably a relay). Also got one of her power locks working (bad switch) and changed out the aero headlight (wish they’d stayed with sealed beams). Kept the car till 2009, what did it in was bad AC compressor, we didn’t want to replace it but AC is pretty important in central Texas in summer…Texas had a state version of “cash for clunkers” that the Tempo qualified for (it got too good gas mileage to qualify for the federal version) and she got an ’09 Focus new as replacement after 21 years.
My sister’s Escort was similarly not a bad car…not as nice as a 323 or Tracer, but pretty dependable, other than the fuel system (she needed to have an electic fuel pump added inline) and ignition (hybrid IC module went out on it) but nothing too unusual.
People probably think I’m wacky, but I wouldn’t mind a 2017-2018 Focus Hatchback to replace my Golf. I don’t really want a CUV, and hatchbacks are almost extinct (except for the Mazda 3 or GTi)…but I also want cloth instead of vinyl seats. Yeah, I’m picky. Also have to get automatic (no one in my family drives standard and I’m getting to age where that isn’t practical ) but I’m leary of Ford’s powershift automatics, too bad they didn’t keep the old low-tech automatic…but I don’t want to buy a Focus from the 200x, a bit old for my only car.
Wonder what my buddy is driving now? Lost touch with him.
This Escort looks like it could be an ’84 and it appears to have a “Diesel” callout on the front fender. That would have to be a pretty rare duck if so!
According to the brochure there was a 2.0L diesel available that when combined with the “Fuel Saver” package got a “projected” 66 highway mpg, although one would have to forego power steering and AC.