Introduced in 1980, the North American Ford Escort (not to be confused with the car of the same name that was available in Europe since 1968) was an instant hit for Ford, offering affordability, fuel efficiency, and above all, refinement in the subcompact compact class.
With this trifecta combination of success, the Escort quickly became one of America’s best selling cars. In spite of this, particularly due to its economic status, first generation Escorts puttering around these days are far and few in between. Well-preserved examples are truly a diamond in the rough, if anyone could ever equate a Ford Escort to a diamond.
Alas, I recently did come upon this seemingly clean 1985½ (post-facelift) Escort L 5-speed 3-door hatch, driven by an elderly gentleman and puttering along at a steady 25 mph. Naturally, getting stuck behind this 34 year old econobox, whose 1.9-liter SOHC carbureted I4 originally made 86 horsepower, occurred while I was on my way to work, making for a painstakingly slow commute. At least I had something interesting to look at!
Found this diesel 5-speed Escort wagon in a Planet Fitness parking lot in Pawtucket, RI about three years ago. Yes, that is a Tennessee plate.
Link if the picture doesn’t work: https://ibb.co/GshN2d5
I would drive the heck out of that! Can’t imagine how slow it must be but a clean, original wagon with a diesel… thats pretty cool to me.
Painstaking slow was the original “1.6 CVH” that was in the Escort before they restyled it (like the one in the picture). The original looked better, but had the weakest 65 hp. And only 4-speeds. Typical of Detroit…. My buddy had an ’81Lynx 4-speed 1.6, let me drive it once. It felt OK in 1984. Our standards were low….
With an automatic, the 1.6 was probably on par with a bad VW Beetle.
The 1.9 had a lot more power. Not fast be any means, but not nearly as slow.
I test drove and Escort GT with the “GT 1.9”. It was pretty brisk (this is 1986, mind you) for the era, but it was a thrasher! And the car was gawdy. I wanted to buy American–so I compromised and bought an “American-made” VW GTI.
Good choice 🙂
I remember test driving an Escort when they first came out. Actually tried 3 of them. One of the novelties was that this 1.6l car could have power steering. Our dealer only stocked them that way. Even with a stick shift, every new ’81 Escort I tested would stall of you turned the wheel while stopped with the engineidling. Dealer claimed it would go away once the engine loosened up. We bought a Civic.
Slow as it was, the 1.6 CVH was actually intended to be the optional, larger engine in 1981, with a 1.3L version being standard. The smaller engine was in some of the preview cars reported in car magazines at the time, but I don’t think any of these ever made it into customer hands.
The Escort may not have been the most refined subcompact, but at least it was being improved upon as the years went by – which was not the case with the circa 1976 RWD Chevette or circa 1978 Omni/Horizon.
I remember when the ‘85.5 Escort was released – it was after the ‘83 aero T-Bird, ‘84 Tempo and than came the ‘86 Taurus – Ford’s 1980’s mojo was in full swing. The Mercury Lynx twin was dropped in ‘88 in favor of the Mazda derived Tracer. Over at GM the Chevette stuck it out until 1987 and the 1982 Cavalier/J bodies didn’t have a significant upgrade until 1995, so it wasn’t just a parade of boxy look-a-like cars that caused GM’s market share to slip – it was a lack of competitive small cars too.
The J cars did get a mild refresh in 88, which modernized its look a little bit, but yeah. GM was always slow to upgrade things. I think even the 1972-93 Rams had airbags before the 1988-98 Silverados did.
IIRC, no full-size truck had any airbags until 1994, when Ford put one in the F-150 and light-duty (7700#) F-250, and Dodge in all their new Rams. But yes, GM was always late to the party. After a bit of research, it seems the timeline went something like…
1995: All Chevy/GMC full-size pickups get a driver’s side airbag with the mid-cycle refresh
1997: F-150/250LDs get dual airbags with the new 1997 model, Chevy trucks under 8500# (1500 and 2500 light-duty) get dual airbags
1998: All Rams get dual airbags with the mid-cycle refresh
1999: New Ford Super Duty has dual airbags
2001: Chevy 2500HD/3500s get dual airbags with new GMT800 model
The Omnirizon didn’t get much in the way of facelifts, with half-clad aluminum bumper bars showing an airgap to the body and sealed-beam headlights right up to 1990 – but it got some technical improvements, with the 2.2 engine (widely) optional from 1981 or 2, standard after ’86 and getting EFI for ’88 (by which time price cuts put it into the price bracket of a comparably equipped Hyundai Excel or an utterly stripped Civic or Tercel) and an airbag for its’ final, 1990 model year – an engineering spend that spared it the motorized-mouse belts.
Nice find, especially in lowly L trim. By strange coincidence I did see a red Escort today, though the unrelated RWD Mk.II Ford of Europe one, a 1978-79 Sport 1600. Very shiny and someone’s plaything no doubt. The 1980s FWD ones are rarely seen now though.
I occasionally see 1980s-era Escorts puttering around, and the average age of those few remaining drivers is probably around 80.
Conversely, it seems to be mostly younger people who drive 1980s-era Corollas.
Never much liked the Escort, and a big part of it was the styling of the hatchback with its stubby, flat rear deck. I don’t know if this particular feature originated with the Escort, but on any of the imitators (like the later Dodge Caliber), it didn’t work, either.
At least it wasn’t an automatic!
It is important to note what a breath of fresh air the Escort was in Ford showrooms. As late as 1980 there was not a single FWD choice in the place, putting Ford nearly on a par with AMC for its elderly lineup of old platforms. And the Escort was on the scene 3 model years after the Omni/Horizon which Chrysler introduced as 1978 models.
Still, I was never a fan of these early Escorts. I was on an up-close and personal basis with my mother’s 1980 Horizon, which struck me as a nicer driving car. This 1985 1/2 refresh helped these, I will admit.
“As late as 1980 there was not a single FWD choice in the place, putting Ford nearly on a par with AMC for its elderly lineup of old platforms”
1977-1980 Fiesta.
Just 3 years for the Fiesta (1978-80) when side impact standards kept them out of the US.
Seriously, they were fun and tossable, but mainly due to being so lightweight.
They could’ve stuffed side impact beams in the Fiesta, but it wouldn’t have been worth it.
The dollar’s weakness against the Deutsche Mark got worse and worse in the late ’70s, in around 40 months (spring ’77 launch) the Fiesta went from being priced like a comparably-equipped Maverick to being more expensive than a Granada. It sold in decent numbers due to the gas crunch and being the only small car in Ford showrooms other than the antiquated, cramped Pinto; alongside a state-of-the-art FWD domestic a shade bigger and substantially cheaper, it wouldn’t have had a chance.
I’m not so sure about getting side impact beams into a Fiesta without some major work. Have you ever experienced a Fiesta? Those doors were ‘thin’ which, pretty much describes everything else about them. I can’t imagine how a Fiesta would fair in a collision. Seems like they’d crumple like an aluminum can.
But, yeah, the exchange rate, more than anything else, went a long way to killing off the lower end of German cars in the US. It was the reason Volkswagen built that ill-fated factory in Westmoreland, PA around the same time.
Also, the Fiesta was not available with an automatic transmission, which even in 1980 was a major impediment to US sales. (Ford did bother to make air conditioning available in North American models, something that incredibly could not be had in Europe).
The take rate on AC in (northern) Europe on a small, economical runabout in the 70s would have been tiny.
I’ve also noticed that the few remaning first gens are usually driven by the elderly. This one is either an 86, 87 or early 88.
These were pretty awful. Heavily hyped for years before launch as America finally stepping up to challenge the Civic/323/Corolla/Colt, in reality sadly deficient, heavy and slow with bloaty handling to emulate the big American cars of the time. A vehicle for the many people who wanted a small gas-crisis car but would only buy American.
My first car was a 1985 1/2 Escort. It didn’t have the third red light in the middle of the trunk like the subject car. As I said before, I did like it a lot, as well as my late father, who enjoyed driving it after first calling it a wheel barrel.
In my family a brother and 2 sisters owned 7 or 8 of these in total. All had manual transmissions and all but one were 2 door hatchbacks, with the oddball being a wagon.
Not “bad” cars, but not great….if you never drove the Japanese competition you would think these were pretty decent cars.
I came close to buying one of these a few times, but could never quite convince myself that these were a good buy, so I bought a Cavalier (J2000, actually) which was replaced by a Cvic.
I still remember the plethora of Escort rental car sale ads for Hertz in Motor Trend and other magazines around 1982.
This brings back memories! I had an ’87 GL 5-speed (back when that meant it had a manual transmission). Unlike the L, it had a tachometer, A/C, and don’t forget the 13-inch polycast wheels!
Great find – brought back a slew of memories – had a 86 Escort GT that had a Hawaii inspection sticker on the rear bumper just like this one…
It was probably the second worst car I ever owned (I had a 81 Buick Skylark)…
Probably owned it from new or at least early in its life cycle. The 5 speed trans is a good thing. Looks original and well cared for. Nice find.
The Escort Diesel I saw at Wal-Mart where I live back in March would be an ’84 or ’85 (pre-facelift)–still had sealed-beam headlights, & ’84 was the first year for the diesel engine. It too is an L model hatchback with the 5-speed, and is apparently still around as I saw it again earlier this month (didn’t get to take any more pictures though). I don’t know of any others (gas OR diesel) in my area right now, so this one is a diamond in the rough for sure!
Side view confirms it’s a 5-door hatch; my ’05 Astro in the background during grocery loading
Check out the bumper-mounted trailer hitch! (license plate blacked out for privacy reasons)
I had an ’84 GL in that exact shade of baby blue, put well over 200K miles on that little turd, never once let me down.
5-speeds had a callout on the hatch because a 4-speed manual was standard. Automatics didn’t get an emblem. My theory why is that a salesman could walk along the back of a row of Escorts and tell a 4-speed from an automatic just by looking at the shifter through the back window but the 4- and 5-speeds were impossible to tell apart without a close look at the knob or the Monroney.
As the owner of a ‘78 Fiesta I was thrilled when I heard the Escort was coming to the US. Sure, I knew it was not really the same as the legendary (to me) English Ford of the same name, but a more modern FWD platform than the Fiesta, the CVH engine, etc all seemed like a generational step forward. Then I test drove one …
To be honest, when I was shopping for a new Ranger pickup in 1986, I drove the fuel infected ‘86 Escort GT as well as a 5.0 LX Mustang. Both were quite nice, both a huge improvement over that first Escort and early Fox Mustangs I had driven, but I bought a Ranger anyway.
My first car, in 1989, was a 1982 Escort Wagon GLX with the high output version of the 1.6L and a close ratio 4-speed. Yes, such an animal existed. The engine put out 80hp, which seemed pretty good for the day. And the close ratio 4-speed revved a little high on the expressway (I no longer recall exact RPM per MPH, but it was definitely spinning at highway speeds) but delivered on the performance front.
That little car was surprising sleeper, and I put away a lot of “faster” cars at the traffic lights. Good fun for a young driver, and disheartening for others when they had to look at the tail lights of an Escort wagon.
Close ratio 4 speed? That’s interesting, as one of the things I recall about the ‘81 I drove was a huge jump from 3rd to 4th … seemingly worse than the gap in my Fiesta’s gearing, or perhaps more noticeable due to extra weight and not much more power. Oh, how we’ve become spoiled by 5 speeds (I haven’t yet owned a 6 speed manual car).
I can’t stand the 6 speed in my SVT Focus, and if it was a simple swap I’d consider “downgrading” to a 5 speed. The lack of a proper lockout mechanism means that the only difference between catching 1st and reverse (both are left/forward) is how hard you push left. Which can be a problem if you’re shifting in a hurry. I almost backed into a minivan at a stoplight when I was test driving it. Finding 2nd on a downshift can also be a pain, since it’s possible to get the shifter too far left, again controlled only by how much force is used. Getrag dropped the ball on the shift pattern.
Our first-generation fancy-Ford Mercury Lynx (automatic) wasn’t very quick on on-ramps, but served well enough for many years, and seemed way more modern than our Pinto. Can’t think of the last time I saw one in traffic!
FWIW, an early brochure photo paired with one from the “shoot”:
…and you proved to yourself the truth of James May’s proposition: it doesn’t matter how powerful your car is.
Refined subcompact ok, thats something the european Escort missed out on, good little cars but certainly not refined.
My mom had an ‘84 Escort 4-speed manual. She remembers it being incredibly slow up hills. So much that my dad’s ‘73 Beetle with a 1600, header and dual carbs felt faster 😂
Still though, she had it for 5 or 6 years and it was a decently reliable car and I have fond memories of being a young boy, shifting gears while sitting in the passenger seat.
Growing up we were gifted a 1990 Escort LX 5 door, I believe this was in December 1999 so it would have been a fairly new car (to us) at the time. It was dark blue and had after the aero refresh. I liked the rear hatch design with the inward slanted taillights. My mom had nothing but trouble with the car and was happy to replace it with a 1981 Cressida (which I also marveled at – it had power windows and a sunroof!)
I remember the plastics in the rear compartment were brittle and we spent many a time scratching them like an etch-a-sketch, and we were also dumbfounded that the car only had four seat belts (the rear was a 50/50 split) and there was 5 of us.
If you had to be stuck behind an old poop along Escort in Massachusetts, at least it wasn’t wearing that stupid green and white license plate that 2% of the population refuse to give up because it reminds the other 98% that they were there before them.