(first posted 12/29/2011) I really wanted to like the Escort when it arrived in 1981. Just like I really wanted to like Ford then. Ford was just coming out of its dark night of near-bankruptcy, having been taken down by one too-many of their notorious 1970s bulge-mobiles. Their new president, Donald Petersen, was my kind of guy: no BS, soft-spoken, and a genuine car guy. And he had some serious cleaning up to do after a decade of Lido and Hank’s self indulgent ways. The all-new fwd Escort sounded so promising: a clean sheet design, a genuine VW Golf/Rabbit competitor, a world car, no less. Then I drove one, for two weeks. And I’ve been hating on this generation of Escorts ever since. First impressions are lasting ones indeed.
Ford made a lot of hoopla about the new Escort being a World Car, a mostly new concept at the time for one of the Big Three. Not totally, of course, as GM’s Chevette was an Americanized Opel Kadett. But this was different, a new car designed from scratch to be built globally by Ford and its affiliates. Of course, GM was doing the same thing with its J-Car program, which arrived just one year later.
The problem with the Escort was the classic one of too many chefs engineering departments spoiling the stew. Ford had never really tried this before, and the (once) all-mighty hometown team probably had some issues sharing responsibilities, or at least coordinating them. Who knows how it all went down, but the end result was…
…that red 1981 Escort hatchback waiting for us at the Hertz lot in Denver. By that time, I had read a few things about the new Escort in the magazines, but frankly, nobody wanted to be too terribly harsh with it, being that Ford’s future existence (and advertising budgets) were practically riding on its knock-kneed stance.
Yes, the new Escorts had a peculiar tendency to exhibit positive camber on the front wheels, and negative camber on the rears, as in this white coupe, which is serial number 1. That might not necessarily be the end of the world, but in the case of the Escort, it was an all-too effective tell-tale of its road manners: confused, bungling, idiotic.
We were on a two-week vacation in the Rockies, staying in some friends’ rustic cabin right up near the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park. I figured the Escort would not only be cheap, but fun to drive on all the endless mountain roads in that part of the world, a driving paradise. Especially so in the fall, when all the tourists were gone.
I figured wrong; the Escort was ill-suited to the task. And it wasn’t just the very unsorted-out suspension, which made it feel like it was sick, staggering around corners and bobbing on the straights. And that was before we ever left the airport!
Time to get on the highway, and the Escort’s other infirmities quickly made themselves known. Our rental had a stick shift, as I had requested, wanting to make the most of its obviously none-too powerful 1.6 L CVH four. What was Ford’s idea of a stick shift? A super-wide spread four speed, making it essentially a three-speed with an overdrive. Just the ticket for those impressive EPA numbers for the ads. But the worst possible gearing for a 69 hp engine in the high altitude Rockies. EPA-hyping is an old trick, and in this case a hellish one.
Especially since the CVH motor was a gutless lump, which made horrendous noises as it slowly crawled its way up into the rev band. No wonder its acronym became to stand for Considerable Vibration and Harshness. The drive up Hwy 36 to Boulder that night was a major letdown, and an ugly foreshadowing of things to come. The coffee-grinder under the hood couldn’t handle it all in third gear, and second was too low. The spread between the gears was ridiculous, essentially a six-speed with second and fourth gear missing. A seven speed with second, fourth and sixth missing? You get the picture.
I knew this road like the back of my hand, and used to be able to rip up it in my big-bore 1350cc VW Beetle flat out in fourth. Maybe if I trusted the Escort’s handling better, which felt like it was walking on stilts, I might have been able to take the curves flat out in third too. Not tonight, in this car.
Turns out that Ford just barely killed a 1.3 liter version shortly before going into production. Now that would have really made an impression. Good call. Meanwhile, the Euro 1.9 liter Escort Mk III was making 90 hp at a minimum, and more in the higher output versions.
It’s not like the Escort kept us from having a good time – hiking, that is. We drove it all over Central Colorado, and it was an endless exercise in frustration. And Ford was taking on the brilliant, fuel-injected and superb-handling Rabbit/Golf with this? Good luck.
Well, in a way, Ford did luck out. Timing is everything, and the Escort arrived at exactly the second moment in time when Americans were freaked out about rapidly rising gas prices. Folks were practically giving away Grand Torinos, Elites, and such stuff in order to stuff themselves into an economical Escort. And it said Ford on it; nothing exotic or foreign for these folks! The Escort sold like warm corn dogs at the Iowa State Fair.
Like my mother: she dumped her ’73 Coronet wagon and bought an Escort wagon in 1981 or 1982. Well, the Coronet was bigger than she needed, now that most of the kids were gone. And of course, it had to be an automatic. So on my next trip home, I had the joy of trying it out. I can’t quite decide which was worse; that wide ratio stick or the automatic.
The early (1981 – 1985) FLC ATX was a torque-split automatic, meaning that a percentage of the engine torque bypassed the torque converter, in the pursuit of that ever-important EPA number. It felt very much like an old original Hydramatic: quite mechanical, with rather abrupt shifts, and lots of gear whine. The new World Car? I hadn’t expected that. By 1986, fully-hydraulic slush-boxes were back. But by then I was long gone.
OK, I was spoiled by all the that damn furrin’ machinery I was driving or exposed to in California at the time. Which means that as Ford slowly fixed all of the most egregious issues of the early Escorts, I had long lost interest in it. And even though Ford did consistently improve it, let’s face it, the Japanese competition was a very fast moving target during the eighties, as the 1984 Civic makes all-too painfully clear. This generation Escort was perpetually playing catch-up.
In 1983, the GT came along, which is essentially what the Escort should have been all along: genuine fuel injection, which added 20 hp to the paltry base engine. And a five speed, I assume. And a sorted-out suspension, I sincerely hope. I can only speculate, because I never got in one again. Which I possibly regret now, as some folks speak fondly of them. Did the engine speak fondly yet too? Not from what I hear.
That might have been more the case in 1985, when the Turbo GT appeared. Turbos have a knack for making certain rough engines sound smoother, and that’s what this one did. With 120 hp, it was undoubtedly brisk for the times. And apparently, it’s very easy to squeeze out twice that much, as the basic CVH engine is quite tough, when it’s not spitting out valve seats or blowing head gaskets, anyway.
The Escort kept morphing, seemingly year by year. Like a new rear roofline on this one,
along with a new rear end.
The interior followed a similar line of evolution, from cheap red vinyl to cheap corporate gray Ford mouse fur.
My younger brother bought a Pony version of one of the latter years as his first car, and was quite happy indeed. It was a reliable, cheap and economical set of wheels. I’m sure there’s many others out there with happy gen1 Escort memories. Not me; I was robbed of them by my first impression. I did give Ford a pass, by buying a ’83 T-Bird TC just a couple of years later. They were trying harder by then, although my Bird was hardly a highly-refined vehicle.
Exactly ten years after my first Escort outing in the Rockies, my parents threw a family reunion in the Rockies. My rental was another dud, a (Daewoo) Pontiac LeMans. But theirs was a brand-new first-year 1991 gen2 (Mazda 323 based) Escort. I drove it a few times, and that certainly left a mighty fine first impression. There are second chances in life after all.
Another example of how the differences between European and American manufacturing can ruin a car completely. The Euro Escort was a decent car, fully competitive against the Golf and it’s likes (as was the Opel Ascona J-car.) The Golf finally came out on top, strangely enough helped by the fact that Ford imported Brazilian made Escorts, that were complete rubbish (allthough they looked exactly like their European brethren) which just ruined what little reputation for quality Ford may have still had at the time…
Absolutely, the Euro Escort Mk3 was (from memory) the most competent and serious competitor to the Golf through the 80s. A well remembered, class leading car on this side of the pond.
There was a neat summary of the competition between the Golf GTi and the Escort XR3i on the former’s episode of Clarkson’s Car Years, it’s here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pqem4I0QYI
…on YouTube if you skip to around the 2 minute mark (alternatively skip in to 1 minute 50 to see Clarkson getting punched in the face, always worth watching).
Essentially the Ford & VW were viewed as equals in the UK, the only difference being in their images.
Strange to read that the US spec version was such a failure, but it can’t have been too many chefs engineering departments spoiling the stew if the recipe baked to perfection in Ford’s European kitchens can it? Perhaps US Federal regs spoiled the mix? Or perhaps Ford just figured they could get away with a half-arsed version over there. Shame either way.
A friend who had a worked MK1 Escort rally car rented a XR3i on a UK trip and thought it was pretty good not something we got here new tho.
Eric Taub in the book “Taurus, the making of the car that saved Ford” (or was it Mary Walton?) described the Ford organization as a set of chimneys. Designers did not talk to engineers, engineers did not talk to manufacturing guys, none of them talked to marketers. You get the picture: everyone to himself. They would design a piston, then throw the blueprints over to the manufacturing guys: your problem now. Another one may have designed the connecting rod without ever talking to the one who worked on the piston….
Then of course the Americanization of European designs are flawed from the beginning. You can’t make a small European car ride like a Cadillac. And that is what they tried. (I’ll give the French a pass on this one.)
I helped my nice buy a used gen 1 Escort. It was her first car and it served her needs of cheap transportation well.
One thing I remember vividly about them is that there was always soot coming out of the tailpipe under acceleration. Maybe the guy who designed the piston should have talked to the guy who designed the cam shaft.
How does an organization the size of FoMoCo design & build product like the original Mustang (on sale approx 18 mnths fr go ahead), the 351C & the best selling vehicle in the world (F150) w/o talking to ea other? Give your head a shake………..
You mentioned cars and trucks that were designed for the American market. Guess what: they hit the bull’s eye. Then they tried to design cars for the world over. Guess what: there are significant differences between continents and countries on those continents. How are the odds of hitting the bull’s eye in any of them?
Last night I was reading the CC on the Chrysler minivan. I thought it was a summary of Eric Taub’s and Mary Walton’s books on the Taurus: What was wrong at Ford repeated itself at Chrysler.
“You mentioned cars and trucks that were designed for the American market. Guess what: they hit the bull’s eye. Then they tried to design cars for the world over. Guess what: there are significant differences between continents and countries on those continents. How are the odds of hitting the bull’s eye in any of them?
Last night I was reading the CC on the Chrysler minivan. I thought it was a summary of Eric Taub’s and Mary Walton’s books on the Taurus: What was wrong at Ford repeated itself at Chrysler.”
The Ford F150 is sold the world over, the 351C continued in Australia long after production ceased in NA & because Mustang wasn’t widely sold overseas might be more due to high shipping/import costs than being unsuited for any particular market. The 1+ million Mustangs sold less than 2 yrs after introduction remains the record today. I know Ford billed the Escort as a ‘world car’, by which they meant taking the best of Ford design/manufacturing resources worldwide to build a successful small north american car. In that respect Ford succeeded; I don’t believe it was intended to sell worldwide. I have first hand knowledge of 6 early Escorts (4 fr new) among 7 owners; all were pleased w/ their purchase. That being said; all car manufacturers have sold unsuitable product to regional/local markets, Ford included. To include the Escort as one of them is a (far) stretch.
How do you know that those 7 people liked their Escorts? Did you do a poll? Did they just announce it to you?
This site is full of people who have remarkably specific anecdotes about cars made decades ago. I mean, I’ve known many people who owned these cars over the years, mostly kids my age when in HS and I never once asked anyone if they were happy were their purchase and was never once told by anyone that they liked their purchase.
So how exactly do you not only know one person who “was happy with their purchase” but 7 out of 7? Really the anecdotal “evidence” on this board to defend or attack cars is absurd.
Out of the people I knew, like I said I do t remember anyone saying much of anything about their cars, they were just cheap beaters that were driven into the ground and disposed of, like a cavalier or Neon or Pinto.
I do know among kids they were seen as lame, at least among my circle of gear head friends.
My 1980 Pinto’s engine lasted up till about 2004 or 5…in Fox body, and then a Ranger and then another Mustang. Pinto lasted only 350K but the engine, after 4 head gaskets, 3 carburetors, 4 oil pumps, at least 10 timing belts, 5 or 6 water pumps and minor associated parts it lasted almost 900K before it got a rod knock…okay, I replaced the bearings and front and rear seals…and flowed the heads and mild cam (200K) at Bud’s Machine Shop in Lakewood, WA and a set of decent headers. If Ford could have only shoehorned the 2300 in the North American Escort that would’ve been ideal. Since I am feeling guilty about leaving stuff out: I replaced all the rings, seals, etc at 200K. Everything else was stock including the 6500 Carb and Programmable computer with California Emissions. Bud told me what to do and that Pinto had 150 HP at the rear wheels with all emissions connected and working including the smog pump. Got 35 mpg and was transplanted thrice before engine failure.
Interesting article with some of the vices of the US car coming through into the early (pre-1983) version of the European car. I didnt realise there was a US turbo variant.
I own a 1982 1.6 Ghia (euro model) which has the knock-kneed stance at times (particularly after being lowered from being jacked up). Over some road surfaces it can be a handful (firmer shocks sort this as the rear springs are a very high spring rates).
With some mild tuning – mainly bigger Webber carbs (not the Ford VV) these can be quite spritely to drive and retain all the fuel economy. In Europe Ford responded to early criticisms of the harsh ride with some changes beyond 1983 and then again with the facelift cars in 1985 which are completely different things in terms of suspension geometry, spring rates and mounting points
The best variant was the S1 RS Turbo (1984/85) which had a full racing-orientated front suspension setup featuring anti-dive and a rear anti-roll bar. A friend had one with a 1.8 block running 30PSI boost (236bhp) which was quite a car.
They were quite “spungy” though handling wise.They felt modern and smooth but were not drivers cars imho
(referring to the cooking versions – I never got to drive the sporty MK3/4s)
My family had:
1984 Escort L, 1985 Mercury Lynx GS, and a 1988 Ford Escort L four door.
They were all good cars that gave good mileage and rode very nicely indeed.
It did not have the driving characteristics that the author mentions above.
In Brock Yates’ “The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry” (1983) a paragraph mentions the differences between European and Detroit design tastes: A former Ford stylists mentions that the U.S. Ford Escort is much the same cars as the European, “but has too much junk on it.” He went on to say it’s the result of dictates by the big shots and sales guys who he referred to as “being 10 years behind the times.” Another Detroit stylists mentions that auto designs in pure form were not ruined only by safety mandates (i.e. 5 mph bumpers) but by dictates from the sales department and from various committees to add a bit more chrome to put more value into the design and then “add a pinstripe and/or a hood scoop” – one Ford man noting that the 1976 Mustang II was a “committee car” styled by three different groups who never talked to each other.
You are mistaken my friend. The Brazilian Escort was a very reliable and well built car and still today it is possible find them in thousands by the streets. I think that you are with some kind of misinformation.
Yes, I’m sure it was a solid and well put together car. Not the fact that in Brazil cars are an expensive item, labour is still quite cheap so there is a premium on keeping a car, any car going. Also something about not having a winter with snow and road salt could have something to do with it.
Agree totally. I had an ’86 Escort automatic; loved the hatchback but hated the noise and vibration. (And it had no a/c, a big drawback in the Las Vegas desert.) The engine finally gave up, and I traded the Escort for an ’82 Granada–a better car. I must have been impressed with the 2nd generation Escort, because I bought a ’93 LX automatic in 1996. Very nice car to drive and virtually trouble-free. But I traded it in for the first of three Saturns, and never looked back.
Still, the second-generation Escort was a very nice car.
Escort GTs were very popular when I was in high school, I knew several people who had them… apparently they were cheap enough for some people to justify buying for a teen, or stylish and cheap enough for a couple friends to buy as thier first new car after high school. You would see them all over the place.
I dont remember them being terrible, they were not too fast but probably as fast as a GTI or Civic Si. The handling was wallowy though, they didnt have the tight feel, although they looked pretty cool with the body kit. IIRC, they decent aftermarket support, but i didnt pay them too much attention.
In 1986 one of the Mustang mags tested a Escort GT against a Golf GT. The Volkswagon was a little faster (not much) and did turn slightly higher G’s in cornering (again not much difference). But the Escort was several hundred’s of dollars cheaper. The Volkswagon did have the wheel lifting problem though.
What was the “wheel lifting problem”?
Jason Allen,
‘Wheel lifting problem’ is actually called ‘rear wheel lift’.
It is common amongst the front-wheel-drive compact cars, particularly European ones with short suspension travel in firm setting. Throw the short wheelbase and front-heavy (motor ahead of front axle) chassis in the mix.
When the cars are driven hard on the curve, they lean toward the outer side of curve. The cars also lean onto front wheel toward the outer side of curve. It is much more pronounced for the front-heavy, front-wheel-drive compact cars with short wheelbase.
Once you have that both one side and front leaning onto the front wheel, the rear wheel on the opposite side is lifted up and has no contact with the road surface. That is called ‘rear wheel lift’. It can also occur during the hard cornering or sudden switch of direction.
Good photos of Volkswagen Golf with ‘rear wheel lift’.
http://www.retrorims.co.uk/vw-blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/082.jpg
http://s620.photobucket.com/user/d_jabsd/media/DSC_9396.jpg.html
For the rear-wheel-drive cars, it is called ‘front wheel lift’. Very common with racing stock cars.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JJVUFblJPIU/T0bmqmdpNFI/AAAAAAAAER0/eEWTF9IBCgw/s1600/Front+Wheel+Lift.JPG
I have seen this phenomenon many times on the curvy Autostrada through the hilly regions in the northern Italy. The Italians seem to be oblivious to the fact that their cars were skittering on three wheels as they hurtle at 120-130 km/h. Or they don’t care.
They don’t care as it doesn’t effect cornering much .
The Rally guys I run with , are greatly amused by this on my little Avatar car .
-Nate
And why exactly is this a problem? That wheel in any case would have little to no traction as all the weight is on the other side. Put another way, if the wheel was lifted 1 millimeter you wouldn’t see it’s lifted and would think it’s fine.
I don’t think it was that the a Escorts were “popular” when we were in HS, it’s just what was available for kids then. Escorts and old cavaliers, Grand Ams etc were all over the parking lot at my school too but nobody actually liked those cars, they were just a way to get from A to B. I even knew one guy who had one of the 2 seater Escorts, which was really lame. It was ugly, slow, and you could only fit two people in the stupid thing. Pitiful excuse for a “sporty” car.
Ah, the 2-seater EXP. Now that was an oddity…strange styling (especially the “frog eye” original version), 2 seats for no apparent reason, and no version that offered better performance than the Escort GT. I’d love to know who at Ford cooked that one up, and even more so, who the heck approved it?
Also a car I’ve not seen on the road for more years than I can remember. They didn’t sell well to begin with and I think they’re pretty much all gone…
My dad bought a white base ’86 Escort left forlorn and lonely on a new-car lot in early ’87. It was his first brand new car. My chief memory of driving that car is how you could hear the gas sloshing around in the tank. This Escort replaced a Renault Alliance. Even though the Alliance was slug slow and was self-destructing as they all did, it was a much more refined car than the Escort.
Dad later bought a ’91 Escort — a much better car. And now he drives the Escort’s spiritual heir, the first-gen Focus. Clearly, he’s found his groove.
Now that you mention it, I think I , too remember hearing the gas sloshing around in the tank.
Not all that reassuring, when you know this car replaced the Pinto!
Our family also cross-shopped the Escort against a Renault Encore (Alliance hatch), and we had the same impression as you and bought (and really liked) the Encore. It had great acceleration and felt light, crisp and precise. It was an absolute strippo model (not even an AM radio), but we made do from time to time by buckling a boom box into the back seat.
As for the Escort, we were underwhelmed. There didn’t seem to be as much rear seat room. But I will say that when they first came out for ’81, I really liked their style. It’s the looks of this red one that reminds me of how much I liked them when I was a kid.
I drove one of the first Mercury Lynx models in 1981. A co-worker let me use it to run an errand, so I did not drive it too far. My memory of the car is that I found it to be a disappointment compared to my mother’s 1980 Plymouth Horizon. I recall the Lynx as being slower with a rougher engine. The Horizon seemed better finished and more substantial. I recall the Lynx’s handling as feeling a bit twitchy, and not as settled as the Horizon.
The Fords coming out at that time had kind of a sparse, minimalistic quality about the interiors, that I was not crazy about. Were they going for a euro-vibe, or was it just cost cutting? I never knew, but the Horizon interior (while not broughm-ly) had a more traditional American car sort of feel, and seemed a little higher up the price ladder.
When I took the Lynx keys back to the owner, I politely told him what a nice new car he had then shut up, and never had a desire to drive another.
Did the Horizon have the 2.2? That would have made a heck of a difference compared to the Lynx. The Chrysler L body also had a better interior than most of the U.S. (and some imports) cars in it’s class at the time too.
In 1980, the OmniRizon only came with the 1.7 made from blocks purchased from VW. VW was contractually obligated to supply 300K blocks per year, and with gas prices and demand for their own cars high, would supply no more. Chrysler started offering the 2.2 as an option as soon as it was available in 1981. I never drove one with a 2.2, but figured it must be pretty quick, as the 1.7 was not really a slouch. The 3 speed Torqueflite transaxle must have had much better ratios than Ford put in the Escort.
Also from 1983 to 1986, there was a 1.6 engine from Peugeot who replaced the VW engine.
And I think the 2.2 turbo under the hood of the Omni GLH and GLH-S might be more quick as well. http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/01/21/class-of-86-dodge-omni-glhglhs/
I used to own a ’90 2.2 Horizon, they’re not remarkably quick with an auto, but with a stick its 0-60 in 8 seconds, with an auto I’m guessing 13 seconds (for an auto with power steering and AC, also rare mud flaps).
I spent too much time crammed into these things in the 80s. I agree with JP – the Horizon was roomier, quieter, more tossable and quick enough once they settled on the 2.2. Of course, a Sentra or Civic was a Benz compared to any of the Big Three econoboxes.
A friend had an ’81 Mercury Lynx wagon – he lost it – but found it among a sea of look alike Escorts. It was “the missing Lynx”. !!
Of course.
I am continually amazed at the variety of very old Japanese cars you come across for CC, mostly because growing up in Toledo, OH all I ever saw were these things, K-cars, and various badges on Chevy Cavaliers. Oh, I shouldn’t forget Jeeps. SO many Jeeps. By the time I was in high school, pretty much any car produced prior to 1990 was rusted through and/or didn’t run, but with the large amount of domestic iron moved in that area there were still survivors from the Big Three, including lots and lots of Escorts. They always seemed a little bland and passionless, and after reading this I suppose I will go with the feeling.
So many Jeeps in Toledo, especially parked next to a church would cause one to say “Holy Toledo.”. The puns will cease for now. Unless the church burns, then it’s “Holy smoke!”
I can go home now – my cage is clean.
The mother had the ’85 two-seat EXP version along with an ’88 after the ’85 was totaled in a rear end collision. 5-sp manual with the 1.9L 4cyl was great on gas and moved well enough to get me through college when it was handed down to me 4 years later. Was also a great vehicle in the WNY snow. The only time it struggle was when there were two kayaks and two mountain bikes on the roof rack.
I painted it a solid color and most people at the time asked me if it was a Mustang. I enjoyed having something unique and the huge rear hatch was great for the audio phase I was going through at the time.
rear view
Nice looking ride! A buddy of mine had an 85-86 GT with the 1.9 at the time I was tooling around in my Lynx(1.6). That thing would smoke me.
I didn’t quite understand the EXP. Looking back maybe Ford was trying to prepare us for a FWD Mustang that may have been in the works for a few years later?
Very nice looking EXP… in glorious 80s monochrome too! I always liked these, the early ones had a unique grill and headlights that looked cool, and I loved that fastback look.
@Sean — The EXP was Ford’s answer to the CRX.
@mnm4ever: The CRX wasn’t released until 1984. The original EXP was on sale in 1981. At best, it was a competitor for the original Prelude. But not a very good one. The original Escort drivetrain was way too weak to really propel the EXP to any kind of fun.
The first car I ever owned, 1995 up to 2001, was a black/with grey rocker panels and red pinstripe ’87 EXP sport. Had the ‘High Output’ 1.9 EFI engine with a 5-speed. Man, I loved that car. Maybe it was because it was my first and because it was pretty rare, even for the mid ’90s…you just didn’t see many EXPs driving around. It looked like a mini-Fox body Mustang GT. It was good on gas, easy to work on and pretty good in bad weather. In the 6.5 years I had that car (nicknamed the ‘Rocinante’) we had some good times. Went to college with it and back home. It had a habit of eating up tie-rod ends and wheel bearings and the exhaust would rust out on schedule about every 3 years or so. It left me stranded a couple times… once was an ignition switch, the other a vaccum hose. It was constantly rusting too…the hood was redone and the side door frames were replaced with new welds from a doner car in summer 1998.
I had it repainted all black in 2000, had rear window louvers and a custom dash board cover with ‘EXP’ embroidered on it, and upgraded Hella foglights. I had the engine replaced with the nonfunctioning A/C left out to lighten the car up. Unfortunatly, all of this was a waste of money because the rear-strut mounts were rusting out underneath causing the back end to slowly start to cave in and danger of the whole rear end collapsing onto the back tires. Since it would have cost a small fortune to have new panels welded in, I ended up selling it to a body shop. That car broke my heart, I had intended to keep it for awhile after all the upgrades I spent on, but didn’t know about the infamous rear strut cancer that all Escorts in the northeast get.
I’m pretty sure it was recycled a long time ago now, but I still have the pics and memories…. the rides to college….the summer rides to the beach with the sunroof popped….the night rides to the drive-in….doing FWD donuts in the snow-covered parking lot at work…
I bought a ’93 Ford Probe GT to replace it. MUCH smoother,mechanically advanced and faster car than the EXP was in every respect. Although THAT car also cost me a fortune in maintainence, but that’s a story for another time
Nice one Paul! A friend had an 81, which her father had bought extremely cheaply at govt auction. A couple of memories sprang to mind which I hadn’t thought of in years:
The early 3 speed automatic was awful, awful awful. The gears were so widely spaced (again, probably for EPA numbers) in normal driving it would wind right out in first, then a great big slidey gearchange into second and it would chug along.
Next up was trying to change the waterpump. I have uncommonly long and skinny arms, but we were seriously considering grabbing the torch and cutting a hole in the side of the car to get at it.
Escorts did get better, although not nearly fast enough. I guess that torch got passed to the Focus (did I ever mention we LOVE our Focus ZTS?)
I drove a then-fairly-new ’87 for about 40,000 miles over a year and a half. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good car–efficient, comfortable for a small car, and mine was rock solid reliable and easy to maintain. Oil, plugs, brake pads/shoes, and a regular timing belt change was all, and I passed it down the family chain with 105,000 on the dial. The only complaints I’d have would be lack of horsepower and those infernal federally mandated automatic shoulder belts. It was great in snow, and the mpg was great for a student having to pay exorbitant NY thruway prices (33% higher than my home state of TX at the time).
(I don’t recommend pulling a U-Haul trailer through the hills of TN in one…been there, done that)
My BIL had one of these. He was a WW2 vet that was just getting used to the fact that the Japanese had good cars. He owned a Toyota and loved it but hated Mitsubishi (makers of the Zero).
He was very happy with his new escort of approximately the same year as the poster child here (the top one). He was despondent when he was told that it was chock full of Mazda. I hear Brazil here so maybe that was wrong but he believed it. I was real busy at that time just learning how to earn a living (just recently Navy retired) so don/t know much about it. He kept it for over 20 years. Actually think he had it still when he died a couple years ago.
It was being driven just one state east of your experience. Amazing how driving conditions play into our impressions of cars. Flat two lane blacktop of western Kansas made this thing seem very good for an old guy like him. It sold me on 4 cyl cars as well.
Good choice for subjects. Different cars like this make this site the most interesting of it’s kind. Keeps me coming back!!!
I think you’re confusing the gen1 with the gen2 Escorts. The gen2, which came out in 1991, was essentially a Mazda 323, with the Ford motor in the base models.
The gen1 Escort, of which we speak ill of here today, was a 100% Ford effort and product, for better or for worse.
Not exactly 100% Ford, not sure exactly how and what went down but there were parts on the early 323 that carried the Ford logo buried under that hood.
It was supposed to be far less Ford and a whole lot more Honda Civic when it was designed.
Yes Honda was supposed to supply engines and transmissions (reportedly at $500 a set) But Mr Ford said no way in @#%$ is a car with MY name on it going to have a %#@*&$ Japanese engine. (never mind that the Courier was an entire #$%^& Japanese truck with a Ford badge stuck on it) The ink was supposedly dry on the contracts and Ford once again walked away from a project with Honda having pumped development $$ into them.
So the CVH was hurriedly designed and thrown into production with the minimum of durability testing. It is surprising that it turned out as good as it did.
The original CVCC engine was also partially bank rolled by Ford when they took their PROCO project and essentially dumped it in Honda’s lap. In this case the reason I heard that Ford walked away was the fact that it wouldn’t meet emissions regulations w/o the catalytic converter for more than a couple of years. So the added complexity and cost to produce the engine was darn near as expensive as the cat and they didn’t see a long term life for said technology.
The early KA/KB Laser was sold as a Ford in Australia/New Zealand but it was pure Mazda323 in design
I think it was the Mazda base that made the Lasers as good as they were! (same thing today with the 323-Focus). The gen-1 Laser and 323 sedans were the same but the 5-door hatches had their own unique rear ends – the Laser had the extra window in the C-pillar. Same with gen-2 where the 3 and 5-door Lasers has unique sheetmetal – and is much prettier than the 323 too. Do you remember the 80s Laser TX3 ad Bryce? “What a performer for a non-conformer…Laser TX3!” Car below is for sale near my place.
I remember the ads and the cars good one are rare now. Lucky thing living down under we didnt get the awful US versions our Jap Fords were good cars generally.
Mercury Tracer 🙂
As best as I can tell, the 1st and 2nd gen Lasers were essentially badge-engineered 323s with minor styling modifications. The 3rd-gen Laser was very similar to the US Escort (when I heard flat-top rear arch, that was an instant tell.)
The 1st-gen US-market Mercury Tracer was also a badge-engineered 323. In fact, as best as I can tell, the 2nd-gen Laser and the 1st-gen Tracer were just about the same car… The 2nd-gen Tracer was just an Escort with different grille and Mercury badges.
I wonder if Henry Ford II founded then the Brazilian Corcel sold in Brazil was a former Willys-Overland do Brasil design inherited from….Renault?
Then we could wonder what if Ford had bring the early European Escort (who was a small RWD models known as MkI and MkII) here in the early 1970s in North America?
Interesting reading. Do you mean the rwd 323 or the fwd, because there was a Ford-badged version of the latter, the Laser.
I think in Australia the 1990 3rd gen Laser was when it went off the boil, it was just not quite the same as the earlier models, losing a bit of space & fuel efficiency. Perhaps it was other cars such as the Corolla and Nissan Pulsar that overtook it.
Agreed. The 3rd gen Laser was ugly compared with the earlier 2 generations. Had the same floorpan as gen 2 though, hence the bulbous body sides with the narrow track. A good mate of mine’s mother has a gen 3 that her mother bought new in 1990. It’s mint, but still ugly (that flat-top wheel arch and the rear pillar being the standout uglifications). My cousin’s ’89 gen 2 was a much prettier and nippier hatch.
A City Planner/Architect friend leased a new KB Ford Laser Turbo in 1984/5 in Adelaide.If I remember correctly it was four wheel drive and great fun to drive and blindingly fast.But it was chronically unreliable and if you drove it you would never know if it would get you home.One weekend we drove it from Adelaide to Melbourne,a distance of 451 miles or 726 kilometres and as usual it broke down, in the middle of the City of Melbourne late at night.We had to wait an extra day,Monday,while the Ford dealer fixed it,but then the fear of it not making it back to Adelaide.Rarely have I seen such an unreliable new vehicle,a shame really because it was a most impressive drive.
Yeah, the Laser never recovered from that awful 3rd gen redesign. I had one as a loaner when my Cortina was being fixed once (I think Ford was trying to sell me a new car!), but I wasn’t impressed. Wound up buying a used 2nd gen bubbleback. The 4th generation looked better, but by then they were imported, which jacked the price up and limited sales.
Remember the other ofshoot of the Ford-Mazda orgy….the mexican made Mercury Tracer?
I would love to read a piece on the 323 and all the cars that it underpinned.
I owned a ’86 232 hatch and loved it. I tested a gen 3 escort ZX2 and thought: leave it to Ford to mess up a good thing. I never had a chance to drive a gen2.
It’s a shame you didn’t get one from just a few years later. When they added the 5 speed gearbox it became a decent car. Dad bought an 83 Lynx L 5 speed brand new (Black with the infamous Porno Red interior) and it turned out to be a great car. Though I dispatched with it pretty quickly after I got my license, had I not been an irresponsible oaf of a 16 year old that car may have lasted 15+ years.
I couldn’t imagine finding one of the turbo Escort/Lynx cars. I’d love to have one but I’d be willing to bet they all burned up from turbo failure or went to the scrapper from head gasket failure long ago.
I hated, hated, HATED this car because the clowns at Ford replaced the Fiesta with THIS. This was like being promised a date with Angelina Jolie and going home with Aunt Bee. The fuel mileage was terrible compared to the Fiesta, the ride and handling were dreadful and …I can’t go on. This car just reeked. I hope FoMoCo lost money on every one it ever made.
BOO !
Yeah, the Escort was quite a disappointment primarily because its predecessor was so markedly different. Granted, the reason the Fiesta was such a tossable, fun little car was because it was such a lightweight, rather unsafe tin box (a big reason it had to be replaced was the thin doors wouldn’t meet side-impact standards).
Still, the Escort was downright ponderous and un-fun in comparison.
The Fiesta obviously passed the 1973 side-impact standards or it couldn’t have been sold in the U.S. I don’t know of any changes to the standard in the early ’80s. (The NHTSA did an evaluation of the standard, 49 CFR 571.214, in 1982, but I don’t think it was changed as a result.)
The main reasons the original Fiesta was dropped from the U.S. market were production logistics and, ironically, CAFE. Importing Fiestas from Europe was troublesome because exchange rate fluctuations made it hard to keep prices down, it made the UAW unhappy, and the EPA had capped the number of imported cars Ford could count toward its domestic CAFE, so the Fiesta wasn’t as useful as it might otherwise have been in balancing the numbers for Ford’s bigger cars. Also, the Fiesta was selling very, very well in Europe, so Ford’s European capacity was needed there.
The only way to fix that would have been to set up a U.S. line to produce the Fiesta, and Ford decided that if they were going to do that, they might as well build a somewhat bigger car that would be more suited to what they figured were American tastes. American buyers didn’t make a clear distinction between B- and C-segment cars (they were all lumped together as subcompacts and compared by price rather than outright size), so the Fiesta was just a dinkier “little car.”
That makes more sense. I guess it was bad timing. Still a pity that we only got the original Fiesta for a measly three years. It might have been cheaply made, but it was still reliable enough. The best part was how tossable it was. It was the ‘other’ fun German small car for all too brief a period of time. For a while in the eighties, it was one of those ‘cockroaches of the road’. You’d see them in all kinds of deplorable shape, yet they would continue to run.
I think some of it came down to the fact that the Fiesta was benchmarked against some fun-to-drive European rivals (principally the Fiat 127 and Volkswagen Polo) whereas the U.S. Escort was a case of “let’s make it …” (bigger, softer-riding, quieter — all the demands you typically get whenever product planners think about improving existing products). All that made it heavier and softer, but to try to keep the Fiesta’s fuel economy for CAFE purposes, the engine couldn’t be significantly bigger or more powerful and the gearing had to be a bit taller despite 250 lb or so more weight.
The Escort wasn’t so much a Fiesta replacement as a Pinto replacement, or maybe it replaced both cars at once. But it was much more in line with the Pinto. The Fiesta didn’t get a *real* replacement unti the Festiva in the late 80’s.
Nice article, but no mention of the diesel option. I almost made the mistake of buying one back in ’85. My ’79 Pontiac Sunbird had been totaled in an accident, and, since I was in my last semester of college, thought I could get a new car to replace it.
Drove the Escort diesel .. slow, as to be expected (at the time, my folks were driving a ’72 MB 220D, so I was used to the lack of acceleration). Other than that, I don’t recall much in the way of positive or negative reactions.
My folks finally talked me out of the purchase, as I would be committing to payments but didn’t yet have a job lined up, post-graduation. This, as it turned out, was a good decision, as I ended up getting a year old Accord LX hatchback instead after moving back to my home town after graduating.
In 1981, at age 16.something, when these cars came out, my dad and brother had successfully convinced me that Japanese cars were all a conspiracy and the only reason people bought them was their drinking water had been poisoned. I saw all the hype and I really wanted to believe Detroit could make as good a car, nay better, than anyone.
Then low and behold my girlfriend’s Granny bought a loaded 1981 wagon, in the red and porno red interior, with an automatic. Of course I got my hands on any new ride as soon as it got near me, so I got the keys and off we went. It was one of the most sobering moments of my life. The seat was torturous, the interior materials dreck and the car handled like it was on stilts but worst of all was the drive train. The motor was a shaking, droning lump and the ATX transmission was the worst I have ever experienced. I was shocked that any car company could ever try to sell something like this. However, it didn’t matter much since Granny loved it. Unfortunately, Granny kicked the bucket soon after and Ford lost a customer. My girl was offered the car but it was so bad she chose to keep driving her hand-me-down Volvo 245 GL wagon with four speed plus overdrive. An infinitely better car in every way.
In comparison, although the Citation actually drove pretty well when new, the Escort was horrid. My faith in Detroit was forever shaken when I got my hands on a first year J car not long after my Escort drive.
I later drove a 1.9 litre GT and it was a much better car but not nearly as good as my 1986 Jetta. The Jetta was not reliable but at least it drove really well when it wasn’t in the shop for warranty work. The Escort GT cost more, too boot.
It is crap like the Escort and J car that has made me decide to never, ever, ever buy a car from the “Big 3” ever again. I but Japanese and drive happy. That is what I really need.
Another reason I was a Chrysler fan for 20 years! And I thought the GM X-cars were bad. The only thing the later models had going for them was the pop-out back window option along with optional vent windows. Evidently people bought them in droves, but I don’t think the Asian cars were all that good back in those days, either.
Don’t even get me started on the Tempo/Topaz twins…I’m sure they had their merits for some, but me? Not a single one. Another reason why I absolutely hated Ford back then. Ugh…
Ugh Is Right, Tempo, Topaz, and This Escort as the base….
I wanted To Love The Escort Too. Like the author, my parent, Dad, traded in his 2nd Blue Pinto for a first year pastel blue Escort, It HAD to be better right.
Well, its Looks weren’t… in that awful pedestrian flat blue, and that chunky plastic dashboard…. iT actually felt like a step down from the Pinto.
A to B was my Dad’s use for the car appliance.
He Bought another, and another, both blue, White is too Dull he said.
When his new, fourth Wife needed a New car, I think he thought he was spoiling her by getting her a Pretty Red Lynx….
Everything in these cars seemed cheap. I couldn’t believe he actually thought the Lynx was a pretty swanky car…
Memories…. get in the way of ever wanting one of these.
Yeah, riding in my carpool driver’s Tempo I made the observation that Ford’s tempo was adagio or andante.
Ugh is double right. I had a Topaz for about 6 years. What’s really bad is I convinced my mother to buy the car originally. We passed up a very nice Cavalier and a Shadow for this? I’ve outlined my issues with the Topaz on other occasions, and I don’t feel like re-hashing all of it here. Let’s just say, it was my last Ford for a long time. The sad part is, I grew up in a Ford family. Now none of my siblings or I have a Ford in our households…
I wouldn’t mind having a first year EXP with the turbo mill from 85 stuffed into it.
I’ll count myself lucky that the only Escort I ever drove from this generation was a UK spec Orion (4 door notchback variant) which was bland but competent. I do recall a friend in high school (early 80’s) whose family had a super stripper Escort but he didn’t complain much, then again he bought a Harley in college so he had a high tolerance for NVH and low standards for handling.
The Focus is still better than any Escort sold in the US, except some of the 16V Mazda powered gen 2s.
Was there ever a reason for the camber issues on the Escort? Also, I recall when I was younger seeing many Tempos and Topazes suffering from the same from of consumption, although in their case it always look like they had suffered a failure.
I’m thinking it was an assembly issue or possibly an issue with a repair or bad alignment job. Our 83 never showed those issues, nor did my buddy’s GT.
Well,in defense of the Escort, it appears to keep its cattywampus alignment issues well hidden. The Tem-paz other the other hand, was pretty obvious.
In my many travels and stations over a thirty year period in the service of my nation (U.S.), while living and working in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, while driving down a country road a stone’s throw from the North Carolina border, I happened upon an early ’80’s Escort wagon with a very obese woman behind the wheel and her equally obese friend in the passenger’s seat.
The whole offset camber/caster effect of these cars unladen took on a reverse cartoon like effect plus an 18 degree in motion nose dive with these two on board. In driving these cars as rentals at the time, I didn’t think they were all that bad as I had a most unpleasant experience being saddled with the penalty box of all cars sold in North America circa 1976-1986, an automatic Chevette. Now THAT’s a penalty box!!
Probably the positive camber was to make the manual steering lighter
OMG what a disaster Escort is a storied name in rallying Escorts swept all before them from introduction in 67 they were weapon of choice fitted with various Kent OHV engines the MK1 soldiered on untill 73 or so then the MK2 appeared slightly heavier but could be got with 2,0 pinto OHC engine and there was a RS version but with great RWD sideways on gravel handling these cars were a lot of fun to drive too fast for the conditions tough reliable slick 4speed close ratio gearboxes and easily modded engines they are still a popular choice for boy racers to hot up, BUT it was all over in 81 Australia and New Zealand got FWD Ford Lasers a rebadge of the Mazda 323 there was a warm version with twin carbs but for rally competition it was all over for Ford out here small Fords were mazdas from then untill something went awry in the 90s and Euro Escorts reappeared.1980 UK type Ford Escort pictured
Don’t know about NZ but we kept the Mazda based Lasers in Australia until the first Focus arrived here in 2002.
It is ironic that in 1990 the European Escort went its own way but the Laser & US Escort converged, and the US model boomed but it fell off the boil in Australia, I think it just moved away from the sweet spot of the earlier cars, eg gaining 3-400lb.
Just doing a bit of googling to work out the relationship between the Escort & BD 323, and found the second gen Laser was sold in the US as the Mercury Tracer which I wasn’t aware of.
NZ having its own crowded car market had Lasers and UK Escorts new plus used import Escorts from Japan and used Mondeos diesel and petrol But and its a big one there are no parts available from Ford for the JDM models and yes they are slightly different so certain year models are one to avoid and sell cheap. Plus we have all the various JDM Mazdas that OZ never had. Yeah eventually the little Laser gained some weight but the early ones had a few things missing to make em cheaper and lighter quite a lot of body stiffening was omitted from the OZ versions they were quite the death trap if you hit something hard. A friends son rolled a 90 model down a bank and totalled it he was unhurt and although unroadworthy the car still ran and drove with the hatch removed it became a firewood ute so all that extra metal worked.
The U.S. Mercury Tracer of the day was very much a slight rebadging of the 323. Hecho en Mexico. The Tracer Sedan was identical to the U.S. Escort, as it was very much a 323 under the skin.
It was not only re-badged but also severely cheapened. I.e. there were lots of problems with early wear of the brake pads. They were much smaller than the Mazda pads. The Tracer came with 4 or 5 doors, the 323 only as 2 door IIRC. Too bad if you needed 4 doors.
Unless it was abruptly discontinued when the Tracer appeared, there was a 323 sedan of this generation in the US. My next-door neighbor in the mid 90’s had one, I think an ’86 or ’87. It was the following generation (1990 I think?) where the 4-doors were split off under the Protege badge, leaving the 323 only as a 3-door hatch.
Probably went as a Mercury to give the Mercury Capri some company that was another restyled 323
I bought a 1981 Mazda GLC which I had left at my parents house and My Dad Drove it to me 130 miles away.
Being use to his own American Bias, and having driven his Escort 6 months, He Had To admit the GLC was solidly put together, I am sure he felt a tightness and handling that he had never attained in his last 3 new Fords.
When He handed over the keys back to me, he said ; “Take care of Her – You are starting out life pretty High on The Hog”
I can still remember exactly where, near South Station in Boston he had said this…. I
remember thinking ” High on the Hog?’ as I got into my new wheels – the base GLC may have lacked carpeting, or much of any the amenities that we expect today, but Boy Oh Boy Was I sure That I was driving something far better than The Escort.
I was always careful not to rub it in his face… Oddly enough despite this great GLC and a later Mazda MX6, all my other cars have been those dreaded Domestics, mostly because I much prefer the American Cars for some reason even I don’t understand. In my head I still believe the Japanese cars to be far more reliable and better built.
But I sure as heck don’t want any of the remaining “USA”3 to go away.
I owned a 76 Uk Escort like the one pictured in my lats comment 1600 Kent engine huge wide tyres went from that to a 82 RWD 323 panelvan a major improvement in driveability
The 1st Gen Escort is underated, only that people look at it with 20/20 vision. But it was worlds better than Pinto it replaced. And certainly the Chevette!
First car was a Mitsu based Plymouth Champ, that Car and Driver loved, but it fell apart after 50k. [Not surprised they are not a major player anymore] Next compact was 86 Escort GT and it was a Porsche compared to the ‘C&D special’. Just had little things break, but no major component failures as Mitsu had.
Honda Civics may have been more refined then, but look at them now, playing ‘catch up’ saying ‘we promise will fix Civic for 2013-14’. What happened?
It’s just the common progression of things. You get successful, the next thing you know you get complacent, you and your customers think you can do no wrong, and the product starts to suffer. They and Toyota have just taken some plays from GM’s book.
In 1982 I bought my first new car: a red/red 1982 Capri 5.0.
In the show room was a black Lynx. The price difference wasn’t that great (my Capri wasn’t exactly loaded–manual trans. wheel covers, no P/W, and the Lynx had most of the available options).
I even drove a Lynx to make sure I was making the right decision—the Lynx seemed so much more practical, but ultimately ——–no comparison!
Confession Time: I owned not one, not two, but five Escorts between 1989-1998.
Okay two were parts cars, but the other three in order was an 82 with 4 speed standard, an 81 with the dreaded 3 speed auto for my girlfriend, and an 86 4 speed “Pony” edition to replace the 82.
They weren’t my first choice for a car, but buying a Civic or a 323 was out of the question due to high resale and insurance costs.
At the time I really liked them; cheap to run, fairly reliable and they taught me to tinker which is a must with these cars or you’ll go broke fast.
The 1.6 litre 81-82 models were loud, slow, poor handling ,had head gasket and timing belt issues, not that great on gas, and utterly disposable.
The 86 had the 1.9 litre and was marginally better as a car but started falling apart (especially the interior) at the 160000 km (100000 mile) Quality is Job One, ya right.
Those Escorts filled a gap for me and did their job but after buying an 1986 Mazda 323 to replace the 86 Escort, you knew immediately what was the better car, it wasn’t even close.
Wow, you must be a glutton for punishment!
Kidding aside, the eighties were a very difficult time for the domestic OEMs, and the transition from the leftover 70’s to something similar to what the Japanese were building for many years was painful. It’s not over yet, either.
I owned a stable of K-derived cars, so I had my issues with them too, from 1981 all the way to 2007 when the last one died at 15 – a 1992 LeBaron convertible! Sniff…
Zackman, I’ll agree with you on the ’80’s (early ’80’s anyway) to be a low point for North American cars. I was Japanese that decade, save for the ’83 Dodge D-150 Slant Six Truck I had (outstanding, once the lean burn issues were sorted out which meant an advance on the timing that made running super unleaded a must) and between late summer ’82 until the fall of ’83 before the Mopar, I had the worst POS car – an ’82 Norwood built Camaro.
Although all it’s many woes were covered under warranty (the tow truck trips were not), two main oil seal failures, shift linkage disintegration and many other bugs (loose and falling off trim and moulding pieces interior and exterior), well, suffice to say I saw the writing on the wall and traded it.
Although I was smitten with the midnight blue Dodge truck, the dealer really was pressing HARD to sell me the ’83 Mirada sitting next to the truck on the showroom floor (Tidewater Dodge, Norfolk, Virginia, October 1983).
The dealer gave me a huge sack of “New Chrysler” corporation car care products and threw in a casette AM/FM stereo at no charge. The Mopar truck was listed about $1200.00 or so less than an at-the-time comparably equipped Ford or Chevy truck.
I did visit the local Ford dealers at the time; Escorts and Mustangs were flying off the lots along with the locally assembled (Norfolk) F’ies.
Your comment reminded me about what my mechanic called an Escort: a beer can – throw away when empty.
I remember that this generation of Escort was supposedly designed in parallel with the Mazda 323 so that some parts , like the transmission, were interchangeable. The motoring press crucified Ford for the road manners of the early cars, and Ford had to update the suspension geometry PDQ. Base engine in most markets was a pushrod 1.1 litre, that 1.6 CVH engine was considered too powerful for a car of this class, and few were sold in places like Ireland. The contemporary Opel Kadett was a far far better car.
The US Escort may as well have been from a parallel universe the Mazda was a bloody good car and even flung together by Ford OZ with some gussetts left out to drop the weight they were ok but these US versions sound like the exact opposite of a reliable fun to drive little car.
It seemed that until 1983, American/Canadian/Mexican Ford cars were “four speed stick” only (on floor sticks anyway). That is an apt and accurate description Paul, that these period Ford 4-speeders were a 3-speed + overdrive. Ratios were as wide as Nebraska. I know as I did drive a period (’81) Lynx and (’81) Lima 4cyl Mustang. Steering was slow and heavy (non p/s – especially on the Mustang).
The ratios, if anyone is curious, were 3.58, 2.05, 1.21, 0.81, with a 3.59 axle. I think the transaxle was basically the same as the U.S. Fiesta, but with fractionally taller third and fourth gears, presumably in search of better fuel economy.
(European four-speed Escorts, interestingly, had the same first and second ratios, but shorter third and fourth and shorter axle ratios.)
No one has mentioned the interference motor with a penchant for eating cam belts before 60k miles. I knew a few people who had the unfortunate experience of the motor just ‘shutting off’ going down the highway, then discovering that the repair was quite expensive.
This car was one of the under-performers from FoMoCo. I remember how the USDM Escort was being hailed, but having relatives in Germany, I could see what they were getting was far better than what was being offered here. I can remember repeated promises from Ford America to bring over European Fords. I sincerely wanted an Escort XR3, but it never came. Instead we got the Sierra, but with a Pinto motor and the Scorpio, again, another oddball that was expensive and kludged with motors that were US certified.
I kept hearing those same promises from Ford over and over again during the 1980’s, and finally in the late 80’s I quit listening. To me, the super Escort that I wanted was being built by Chrysler in the US, no less. I still miss my Lancer ES Turbo, an incredibly practical car that drove well and quickly. It was everything the Escort, Tempo and frankly the Mustangs were never capable of becoming.
I knew several people with this generation of Escort, they were all underpowered and generally unremarkable. I can understand why people would gravitate to some other package, because these cars weren’t getting it done. These cars were the poverty or commuter specials, no one aspired to own one of these.
Unless you had to walk everywhere…
The Lancer ES Turbo was a considerably more expensive car than the Escort, so that isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. The Mopars that competed directly against the Escort were initially the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, and then the Plymouth Sundance and Dodge Shadow.
When the Escort debuted in late 1980, the Omni and Horizon had been on the market for about two years (they debuted in early 1978), so some of the bugs had been worked out of them by that point. Still, they were hardly quality champs. My strongest memories of those cars are of our neighbor’s Horizon, which died in our driveway (he carpooled with my father) and the Horizon driven by my best friend, which kept stalling at red lights and popping exterior door handles. Both were bought brand-new, and the problems started almost immediately.
Once Ford got the Escort sorted out by 1986, it was no contest. The Omni and Horizon were both dated and unreliable. The Sundance and Shadow weren’t much better. Believe me, no one considered Chrysler quality to be superior to Ford quality by the mid-1980s. At least, not where I lived.
Interestingly, in the August 1981 issue of Popular Mechanics, the magazine asked several, non-professional testers to test drive and rank small cars on the market at that time. The domestic entries were the Mercury Lynx RS, Chevrolet Chevette and Dodge Omni.
The overall winner, by far, was the Honda Civic.
The highest ranking domestic was the Mercury Lynx. What is interesting is that these non-professional testers also criticized the handling, but praised the seats.
The Omni placed dead last – even after the Chevrolet Chevette. Just as everyone loved the Civic, everyone hated the Omni.
For what it’s worth, the Fiat Strada and Renault LeCar placed ahead of all of the domestics.
@Geeber: You’re correct about the Lancer vs. Escort not being apples to apples, but I had hoped I could get a hot hatch from Ford. The Lancer was what I was looking for from Ford, but never materialized.
I’m not so quick to criticize the Omni-rizon, as they were ahead of the curve when released, and were improved with revisions. I commuted with a guy that had an early Omni that went well over 200K in it’s lifetime, but to be honest, I don’t remember the service history. I knew a number of people that had some variation of the L-body, it seemed to me that the car held up as well as people treated it. Many were treated poorly, though.
I’ll grant you that by 1986 the Escort had hit it’s stride, and the Omni was on the glide path. I will disagree with you that the P-bodies were much improved over the L-bodies, and probably bested the rest of the domestic competition. But by then Honda had it’s class redefining Civic line going full steam, and no one could catch them at that time.
Geozinger,
I liked the Dodge Lancer, and always wondered why Chrysler was so quick to abandon it. It was a very handsome car, and just the right size.
The first Escorts were very troublesome cars, and the chassis tuning was terrible, as Paul notes. Car and Driver trashed the 1981 version largely for that reason, and even the non-professional drivers in the Popular Mechanics comparison test picked up on this flaw. But Ford did make improvements for 1982, starting with revised chassis tuning, and introduced the five-door hatchback.
Three things saved the Escort. One, virtually of the domestic front-wheel-drive small cars released in the late 1970s and early 1980s – Omni/Horizon, X-cars, Escort, K-cars – were initially troublesome. So the Escort didn’t really stand out as being all that terrible compared to what GM and Chrysler were doing at that time.
Two, Ford did work to the improve the Escort’s flaws, so that, by the time the 1985 1/2 version debuted, it was a solid (although hardly exciting) small car.
Three, GM dropped the ball by continuing the doddering Chevette way past its expiration date, and then filling the segment with the captive-import Chevrolet Spectrum and Corolla-clone Nova, neither of which gained any traction, probably because GM did very little to promote them.
As I said, the 1985 1/2 models bought by friends and relatives all gave good service. Exciting? No, but they got the job done (these were either the Pony, or the mid-level models). My father’s Pony soldiered on with minimal care and maintenance, and my friend’s 1989 five-door hatchback was also a trooper, and kept running even though he did the least amount of maintenance possible. Some late 1980s models are still on the road around here.
The Sundance/Shadow were cut-down K-cars, if I recall correctly, and weren’t necessarily bad, but Chrysler quality was still very inconsistent in the 1980s, and the cars seemed somewhat compromised by the platform sharing. I would have taken a late 1980s Escort, properly equipped, over one of the Mopars.
Had one of these, a 1985. Had a new job and needed a reliable car in a hurry.
I didn’t expect it to be a sports car. But even for someone who’d been driving both a Chevette and a Pinto, neither of which were known for sporting road manners, the Escort was…well, calling it a disappointment is an understatement. It was one of the most unsteady, unsporting cars I’d ever driven…and that included a ’73 Torino and a Kaiser Wagoneer.
Had the four-speed. The clutch, with its automatic-adjusting cable linkage, had this feeling in use…like something was about to break. Never did, in 80,000 miles; but there was NO getting used to the riding-on-ball-bearings feel the steering gave. Had manual, which was stiff with minimal road feel.
No torque steer – there wasn’t enough power for that. And no rust in four years of abuse…yeah, it never saw the inside of a wash rack. Think I’m gonna spend $10 washing THAT?
Mechanically, the only thing to hit me was that one cam wore almost round…the cams had relatively little wear, but the thing went lame and there it was. No, Ford wouldn’t consider a manufacturing defect. Out of warranty, out of luck.
Sold it for $1800; a fair price (which I aided with some extralegal mileage doctoring) What it was was a transportation appliance, and put in that light, it was a reasonable package.
Sporting customers should have looked elsewhere – and did, and do. Cars like that do damage to their maker, long after the last one’s been fed to the shredder.
The first year of this car was a disaster, as the story notes. But, if I recall correctly, not all of the buff books muffled their criticism. I seem to remember Car and Driver giving it a very harsh review.
This car was big news in the fall of 1980, as the domestics were reeling from a combination of a severe recession, the second fuel crunch and strong inroads by the Japanese in the subcompact segment, so that review stung. It didn’t help that Chrysler was surviving thanks to government largesse and Ford would have gone bankrupt, too, if it hadn’t been for its European subsidiary. The Iranian Hostage crisis just added to the gloom.
Ford, to its credit, improved the car over the years, and by 1986, it was a good car. My father had a 1986 Pony bought as a one-year-old used car, while an aunt had a 1987 wagon. A friend had a 1989 five-door hatchback. All gave very good service – they all ran for well over 100,000 trouble-free miles. These cars weren’t coddled. My father, in particular, beat the daylights out of his car.
Only problem was that, by 1986, Honda was making GREAT small cars with the Civic. Still, by 1986, the Escort was the best domestic small car on the market, and, for a fair number of folks, that meant something.
And what was the sad excuse for paint that Ford slapped onto these poor things? Every one of the early ones you see looks like that faded red sedan and chalky brown wagon — and has for a long time.
A lot of the paint problems can be traced to the good old EPA and them regulating the emissions from the painting process. That meant new, often water borne, paint formulations that many times weren’t fully tested and weren’t always that compatible with all of the products. There were lots of GM vehicles in this era where the paint came off in sheets.
My brother’s first real job was in the paint dept at a Chevy dealer all he did was strip paint off of white trucks for warranty repaints.
Reds in general and any color that has red in it like browns fade much more rapidly than most other colors when it is not a base/clear system.
Yes, the initial years of the waterborne basecoat/clearcoat paints were a disaster for everyone. My old Lancer developed a severe case of “sunburn”, where the clearcoat failed and started to flake off, like a person’s injured skin. It seems to me most domestically (US) made cars had some version of sunburn or outright paint peeling during that time. Cars built in other regions of the world had much better paint, but they weren’t forced to use then new EPA friendly materials, either.
This is true; Pittsburg Paints was the major supplier at the time for the domestics. The switch to a more environmentally friendly blend was the reason for that mid-late eighties peeling, chalking and fading. I usually see blue cars with this malady more often than not.
According to Wikipedia, the Escort had been around in Europe since 1969 and was originally a conventional front engined, rear wheel drive model until it was totally redesigned in 1980-81 and went FWD for the first time.
It’s sad that while it was supposed to be Ford’s “world car”, it appeared to be anything but for they obviously mucked with the US variant to the point where it was not all it was being sold as.
I’ve ridden in a friend’s 81 Lynx wagon, an automatic in that cute red paint with matching red interior many years ago. I don’t recall it being overly noisy but it wasn’t overly fast either. He unfortunately wrecked it up enough that it was replaced with I think an ’81 Citation that he also wrecked and now doesn’t drive anymore.
Anyway, I’ve always liked the basic looks of the car even if the interior wasn’t as nice as some. That said, it didn’t look nearly as dated or antiquated as the interior in my youngest sister’s 86 Tempo though.
I got to drive one briefly once for it was being sold by some insurance company and it WAS a manual too but sadly, I could not afford it and it was an ’83 Escort 5door hatch in that 2 tone blue. It was quite nice looking actually but alas, it was plagued with the dreaded head gasket problems that finally were resolved by 1987, or so I’ve been told.
The big thing with the US spec cars was what they decided to do with the suspension and the drive train, sad really as the car obviously had potential but Ford botched it up good by making the ride overly soft for starters.
As for the EXP/LN7 twins, have always loved the original EXP/LN7 best with the bug eyes and loved it the day I first laid eyes on the ads for them.
Escort badge first used in the mid 50s on a stripper 100E Ford became a stand alone model 67/68 to replace the Anglia as MK1 . MK2 appeared 75 I think redesigned in 81 with FWD.
My friend’s mom has an early Mercury Lynx. It was a sport model with red paint and black sport stripes and a black, grippy, cloth interior. Looked sharp, but I remember going up a long hill on the way to a park one time and it kept shifting in and out of gear(it was an auto), jerking back and forth as it did so. It was quite a neck snapping event. You could tell she was embarrassed and she apologized for the jerky nature of the car. I don’t think they kept that car more than two years.
My first new car was an ’82 Escort 2 door hatch with a 4-speed. I don’t recall it being particularly bad to drive (of course it was replacing a ’67 Falcon van) but it absolutely nickel and dimed me to death.
Just after the 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty expired it ate a water pump, which required unbolting the rear motor mount and jacking the engine forward so the pump mounting bolts would clear the shock tower. This was followed shortly by a leaking steering rack, rear strut failure that cupped my Michelins, a broken driver seat frame, failed hatch struts, failed heater core, failed radiator. Thiss is not the complete list of failed parts in 6 years of ownership.
The factory sent me an extended warranty for the timing belt, so I was actually pleased that it failed at 4 years 10 months – unitl I read the “or 50,000 miles” detail. The 1.6 is an interference design, so I got to learn about replacing the 5 bent valves.
“Quality is job 1”. HA! That car was a POS. I swore I would never buy another Ford, however I have now been driving my ’01 Focus 5 speed wagon for 10+ years and love it. Ford got that one right.
I drove a 94 Escort for 123K, all the way to 210 K miles. I had the 5 speed, sunroof and 1.9l engine. I put a GT gas tank in for 3 more gallons, and GT seats for more comfort. I stopped short of going with the wheels and suspension. It handled well but not as good as the 93 Gt a family member owns. The 1.8l Mazda mill lacks low end but does pull to 7 K well. The car handles better than it accelerates, I would not consider it fast off the line.
The Mazda influence made these reliable cars. They are good used cars and are cheap to own, fix and insure. I got 40 MPG right to the end, sometimes 42 without the AC.
Only new car my wife & I ever had was a 851/2 Escort. Two tone dark gray & silver w/red interior and vent windows! Reliable, ran great and terrific in the snow. Had to trade it when we needed a larger car but no complaints.
My first new car was a 1985 Escort two-door hatch base model. All white, no trim. Same moody 4-speed stick referenced in the piece. Tan interior. Cloth seats. AM radio. No A/C. Strangely attractive in its sheer boxy simplicity, but it was a veritable limo compared to the heep I traded in — a ’66 Malibu so rusted out that passengers had a view of the pavement below and rode gambled on CO poisoning because of a trunk that 20 years of Midwest weather had turned into Swiss cheese.
I owned that Escort for about six years and got nearly 200k out of it. Sold it to a kid for $500, and I heard he totaled it a week later.
When I got married, my wife brought her practically new ’91 blue Mazda Escort wagon with all the trimmings. I liked that car, too, although, we traded that off when the A/C quit (a necessity on any car she drives).
“the new Escorts had a peculiar tendency to exhibit positive camber on the front wheels, and negative camber on the rears, as in this white coupe, which is serial number 1. ”
Nice long article, but…
No, the white car is sitting off the ground at Henry Ford Museum. The suspension is hanging at full rebound! They raise the vehicles to keep weight off the tires (note the black things under the control arms…). I stopped reading at that point. Not sure what other BS I might find.
Take a closer look: those “black things under the control arms” are very clearly positioned under the outer ends of the control arms, not on the body or elsewhere. And that is far from full rebound, in any case. Ever jacked one up to change the tire? I have.
Anyway, even if this static display for some reason is riding a bit higher than typical, the point is that this positive camber attitude was common on early Escorts, which is why I made a point of it.
Paul, your reply to that shows you are highly dignified man. You do a great job- abusive attacks are rare on CC.
Dude,
I’ve ridden in them, driven one once and have seen them being driven, even a nice looking white hatchback sometime last year from early in its run do just that, when you step on the go pedal, the car hunched down on its rear tires, the front raised up and you got the negative camber result up front.
I just figured it was a characteristic nature of older FWD cars as you don’t see that now anymore that I’m aware of.
This was more pronounced when they launched from a dead stop but when sitting, it was not as obvious in some angles.
Still liked them for what they were though.
I was twelve when these came out and I remember that camber. I also recall the 450 SLs and 280 ZXs had very noticeable positive rear camber, I liked that look. I also enjoyed watching the camber dance by I Beam Fords trucks on bad roads, especially ones with bad front shocks. There’s even a Japanese car subculture centered on outrageous camber.
I’ve made plenty of boorish, and plain ignorant comments on this site. Somehow I’m suddenly free of all embarrasments
I recall the awkward wheel angles on these too, especially, as mentioned, when they were leaving a full stop. The camber was also pretty noticeable on the Tempo/Topaz, and seemingly more so on the 3 door Escort/Lynx & 2 door Tempo/Topaz.
Midwest 1st gens would commonly get squatty in the rear as they aged, usually from the rear shock towers rotting thru, and the odd rear camber would be amplified to the point the car looked unsteady sitting still.
In the late 90’s a friend’s mom had a 3 door model with this affliction. Outwardly it looked pretty clean. But when riding in the backseat there was an unsettling metallic banging noise as it drove down the road. A quick look over the shoulder revealed the rear suspension had punched thru the top of the wheel well and was jumping around with every bump in the road.
I also remember the starters had a pretty distinctive “snap-whirr” sound when cranking, and the dashpads never seemed to last and were usually shattered and crumbling.
They were a dime a dozen forever, but I hadn’t seen one of these in ages until just a few weeks ago when I passed a white on blue ’86 or ’87 3 door Pony model, driving in the opposite direction. It looked a little tired but in decent condition for what it was, and it made me grin to see it still trundling along.
My very 1st car was a 1985 1/2 Escort that I bought for $3,500 in 1987. My father, who owned a ’73 T-Bird, at first derided it, calling it a “wheelbarrow”, but he enjoyed driving it on various errands. I really had no problems w/it until near the end (I owned it for 12 yrs.) when it rusted from the inside of the body. I traded it in for a ’89 LeBaron Turbo GLC (that’s another story).
I came very close to buying a loaded ’84 Escort with cruise control and if I remember right, a tilt wheel. It was an automatic with am/fm and every little piece of chrome trim available. It even had a little overhead console with a clock and a cubby. What I vividly remember is the absolute lack of performance the car had, so much to the point I made a comment to the salesman who replied it would get better as I put mileage on the car and got it broke-in.
I went home that night, thinking about that pretty little beige coupe but I couldn’t get the lack of get up and go out of my mind. Not that I drive fast, mind you, but I do like to have a car that will “step out.” At the time I was driving a loaded ’80 Mercury Monarch Ghia with all options including a Quadraphonic digital radio (first year available) with 8 track. I just couldn’t let my little Mercury go for this thing.
For a couple years afterwards, I saw this particular Escort around town driven by a senior citizen. This person looked quite happy with their little Escort and I believe they were meant for each other.
I just bought a 1985 ford escort, mint condition. It drives good untill I need to go up a hill…… What’s up with that????
my first new car was an 1985 1/2 escort, maroon in color. only extra i got was auto trans. no a/c. drove it to death as a pizza delivery driver for 7 years. never knew the correct mileage because the odometer cable snapped at about 65K, i drove it for 4 years that way. eventually got it repaired, and it had well over 130K miles on it when i traded it in 1995. that thing got awesome gas mileage,but you;d go deaf from the road noise. to combat that i upgraded the entire audio system, 1000 watt rockford fosgate amp, huge mtx speaker box with twin 12″ woofers, 3″ midrange and a pair of tweeters, in addition to replacing the door & rear speakers with kenwood’s. replaced the head unit with a kenwood detachable face-plate w/ cassette and added a 10 disc cd changer under the seat. the system soon became more valuable than the vehicle itself. i have a lot of great memories with that car. it may have not been the best engineered vehicle that ford has produced, but it sure took a beating and kept on coming back for more.escorts were all you saw on the road for years, before the chevy cavalier took over – another econo-box . but they were serious brake-eaters.
Our experience was the polar opposite of Paul’s. My sister, a cousin & a friend all had early Escorts; brother had an LN7 w/ TRX (remember those?). All purchased new. We got an ’83 sometime in the 90s; brother a used one later. Our ’83 went to another owner; they drove EVERYWHERE w/ it. That’s 6 cars among 7 owners that I have first hand knowledge of. GREAT car!!! Brother worked for a Ford dealer; at the time claimed Escort was the most trouble free vehicle Ford sold. I agree that the handling wasn’t the best but for just plain gettin’ around was impossible to beat. Until the EF Civic; which is what we drive now as a second. Just tried to buy a first gen Escort online; already sold. I’m not the only person who appreciates them.
Bought one back in 1989. Paid $1500 for it just as a Get around. Jumped out of the Air Force in 1990. It got me to Tucson from IL. and from there to New Mexico. I took it on more then a few Prospecting trips and never left me on the trail. I messed up the Rear Port side suspension but it got me home. To this day I wish I never Sold it. Since then we have had a Dodge Intrepid, Peace of chit, (Did You know the Water Pump is in the middle of the Engine?) Ford Pinto, it lasted way longer then expected and I found you can change the timing belt on the side of the road. That old man Ford had his chit together. Dodge, and the rest don’t let you work on your own car any more. Ok Chevy old style does.
I went car-shopping with my dad around 1980-81…looked at a beige base model Escort with 4 speed, no a/c, and, oddly enough, the HO engine. He bought a Nissan Sentra, but the whole concept of the stripper ‘Scort with a nominal hot-rod engine intrigued me…I wonder what constituted HO, and if it ran stronger?
My 85.5 chili red 4 speed/dealer A/C escort was a rolling turd…hated it and couldn’t wait to trade it in on a Toyota Corolla.
The optional engine, which only came along in late 1982, upped the horsepower from 70 to 80. So “HO” essentially stood for “highly optimistic” rather than “high output. 🙂
If the US Ford Escort was a grandmother of today’s Ford Focus, then the Ford Pinto and the original Ford Fiesta (in part since the newer Fiesta is available once again and the small sister of the Focus) would be the great grandmother of the Ford Focus.
The Ford Pinto/Mercury Bobcat was mother of the Mustang II. No 3rd gen. We are indeed fortunate the lineage died there. RIP
An accurate and truthful article from PN!
My first gen Escort rental (an automatic…baaaahhhhh!) was everything that Paul says it was.
My next three cars were Hondas.
My Uncle downsized from a 1977 Thunderbird to a 1981 Escort Wagon in response to the gas prices at the time…..It had the wide ratio 4 speed manual and 4th was indeed an overdrive….Another Uncle owned a 1978 Fairmont Futura with the 2.3 liter 4 cylinder and a 4 speed stick…..Both transmissions seemed to be geared similarly with 4th being an overdrive.
We got together for the Christmas Holiday one year back around 1981 or 82…..It had gotten bitterly cold and in the Central PA Mountains, highs were in the single digits that Christmas.
Despite being only a year or so old, my Uncle’s Escort would not start in that cold weather if it sat longer than a few hours. The engine oil thickened up so that the engine would not crank fast enough to fire off and the carb would flood the cylinders with gas…..My Dad connected a tow rope behind his Chevy Suburban and hooked the rope to the Escort…..He towed the Escort almost a mile and a half with my uncle trying to bump start the car by dropping it in gear and easing out on the clutch using engine compression to spin the motor…..It took every bit of that mile and a half before the Escort finally fired off and ran…..It would run fine after that……as long as he went out and started the engine every couple or few hours afterwards.
It pains me to think about how much my mother LOVED her first-gen Lynx. I wish I could ask her why it seemed like a great choice. Did she see it in People magazine and think, “Yup! That’s the car for me!”?
I remember the hot, sticky, black vinyl interior and the crank windows and the noise it made on the highway. She loved that thing though, even though I felt the Datsun 210 we had was snazzier and roomier.
In the early 1980s I vacationed in the desert Southwest, traveling between major cities by train and bus, and renting cars at those major cities. I got one of these Escorts in El Paso, TX because the rental company would allow me to drive it into Mexico if I bought Mexican insurance, which their affiliate next door offered.
“Knowing” that speeding tickets in Mexico were easily handled by a twenty-dollar bill to the officer, I set out south of Juarez to see how fast this Escort would go. It took a long time and several miles but eventually topped out at 81mph on a level road. After a while, though, the car started to smell. A peek under the hood found the exhaust manifold on the mighty 1.9L Four was glowing red! I kept it to 65 after that. I could have sworn I heard an exhaust leak after that but said nothing about it when returning it. What a turd!
The next rental was in Albuquerque, a Plymouth Reliant K-car. It was faster, going to 93mph without complaint before I lost my nerve, since American police can’t be bought off.
I had a real ‘thing’ for these cars when I was a teenager… perhaps because they were so plentiful when I started driving as a 16 year old in the mid-90s. While the 81-85s were pretty anemic with their 1.6L CVH engine, I still liked the looks of those cars, recessed sealed beams and all. There were plenty of body styles and trim levels available too… with Escort SS and Lynx RS rides being the rarest of the early builds.
I personally owned 4 of these cars over my early driving years.. a maroon 88 GL 5-door, a brown colored 81 GLX 3-door, a base 84 3-door and also an 86 Lynx XR3, which was the sharpest looking and ‘quickest’ of the bunch.
You almost NEVER see 81-90 Escorts any more… they are gone!
My Dad had one, an ’83 L with the 4-speed and the 1.6L. Visually an exact clone of the red car in the article photos, except white. Interior was the same lovely shade of red, but I think the article car is an ’84 because ours had a different dashboard and door panel design. He bought it in 1988 to replace our ’79 Fairmont which was having major issues, and paid (if I remember correctly) $1800 for it.
Even if the 1.6 was gutless, it probably wasn’t any slower than that Fairmont, which was a heavier car with the 2.3 “Lima” 4 and an automatic. And having the hatch and fold-down rear seats meant it could swallow a surprising amount of stuff. But those were really about the only virtues. It definitely had the odd camber on the rear wheels (worse on the driver’s side, I think due to poorly repaired accident damage before we got it). Very basic, no A/C (which meant Mom wouldn’t even ride in it), no cruise. Radio didn’t work (we replaced it with a cheap aftermarket unit).The driver’s seatback had an odd lean, like whoever owned it previously spent half his time turned around looking towards the back of the car. It was loud and buzzy. Developed an oil leak eventually. Just a transportation appliance, something to get Dad to and from work, as our older but much nicer ’79 Malibu handled all the famly trips.
But, for all its faults, we got six years out of that car with minimal repairs and minimal trouble. It started, it went about its business, got Dad to and from work, hauled the occasional large object. Very little fuss. Until one day in 1994 when, on the way home from work, he lost the timing belt and mangled the head/valves. Dead at (IIRC) 110K miles. Not worth fixing, so he sold it to a shadetree mechanic who was going to redo the engine himself. It was replaced by an ’86 Audi 5000S, which was like a Rolls compared to the Escort…and probably cost us about as much to run. But that’s another CC response for another day!
My Aunt Betty had an ’83 wagon, light blue inside and out with the “woven vinyl” seat inserts (20 grit). It replaced a ’76 Town & Country – the owner of the gas station she always used told her he had to let a guy go…
When I met my (ex) psycho-bitch girlfriend in 1996 , she was driving a beaten to death red 1981 Escort L two door hatchback with the black vinyl interior .
Four speed box NO AC , broken 8 track player in the dash with rotted out speakers , four mis matched bald tires etc. , this poor old whipped dog should have been taken out and shot years before , it was _below_ ‘ Barrio Bomber ‘ status , her ex BF had found it in South Central L.A. for a couple hundred Dollars as it had been side swiped on the right front fender & door (window couldn’t roll down) then the headlight had bashed against who knows what and was held in my some coat hanger ~ she was a Cashier @ Pep Boys and one day when she pulled into the parking lot and stopped , it simply fell out and smashed on the asphalt….
She duly picked it up and brought it to me to fix .
The ‘ shop’ it had come from , ‘fixed ‘ the leaky power steering rack by cutting the belt off then removing the P.S. pump’s pulley to discourage any idiot (like me I guess) from trying to fix it with junkyard parts .
She never even realized it was supposed to have P.S. .
This car personified ” cheap penalty box ” Automobiles and remember : I like basic cars .
The horn was operated by pushing in the turn signal lever , one of the many short cuts Ford foolishly took everywhere in this lump .
The damn thing ran great although it was noisier inside than my old 1948 VW Beetle ~ she loved the damn thing so I diligently worked on it , replacing thousands of dollars worth of parts , bits and bobs , in doing so I discovered it was wretchedly cheap but also absurdly simple and dead easy to fix anything ~ I spent maybe 15 minutes replacing the heater core that had exploded years before soaking the black carpets in rusty water .
The entire suspension was NOT ADJUSTABLE ~ I didn’t believe this when the Mechanics I worked with told me but it was so , I dug up a Factory Service manual and learned the only way to adjust camber & caster was the clamp chains to the unibody and pull (stretch) it thisa-way or that . crude but simple , it never ate up tires and yes , she had three kids so she and I ran it hard for several years including a few road trips .
Sadly (thankfully ?) the timing belt snapped in a really bad part of East Los right about Sunset on a Friday evening , I got her & her kids out O.K. then went back with my Son and towed it home , slapped a new timing belt on (I was unfamiliar with timing belts then) to discover just what an ‘ interference engine ‘ was ~ I’d heard of such a thing and asked as many Mechanics as I could find if it was one , no one seemed to know for sure so I gambled and lost , towed it 25 miles to Pick-A-Part , got a healthy shove and cruised it in , jumped out and said ” you told me on the ‘phone anything arriving under it’s own power get $150 ! where’s my money ? ” .
Instead of booting me to the curb they actually gave me $150.00 CASH MONEY for it , dents and all (I’d used a 6″ X 6″ & a sledge hammer to beat out the passenger door enough to roll down the window , making friends of her bratty kids for life) .
It was in the end , a durable cheap as dirt P.O.S. that was designed for the bottom rung buyer and I remember they sold like hot cakes the first year or three , I’m glad I never paid for one but was pleased it was so easy and cheap to maintain .
-Nate
(did I mention I’m an old fart now but I’ve still never had better sex that this worn out yet red hot Woman provided regularly ?)
Buddy of mine in high school had the exact same headlight thing happen on his ’80 BMW 320i. Pulled into the lot one morning, the car stopped, one of the four headlamps didn’t and ejected forward onto the pavement. Never did figure out why as the car hadn’t had any front-end damage. Funny though…
A co worker of mine bought an ’81 Escort, a low end silver one. I spent a fair amount of time in the passenger seat. He thought it was “ok”, but his wife loved it. It was his first new car. It didn’t really have any problems other than the seat fabric wore out very quickly. In 1983, another friend of mine bought a new Escort, a higher end blue one. It started out bad, and got worse. First thing was it ate the right front tire up, and had to have some major front end work. Then, when it got cold in the fall, the bondo that the dealer had used to fix a ding in the rear quarter during delivery fell off, leaving a rusted spot where water had somehow gotten under it for the 9 months since it arrived at the dealer. The dealer fixed it again, correctly this time. Over the next year or so, it ate a head gasket, an alternator, and a water pump, stranding him every time. His wife dumped him about 2 years after they had bought the damn thing, and she graciously let him have the newer car in the divorce settlement. She got the house, the much better car, the dog, and everything else, and he got the Escort. A year later, he was living in a shit apartment, and she was engaged to a lawyer. Today, he’s still living in a shitty apartment, she’s still married to the lawyer, and living in a very nice house in Ottawa Hills (The fanciest suburb of Toledo).
How many times have we heard this same story ? it kinda sucks as some Women do it quite deliberately , not caring they ruined some sap’s life .
Getting stuck with her penalty box is the final insult .
-Nate
I know this is late, Nate, but my brother’s second wife got the Yugo they’d purchased brand new in the divorce settlement.
Sometimes it works out, but it’s a shame as I never had a bad word to say about his ex-wife.
It’s never too late to say a good word Dweezil ! =8-) .
.
I lucked out as when my Ex Wife shoved off for greener pastures (not) she emphatically said ‘ and you can keep all these old worthess cars trucks and Motocycles too ! ‘.
She even bailed out on the house as it was a dump and was seriously upside down .
Like most divorced men I could tell you hateful stories about my Ex but here’s the truth: she married me when I was a dumb, clueless brokeass kid, gave me my wonderful Son and then bugged out when the going got rough and he was 12 .
.
So, what’s not to like ? .
.
I clearly got the better end of the deal, we’re still friends .
.
I’m still clueless and broke assed, now I’m old and broke down too but I’m very content =8-) .
.
That’s my Baby Boy, His Wife and mt Grand Daughter .
.
-Nate
I actually thought the first generation Escort GT was a pretty decent looking car. The first generation Escort was 10 times better looking than the second. I bought a brand new 1987 Pontiac Fiero back then. Believe it or not, I briefly considered an Escort GT.
Oddly I did too .
I guess I have the ‘ under dog ‘ complex or something as I worked mightily on that old whipped dog , fixing the door locks , rear struts , only to discover the hatch latch was worn out and needed replacing , on and on and through it all , the only time it refused to start was when the incredibly cheaply made carby’s choke unloader weight _fell_off_ ~ it was plastic , held on by two tiny mushroomed pegs FGS ! . no way to repair it , after that no auto choke , not a problem in Los Angeles .
The hours I spent (wasted) compounding then waxing the red paint……. it looked fine unless you like high end vehicles I guess .
-Nate
It’s funny how childhood nostalgia makes me look at these cars fondly.
In 1988 my mom got a 1984 Escort 2-door, silver with red interior and a 4-speed manual.
Seeing an Escort of that era reminds me of my childhood.
I remember playing with the spring loaded coin holders in the console and her letting me shift gears from the passenger seat. I remember watching her foot press the clutch pedal and her saying “ok, now up and over, 3rd gear.”
I was 9 years old when I remember being a little upset when I came home from my grandparents house and it was gone. It was a fairly reliable car for her though it was rather slow. I remember when my dad finally relented my begging for him to buy a VW and bought his ’73 Beetle about a year after they sold my mom’s Escort and my mom drove it and was amazed that it climbed a hill in 4th gear that her Escort would be at the bottom of 2nd in.
I think of the 1st generation Escort and smile but then again I never drove it.
What I have never understood is, when the European version of the Escort was so good, why did Ford US stuff it up so much? Did they really think they were improving it?
I know you had some pretty weird regulatory hoops the car had to jump through – which could partly explain the gutless engine – but did it really have to be this bad? Especially when other car companies could market a far superior competitive vehicle.
When these things started getting older we learned at work what an interference engine was–when the belt broke pistons hit valves–Ford modified the engine a few years later to a non-interference engine. That engine must have been the first high volume timing belt apps back then because later in the 80’s we started telling customers to change timing belts at 80,000km to save time and money on broken belts. The other thing I remember is that in order to repair a broken belt you had to rotate the engine–it was pretty tight so a lot of 80’s Escorts have a hole drilled in the inner fender with a hole saw by mechanics to rotate the crankshaft
Compared to Pintos, the 80’s Escort is like an Audi A3. Or dare I say Focus?
I bought a 1985.5 Escort 4 dr hatch as our first new car. Only intended as a in town commuter for my wife, it served us well. We were attracted by it’s great appearance….two tone gray with red interior plus FRONT VENT WINDOWS and it’s new 1.9 engine. When another child was on the way, we needed a larger car. We remember it fondly.
I bought a 1985.5 Escort 4 dr hatch as our first new car. Only intended as a in town commuter for my wife, it served us well. We were attracted by it’s great appearance….two tone gray with red interior plus FRONT VENT WINDOWS. When another child was on the way, we needed a larger car. We remember it fondly.
I had 1982 Ford Escort GT with a 1.9L HO. I am looking to find some pictures of one so I can show my wife does any one have any ideas where I could get some pics of the car??
Paul’s original Colorado story brings back memories. My friend bought a low-mileage used ’81 Escort 4-speed coupe, maybe it was a year old. No tachometer. Compared to the Pinto, Vega, Chevette, it seemed OK.
Three of us friends wanted to take a road trip from Wisconsin to southwest Colorado. The Escort was the newest and most frugal of the cars we owned. The handling was not exciting, but we didn’t expect much in the price class, being used to basic cars like Matador, Hornet, Maverick. I was driving it when we hit the first significant upgrade, on US 160 west of Walsenburg. 4th was a tall tall gear, just not possible. I switched to 3rd. Owner burst out, “You’re abusing my car!”. OK, his turn to drive. I don’t recall what he said after experiencing it himself, but it was along the lines of, “Oh, I see.”
The 1981 Ford Escort 1.3L / 1.6L engines — As mentioned above, the 1.3L never went into production. This occurred because the 1.6L achieved the targeted EPA fuel economy that the 1.3L was expected to achieve. Therefore, the 1.3L was canceled. There was a point in time before production engine block machining transfer lines were finalized, when the engine displacement combination could have been changed to 1.5L / 1.8L. The change did not occur because other vehicle groups were committed to meeting overall vehicle weight targets. Those weight targets were not fully met resulting in the vehicle ending up in a slightly higher inertia weight class.
I had an 84 wagon with the 4 speed for about a year. The wagon made a very handy little vehicle. It got 30 mpg and between the folded seats and flat roof it could haul a lot of stuff. You could even sleep in it if need be. It was not a good long distance cruiser but around town it was fine. As a utilitarian transportation appliance, it was pretty good.
Why all the Escort bashing ? The car was the best selling car in the USA in 1982 and was a huge seller throughout the 80’s and into the 90’s . If you drove all the competition in its class then your opinion would not be so uppity . The Chevette ? Now the Chrysler badged Omni was pretty good in my opinion just go take a ride in the GM made Chevette and come back and criticize the Escort . I am always holding back in the complete snitty and sno nosed attacks by mostly generation stupid blog writers, but I will state that the Chevrolet Chevette was much lower in every category from styling to engineering than the Ford Escort .
You left out the Rabbit/Golf, the Gen2 Civic, and the clean-sheet FWD Mazda GLC, all of which made the Escort look like a dog with fleas.
It was a de-contented piece of crap made to sell cheap to people who wanted a small appliance to drive, but hated or were scared of “furrin cars”. On its merits it was toast against the imported competition.
I don’t know how these U.S car companies can make such decent cars in Europe and completely ruin them for the U.S market.The Escort was consistently one of the top selling cars in Britain throughout the 80s, aside from a propensity to rust after a few years they were a very competitive car. Maybe it’s the smog equipment we weren’t saddled with here, but even the 1.3 cvh was a strong performer that punched way above its weight, while at launch the 1.6 felt positively sporting. We hired a brand new 1.3L in 1981, after the thrashy old Kent engined mk2 escort of the 70s, the new model felt like something from the future. It could sit at 90mph completely unruffled. Whilst the ride wasn’t outstanding in any way, it was a fairly neutral handling machine.
The XR3i and RS Turbo werthe performance versions, and were THE hot ticket at the time.
I think a lot has to do with more draconian legislation regarding emissions etc in the U.S.A, plus the fixation with a marshmallowy soft ride. It’s very telling that the European escorts- minus catalytic converters or any other kind of emission control- had much higher power ratings. Our 1.3 cvh got 68bhp, the 1.6 a lively 78 bhp- enough for a 10 second 0-60 sprint. If that was too much for you, you could have the 1.1 version with the old Kent engine from the fiesta, with a miserable 54bhp. We didn’t get the 1.9 cvh, that was a U.S only thing.
OK, so the Escort wasn’t the greatest car ever. Let’s talk about the competition back then.
1. Chevy. The Chevette… we’ll just leave that one right there. Followed by the J-car. Early Cavaliers wouldn’t/couldn’t idle right with the 1.8. The 2.0 fixed that issue, but it took GM years to fix the sticker price problem. Well equipped, they were expensive, and base cars were as cheap and undesirable as the other econoboxes of the period.
2. The Omni/Horizon twins.The biggest cloud hanging over these cars was the question whether Chrysler would still be in business when the warranty ran out.
3. The Datsun 210. They were cheap, reliable, and got great gas mileage. That pretty much sums up the good points right there.
4. Toyota Tercel and, of course, the Corolla. The Tercel was quirky, but managed to gain quite a following. The Corolla was expensive, but folks lined up to pay for the best quality in the field.
5. Honda Civic. The only question Honda dealers had at the time was how many they could get, not how many they could sell.
6. VW Rabbit. The diesel saved the Rabbit… and saved the 240D the embarrassment of being the slowest car sold in the US (it had a higher top speed). Unfortunately, VW’s rep for reliability (or lack thereof) had the company scrambling once the gas mileage panic was over.
There ya have it- what would you have bought?
The Civic – which is exactly what my wife did. We had her ’81 for 12 great years, which in that era is amazing.
The first car I ever drove was our gray 5-door 1988 Escort LX(?). I wasn’t a car guy back then and didn’t know what I was driving or how to even drive in any real way. But reading this brought back some of the feedback or lack thereof that I experienced. Sad that my uncle melted the engine head off of it when it overheated, but hey that’s what you get for letting relatives borrow cars…
I was working in a garage at the time these were beginning to be serviced by independent garages. We saw an inordinate number of them with timing belts that failed prematurely because of water pump failure (since the water pump was driven by the timing belt, as I recall) and since these were not freewheeling engines, the valves invariably bent and almost always that resulted in the head being damaged beyond repair.Those heads became unavailable in any of the local salvage yards at any price, and new exceeded the value of most of the cars. My boss called them “the megabuck head” every time we needed one.. Sure didn’t sell me on the Escort!
Could the mk1/mk2 Ford Escort have worked in North America slotting below the Ford Pinto featuring 1.6-litre Kent and 2.0-2.3 Pinto engines?
could it be that this article has finally run its course? no comments as of yet for the dec 2020 reprise posting. guess everyone is out and otherwise active in pandemic spike times…. I own an 87 escort wagon. was my late cousin’s car. he did not drive much, lived in Arlington, VA -inside the beltway= and walked most everywhere. From 1987 to 2010 when I took ownership, he had racked up 5,280 miles. only in dry weather. the rest of its days were spent at slumber in an attached brick garage. by the time he needed to replace the old dried out tires, 13 inch 80 profiles were a vanished breed. the rubber he got were out of round, but not noticeable at in-town speed. made for a challenging 300 mile drive to my place at actual highway speeds. found a closeout set of aftermarket escort/tempo wheels from tirerack. the car now does pleasant yeomans duty mid april to mid october. averaging a bit over 1000 mi/year. I will cross 20k next spring when it comes out of hibernation. is it a great car? no. is it valuable? hell no. it is reliable and worth keeping? surely, surprisingly, yes. it is still largely an utterly invisible antique. in this decade, i did need to service the 2 problem areas. dried out timing belt- non interference engine. yay. and a failed in-tank fuel pump. also needed a spark plug wire- insulation break. and, um…not much else. beyond fluids. no dreaded head gasket issues. AC needed to be changed over to modern refrigerant. is cold again. like many of Detroits attempts to get buyers into small cars, has a reasonable collection of (power sapping) options we take for granted now. PS, AC, Intermittent wipers, day night mirror. mooroeized ext mirrors. but poor interior lighting. just a single fixture at the top of windshield. it is a 3 sp automatic. has astoundingly good visibility, so unlike modern vehicles with their gun slit windows. vintage, non-enthusiast’s suspension. Thankfully has F.I. instead of a carburetor. slow steering, it understeers if pushed, but driven at 45, arm resting on the low beltline windowsill on a sunny day, secondary road is fully relaxing and a very pleasant time capsule.
We in europe had the 1,100 cc, 1,300cc, & 1,600cc engines for the sporty petrol heads. My first car was a 1974 MkI Escort panel van with an 1,100cc engine pushing out 68bhp I believe. After that ownship; anything else was an improvement.
Two items: I was working in a small town repair garage when these were fairly prevalent, even in our small town. We called the cylinder heads for these the “mega-buck head” because so many had failed catastrophically, many times because of timing belt problems, which in turn often happened because of water pump failure, as I recall; consequently, the salvage yard price for a replacement head went through the roof, if you could find one available anywhere. The price of a new complete head was prohibitive for a low value Escort, as most were before we saw them. Secondly, the only Escort diesel I ever saw came to us for a timing belt change (no failure, just preventive maintenance). The little Mazda diesel actually had two timing belts, one for camshaft drive, and a second one which drove the injection pump from the opposite end of the camshaft (the flywheel end.) I will never forget the first line of the service manual for “Timing Belt–Change”: “With the engine removed………” as if you just naturally yanked an engine for relatively routine service items—remembering at that time many of our customers drove big American iron where this concept would have been unthinkable. We managed with great difficulty to do the belts in frame, but it was a trial. Needless to say, I never yearned to own an Escort!
I spent a year with a 1983 Escort back when the 1982 Citation was trying to implode into pieces on a daily basis. The Citation was so often at the Chevy dealer for repairs, my boss rented the Escort.
The Citation I drove for a year was great for about a week, miles 7-350, then it began destroying itself. I liked the FWD layout and the space efficiency. Favorite part of the Citation was the enormous cup holder built into the front seat. Living on the road without a cup holder is hard to imagine today – but the Citation was my first car with that. But the Citation was a flaming lemon and the worst car I ever experienced.
So I expected similar from the Escort – but I was wrong in that the Escort was better. Better materials, better quality and a smaller car that fit me at 6’3″. I didn’t like giving it up. I preferred it to the Fairmont Futura I was assigned a couple of years earlier.
What was the downside? I traveled Colorado and Utah, and that was the worst place to have a 4 cylinder automatic. Back in those days, the driving I did required a manual transmission, but my boss ordered the automatic for me. So the Escort was as slow as the Citation, but the engine was far superior without any of the terrible knocking, pinging and grinding I heard from the Chevy. But an automatic transmission made the Escort a slow ride uphill.
When the first Escort arrived, it signaled that Ford would survive. Ford brought out the Fox which was first-rate, and the Panther, which turned out to be a great car in the years to come, and now Ford had a FWD with a modern body on it. The Escort sold well and kept Ford alive until the Tempo/Topaz, the TBird, and Taurus/Sable. It was the number one Ford during those years.
So I have good memories of the Escort. It wasn’t a great car, but it was a good-enough car for everyone.
My brother and his wife bought a base level 4-door hatchback in ’82 (first year for 4-door hatch). Dull but “serviceable”. Traded it in ’84 for a new Escort wagon with auto. HATED IT!! Horrible transmission. After 1 year, decided to dump it. Went looking for a cheap used car. Ended up at same Ford dealership they had bought from since 1978. Wound up purchasing their old ’82 back (a back lot special the dealer couldn’t give away!). Kept it one year and traded it on a new ’86 Escort Pony. The best of the 3, but never bought any Ford again.
My friend and co-worker bought one of these in wagon form in 1981 when they first came out…primarily because it was one of the least expensive new cars and he could get a lower interest rate for it….interest rates were very high in 1981, and his existing 1974 Audi Fox was badly rusted under the floor. His was a stripper, don’t even know if it had a radio.
A few years later, helped my middle sister pick out an ’86…got a pretty good deal on it used, it had automatic and air conditioning. She did have problems with the fuel delivery, they added an electric fuel pump to supplement the existing one..she drove it in carpool to her first job out of college, which was about 30 miles each way…maybe that’s why she got rid of it pretty quickly as the miles piled up…replaced by a red Toyota Tercel (only Toyota anyone in my family has owned)..but she’s since had 2 Nissans (my youngest sister also had 2 Nissans, total of 4 of the same model…my first car was a Datsun, so guess we favor Nissan over Toyota in my family).
I liked the wagon version of these, if they still made one I’d consider it for my next car…I’m a big hatchback fan, and wagons are also a body style I like.
I don’t know where you got info that Brazilian Escorts were not well built. The main issue with Brazilian Escorts was the engine, which was based on a vintage Renault design, but anyway, was a very reliable and an acceptable mill. Not powerful, but very easy on gas and very smooth. Ford Brazil always had a reputation of high quality cars and was a reference during all the time Ford was in Brazil.
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Curbside Classic
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: 1983 Ford Escort 1.3 GL – We Missed Out On The 1.3 By A Hair. Paul Niedermeyer Dec 10
How can you have an Overdrive on a front wheel driven car ?
Easy – peasy :
You simply make to gear an over 1:1 ratio…..
Everyone else here hates these more than Vegas but my ex G.F. had one and in spite of it having been hammered mercilessly it was a stout little thing that kept going and going, and…..
-Nate