(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.
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-) .
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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 .
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So, what’s not to like ? .
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I clearly got the better end of the deal, we’re still friends .
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I’m still clueless and broke assed, now I’m old and broke down too but I’m very content =8-) .
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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