Ford Escort

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Ford Escort
Manufacturer:	Ford
Production (Europe):	1968 – 2000 Rental fleet: 1968 – 2002 ZX2: 1998 – 2003
Class:	Sedan
Body Styles:	4-door sedan 2-door coupe 4-door station wagon
Predecessor:	Ford Anglia
Successor:	Ford Focus
Shares components with:	Mazda Protegé

The Ford Escort is a sub-compact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Although it was orginally a European model, the Escort badge has been applied to several different designs in North America over the years.

Table of contents

1 European Escort

2 The North American Escorts

3 Comparable contemporaries

3.1 Europe
3.2 America

4 External links

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European Escort

Escort Mk.1 (1968 - 1975)

The first Escort was launched in 1968, as a replacement for the Ford Anglia. Mechanically, the car confirmed to Ford convention, using the overhead valve "Kent" engine in either 1.1, 1.3 or 1.6 litre capacities. The live rear axle was suspended on leaf springs. Bodystyles ranged from 2 and 4-door sedans, a panel van, and a 3-door station wagon. It quickly became popular; a rallying version won the London to Mexico Rally of 1970.

Escort Mk.2 (1975 - 1980)

The second generation Escort was launched in 1975, and featured a more angular shaped body, although the station wagon and van versions continued with the Mk.1 panelwork. Mechanically there were only minor changes; the old engines and transmissions remaining largely unaltered. Like its predecessor, the Mk.2 was extremely successful in rallying during the 1970s, spearheaded by the legendary RS2000 version which used the 2.0 litre Pinto engine from the Cortina.

Escort Mk.3 (1980 - 1990)

The Mk.3 was launched in 1980, and was a radical departure from the previous Escorts, since it was a front wheel drive hatchback. Featuring advanced aerodynamics, fully independent suspension, and the new CVH engine, several variations were made, with features such as fuel injection. The car immediately won praise for its crisp, handsome styling and sharp handling, and was voted European "Car Of The Year" in 1981. The XR3i model of the mid-80s in particular became a favourite of the young and upwardly mobile, and it quickly established a "boy-racer" image. The XR3 also became notoriously popular in the UK with joyriders. By now, the Escort seemed ubiquitous. Both Lady Diana Spencer and Sarah Ferguson drove Escorts. The Mk.3 formed the basis of the first U.S Escorts (detailed below).

1980 Ford Escort Mk.3

A sedan version known as the Orion was introduced in 1983, and a convertible version styled by Karmann debuted the same year. The Escort Mk.3 was given a comprehensive facelift in early 1986, giving the Escort a new nose heavily influenced by the Mk.3 Granada/Scorpio, an all-new dashboard and interior, a new 1.4 litre version of the CVH engine was introduced, and an innovative mechanical anti-lock braking system (ABS) was introduced.

Escort Mk.4 (1990 - 2000)

Back in Europe, the fourth-generation Escort was introduced in 1990 to almost universal condemnation by the motoring press. Apart from a new bodyshell, there was very little new or inspiring about the new car, which was less handsome than the classic Mk.3 version, and still used the now-raucous and dated CVH engines and lost its predecessor's sharp handling. The introduction of the Zetec engines in 1992 transformed the car's dynamics, but by then it was up against Volkswagen's all superior Series 3 Golf. Despite all this, the Escort's popularity amongst car buyers never waned, where simply the name "Escort" meant a quality, reliable vehicle, albeit an uninspiring one. Another revamp in 1995 saw many features from the far-superior Mondeo/Contour handed down to the Escort.

But by 1998 the car was hopelessly outclassed, and Ford launched its long aniticipated replacement, the aforementioned Ford Focus, which proved to be everything the Escort wasn't. The UK assembly plant in Halewood, England (near Liverpool) which had been the Escort's "home" for 32 years was turned over to produce the Jaguar X-Type in 2000. However, the ZX2 derivate lived on until 2003.

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The North American Escorts

Introduced in 1981, the first US Escort was intended to share common componentry as the European Mk.3, and was launched as a 3-door hatch and 5-door wagon, with the 5-door hatch following a year later. It had considerably more chrome than the model sold elsewhere, and although the basic shilouette was the same, it was almost completely different from the European version, apart from the CVH engine. There was a 1.6 liter engine, 4 or 5-speed manual or 3-speed automatic transmissions. There was a facelift (less chrome, flush headlights, 1.9 L engine) for 1985.

In the 1990s, the US Escort and its Mercury version, the Mercury Lynx, were replaced by models based on the Mazda 323. Ford, which owned a 25 per cent stake in Mazda, already sold a version of the 323 in Asia and Australasia, called the Ford Laser, which replaced the old rear-wheel-drive Escort.

The Mazda-based model sold sluggishly in America at first, but was popular later in the decade. At one point Ford offered it on a "one price" basis, with the same price for a three- or five-door hatchback, sedan or wagon (the three-door had alloys in this version). The 1997 restyle dropped the hatchbacks and added a new sporty coupe for 1998, the Escort ZX2. Handsome, youthful and rakish in a way the sedan and wagon could never be, it was intended as a replacement for the American-version Escort GT and was built exclusively at Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico assembly plant. The ZX2 featured the 2.0 liter, 130 horsepower (97 kW) Zetec double-overhead-cam four-cylinder engine as standard equipment, an option unavailable on the sedan or wagon. Intended for use as the base engine in the larger European Ford Mondeo and their American cousins, the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique, the Zetec gave the ZX2 more-than-respectable performance, further enhanced by the 160 horsepower (120 kW) version in the limited-production 2000 ZX2 S/R. That same year, the wagon was discontinued, the sedan limited to fleet sales only and the Escort moniker was quietly dropped, making the car officially just "ZX2." The writing was really on the wall that same year with the North American debut of the Ford Focus. Though not without its fans, both then and now, and still fairly well-represented in the automotive aftermarket, the ZX2 was outclassed by the Focus in almost every way imaginable though both shared the same Zetec engine. In fact, the only major difference in the Focus's engine bay was a revised exhaust manifold that increased low-end torque somewhat to compensate for the car's larger size and weight. While the Focus would go on to become the new darling of the import tuner set, much to the consternation of Honda, the ZX2 continued with little more than 15 inch (381 mm) alloy wheels and rear defroster now offered as standard equipment and, for 2002, a revised front fascia. Production ceased at the end of the 2003 model year.