Faults:

Makes horrible grinding sound at 25-30mph.

When wheels cut left, the front right tire scrapes the body of the car.

Paint is in horrible shape.

Even though tires are in good enough shape, when making some turns the car squeals.

VERY slow going off the line. The highway, you can forget about that.

Cannot drive it for over 10 minutes without it overheating.

Sunroof is broken, it won't open right.

Gas gage is broken.

Dashboard has cracks.

Car sometimes doesn't start, I have no idea why. (It's not the battery or it overheating, I looked into that)

General Comments:

Interior is extraordinarily small, and there is no back seat, it's literally a ledge with a pole running on the edge of it.

Seats are very uncomfortable, absolutely no leg room.

Car gets extremely hot in summer... its unbearable.

It runs like a snail stuck in molasses, and the more I drive it the worse it gets. It should NOT run like this with only around 40,000 miles on it basically.

Faults:

Died on me at 10,000 miles. Dealer brought back to life,

At 11,500 miles it began to idle slower until finally it would not idle at all.

Dealer said he "fixed" it.

13,500 it started to idle slow again, dealer again, again he said "Fixed it".

16000 miles slow idle, again back to dealer again, said he drove it all over town, didn't do anything.

Went to pick it up and cranked it, and it started doing it again.

Got on the freeway and tried my dangest to blow the friggin thing up. All it did was keep running, but it still would not idle.

20000 miles, slow down more on idle and I raised it up several times over the course of 6 months until I finally traded it off for an Olds Cutlass with a quad 4. Hey don't laugh, it ran like a bat out of torment.

General Comments:

Ran strong, never used a drop of oil, but it never did idle; it would always die.

Faults:

Quite a few different fuses.

Fuel pump (3 times).

Alternator quit.

Replaced battery.

Throttle body.

Fuel injector.

Fuel filter.

Ignition Switch.

Ignition box on comlumn.

Horn never has worked.

Turn signals quit working.

Headlight bulb went out 5 times from getting wet.

Broken motor mount, which cause the car to vibrate quite a bit, but you get used to it.

General Comments:

I bought the car about 6 months ago for $700 with 82,000 miles on it.

I've put almost 10,000 miles on it since I've had it and probably a couple hundred dollars.

The car is a little slow, (around 90 hp) but I've gotten it up to around 95 mph.

It gets about 25-30 mpg which isn't bad.

Overall, it's a pretty easy car to work on, parts aren't very expensive, and it has been reliable. But I'm not sure if i'd buy another one.

Faults:

The Harmonic balancer went bad and started rubbing on the engine block.

The water pump failed and had to be replaced (not a chore for the feint of heart due to the timing belt being involved)

General Comments:

I loved my Ford Escort, in spite of it being a little on the ugly side from a style perspective.

I purchased it in 1998, in Anchorage Alaska USA, for $1600. It ran just fine except for the problems noted in the "What things have gone wrong with the car" section.

My first winter with it we had -20 Fahrenheit for nearly a month and that little car was starting when even the brand new ones wouldn't, and I was jump-starting them!

I sold it to a neighbor who gave it to his grandson, it still comes back to visit on occasion although I suspect that living with a college kid is taking it's toll on it. But hey, I'm sure it has some amazing stories to tell about the experience too, haha.

I would own another of these in a heart beat, but it seems like you either get a good one that will live longer than you, or a bad one that is plagued with demons.

From a driver's stand point it was a decent compact car. I miss the standard transmission; having married a lovely lady who cannot for the life of her figure out the stick-shift I think I am forever banned from having one of those again. The car handled well, and it performed beautifully on snow and ice. Fuel economy was really great.

I think the only difficulty I had was that dang timing belt being such a difficult thing to work on/around, if not for that I never would have had to pay some other guy to work on it, it was that simple and nice of a car.