Faults:

First of all when I was driving the car home, after just buying it, I noticed that when I accelerated, the engine speed increased, but the car did not go any faster. So I knew even before I got it home that I would need to replace the clutch. This cost me 160 quid.

I also had to replace the driver side wishbone suspension arm which cost 16 quid.

I had to have the driver side seat brackets welded, as three of them had sheered off. This cost 30 pounds, which was worth it because the Recaros are very comfortable.

I've had to renew the fuel filter.

The car had problems starting and the battery would loose charge very quickly. I bought a reconditioned alternator, (which needed replacing anyway), but this did not solve the problem. Next I replaced the starter motor, which solved the problem for about two weeks, then it started to have trouble starting again. It's a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it starts first turn, and other times it won't start at all.

The body is starting to show its age, with rust in a few places.

Needs valve stem seals replacing.

Front heated windscreen has stopped working.

Rev. counter doesn't work properly.

General Comments:

The car is definitely a step up in performance from my last escort, which was a 1.4L, with a 0-60 of about 10.5 seconds.

The Recaro interior is very comfortable, and keeps you from moving in your seat when cornering fast.

I've lowered the suspension 60mm front and back and it now handles brilliantly. Will keep up with almost anything on twisty roads.

It suffers from wind noise at the doors at high speeds.

Fuel economy of the 1.6EFi is pretty good.

Faults:

Rust on the wheelarches, behind doors and on tailgate. Huge hole of rot on the inside below the driver-side a-pillar.

Blown engine at 86000 miles, probably big end bearings, sounded like a tractor, replace with modified EFI engine (needed special bracket to fit carb), which was quite rattly.

Rear wheel bearings a constant problem.

Blockage in carb meant car wouldn't start.

General Comments:

This car was not a patch on my previous Citroen BX 14RE.

The 1600 CVH engine is truly awful, being rough, unrefined, inflexible, sluggish and unreliable.

Seats seemed like they had been filled with cheap foam, hard and badly-shaped.

Poor build quality, centre console could be moved with the hand. Very cheap plastics. Excellent ergonomics and reasonable level of equipment (electric windows, central locking, tilt/slide sunroof, velour trim).

Supremely reliable electrics, nothing ever went wrong in that department.

Very hard ride on any surface, didn't like speed humps at all. Possibly the most unresponsive steering of any production car, with a massive 4.7 turns lock-to-lock, very vague steering and heavy at parking speeds due to the lack of power steering. Poor handling, couldn't take a corner at speed to save it's life. This is all down to a very poor suspension/steering setup. In fact I think all previous Escorts were better in this respect, but was all rectified in early '95.

Uncomfortable and unrefined, intrusive, groaning engine note at lower speeds, intrusive wind/road noise at higher speeds to the point where it was impossible to hold a conversation.

Faults:

The gearbox linkage detached from underneath the car, causing the gearstick to disappear through the floor.

The rear nearside wheel fell off complete with brake drum.

The windscreen cracked which, according to Autoglass was due to the original windscreen not being laminated correctly.

The brakes suddenly failed with absolutely no warning.

The entire exhaust system rusted away and needed to be replaced.

General Comments:

The handling on this car isn't anything exciting. I do appreciate this is the estate model so it does have extra weight to cope with, but if Renault and VW can make an estate car that handles well, why can't Ford?

The car is very sluggish, particularly up hills.

One thing I was very surprised at is the fact the steering is very heavy, Ford really should have had power steering as standard on the estate models as I've heard similar stories from other Escort estate owners.

Reliability of this car has been truly dreadful. I've spent a lot of money in repairs and this has overshadowed the fact that the general economy of the fuel-injected 1.4 engine is actually very good.

The overall build quality is very poor. Fair enough this is a 10 year old car now, but I've driven other cars of a similar age and non have aged as badly as this. It's rusting on nearly every body panel and the paintwork is so badly faded it's now white (it was originally red)

In the car's defense, the seats are very comfortable and the carrying capacity is excellent, even with the back seats up.