Faults:

Carburettor failed.

Distributor failed.

Worn valve - stem oil seals.

Serious corrosion.

Leaking rear windows.

Worn front dampers.

General Comments:

Mine was a 1.3 GL in a fetching shade called "Lacquer Red".

It had a retro-fitted 1.6 engine to replace the 1.3 it left the factory with, a clean interior, and a superficially clean body.

I really liked the styling of the early Mk 3 Escorts - although if I bought another I'd plump for an early XR3 or XR3i - they seen to resist corrosion better, and I prefer the 3 door shape.

It handled pretty well, and had a gorgeous raspy exhaust note, which I added to by drilling the air box, before eventually completely removing said item (hey, I was 17 and naive)

It was fast enough to see off most "sporty" cars in my locality - i.e. Nova SRs and the like. 205's and R5 Turbos however were another matter altogether - the old 'Scort didn't stand a chance.

About 2 months after I bought it, I wanted to touch up the "superficial" corrosion on one wing. My God - I have never seen a car be eaten alive by corrosion like this thing was. Most of the panels were a hybrid of steel, filler, newspaper and papier mache. The sills and floor pan were actually sound - it was the rest of the car that had been eaten alive under the surface. Valance (front and rear) and the front wings were worst affected. Eventually the headlights started wobbling due to the fact that the mounting brackets had rotted away.

Faults:

The module was changed after renewing a starter motor, leads, plugs, rotor arm, distributor cap and coil as you would to find the fault, I found the module which is the one connected to the distributer the problem. I found when driving the car suddenly it would die on me like as if you had just ran out of petrol. Other than that I find this car very reliable.

General Comments:

Very quick, very economical, still gets the looks considering the age of the old girl. However this car has been lowered you can feel the bumps very well almost like as if you are in a go-cart.Doesn't like ramps, neither does the exhaust.

Faults:

I have just had to replace the engine as the old engine was burning oil due to worn pistons.

Recaro seats have started to wear on the edges.

General Comments:

The engine is now an EFI (electronic fuel injection). The car originally had an MFI (manual fuel injection). The new engine is much quicker and also more economical.

I would recommend an Escort to anyone, very rarely do things go wrong and if they do it is cheap to put right.

Faults:

Starter failed @ 65000.

Crank thumpy @ 70000.

General Comments:

Not a bad first time tunable car. Produced around 300BHP once I'd completed the project http://marksrsturbo.tripod.com, which wasn't too bad from a bog 135BHP engine. Did cost around £15000 for modifications however.

Faults:

By the time I got this car, most of the major components had been replaced because of the mileage.

The only problem I had with it was the dreaded rust, you could almost see it spreading before your eyes!

I only did one minor service to the car - oil and filter, air filter and spark plugs. That was all it needed to keep it running, very cheap to service.

General Comments:

Although fairly reliable, it was a complete rust bucket. I know that it's old and eighties cars generally weren't as well built as todays, but this was especially bad. If rust sets in the cars had it.

I have since learned through experience that the equivalent Vauxhalls of the time (1.3 & 1.4 Astra and Cavalier) are better built, rust less and go, stop and handle better.

I could not get on with the dashboard and control layout, it's not very ergonomic.

The only good thing about this car is the low cost of servicing it. It can be driven into the ground without too much going wrong.

It is a completely unremarkable car, buy one for peanuts, use it then chuck it away.

Whatever you do don't pay over the odds for one of these, even rare ones in good condition are not worth a lot.