Faults:

Speakers were shot.

The brakes squeak.

To get it up to inspection has required about $500 worth of work and parts.

A few things still need working on.

General Comments:

Driving: good, but not steady on gravel or slick pavement (wet and tarry roads give it a case of the jitters). A bit tail-happy through corners, but it is easy to tell where the car is going. Very steady at high speeds. My alignment is out, but the cruise control makes up for it. My mileage is good, but not great. My gas gauges lies egregiously, telling me the car is empty when it still has better than a quarter tank left. A tank of fuel lasts about 500-650 kilometers, though.

Driveline: A gem of a screamer, the engine is always ready to rev. I have only taken it up to about 6000 RPM, but I run it regularly past 4000. The transmission is great, but I keep wishing it had another gear.

Body & Interior: An Escort never feels like a Lexus. Plastic panels abound, but what's there feels solid. There is no sound insulation in the doors (just fibreboard, and I don't count that as sound insulation). This car came with the right options. No power windows or door locks, but power windows. No power seatbelts (thank goodness). The original CD player still works, but I doubt it will last much longer. It has neat features, though: compression and AM stereo capabilities. The seats make your back feel good and your posterior feel tender after a long trip. Noise is a little high, but restrained. Cargo room is great, with enough storage for a week's camping or for a semester at university.

In the final analysis, this is a good car for short drives and cheap speed. Fuel economy isn't as good as it could be, but anyone would be happy with this car.

Faults:

One engine mount broke and did a "clunk" when accelerating, but it was fixed.

This was the fully equipped model in hatchback type.

I had an accident with this car, the tail was quite light and in a rainy day, not going too fast it just over-steered -loosed control- and it ended in an strong crash. The car had frontal damage, not too strong for that accident -I went against the road wall and bumped three lanes from the high speed one to the lowest one. The carter broke and many things had to be changed, but the engine and general structure of the car weren't really hurt. It was perfectly fixed by the dealer, and I still had it for some time more. It worked so well that someone from my family bought it from me -knowing about the accident.

General Comments:

The performance was absolutely dull. The engine was quite noisy and if you wanted highway speeds, you needed to rev at more than 4000rpm. The automatic transmission was fine for normal daily use, but too jumpy, it down-shifted very easily in order to give more acceleration, you had to learn how to accelerate to have an smooth linear acceleration without all the down-shifting. Handling wasn't good -as I mentioned before- as weight distribution was badly designed in this car, the front was too heavy and the back too light, so grip from back was insecure. If you drive extremely carefully, very slowly, and you don't give a damn for performance, this is a reliable, and durable car, quite comfy for its size.

For that engine displacement, the amount of horsepowers could have been many more. If I remember well, it had 98hp, too few for almost 2.0 liters, even at the time.