The Ford Escort Over The Years
The Ford escort over the years, especially in North America, wore many different types of sheet-metal though all were aimed the compact market — which prior to 1981 Ford had for all intents and purposes ignored. Beginning in that model year, however Ford introduced what it called “the world car” for the benefit of its customers in North America.
By and large, the compact Ford was successful right out of the gate and through the end of its life at the close of the 2003 model year, when it was supplanted by the new Focus. Originally created off the platform of a European model of the same name, it showed up in Ford showrooms sporting new sheetmetal and U. S. Technologies for its 1981 introduction.
Technologically, the Escort was Ford’s first car sporting front-wheel-drive and it took over the small car duties from the Pinto, a car that made its debut in 1971 and was always a vehicle that elicited no small amount of controversy. The Escort was nothing like the Pinto, though, and became one of the Dearborn automaker’s most popular vehicles. “The little Ford that could” became the country’s best-selling car in its second year and throughout most of the 80s.
In total, three generations of the Escort was produced by Ford, with each model and body style being a qualitative improvement over its predecessor. Over the life of the vehicle a number of engines and transmissions were offered, including a little diesel engine of 52 horsepower and a high-performance powerplant the kicked out a healthy 120 horses and could propel the small Escort quite capably.
Over the course of the third and last generation, which lasted from 1997 through the end of 2002, engineers at Ford had managed to demonstrate a real facility with the design and manufacture of compact vehicles, managing to squeeze increasingly good performance and reliability from a variety of four-cylinder engines while also giving customers nice styling, especially for the relative low prices the Escort sold at.
Over the two-plus decades of the car’s life, the Escort appeared in a variety of body styles. There was a hatchback sporting what Ford called “three doors, ” and a station wagon model along with a couple of different performance sport coupes that first appeared on the scene back in 1998. The designers also kept up the car’s appearance, freshening and redesigning it over the years.
Over the course of its lifespan, the Ford Escort filled an important niche for the Blue Oval. It was able to give the manufacturer a platform through which a number of different small car technologies that we now take for granted could be introduced and tested while also ensuring a nice-selling vehicle in the compact car segment. Barring anything else, just this fact alone made the Escort a great success.
Andy Zain is the admin of Ford Escort Forum , a place where fans and owners can get the right information for tuning, customization and general discussions on anything about Ford Escort. Get the information you need when you visit Ford Forum
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