Real Road Test: 1982 Ford Escort 1.3L Mk3
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- Yes, it's a Ford! But what is it like to drive? Is it as disappointing as the Mk6? This particular Escort is being featured in Classics magazine, particularly the August 2019 issue: shop.kelsey.co...
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#Ford #RoadTest #Oldcarsarethebest
Those dashboard dials take me back. In the 80s I worked for a company in west London, screen-printing Ford dials - by hand, four dials to a sheet. Originally they were printed onto sheet steel, later we switched to alloy. This was done because the scrap value was higher and the company could get more money when the rejects (there were lots - a whole skip full, outside the factory) were sold off for scrap.
Quality was very strict. The slightest speck of dust in the print meant the dial was a reject. One day I was screen printing the little red square on the fuel gauge, and I just couldn't get it to line up exactly with the white graphics next to it. I tried all sorts of fine adjustments, with the Quality Control manager breathing down my neck, but it always came out a bit wonky. Time was getting on, and the batch of dials had to go out. Eventually, grudgingly, the QC manager approved my least-wonky position, and I could go ahead and print the whole batch...even though the red square was still a bit off-kilter.
At the very end of the day, when I was packing up, I discovered what the problem was. I had put the screen on the printing bench upside down.
So if you've got an 80s Ford, and the red bit on the fuel gauge is a bit wonky - that was me. Sorry.
Brilliant story!
So it was your fault I ran out of petrol at the entrance to a petrol station and had to push it to the pump! 😁
Hahaha. 😄
You mean I might have had a signature car ? 😄
Lol, great story! Brought a smile to my face.
that's a great choice of colour. You'd never see the rust.
🤣🤣🤣🤣👍
😂
I'm 54 years old. One of lives reassurances has been that at any point you can buy a small £300 Ford that will run well for two years before crumpling to the tarmac. God bless Escorts Mk 1-4 and Fiestas Mk 1-5.
**Jeremy Clarkson voice**
"On this weeks Hubnut...
Ian closes a door
Ian gets some new sandals
And Ian farts in the back of an Escort
LOL
"It was the seat..." Oldest trick in the book.
And, don't forget, Ian breaks another of Kelsey Media's project cars...
@@stevek548 Yeah we all know he`s not a Ford fan, hope he didn't leave his calling card as well if you know what I mean.
😂
My mate had an '82 1.3L 3 door, in '88. We used to unsuccessfully cruise for chicks in it. Resulting in double date disaster in Rhyl.
Par for the course in Rhyl I'd have thought.
@@neilthomas9244 Nobody spoke on the drive to Rhyl. We went our separate ways at the "fun" fair. Nobody spoke on the drive back from Rhyl. Worst date ever.
I had one in white every mot tons of welding
Rhyl urrrrrgggghhh
"Single Speaker Stereo", you can't get a more Hubnut accessory than that.
Also, how contradictory is that when you think about it?
Not to mention "AM-only Stereo" - Nice one :-)
@@skjerk Ah, but AM stereo exists!
I know. But it was a niche. Generally it’s mono. Techmoan has done videos about it!
@@rollingtroll Was that the whole point of mentioning it ?
My dad replaced his 1981 fiat 131 in 1990 with a 1985 escort 1.3 L . It was reliable enough for 3 years of service. When I was 21 in 1996 I bought a a 1.1 3 door, in cream/beige. It had an unpainted black wing with a blue bonnet. It would regularly stop after driving over puddles, wd40 helped massively! TMS on medium wave radio stayed with me until 2018 when I bought a bland eurobox! Incidentally I drove a 1.8 petrol ford Sierra as a taxi, it was used to the occasional tap with a hammer!
I had a red, 5-door, 1980 version of the Mk3 Escort; a W-reg. It was a decent car overall but it had an overheating problem. I remember driving around Trafalgar Square in July 1990 and the engine overheated because the temperature gauge stopped working. Therefore the radiator fan wouldn't come on when the engine became hot. There was smoke pouring from the bonnet. I then tried to make my way home and when I got a few miles outside London the car just conked out due to oil spluttering out all over the engine. I had to use the SOS phone on the motorway to call for help. Got towed to the nearest garage in Maidenhead, They charged me £150 just to store the car for a week whilst I arranged to get it towed home. Ford cars . . . you've gotta love em!
Lovely Jubbly Mr HubNut, if cars were still so simple, they wouldn't be so expensive.
paul taylor cars are much cheaper now than then! Google inflation calculator! They were not cheap back then man
Well, they wouldn't be so expensive to fix if anything goes wrong.
Gavin Townsley I realise that. But comparatively a new car today is cheaper
Good vid, really takes me back. First car was a Mk3 1.3GL Escort & the auto-choke issue was there on my one way back in 1987 when the car was only 5 years old. Many a morning was spent chugging away trying to get it started. Also, finding first gear was a challenge in mine too - I developed a technique whereby I'd go to select 3rd, then slide the lever across at 45 degrees to surprise it into first!
Being a first car, i blew the single speaker almost straight away & I found the dash pocket below & to the right of the steering wheel was perfectly sized for a paperback copy of Stephen King's Christine. Crashed it twice & learned loads rebuilding it, discovered Hammerite as a brand (bumpers mainly) & the car ended up with a slatted rear screen to reduce the greenhouse effect in the back.
Overall I look back on it fondly, as I suspect most folks do on their first car. Swapped it for a 1.6HL Montego & from there a string of MGs & Rovers followed. Including my MGF, a car that also has a remote brake servo.
I would have that car as a daily even now, took me back to my mark 1 Fiesta 950 Pop Plus, basic but dependable and thorughly enjoyable to thrash a little.
If it was a little safer I’d give it a go. As long it’s mechanically sound and can get you from A to B without any hassle I don’t think you can ask for more from a car. 🤷🏼♂️
except this one cut out and needed hood up tinkering to get it going again, fuck that every time you want to pop out
@@mr8I7 Being brought up in the 70's and 80's safety was never really thought about, it has 4 doors to escape from, that's all you need 😁
@@OrdinaryJoe12 Cars from the 80's weren't that bad! You didn't have to lift the bonnet (hood) all the time and at least when you did you could fix it yourself, not like now where you need a computer to tell you whats wrong......great days.
My favourite of all the Escorts. My Nanny had a B reg maroon 2 door 1.3 Popular back in the day. Many happy memories of being taken for days out in that car. The mk3 Escort is a window into my childhood. This is why I love Hubnut. These 'ordinary' cars are the ones we can all relate to, the ones we have memories attached to. Nobody was ever taken to school or on holiday in the back of a Ferrari or Lamborghini. But a mk3 Escort, or indeed any of the car's Ian reviews, has touched the lives and hearts of nearly everybody watching. These are not just cars, they are family friends.
10:38 I’m loving the mk1 Focus parked there. The long after successor of the car being driven there!
Looks like it came straight off the set of "Ashes to Ashes"... which has actually put me in the mood to watch that again.
Such a nicely styled car, still looks fresh, love the flared wheelarches.
Good review, many thanks HubNut.
Great video, brings back lots of memories. The first car I owned (in 1992) was a 1984 Ford Escort 1.3L bravo. It was metallic blue, had tinted glass, decorative striping on the sides and a small black spoiler on the tailgate. I didn't really like it, I must admit : it looked better than it drove. The car had previously run on LPG, but after removing the gas installation, there were problems with the carburettor tuning: as a result, the car had low power with quite high petrol consumption. With its top speed of about 130 and a cruising speed of 110 km/h, the car struggled to keep up on the German autobahn. There were wider tyres on the wheels so the car steered very heavily at parking speed. Longer journeys were tiring: the car was noisy and had stiff suspension. The driver’s seat was sagging, I did not have a good sitting position behind the wheel and after a few hours of driving I always had pain in my back and due to the thin steering wheel also cramps in my hands. The headlights gave poor light, so I had extra spotlights fitted. During a long night drive, once the light switch failed. Subsequently I had to keep the light signal stalk pulled incessantly to have any front lights at all. In my car the dashboard light was extremely dim and there was only a needle showing the petrol level. As fuel had to be filled up every 350 km, I once found myself almost with an empty tank on a long night drive on the motorway in Eastern Germany (where there were few filling stations at the time). Although the car had no warning light for low fuel level, there were funny small green, yellow, red lights on the dashboard indicating economical driving. The only thing in the car I really enjoyed was the sunroof. In 1994, my sister took over the Escort and I bought a used Citroen CX 25TRD. This car served my better on the long distances I often had to travel.
I love that era of Escort and the Fiesta Mk2
My favourite Mk3 Escort is the booted Orion with the smooth dished domed hubcaps with the wide plastic edge and little square holes.
My neighbour had an Escort that looked like Lady Di's escort had the beauty rings and stainless center caps and slotted steel wheels.thought it looked gorgious as a kid. it was a metallic minty silver.
there were so many old mk3 escorts even in the early 90s maths teacher had a yellow estate.
I miss 80s early 90s plastic hubcaps and narrow wheels.
you mention the smell oh the power of nostalgia and smell memory 😊
It's refused to start and got going with a tap. modern stuff try that 😀
As a first year student in 1994 at Stellenbosch, I had a powder blue 3-door 1600 Sport. We had a lot of fun in that little car. Loved it to bits. It was loads of fun to drive, like a go-cart.
I remember when these first came out here in the US 🇺🇸 as a 1981 model, the Escort being a word car, being sold all over the world. It came with a 1.6 litre, which was very anaemic, made even worse by the gearing in the automatic. Our four speed had overdrive in fourth, which was somewhat common in vehicles sold here.
I remember someone who lived locally, her father worked at a Ford plant in Mahwah, NJ (long gone, demolished eons ago), she had to put in a new engine. The Escort of this era was disposable; if you didn't change the timing belt, you definitely would need a new engine, it was an interference engine. Completely redesigned for 1992 MY, being Mazda based. Mercury also had this as the Lynx. These early US Escorts, and especially the Lynx, are extremely rare, because they were disposable, not reliable, and people didn't perform the proper preventive maintenance.
The controls, and the dash, were different in th US models, as well as Ford moving the horn to the turn signal lever, very un-American. That changed for the 1985 or 1986 MY, where the horn was now in the middle of the steering wheel.
I like this version, it has stood up to the test of time. And I remember the rear wiper being an option starting on the L, GL & GLX, as well as the wagon (estate in the UK 🇬🇧).
The thing is the American version was almost totally different car. It was supposed to be a unified project but they apparently gave up not long in, probably due to how long it took to communicate between the european and American team. So the only shared parts is the engine and the roof.
@@kyle8952I agree. The rear wheel arches are different, as well as headlamps and taillamps. Bumbers and other equipment to bring it up to Federal safety standards at the time. This vehicle is different yet still familiar. I actually like this design more so than the one built here in the US 🇺🇸. It even sounds like the US 🇺🇸 Escort! Those door locks! They were used here in the US 🇺🇸. Surprising to hear they were still using leaded fuel in the UK 🇬🇧, our vehicles went unleaded for 1975 MY, and I believe by the end of the 80's leaded fuel was banned here in the US 🇺🇸. Even though this is an L, it seems better than the US model.
You were wearing the right T-shirt for this road test. A good choice of words calling them furniture they were truly every where back in the day.
Had one of these nearly new, loved it. Makes me realise how long ago the 80s were. Why aren't we all driving cars like the "Jetsons" by now?
To be fair, people do now own 'self-driving' electric cars with giant screens that they can make video calls on (I think?) which feels pretty futuristic.
@@valcian1 Yeh, but don't some of the self driving cars "crash", and they tell you to have your hands poised over the steering wheel just in case you need to take control? Sounds scary to me.
@@neilthomas9244 haha yep! I don't like them, or the idea of them, but the tech would definitely have been considered futuristic just a few years ago.
My dad had an 85 1.3L Hatchback Escort. It was a great little workhorse. I drove it from Leeds to London and had a VW Golf GTI engine in the boot on the way back. It never missed a beat and was pleasant to drive.
Lovely, almost timeless design. These were sold in the USA as Ford Escorts but as far as I remember only in 2-door hatchback form. There was also a companion model, the Mercury Lynx. Most Ford cars in the US had both Ford and Mercury versions. The car you reviewed is a super colour.
The US Escort was a 3-door, a 5-door, a wagon, and the EXP/LN7 two seat coupe.
The US escort looked very similar but they actually only shared a few parts
Nice trip down memory lane - thank you! I had a 1983 1.6GL 3-door from new. It was a good car in my experience, very nimble and chuckable, and in 3-door form the styling was perfect.
The 1.6 had a useful performance advantage over the 1.3, although some said the 1.3 was the “sweeter” engine of the two. However, two things were not good. The auto-choke was indeed a pain, and I therefore had a manual choke conversion done which was a revelation. Also, the low-level oil warning light sensor pick-up was on the end of the dipstick, and it cried wolf every cold-start morning as I parked my car on an incline. The light would then not go out unless you stopped the car on level ground, with engine off for several minutes before a restart. Disconnecting the sensor lead was not a cure, the light would just be on the whole time. My solution was to remove the dashboard warning light, and every time the car went in for service, I requested the garage not to replace it.
I had no mechanical issue with the ‘83, just routine maintenance kept it chipper, and I sold mine after 7 years/134,000 enjoyable miles, and then got a 1990 1.6GL to replace it. And that one did 150k miles before I replaced it with... another Escort!
I like the mk3 Escort - I thought it was a revelation when I first saw it in 1980
Loved your comment "Ford were never too hasty to roll out luxury unnecessaryly". A very diplomatic way of saying you had to tick the option boxes and pay extra for stuff that was standard spec on most other equivalent cars!
We had 2 Mk3 1.3 estates as pool cars at work when I was an apprentice, both full poverty spec base models. They were almost brand new, really nice to drive and were the first cars I'd driven that would do 60mph in 2nd gear. Happy days, a time when they foolishly trusted 18 year old apprentices with a brand new company car😂
Spit of my mum's old Escort. Many happy memories of WMX105Y!
Celtic bronze. What a colour.
Max Bresnahan I’ve just looked and it lasted on the road until 1998, not bad for a 16yr old Escort! 😄
@@johngreen6375 I remember the day it went to car heaven!
Would love to know what happened to my brother's mk1 fiesta xr2..First car with no licence in 1999..A466 JAH...Paid £200 And was virtually mint... (Apart from crap alternator!😂
My mum had a W reg 3 door one of these in silver, with a lavender coloured ( ish ) chequered interior. Can’t remember the reg, but then we got a black mk3 XR3i. Reg was A83 MBH. I was envied at school by my mates on the school run. Happy days. Great vid as always!
Owned two of them, a 5 door and a 3 door, both rust bucket piles of junk......I still loved them though, especially the 3 door basic model with xr3i wheels lol
Most things rusted back then.
Mine also rusty but I miss it. I put clear front indicator lenses and a orion grill on mine amongst other things
@@millomweb Not entirely true depending on the car and how it was looked after. My 1984 BMW has only two fingernail-sized rust spots over the entire car. Original paint that looks brand new as well. It's up to the owner(s).
@@chesswizard31 It's not really up to owners to get their brand new cars repainted with something that lasts. I seem to remember Datsuns & other Japanese cars turning to mush extremely quickly.
I did a similar thing with a MK2 Fiesta for my then wife, it was the popular plus 1.1 Spanish Auto Fiesta in the brilliant fiery red they used on Ford's back then, I sourced a complete XR2 kit and spent weeks getting it fettled to sit proper, had the better XR2i wheels from the MK3 Fiesta on and a serious sound system that nearly blew the ears out me stepson. Interior came with the exterior stuff and unless you listened to it running or looked under the bonnet it was an XR2 visually, I also put a cherry bomb on it and that took the tappety tap from the OHV out the noise equation, old bill hated the car :)
Oh, the nostalgia. My first car was a chocolate brown 1.3 L Reg: EKN218Y. Mine had both wing mirrors, and an analogue clock where your temperature/fuel gauge was. Temperature and fuel were in the middle, and the warning lights across the bottom.
The way it started was so typical of the way mine was. We swapped it for a manual choke in the end, but it was still so easy to flood, and a warm start? Forget it! First and reverse were a nightmare! Mine got so bad that I had to lift the lever to select first instead of pushing it down for reverse. It would overheat in hot weather, burn oil faster than petrol because of the valve guides, and when the oil got low, the hydraulic cam followers would rattle.
Yup, she was my first love.
I spent many hours in the MK3/4 in the 80's, my Uncle had a red 1.3L like this, my dad had an early MK3 estate and then a 1985 Laser 5 door, then he had a 1.6 diesel GL - lovely! They really were everywhere. Dire Straits brothers in arms on the stereo, if you had a tape player...
Just stumbled on your channel and love the reviews of these classic 80's cars.
This Escort still looks fresh
7:55 The battery is accessible, even more so when it drops into the front passenger footwell doh! Ford actually manufactured a battery tray as a repair panel.
Only if the glovebox was missing, it would sit there held up till the MOT tester wiggled it to test for security / insecurity. Then as you say there was an
aftermarket repair panel for this, This was caused by rainwater leaking through the holes for plastic trim clips on the scuttle, leaking onto the battery and
overfilling it till it leaked acid onto the battery tray.
We repaired loads of them.
So true. Mine was new and I played pop with the Ford dealer when it came back from service with acid damage on the battery tray paint. They refinished it with thick black paint! A real bodge.
@@jbz2079 Me too,fitted quite a few.
My Escort mk3 needed the battery tray repaired.
My mum had one just like this in the mid 90s, as you can imagine it was junk by then. Loved the way the wind bends the aerial though!
Well done Mr Hubnut, glad to see you're reviewing classics again - it's been a while ;-) Miss 'Hubnut' on another channel is doing a grand job alongside you. Love you both!
Steph is great isn't she, a real breath of fresh air and yes, definitely the girl version of Ian (without the dodgy sandals fortunately!)
This takes me back. I had one of these, same colour. Mine was a 1.6 Ghia, a bit more refined inside and quite nippy. Auto choke was awful. Fitted a manual choke conversion kit. Hydraulic tappets got progressively noisier as it got closer to oil change time. Car felt notably light and tinny. Managed to eek 120,000 miles out of it, but by then it was aaaaabsalutely knnnnackered.!!!
Starts like any old Ford..
.
.
.
I'll show myself out, thank you!
Yes any old Ford with an auto choke I changed my vv carb for a single choke webber on my Capri never had anymore issues.
not really, my 1.6 pinto is first time every time inc winter, was auto choke but converted now but faultless running
Yeah my capri used to start first time from cold but by the time I got out to close the garage door it used to cut out and when it was warm/hot it was hard to start you had to hold the accelerator half way down but if I didn't get it right it was a pig to get going.
@@zugbug1986 mines always fine, starts and stays running
@@hitachi2556 Maybe I just had a dodgy one it was a 4 year old car but already had 3 owners when I got it.
My dad had a 1984 in blue when I was 6. remember playing at the wheel and holiday trips across France. Oh, the memories.
I liked the Orion too
I don't know how many 100's of these I have driven or been a passenger in. In my late teens it seemed literally everyone one around me had one, the company I worked for had a fleet of them and a fleet of the van version too. Like you I did thousands of miles in the vans and drove friends cars in 1.3L through to Ghia and even the Orion! They were just good unremarkable cars.
I served my time on the CVH engines in these . The CVH described the combustion chamber. Loved them, and the cork cam cover gasket that was always over tightened and leaked, badly.
In later years I ported and polished these heads, my best was a mint mk2 XR2, with fully worked head, twin 40 Dellorto carbs, magnex 4 branch manifold and 2.5 inch exhaust and piper cam, I had to make a plate to block the mechanical feul pump, as the carbs needed an electric pump. They made 96 bhp as standard and I got 115bhp for all that effort! Lol. Still loved it. Ahhh the good old days.
That is actually a nice looking car. My Dad had a C Reg which I loved, as it replaced a Chrysler Avenger.
I loved my Avenger estate, but Avengers stopped happening, and The Escort Kept Going.
I saw a lovely Avenger near Dunstable earlier today
The Hillman Avenger was available as a GLS with twin carbs and then there was the TIGER followed by the GT with a Team Hartwell conversation with a modified Head and better exhaust manifold was available and also available at the time - the standard GT AVENGER. The Mk 1 Ford ESCORT was the best of all ESCORTS that Ford manufactured ..That's my opinion anyway!
First car was a 73 GT Escort, replaced with 75Preg 1600 GLS Avenger built with a single 1.75 Stromburg carb instead of twin 1.5s because of the recent fuel crisis though I did aquire an inlet manifold with twin twin choke Dellortos similar to as used on the rally spec Sunbeams. Fuel consumption was high teens if I was lucky so only used to swap them on in the summer for two years as it made the wet driving quite interesting especially on oily roundabouts. Also well better trim with brushed nylon seats, fake wood trim, vynal roof and inertia reel seat belts beating the faffing about with static on most pre 74 cars.
Ah! I loved my 1.6 Ghia, new in 1984. Drove it 117,000 miles, in lovely condition, lots of 80s extras - sunroof, electric aerial and rotary four speaker balance joystick. Stolen but not forgotten. Loving the channel.
My first car was a mk1 escort 1974 which i bought to pass my test in 1990 with 1 previous elderly owner and a reconditioned engine with 20,000 miles on it.
RFU 313M.
Passed my test in it sold that and got a chevette,then in 1991 i got a sunburst red 1.3GL 1983 looked great same colour as the xr3i.
First thing i noticed was the power very good off the line and cruising,but that CVH engine whine drove me nuts and that bad engine oil leak arrghh.
I remember me & my bro replaced the camshaft oil seal only to find out it must have been the crankshaft oil seal that was leaking instead lol.
Sold it to a local bloke and he parked it on the main road which was a relief and not on his drive haha.
Also the battery tray had to be welded and had bad rust but still decent cars they were,but not as good as the standard vauxhalls in my opinion.
I was relieved when i went back to the chevettes after the escort,it just seemed a lot better ride to me better quality and just better overall.
Then i switched to the mk2 cavalier and mk2 astra sri and now astra g 1999 2.0 sri which i have owned for 16 years.
A record for me.
Good video ian.(:-)
20,000 miles with a recon engine says it all. I worked for a VW dealer at the time & it was reckoned it took up to 40,000 miles to run in a transverse VW gearbox.
Had the joy of owning 4 Mk3's from a 3 door 1.3L, a 1.3L van, a 5 door 1.6Gl, all the way up to the quite splendid 1.6 ghia with a 5 speed box, sunroof, electric front windows and my added extras of Mk4 Xr3i dogleg alloys and a Mk3 Xr3i boot spoiler. Absolutely loved them all, and still do now.
My mate's party piece was revving his cvh off the end of the rev counter lololol it must have gone to 7500 regularly was always amazed it didn't hand grenade itself !
I really enjoy this guy's philosophy on older cars.
The autochoke was an unreliable device (bi-metallic strip), but there was a manual conversion available. I took my driving test in an early 1.3GL and later owned a 1.6 Ghia. The Welsh CVH engines were rubbish, but the 4 & 5 speed gearboxes were good.
Conceptually, the auto choke wasn't a bad idea, its just that Ford's execution of it left a lot to be desired. I had a Cortina 2.0 Ghia with the Weber 32/36 with the bimetallic type auto choke, and it never let me done. Where I'm from, it was pretty much split down the middle in terms of people changing these woefully bad Ford VV carbs for Weber units with and without auto chokes.
I hired a MK3 in '84 but the dodgy hire company forgot to mention the auto choke. So muggins called out the RAC twice over the week's hire period as the damn car wouldn't start for me. And all due to the rubbish auto choke. The latter Escorts were much better, I bought a Mark 5 new in 93 and have fond memories of that one.
I remember replacing the autochoke with a manual conversion and I also rebuilt the head after the cam belt went. It was a three door estate in white, x registered and quite a step up from my previous mk1.
Can't help wonder if it was user error.
@@millomweb Manufacturing error. These things failed when they were new. There's nothing wrong with the principle, but Ford didn't make them to last more than a few years.
I remember seeing these everywhere in the 80s but I don't think I've ever seen one in that colour before, must have been a rare buyer choice!
Here in the United States, the Ford Escort and Mercury Lynx were newly created for 1981. They were designed to replace the Ford Pinto after 1980. The major auto magazines always hated the horn button being at the end of the control stalks - so French 🤗. Between 1981-1986, Ford sold a ton of these cars. Their reliability was good but nothing compared to the imports. They came in base, L, GL and top of the line GLX. Eventually Ford introduced their sporty edition called the GT in 1987 when the car received a refresh. I haven't seen an Escort of this generation in over 15 years. They were all used and destroyed. Very few were saved.
I remember them as well! And the automatic was horrendous! Loud in first, lugging in second then third gears. Made the anemic engine even worse. I knew another who had the Lynx. These vehicles were disposable at the time; once the timing belt snapped, the engine was shot, I believe it was an interference engine. No one believed in preventive maintenance, still don't. And the Lynx was I believe base, L, GL and LS.
Oh, and the redesign for 1991 was Mazda based, the Lynx became the Tracer (that was a separate model for Mercury, and if my memory serves me correctly, a replacement for the Lynx, although I don't remember the year the Tracer was introduced).
Remember Ford touted the Escort as a world 🗺 car, with the world badge on the front fender (wing for those in the UK 🇬🇧).
@@frothe42 Yes, I had a neighbor who had the top of the line Lynx LS. It had all the bells and whistles for its time. Two tone paint, air conditioning(which at that time was still an expensive option for you younger folks, 😁), and a pop up sunroof. The Lynx was of course marketed as the more "luxurious" of the two but as you stated when either the engine or transmission failed most people didn't repair them at all. Now if you had a manual transmission and changed the timing belt regularly then they might last over 100,000 miles.
@@klwthe3rd Absolutely! I remember a local repair garage said that one did have the timing belt changed, I think it was $300+ at the time . Most didn't, because why bother if the vehicle's value was less than that?
It wasn't until the 1991 redesign that you could get power windows, electric moonroof, etc., and the Escort GT came with the Mazda 16V engine.
I believe the last Lynx was about 1986 or so, that is when they started importing the Tracer. All of this is jogging my memory, thanks to Ian, his wonderful review and the test drive of the classic Escort. Old Car Brochures on-line will give me a heads-up when models changed, at least I hope so.
We as a family were GM; had Ford, they were not as reliable as our GM, then again, our GM vehicles in the 70's & 80's weren't that much better. Looking at the column stalks reminded me that Ford used them worldwide, with the exception of the headlights, that was still a pull switch, HVAC controls and vents were different as well.
@@frothe42 I'm pretty sure the Mercury Lynx lasted longer than 1986. You are correct that the Tracer replaced it in the early 1990's though. I think the Mercury Lynx made it at least to 1988 or 1989. I remember seeing them after the refresh in 1987 with the new aerodynamic headlights.
i worked for the local ford dealers in chester in 1982 quicks. every day we had barely three month old mk3 escorts coming in for warrenty paint probs such as on the red ones total flaking off on the bonnets and front panels of the finish but leaving lovely GLOSSY primer behind(very poor) and battery trays rusting away in 6 months. that scabby rusty slam panel was standard from a few months old. but people loved em and carried on buying em,so ford were happy to keep churning them out.
Good period of Ford design IMHO eg mk2 Granada, mkV Cortina, Cargo lorry, and the mk3 Escort van with the small extra side windows. Nice detailing.
Wayne Tetley I liked those wee side windows. Always wondered why no other manufacturer bothered.
This is the car I “leant” to drive in. No sooner had I got the hang of the rudiments of driving, the lure of my mums 1.3L sitting out the back got too much and I was soon creeping out the driveway and shooting off to pick up my mates.
Staggering behaviour but there you go.
Caught a month or two later by mum and dad. I always remember the sight of dad’s Mk4 Escort headlights coming the other way. Slammed down the right foot, deposited my mate and the end of the road and legged it home.
Mum walked in, told me to get to my room before my Dad came in. Never spoke to me for a week.
It was the first time he never gave me a whallop for such an indiscretion. Given I was about 6” taller at that point, he must of thought better of it.
No doubt I’ve got it all to come.
(Actual lessons were in a Mk1)
9:20 If it's single speaker, it AIN'T stereo! It's "hole-in-the-wall" MONO!
@@EgoShredder GM only fitted radios in the car if the purchaser requested the feature. Here in Australia, General Motors/Holden fitted the "Air Chief" brand of radio at purchaser's request in models from 48-215 through to their 1969 models, I think it would've been the 1970 Toranas that had radios fitted as standard features(AM mono only, FM stereo was still 4 years away at the time and the first stations on air back then were extremely elitist, playing ONLY classical and jazz(yyyyyeeeeeuuuuuggggghhhhh!). Indeed, the 48-215 and FJ models had turn indicators as optional extras fitted as requested. It was the FE that had turn indicators as a standard feature.
Most people back then got a Sharp, Pioneer or similar radio cassette and pod speakers to the rear shelf along with the ubiquitous nodding dog which gave rise to Churchill.
@@EgoShredder No nodding dog or furry dice but admit to Traffic light air freshers,work steel cap boots taken off to drive and left in car made an interesting aroma in the summer especially.
@@EgoShredder Got a tilt sunroof aftermarket fitted to my later Mk2 Escort Ghia's vynal covered roof summer of 79 with fresh heatwave summer, made interesting and worrying thoughts watching them mark out and take an air nibbler to it.
EgoShredder mine too, i had a portable CD player and portable speakers in mine
The Escort is probably my favourite Ford. My little brother owns a 1989 mark 4 1.8. The ride is a bit rough, it has no mod cons (no electric windows, just keep fit windows, no electric mirrors either) but I love it. The automatic choke does take awhile to come off, feels like longer than five minutes, but I have been told it is common on CVH engines for the choke to take time to come off.
When I was working as a delivery driver mk3 escort was my weapon of choice lol
My parents bought a year-old 1981 1.3L Escort in Dove Grey. It didn't have front headrests, they were an extra-cost option, as was a passenger-side door mirror.
The automatic choke was legendarily unreliable, the radio was AM only with no cassette (in fact looks like the same model as in this one), and within only a few years it was suffering from enough rust to cause MOT failures.
It was passed on to me in 1988 and I fitted a stereo radio cassette (Alpine!), a manual choke, a passenger-side door mirror and a Mark 4 steering wheel - the latter two from the "odds and sods" second-hand parts pile at my local Ford parts shop.
I have a B REG cabriolet 1.6 in keep fit hub nut spec ...its not even an L !!! 👍🏻☮❤
😀 see you have brainwashed me I'm supposed to be the Ford's against hub nut brigade ..but not so ..keep on keeping on and watch out for speed cameras in Peterborough I got a ticket whilst lost a while back ...doh !! 👍🏻☮❤
Round about 1980, I rented a Fiesta 1.1L. It was quite a revelation for me. Really enjoyed it, a nimble little car. Felt, and was, thoroughly modern. Some years later, I drove an Escort 1.3L , as above. I do recall the steering as a bit weighty. But the 1.3 engine went well.
I use. To have the mark 4 escort mine was a 1.4 a good car to drive
I use. Too.
A friend of mine still has one of these. It draws attention wherever he goes.
At the time it was a fantastic spacious car. And I have recollections of bombing around the East End as a passenger in an XR3 (non-injection) and it seemed very fast at the time.
Ditch the sandles Ian, nothing worse than the sight of men's feet. 😲 The escort looks good though.
Nothing wrong with sandals! If people don't like men's feet they should look elsewhere!
@@nkobtopenworld Yuck 😫 horrible great big plates of meat. 👣😒
I'm an American and when I was stationed at RAF Alconbury, UK, in 1992 (between Cambridge and Peterborough) , I got a 1982 Escort (WEG498X) in the exact same color as that! Mine was an even lower spec, and was a 2 door and 1.1 liter. I was only 19 at the time and the one I bought turned out to be a bad example, looking back it probably had a blown head gasket. I tried to fix it but gave up and saved the money to buy an Austin Metro, and then gave my Escort to the auto shop on base.
Ah yes, the dreaded Ford VV carburettor. Anyone who wasn't a masochist had them converted to manual choke.
What a great review. I had a MK3 ex-Devon and Cornwall police car, in white, with zip in the roofliner for the lights, bought in 1987. Our house mate also bought one on the same day., CTA283Y and CTA284Y !! I felt the need to add spoilers and go-faster stripes as i couldnt afford an XR3i!!
Ian singing "I drove a ford and I liked it!" To a certain Katie Perry song..
Haha, no cherry Chapstick required hopefully 🍒
I can remember the excitement when the mk3 came out. We were gutted when my Dad came home with his new company car. He was promised a `new` Escort...turned out it was a run-out mk2 1.3 GL with the square headlamps and vinyl roof, on a very late V plate.
10cc on radio will give that escort a bit more grunt.should have left it on.
So even radio of the 80s ;)
Really enjoyed that video, when I was 17 my boyfriend at the time had one of these in three door format as his first car, it was an A registered 1983 model in a silver/gold colour, he instantly began to modify it to look like an XR3, with the trademark pepper pot alloy wheels, rubber rear spoiler etc, many happy teenage memories of the humble Ford Escort!!.
OMG! I HAD ONE IN 1992 it was an 81 i think i loved it and would have had it for longer if i could have afforded to keep it on the road, But whats a bloke to do when you were on the dole...
Well that was good timing. I was talking with a British Expat last night and we were comparing the Escort Mk3 (which we never saw in Australia) with the Mazda mechanicals based Ford Laser and Meteor (which he never saw). The Laser was the hatchback and the Meteor the sedan. In 1988 my Mate and I took my 1983 1500 twin carburettor Meteor (with the 5 speed gearbox, alloy wheels, air-conditioning and my boom box wedged behind the seat for entertainment) on a 9500 km drive up to Far North Queensland via the inland route and back along the coast. It survived 2 weeks of sharing Outback dirt road with Road trains, Land Cruisers, kangaroos, emus and wild horses pretty well. Ford put in a fair amount of work toughening them up for our roads but I managed to hole the fuel tank and then rip off the epoxy patch, vibrate the car so badly over corrugations that the screws started falling out from under the dash and dust in the fuel had us doing the last 1000 km on one carb. A wash and a fuel flush when we made it home and it was as good as ever.
It replaced a Datsun 240K sedan and was replaced in turn by a Leyland P76.
I was just going to comment, the most unreliable car Ford ever made and it conked out 🤣
Hubnut reviews. The only reviews I don't get bored with. Long may they continue. Please do a Rover P5B!!!!
So how about the Rover P5? Have you seen the wipers on those things?!
Great review takes me back to my Orion. Happy memories.
Loved my 1984 B reg 1.3L 5 dr in panda car blue. It was relatively quick. Most people mistook it for a 1.6, but best thing was pulling up behind people in traffic as they often thought I was the fuzz!! Many happy memories. She even had a nickname, 'Viv' as the number plate was B532VYV.
I owned that same vehicle in white, as an early family vehicle served us very well till we could buy a bigger one. Thoroughly enjoyed it and felt pretty luxurious for its time!
Many years ago i owned an XR3i, it had a hard life before i got it and it was also hard to get in gear. After some spirited driving i discovered that the gearbox had come loose from the engine block, it was an easy fix but that car was just tottaly worn out. Anyways thanks for another nice video, i really enjoy my Hub Nut mug and stickers!.
As a young service engineer I drove thousands of miles around the North of England in Mk 3 and 4 vans. I always thought the 140 mph speedos were a bit of a laugh. The Mk 4's were 1.6 petrol and could shift, especially compared to most other vans with their naturally aspirated diesel engines. Despite me thrashing their arses off they were pretty relaible apart from the autochoke which was rubbish. I has the carb replaced with a weber manual choke on the MK3 which I thing was a popular conversion. Very happy days!
What a great video. Reminded me of my Dad's 1981 1.3L but it had both exterior mirrors although I cant remember if it had a rear wiper. All I can remember is it was great fun to drive as a 17 year old in the early 90's when my mum had a 1978 mk1 fiesta 1100L. Its funny too that we changed the auto choke to a manual as it ruined the fuel consumption and was so unreliable. My uncle had a newer one too but he was always having problems with the carburetter whearas my dads was utterly reliable. Great memories 🙂
That’s just brilliant! Stunning colour AND it hasn’t dissolved (although it looks like its trying its best😂)!
That one is particularly Hubnut with its early mirror and single speaker radio, along with its reluctance to start......
Great video! As always👍
Nice, i drive a 1988 Mk4 XR3i Cabrio , as my daily!
105hp 1.6 CVH with Bosch K-Jetronic injection... i like it a lot, it's fun, good looking, gets good fuel economy and hasn't let me down a single time in 2 years.
My Grandad had one in a lovely light blue colour. What a trip down memory lane. Thank you.
Back in 1984 I took delivery of a Mk3 1300 Escort estate as my job involved travelling....spent many happy hours hammering the thing up and down the motorways, (pre speed cameras!) and very reliable it was too considering the abuse I gave it, and yes while it felt a lot quicker than my Mk2 Escort 1600 sport I still prefer RWD.
Sadly another chap at my works 'wrote it off' while I was on holiday!.....fun times!
My dad had one. A 1.1 5 speed laser edition brown metallic with gold striping. As a kid I thought it was real cool. It was brand new, but in the first year the waterpump died, the alternator broke twice and it was eating wheelbearings like there was no tomorrow. But all in all fond memorys of adventures with that car. After that he bought a corolla and lever looked back.
A family friend had one of these when I was a kid. I have memories of him trying to warm the cylinder head with a hairdryer on a snowy morning in an attempt to get it to start. Apparently it rarely started well.
Subsequent Escorts were mildly less terrible, but they sorted it with the Focus. Never been tempted to own one myself though.
I had a mk || plenty of rust in the latter days ,but it took me to the north of Scotland and to the end of England in the south west . never skipped a beat .
I had an '84 1.3L Escort, 2 door estate in various shades of white (one of them Dulux, I think). Lovely motor, but I remember it had shocking fuel economy, especially on motorways. Nottingham to Birmingham and back would take a full tank of fuel. Also learned to drive in a black 1.3L 5 door hatchback. Seeing this car took me back to my youth! Thanks, Ian.
My first car. I had a B reg motor Rosso Red, looked great! Apart from the rear arches which had gone, due to rust!!! Which was a Ford special.
Rosso red.. sounds sporty.
@@Perkelenaattori It was bright red. Very nice to look at.
I have never observed a “triangle of doom” ever. However, after a regular intake of hubnut and the purchase of a mk1 focus estate I was appalled by the slop from the 🔻of doom. It raised a smile from its mention in this video.
I once had a base model one of these with a 1.1 pushrod engine. It had vinyl seats, loads of painted metal showing in the interior, and a hard plastic dashboard that omitted the speaker, extending the shelf across to the instrument cluster, with a rocker switch for the heater fan instead of the usual rotary switch. The front passenger footwell was rotten (common on these, caused by the battery above it). I was using it as a project to teach myself to weld when I accidentally ignored an "abandoned vehicle" notice on the windscreen, and Northampton council later towed it away with all my tools still in the boot. I found the car in the scrapyard but not the tools. The scrapyard bloke said the tow truck driver wouldn't have stolen them - yeah, right.
I loved my corgi escort. That starter sound brings back memories.
Great video, my very first car was a 1981 MK3 Escort 1.3 GL, same colour as the 1.3L in your road test. It was a brilliant first car, it had the fancier dash and steering wheel, like you get in the Ghia, and a fancier bumper and GL specific wheels, I still have one of the plastic wheel centres, almost 30 years after owning the car. One of my most favourite cars. Thank you again for the road test.
Fantastic video I've got and drive every day a Ford focus cc3 it's in fantastic condition and now has 183000 miles on the clock fantastic
Ahhhh the unmistakable sound of a ford CVH not starting on a cold morning - that starter motor is a sound of my childhood lol
The first car I had was a 1985 Ford Meteor which looked similar to this. The Ford Meteor was basically a rebadged Mazda 323. The Meteor varied from the Laser(also a rebadged Mazda) in that the Laser was a hatchback while the Meteor had a boot, but the rear seats could fold down for extra room from the boot area when needed, this was for the Laser and the Meteor. In the laser, the fold-down rear seats made the car mimic a station wagon.
I had a 1.6 Ghia in the nineties AAO 52Y.. My second car after a MKI VW Polo 850cc CAG 40T. I enjoyed owning it. It developed the typical Christmas tree dash lights. I traded it in for a Renault Clio MK I RT. J46 EUB. (For whatever reason I seemed to get cars with just two numbers in the reg. It wasn't deliberate.) My manager got an Orion 1.6i Ghia and we used to race home from work!
I learnt to drive in a Ford Escort 1.3L thanks for the video.
Very good, My friend had one of these in 19'and'86,
I drove on rare occasions,
And was a passenger frequently. Same color.They are better than city busses.
A nice video we'll done Ian. Your a good reviewer
Even in LA. California Usa. Fascinating stuff,
Rich & carnivorous cats.
Sorry to be an anorak, but it's not -1982/3, but 'X' was Aug 1981 - July 1982. I have HUGE fond memories of these cars. For starters - we had one in the family - and I drove it on every occasion I could get my mitts on it. But, I was at Uni - and I worked for a company during my gap year that had an assorted fleet of 1.3's and 1.6's and I borrowed them whenever I could for any errand that needed running anywhere, for anyone. Me & my first serious girlfriend went everywhere in them and they were lively, peppy, had (compared to a lot of cars at the time) a great radio and stereo - and a cassette deck - wow! Such happy carefree days. Those Mark 3's are a placeholder for some of my happiest memories. Thanks for the video (as ever)..
Had one of these about 15 years ago as drive to work car. cheap as chips to run. I'm amazed the parcel shelf has not had holes hacked in it for speakers, and a Sharp stereo with ANSS and an LED fitted.
Another nice road test of one of the "humbler classics"! These, as I recall, were introduced in the States ca. 1981, along w/ its stable-mate, the Mercury Lynx. The Escort line (not sure how many "Mks." we had here) lasted well, before being replaced by the Focus in 2000, IIRC...