Ford Escort 1.3

I became an Escort owner on the 23rd December 1998 - and I still have the car today, two years later. OK, so thats no record, but it has been a good car.

I paid 3500 pounds for a 1993 L reg, 1.3 5 door hatchback. No toys, just a good honest car with 48,000 genuine miles on the clock.

As with any second hand car, there have a been a few niggles and problems, but with a common car like the Escort this cannot really be seen as a major headache, as most garages/amateur mechanics have the knowledge to fix the majority of problems on this model.

The first niggle was a problem with the heater/blower switch, a little diagnosis showed that it was not a broken motor, but a problem somewhere else. I checked the switch, the fuse, no joy. A call to the garage solved this - sometimes the circuit board behind the fuse box burns itself out. A call to a Ford dealer heralds the sharp intake of breath as you are told - 250 pounds for a new unit. Get hold of a competant solderer, and the job can be done in 5 minutes, for just the cost of some solder.

A common fault is the old escort problem of water in the boot. Usually water ingress happens around the light units on this model. A quick squirt of a decent bathroom mastic, preferably black around the light units, will solve this.

I did unfortunately for my no-claims bonus have an accident in this car. The car held up very well, and needed a new bonnet, drivers side wing and some paint. If I had been in my previous car, a 1984 Fiesta, I may have needed new legs!

All in all, it has been a good car and I would recommend this model to anyone. If you are buying a car of this age, you have to expect to spend some money on maintenance, but many people fall into the trap of selling the car after spending a few hundred pounds on maintenance because of the illusion that the car is costing a lot to run. This is not always true, and you could be passing the benefits of your money onto someone else.