Love my Italian cars - spent many an evening under the bonnet. Madman! - change them about 5 times a...
Love my Italian cars - spent many an evening under the bonnet. Madman! - change them about 5 times a year!
Member since:24.12.2002
Reviews:27
"Caravan of love"? Let me explain..... I love Italian cars or cars with drivers appeal. I just want to say that this review is based on the BM (Before Mondeo) Escorts - this one was J reg. Anyway, back to whatever I was on about - I like a drivers car - something that make you want to take the long route home down the back "B" roads. Anyway, the Escort 1.3 is the complete antithesis of the above.
But wait! It`s not all bad - the Escort has a good heater and decent stereos were provided by those kind people at Ford - as well as the usual add ons that sold Fords in the 80`s/early 90`s such as a naff spoiler on the back end or a sunroof. Nice comfy seats too - shame about the naff driving position.
Bit of history now - following the success of the Cortina, Capri, early Escort and anything else chucked at the British public - Ford didn`t bother to update these cars very much - after all, we were daft enough to buy them. Things changed during the 90`s - suddenly people realised that Fords were crap - and Ford suddenly responded with the Mondeo and Focus and a Fiesta that drove OK. Anyway, the top selling 80`s Escort was a better car than the H-K reg ones due to criminal lack of thought and effort. Main culprit being the engine.
Save the worst till last then. Drive the 1.3 which dated back to the year dot. Floor the throttle just to pull away. Light gearshift, all other controls sloppy. Noisy, slow, boring, tiresome: thats the 1.3 Escort. And it isn`t even economical or reliable. In other words, don`t bother
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Advantages: No timing belt (1.3 only) - cheaper to maintain, Lots of parts and garages around. Many models, colours to choose from a many different prices/ages. Disadvantages: Common, everyday car
pontyslapper 22.12.2000 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Ford Escort 1.3
Nov 12th, 2003
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helpful by (63%):
somewhat helpful by (31%):
