Friday 3rd March 2017

Shed of the Week: Ford Escort Encore

An old Escort you'd regret not saving or a disposable white goods Ford? Shed's not sure

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Escort. Funny name for a car. Sounds like it's meant to reassure you somehow. Escort Encore doesn't sound quite so nice though, a bit like round two at the local knocking shop.

For good or ill, and including its first outing as a version of the 1950s Squire 100E estate, Ford ran with the Escort name for a total of 42 years. Shed learnt to drive in his Dad's late-60s Mk1 Escort, a light blue 1.1 which back then seemed no more than OK. Now, with the rose-tinted specs firmly clamped on, Shed yearns to relive the simple charms of its torquey crossflow motor, its easy steering and superb gearbox.

Unfortunately a return to the good old days is highly unlikely to occur for Shed because values for both Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts have gone through the proverbial roof. Why did that happen?

Well, both the Mk1 and the Mk2 achieved legendary motorsports status through the saloon car and rallying exploits of legends like Frank Gardner and Hannu Mikkola. Even the front-wheel drive Mk3 and Mk4 Escorts gained a bit of street cred from sporting models like the RS1600i, but by 1995 the Escort buyer was being perceived in a quite different light. Harry Enfield had identified the 'loadsamoney' branch of the working class in the late 80s, a social trend taken to an unfortunate extreme by rogue trader Nick Leeson in 1995.

So when the Escort Mk6 came out in that same year, it was a much softer, cuddlier and more aspirational proposition with no sporting pretensions whatsoever. That 90s Escort was an oddity in many ways, a sort of high water mark of bland conservatism at a time when Ford was getting quite daring with some of its other products, like the Sierra.

The previous model Escort had been slagged off for its basement-quality cabin plastics, so a much nicer dash was fitted, but underneath all the nicely rounded-off bits you could see in the showroom, the Mk6 was an old car with old engines, like the Kent-derived Endura 8-valve pushrod unit hiding under the bonnet of our Shed.

Having sort of established that a 1.3 Mk 6 Escort will probably never be valuable, how does it stand up as a driving proposition? Well, even the world's biggest foglight switch isn't going to distract you from the grim reality of 60hp and 74lb ft. Even with under 1,000kg (just) to push along, that equates to a 0-60 wheeze of 16 seconds eventually leading on to a straining top 'speed' of 95mph. The steering will be pretty awful too.

Still, look at the condition of this one, from the first year of Mk6 production, built a year before the last vaguely exciting-sounding Escort - the RS2000 - was dropped by Ford. The MOT history shows that it's only done 5,000 miles in the last 11 years. The brake pipes were replaced back in early 2011, but apart from that it's had nothing major go wrong with it. The apparent absence of rust is nothing short of miraculous. Suspension can be easily damaged by kerbing, but of course with something as old and as Ford as this, anything can happen.

Buy it and you will have an endless stream of old boys coming up to you to tell you how they had one back in the day and ooh that's a beauty isn't it mine was a bit rubbish of course but I wish I'd never sold it it's probably worth a fortune now.

Well, yes, if £750 is your idea of a fortune it would have been. Here's the ad.

Diamond White. 12 Months MOT. Amazing Service History. Totally Original. Unmarked Interior. 2 Keys. Beautiful Condition

[TooMany2cvs]

One car the retro-Ford scenetax will NEVER, EVER be applied to.

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thetapeworm said:

This one ... great for practising "detailing" on, came up a treat.

So you CAN polish a turd?

[TooMany2cvs]

PistonBroker said:

Well, we've established it's rubbish, so shall we explore potential for it to redeem itself?

That's easy.

PistonBroker said:

I'm thinking 2.0 Zetec upfront and resultant necessary upgrades to the chassis would make it into a fine sleeper.

I'm thinking it would be just as rubbish, just a bit quicker.

[TooMany2cvs]

RumbleOfThunder said:

Actually, screw you lot. It's a really clean example of a once popular car.

Yes, it is.

But WHY was it popular? A number of reasons, none of which were because it was actually any good...

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Vitorio said:

Its not just about being an escort though, this is a woefully underpowered 1.3, white, 5 door. a better coloured 3 door with a 1.6 or 1.8 Zetec would get very different responses i would imagine.

Unlikely, tbh.

[TooMany2cvs]

Byker28i said:

LOL, exactly what I've just bought my 18 year old son as a first car

https://www.childline.org.uk/

[TooMany2cvs]

dunnoreally said:

In Shed's defence, the national selection of sub-£1000 cars isn't exactly what it used to be.

A five-minute trawl through Autotrader finds...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - A8 4.2
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - Hyundai coupe v6
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - S-type sport
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - Lexus IS300 estate
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - v8 P38 Rangey
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - E46 compact 325ti
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - RX8
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - Alfa GT
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - v6 Audi cabrio
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - Tigra with Cat C history
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - "Track project" MX5
...or how about...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017... - LTI TXii

All FAR more SOTW than that scrote.

[TooMany2cvs]

exgtt said:

TooMany2cvs said:

One car the retro-Ford scenetax will NEVER, EVER be applied to.

NEVER underestimate Ford scene tax.

GP,WM.

[TooMany2cvs]

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