RE: Shed of the Week: Ford Escort Encore

RE: Shed of the Week: Ford Escort Encore

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



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






Author
Discussion

TooMany2cvs

Original Poster:

29,008 posts

125 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
One car the retro-Ford scenetax will NEVER, EVER be applied to.

Owlwood

251 posts

155 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
The stuff of nightmares.

MadDog1962

890 posts

161 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Boring.

C'mon Shed, you can do better.

2smoke

215 posts

110 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Oh dear...

bennyboydurham

1,617 posts

173 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
My grandpa worked at Ford in Halewood and I used to get 33% off any Ford. You had to keep it for 9 months iirc.

I had a Fiesta Si, an Escort Si, an Escort Ghia X, an Escort GTI, a Focus Ghia and a Puma Black. Then sadly he died, presumably from exhaustion at applying for vouchers.

The Escorts were actually pretty solid by the end. My Ghia X had leather and air conditioning, which was rather nice. The build quality was pretty good too as by then Halewood was gearing up to build the X Type.

Btw the fog light switch was split in half when front fogs were fitted, hence why with only rears fitted as in this boggo spec the button looks massive.

Adrian E

3,248 posts

175 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
These were an awful, cynical, vile pile of poo when they were new. This one has quite possibly the worst engine choice of all, if we discount the non-turbo diesel which will all have been scrapped by now. The equivalent Peugeot of the time was a far superior product in every way that counted in the class.

Something doesn't look right with the offside rear wheel arch on this one? Either accident or rust removal potentially? I admire the person who has bothered to keep this garaged but shed of the week? Not for me....

Jazoli

9,086 posts

249 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Nope, horrible cars, my first company car was an 1995 estate 1.8d 55bhp piece of st, it didn't even have pas.

I managed to bend it in half



Which was probably the best thing ever to happen to it, fortunately it was another escort that t-boned me so it was two for the price of one hehe

The last models were ok, I got given a new 1.8TD Ghia, just as the Focus came out, oh how happy I was.

Edited by Jazoli on Friday 3rd March 08:41

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Nice work. The O/H had a horrible blue 1.3 that she'd paid rather over the odds for to buy off her own parents. Nice people.

Dale487

1,334 posts

122 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Awful car!

This was the first car I drove after passing my test - it was my dad's, in full poverty/superleggera spec (deleted as appropriate); 2 speaker radio cassette, body building windows alround, no sunroof and no PAS (felt like the steering was set in concrete but also lifeless).

This runs the Austin Metro very close as worst car he ever owned. Taking the bus is a more pleasant experience. And it creaked like a Spabish Galleon.

The only redeeming feature on it is the "double bubble" roof at the tailgate.

Did Ford make these Escorts so bad to make the Focus seem better?

Edited by Dale487 on Friday 3rd March 08:52

Snubs

1,166 posts

138 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Allow me to be the first:


can't remember

1,077 posts

127 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
A car with no redeeming features what so ever. Even for Ford this was a nothing of a car.

I normally like the left field sheds but this doesn't even have the slightest hint of ironic cool.

SmartVenom

462 posts

168 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
I don't think even Wayne Rooney would be interested in this old escort.

Rumblestripe

2,915 posts

161 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Museum piece or possible house of horrors.

Wasn't this the "design" that they produced by workshopping with customers until all interest had been removed. Just horrid.

Fullmeister

57 posts

154 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Walk away and don't look back. Ever.


R8Steve

4,150 posts

174 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
One car the retro-Ford scenetax will NEVER, EVER be applied to.
The same thing was no doubt said about MK1/MK2 escorts back when you couldn't even give them away.

Never underestimate the madness of 'scene'. smile

ChocolateFrog

24,847 posts

172 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
A rare miss for SOTW.

You couldn't even pay me to own that.

mooseracer

1,843 posts

169 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Looks to be in remarkable condition but, no.

Q Car

138 posts

189 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
5000 miles in 11 years.... Obviously the previous owner would rather get the bus as well.

StoatInACoat

1,352 posts

184 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Nearly bought one of these 12 years ago on an N plate as my first car and even then they looked crap and unloved although it was a nice dark blue/green pearlescent colour. I think it was for sale at £850 so I suppose they've held their value very well! Bought an older 306 instead and it was much cooler, faster, better looking and just generally better.

GranCab

2,902 posts

145 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
SmartVenom said:
I don't think even Wayne Rooney would be interested in this old escort.
laugh