The Ford escort over the years, especially in North America, wore many different types of sheet-metal though all were aimed the compact market -- which prior to 1981 Ford had for all intents and purposes ignored. Beginning in that model year, however Ford introduced what it called "the world car" for the benefit of its customers in North America.
As a model that ran up through the 2003 model year, the compact Escort had a very nice life. The new Focus picked up the load after the little compact was put out to pasture though thousands of them still run on the roads to this day. Originally based of model off the same name sold in Europe, it was redesigned extensively before being put forward for sale to Americans.
Historically, the Escort was the first front-wheel-drive model offered by the Dearborn manufacturer, replacing the poorly-conceived and executed rear-wheel-drive Pinto, which suffered from several controversies at the time. By its second year, the Escort had become the best-selling vehicle in the United States and remained so for much of the eighties.
In all, the Escort carried on through three generations of increasingly improved vehicles and body styles that reflected the age in which the car was built. It was offered in a number of different engine and transmission combinations, even including a 52 hp diesel engine and a higher performance turbocharged model that delivered 120 hp, which was a fairly robust engine, given the Escort's relatively small size.
Over the course of the third and last generation, which lasted from 1997 through the end of 2002, engineers at Ford had managed to demonstrate a real facility with the design and manufacture of compact vehicles, managing to squeeze increasingly good performance and reliability from a variety of four-cylinder engines while also giving customers nice styling, especially for the relative low prices the Escort sold at.
Over the two-plus decades of the car's life, the Escort appeared in a variety of body styles. There was a hatchback sporting what Ford called "three doors, " and a station wagon model along with a couple of different performance sport coupes that first appeared on the scene back in 1998. The designers also kept up the car's appearance, freshening and redesigning it over the years.
The Ford Escort filled a vital niche for the Dearborn Michigan automaker at its introduction in throughout over two decades of life. It's allowed Ford to experiment with compact vehicles while also delivering healthy sales that The Ford nameplate out in front and in the minds of a great many consumers. For these reasons, the little compact Ford can't be considered anything else but a success.
Andy Zain is the admin of
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