Mk6 Escorts

[Hendry]

I must be mad because Ive got a real hankering for a mk6 Escort, its an itch im going to have to scratch I think because it wont go away.

 

How bad are these for rot, seriously? Was in a breakers last week with a mate who has quite a tidy low mileage Escort and we were asking if he still gets any in, his response was "seldom, most were scrapped years ago because the bloody things were hanging with rust at 3 years old"

 

Are they really that bad? someone put me off them or talk me out of it!!

 

Yeah I know as a car theyre a bit shit, but maybe its the nostalgia of them because they were everywhere when I was growing up, cant help but want one. ideally a Ghia X, a GTi, or a Finesse, as late as possible. 

[Matt]

My parents had three or four of them. Not much help but there you go.

[Ghosty]

Yeah, the Escort ship has sailed for the most part.

 

You can probably guess exactly where they all went crispy.

[twosmoke300]

Between front and rear no plates ?

 

I hate them - a car where every single part is made by the cheapest supplier - and feels like it !

They rot for fun too .

[DVee8]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-GTI-ESTATE-1998-1800-ZETEC-PEPPER-RED-/201969447636?hash=item2f065132d4:g:QnUAAOSwOMdZVQ2f

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-escort-ghia-estate/232413471015?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D971d9f1a04a848f2be51a20546f084ed%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D201969447636

 

[DVee8]

Look at the luxury here

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Escort-Cabriolet-Ghia/263101962603?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Dd149a0c6bea34599a66e4b641c0f1d30%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D232413471015

 

 

[BorniteIdentity]

I also think there's something quite appealing about a very late estate in nice spec. I reckon I'd feel differently about an hour after buying one, but as long as you buy at the right price your exit strategy is secure.

 

JFDI. I reckon an estate would raffle on here easily enough as they're a useful size and repairable with a hammer. Just read all of the MOT advisories first before you hand over any stationery.

[BorniteIdentity]

Also. Still a reasonably strong market for silvertop zetec engines for transplant, so there's a bit more redundancy pay there too.

 

Good luck!

[Steve79]

These are actually good cars and are way nicer to drive than the 3x mk5 escorts i've had, depending on if its been looked after.

 

I had a 97 plate 1.6LX for a few years around 2008 as a daily driver and did about 40k in it.

 

Bought with a rod through the block, i got a replacement engine with about 50k on it from a breaker in Brum for £75.00 and the thing never missed a beat! Wasn't rotten and didn't need welding in the time i had it.

 

Also had a 96' 1.4L saloon in white when i was at uni in around 2000. Boggo spec and no PAS which sounds horrendous but was actually a nice engine and drove well.

 

Ghia X is the one to go for, nice seats with electric height adjustment on drivers, aircon, heated screen, fake wood. Usually giffer owned so will have had the money spent on it.

 

Go for it!

[artdjones]

Were these the last cars to only have a five figure odometer? Not a great display of confidence by Ford.

[Jazoli]

I wouldn't have one given, I had a succession of mk5 and mk6's as company cars back in the 90's and they were shit, a 306 is a much better drive, the focus that succeeded them was in another dimension, I can't understand why anyone would want one, they were shoddily built when new, god knows what a 20 year old one will feel like now.

[Snipes]

 

I had a 1.6 16v LX. It was great, didn't cost me anything in the three years I had it; not even front brakes or wishbones which they always need usually. Aircon and a sunroof. I'd have another one before a mk1 Focus; I've seen them run up big bills with their fancy rear suspension being rotten.

I think main points for rust are sills, rear arches and chassis rails between the rear wheels.

 

Oh wait- it did "breakdown" once when a plastic clip on the clutch pedal broke and I had to get it recovered. I would have liked to keep it but it was getting very rusty.

[Split_Pin]

Nearly everyone on here will tell you they are shit.

 

My mate had a 1.3 Endura E example in an S plate and he could really make it handle.

 

The Endura D models are tremendously slow.

 

I'd happily have a base model one with the black bumpers but they are actually quite rare now.

[dave21478]

I have a 1999 1.6 16v estate. It cost me 200 eurocoin with a dead engine and I bought a running field car off some chavs for 150 and swapped the engine.

 

In two years it's been utterly reliable and only needed minor bits n bobs and tyres. I abuse the shit out of it and it laps it up.

 

Mine has never seen a salty road but the sills have rotted and it's going crispy around the rear suspension mounts.

 

Thread here...

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/19905-escort-estate-havent-updates-for-agesrear-wheel-bearing-change/page-2

[D Spares & Tyres]

Sills are an easy fix buy even tidy ones will have rotten rear chassis rails by now.

 

Fuse boxes can play up and you need one with exactly the same code, and there are a lot of different codes

[egg]

In the 90s, Ford Europe built some of their best cars and some of their worst!

 

The good:

Mondeo

Focus

 

The bad:

Escort/Orion

Arguably Fiesta, but I know they have some fans here

Probe (ok, it's quite a bit of Mazda)

 

The ugly:

Scorpio

[bigstraight6]

A good friend of mine has a garage/car sales business and while I was there yesterday I noticed he had one parked amongst his stock, not sure if he's taken it in p/x but I could certainly find out.....

[angle]

My old one:

 

 

Bought at 10 years old for £600 off a friend of a friend, it saw me through the last two years of uni and then four years of doing London to Bristol every weekend to see my girlfriend. At the time I thought it was amazing, way better than the Mk4 and Mk5 I'd had before - then when it died I replaced it with a Citroen ZX and I realised it was pretty rubbish. 

 

Apart from the main wire into the alternator corroding and snapping on the A27 (it runs along the bottom of the engine bay at the front of the car and gets covered in crap) it never let me down until it boiled over driving round Clapham Common in the snow - as dodgytom says, the fusebox lets water in, which in my case meant the fan stopped working. The garage I took it to said there were no signs of HGF but I should have sacked it off at that point - I put up with 18 months of increasingly bad starting and misfires before I got fed up and scrapped it just after it passed an MOT with an advisory list of:

 

• corrosion to o/s and n/s rear chassis leg's
• corrosion to o/s and n/s inner and outer sill's
• corrosion to o/s and n/s Rear Seat belt anchorage prescribed area

[Cavcraft]

I'm afraid they're just dreadful. The interiors have a weird smell of horrible plastic and hatefulness, they're stodgy and dire to drive and they honestly haven't got a single redeeming quality. We went through quite a few back in the day when I was at the auctions (to be fair you could sell them quite easily) but I'd actually rather have a bloody Golf.

Oh, the special edition type ones (like the awful Mexico variant) had front seat covers made out of bog roll, and when they (very quickly) wore away, you were left with your right arse cheek resting on a metal sort of spine thing.

 

Motoring at it's very, very worst. Avoid at all costs.

 

 

 

 

*Edit: They are also the main reason the Focus was so successful. The Escort was such a bad car it's replacement couldn't possibly be any worse, so Ford fans jumped on the Focus and raved about it. 

[bunglebus]

I had a MK5 shape Onion, and it was bloody annoying - it wasn't rotten as such, but underneath looked like it had been parked in the sea, and it was infuriating to work on because it had so many rusty fixings. It also had the usual dodgy fusebox and indicator stalk. To be fair it never actually broke down, and I loved its Zetec engine. All the same, these are the only car I enjoy taking to the bridge, I've offed 4 now I think. I'd never have another.

 

*edit*

 

Here it is being drained of fluid prior to death:

 

K24AEW2 by Me, on Flickr

[beko1987]

A few of my mates had them as first cars in the early 00s. One had a few in a row, ending with a quite top spec one. We drove to Devon in it, it seemed very nice to 17 year old me drinking beer in the back seat for 3 hours!

 

His first met an end being driven into a telegraph pole. If anyone ever goes to marlow rugby club and wonders why one is on the piss that's why...

[D Spares & Tyres]

Oh and the CVT is possibly the worst auto box ever made

[warren t claim]

I'm afraid they're just dreadful. The interiors have a weird smell of horrible plastic and hatefulness, they're stodgy and dire to drive and they honestly haven't got a single redeeming quality. We went through quite a few back in the day when I was at the auctions (to be fair you could sell them quite easily) but I'd actually rather have a bloody Golf.

Oh, the special edition type ones (like the awful Mexico variant) had front seat covers made out of bog roll, and when they (very quickly) wore away, you were left with your right arse cheek resting on a metal sort of spine thing.

 

Motoring at it's very, very worst. Avoid at all costs.

 

 

 

 

*Edit: They are also the main reason the Focus was so successful. The Escort was such a bad car it's replacement couldn't possibly be any worse, so Ford fans jumped on the Focus and raved about it.

But you told me they were fantastic cars, probably a sure fire appreciating classic when you sold me one!

[Cavcraft]

But you told me they were fantastic cars, probably a sure fire appreciating classic when you sold me one!

 

That was my twin brother, he's a lying bastard.

[sierraman]

They rot like fuck and aren't particularly pleasant to drive. Other than that they are ok.

 

I'd be wary of a lot that's about now, like the Fiesta they've usually seen some serious welding by now and it's invariably MOT plate over rust type repairs.

 

If you can find one that's rot free or hasn't seen serious action in that respect I'd say go for it. Wouldn't pay more than say £500 or so and it would have to be a minter for that as well.

[egg]

This one? Not so much as a rust advisory yet.

 

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122568357728

 

Despite everything. Would.

[Bren]

The fact that the focus is a sharp as a tack in comparison tells you all you need to know.

 

Like all FWD escorts - fucking awful.

[Volksy]

I had a silver 1.6 16v 'Flight' Estate. Was a complete POS. Built to a price, and felt like it. Was comparable in crapness with the hateful Chrysler Neon I had a few years earlier. 

Only redeeming factor was the gearchange was quite nice, but other than that it was horrid.

 

Couldn't give the thing away either. Ended up on the back of a wagon on a one way trip to EMR.

[J-T]

I had one 10 years ago as a stopgap when I'd ordered a new car. I think I paid £400. I was robbed. Honestly, they are just utter shit. It plodded on for the 6 months I had it but the driving position was awful, felt like I was sat on the roof with the steering wheel scraping my knees, the interior was dreadful, mine had rotted out under the rear lights at 10yr old so the boot was a swimming pool. It was a 1.8 and I think had 100bhp so it was thirsty but couldn't pull you out of bed. I believe they actually had the front to put the same engine in the GTi!

 

As has been said, a 306, a ZX, a corolla they are all better. I can't see why anyone would want one.

[CortinaDave]

Theyre just ok. Ive had 3- two Si's and a late diesel. Did what i asked in an acceptable fashion. i did like the dash styling though