Ford Escort (1983) – Into the Wild

Have we never had a Ford Escort Mk3 in this section? Well, yes, but it’s been a while. Almost seven years ago, we pushed forward this 1981 liftback and a little over a year earlier a 1984 station wagon. Escorts that both looked a bit neater than the one yours truly spotted last week and is now on your screen. Well, we are now a few years further. The Ford Escort you see here will be 40 years old next year, so it’s easy to forgive him for showing signs of use.

In fact, it’s even charming that it shows his age. After all, it shows that the Escort is still part of the street scene on a daily basis and is not hiding somewhere under a cloth or in a garage. Well, the Escort Mk3 has never really grown into a car that is jealously kept with velvet gloves. So nice to meet another one. They disappeared from the streets in droves in the 1990s and 0s.

We wonder a bit what motivated someone to purchase this Escort. He has been with his current owner for six years now, so it was already an old animal with no doubt already some ‘patina’ when it was bought by him or her. It’s also a 1.3 Bravo in a nice standard Ford livery from that time, not one that has ever really stood out in any way.

What is in any case to be praised is that the Escort is kept pretty standard. It is still on its original modest steel wheels and it seems that the tailgate still has the original dealer sticker. The Masters of Hardcore sticker on the rear window is actually the only noteworthy addition. Perhaps there is also a thick subwoofer hidden under its liftback cover to make the accompanying music scream hearing damage through the Escort, but that’s about it.

As mentioned, the Escort has been with the current owner for about six years now. That is the fourth owner, the first has had the car from new until 2007. Perhaps the latter is the main reason that this copy has reached the age that enthusiasts have subsequently run away with it. It is now only to be hoped that his current owner is enough of an enthusiast to keep him on the road, because at this year’s inspection six points of interest were noted. Four years ago there were three. So it seems that some love has to be put into it to keep it on the road longer. We will keep our fingers crossed!