Junkyard Find: 1984 Ford Escort Station Wagon
The first North American Ford Escort went on sale for the 1981 model year; it was related to its Mark III Escort European counterpart but was more of a cousin than a sibling. It wasn’t a great car, but was such an improvement over its miserable Pinto predecessor that it flew off the showroom floors in great quantities. These cars were cheap and disposable, so nearly all of them disappeared during the 1990s.
I see quite a few of the Mazda 323/Kia Sephia-related second-gen Escorts in junkyards these days, but a genuine, early Escort wagon is nearly as rare as a numbers-matching Geo Prizm GSi today. Here’s a solid-looking ’84 wagon that I shot in Denver earlier this winter.
It has a manual transmission (I can’t tell from the photos whether it’s the base 4-speed or the optional 5-speed) instead of the allegedly more luxurious automatic, but the original purchaser of this car wasn’t going to cheap out on the sound system. That’s AM/FM with genuine stereo sound, son!
These sky-blue Escort wagons were very popular government-agency cars, being driven by an entire generation of mosquito-abatement inspectors and Weights and Measures accountants around the country. The presence of a manual transmission and $200 radio option rules out this car as a government machine, though.
How many Fords got this blue cloth upholstery during the 1980s? Millions? Billions? More than the number of atoms in the universe?
Number One nameplate in the world! Telly Savalas is impressed.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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Funny how the front drive boom went. Frist was GM X cars in 80, then Chrysler K, and Ford Escort/Lynx in 81, then GM J and A cars. They thought it was the most efficient packaging of the time, and it was, at the loss of certain driving aspects some people still wanted. However, it was a trend those some people did not want. Now it's seen as "economy" packaging not apropriate for certain brands. Personally, if you live where there is snow, it's great. Otherwise give me rear, or all wheel drive.
I had a 1984 Escort Wagon with the "L" trim level. It had the automatic transmission, power steering, AM/FM radio and roof rack. It was silver with gray cloth/Vinyl interior. It was 10 years old when I bought it for $500 and it had about 115k on the clock. During the nearly 6 years and 50k I owned the car, the amount of money I paid in repairs was equal to what the car would have cost when it was new (around $7,700).