Ford Escort - 1999 Review

I bought this car in 2000 with 22,000 miles on it.  The price was right and it even still smelled new inside.  Now it has nearly 180,000 on.  It is easy to work on and cheap to fix if you can do the labor yourself.  I like that the engine is non-interference (even though shop books list it as such) so that if the timing belt breaks, you won't have engine damage.  Just put a new belt on and go.

 The automatic's (ATX) are a bit slow.  The 130 horsepower Zetec is enough for a car this light, but the ATX just saps so much power from it.  The manual transmission (MTX) has an extra gear and sap less of the power.  It is certainly more fun to drive and gets better fuel economy if you drive it right.  The engine has been used in rally racing for years and it shows.  I just keep the oil changed in this car and it keeps on trucking.

Two years ago I added a turbocharger to this car.  I run an moderate 7-8 pounds of boost.  It makes enough power to keep up with these newer factory turboed cars like the SRT-4 and it is faster then the supercharged Cobalt SS.  Even with 180,000 miles on the stock engine, it is peppy and not excessivly noisy.

 The transmissions can be easy to break.  The stock transmission cooler for the ATX is undersized so it tends to fail from repeated high temperature operation.  This can be fixed by installing a small auxillary transmission cooler.  The MTX is reliable as far as the gears go.  But, the differential is weak.  If you just use this car as a commuter with some spirited driveing, it shouldn't cause you any issues.  But, if you are like me and like to flog the car at the local drivestrip, you'll want to put some money into a differential upgrade.