1997 Ford Escort Reviews, Pricing & Specs

This was my first car. It belonged to my dad who had it for 10 years and then gave it to me once I recieved my license. Overall it was a good little car. There were never any major problems with it. It was not a very fun car to drive at least for me as I found it to be too small and had trouble getting out of it. It did have poor acceleration but it was a 4 cyl. so you can't expect much from it. Even though I did not care for the it did save my life when I was rear-ended by and 18-wheeler and pushed through an intersection. The car was totaled but it had a good 11 years of service to my family.Mar 09, 2011

Strong as a little european muscle car! If you accelerate after 2000rpm, it goes like a rocket! So it's fun to drive. It has good handling, better than Focus Sportvan. And it's enconomical... Downsides? It's not very beautiful, in and out. Not comfortable either. People says this engine is not reliable but I've been 2 years with this car, run a lot with it and it was all right...Jul 28, 2010

Performance - Acceleration since the upgrade is more than perfect. For braking it havent needed any upgrade it is perfect but there is room for improvement. Handling from factory was relatively good but it has been upgraded with racing bushings. Build Quality - Perfect some minor details. For gas milage it is the best for 12 years old it runs like a new car and wastes no fuel, better now that I made some improvements on air intake and exhaust. Love driving this car handles good, feels good and have the fun factor. Sep 06, 2009

* Performance - acceleration -smoked a holden commodore v6 till 60, braking and handling awesome for an estate, * Build Quality - solid chassis.rugged car. * Appearance - interiors a bit ramped at rear seats and exterior styling...its an estate...lol * Cost of Ownership - mileage truly rocks 800k's to the tank was its best and its diesel., maintenance-none untill i blew the engine at 190 and am gettin another one now.love it. * Fun Factor - keeps revving .turbo lag not too visible,kicks in whn u need it especially in the city. Jul 09, 2009

My first ever car and like most people, I loved it! Even though this was only a 1.3 and it only cost me £1,000, I thought that the performance was great! A mate of mine had a MG ZR which had the same top speed as this Escort! It was also very frugal, and used to do about 400 miles on about £40 (from what I can remember). Another of my cars which I wish I hadn't got rid of, but it had brake failure due to age of the car and would have cost more to repair it than it would have been worth. Overall a great car and definately one that I would recommend to anyone as a first car.Sep 27, 2008

This was my first car. I think these cars are lovely to look at, even before I 'improved' it's looks with some extra body work. They are very cheap to purchase, but the fuel costs, and other expenses are quite high, apart from the insurance which wasn't so bad. Very spacious, plenty of boot room. Nice little motor under the bonnet, and fun to drive. I loved this car while I had it.Sep 07, 2008

jay has modified the engine for performance and it is currently running at 178 bhp, at the flywheel, proven on a rolling road. more gee gee's to come soon, when he gets his remapping software, ;)build quality is pretty good as it is now double seam welded, so its pretty strong no twisting of the chassis round tight fast corners etc. the wishbones wear pretty quickly as you shouldn't go above 15" wheels on the escorts but polyeurethane bushes are being posted out on monday along with an e-tech strut brace to stiffen up the tracking and handling, which is excellent already due to the offset of the rims. the appearance is that of the world rally car cosworth escorts, due to the bodykit, we are spraying the car diamond white soon,(when the WRC spoiler is fitted properly)and adding the series one turbo graphics, for originallity, although we may stick with the repsol graphics, nothing definate there yet. the milage is reasonable depending on driving style speed and distance, at worst probably around 20 mpg, and at best (motorway miles) around 35 mpg. maintained weekly by jay who is a motorsport mechanic with a hell of a lot of experience with fast fords. the car is one big bag of fun, and is known as the scooby slayer, its also beaten cars such as celica vvti's and an audi s3. it kept up with a mazda 350z upto around 135 ;) but i didnt say that :P . its fun because jay was also a motorsport driving instructor while working as a pit mechanic in formula ford and vauxhall, so he has taught me a thing or two about fast driving, handling a car at high speed etc etc... i love it but dont love kerbs:( jay tells me off, lol.Sep 07, 2008

At 105k miles, this car is still running pretty darn strong. This is my mom's car that I also drive, but my brother AND my sister both learned to drive in this car, so its been through A LOT. Performance: Its a late 90's 4 banger. Nothing special. Ok power, its an automatic :-( so I know it'd be peppier with a stick. This isn't going to be my car, or else I probably would've added a good intake maybe an exhaust to help out in the power department, probably some pulgs & wires too. That'd probably wake this car up, since it feels restricted. Build Quality: Pretty good, no major defects. Its not an expensive car, its just your average sedan. Only a small vibration noise in the dash, but thats because the bulb on the left side of the gauge cluster burned out, so the dash had to be taken apart to replace the bulb. For being a high-mileage Ford, its doing pretty well. I know if it was a Honda I wouldn't have to worry, but this car is doing really well. Its not burning oil or anything, and it still runs strong. Appearance: Could do with some factory allow wheels. Steelies & hubcaps are so lame... also foglights would be nice, for appearance and safety. Its not a turn-your-head-and-watch-it-go-by car, but the cool thing is that its purple :-D one of like the ONLY purple cars in Kansas City. Mar 18, 2008