Junkyard Gem: 1993 Ford Escort LX Wagon

The unique North American Ford Escort was primarily based (considerably loosely) on its European cousin and was offered from the 1981 by 1990 mannequin years. After that, the mighty Ford Empire turned to its Japanese ally, Mazda, for the Escort’s platform and that is the place it remained till the ultimate ZX2 Escort coupes have been offered right here as 2003 fashions. I’ve uncared for these early Mazda-based Escorts in this sequence up till now, so here is one present in a Colorado automotive graveyard not too long ago.

The U.S.-market Escort was obtainable in wagon kind from 1981 by 1999 mannequin years. For 1993, the Escort wagon got here solely with the LX trim stage and its MSRP was $10,367 (about $22,795 in 2024 {dollars}). It seems that this one began out at a dealership simply outdoors of Kansas Metropolis.

A 1993 non-wagon Escort purchaser getting the LX-E or GT fashions bought a 1.8-liter DOHC Mazda four-cylinder rated at 127 horsepower, whereas all the opposite American Escorts that yr got here with this 1.9-liter Ford CVH and its 88 horses.

Wagons deserve handbook transmissions, and that is what this automotive has. A four-speed automated was obtainable in a number of possibility packages or as a standalone buy for $732 ($1,610 after inflation).

This automotive was a platform sibling to the Mazda 323 aka Protegé, which made it an in depth cousin to the 1991-1994 Mercury Capri. Its Mercury-badged twin was the Tracer.

Station wagons have been on their approach out of favor with American customers in 1993, practically a decade after the primary Chrysler minivans and Jeep XJ Cherokees appeared, two years after the debut of the Ford Explorer and the mannequin yr of the primary Jeep Grand Cherokees. Three years later, the Toyota RAV4 confirmed up in the USA, adopted by the Honda CR-V a yr after that, guaranteeing that Escort-sized wagons did not have for much longer to reside on showroom flooring.

This deeply offensive bumper sticker was the creation of the late Frank T. Kostecki, an Ohio fur trapper and businessman who owned Kosky’s Buying and selling Publish in Sullivan and supplied a full line of stickers selling the consumption of roadkill possum.

Ford nonetheless hadn’t gone to six-digit odometers on the Escort by the point this one was constructed, so we won’t know its last mileage complete.

Your pleasant Northwest Ford seller would toss in air con, AM/FM stereo and a baggage rack at no additional value!