We saw another really nice 1982 Ford Escort Wagon back in January 2019, written up here by our own Jeff Lavery. This example isn’t even close to being that nice, but the current bid price is $600, so it’s at least pretty cheap so far – although the reserve hasn’t been met. It’s posted here on Autura Marketplace and is located in Hayward, California, at a towing/impound lot. Thanks to MisterLou for the tip!
Really, the only generation of the Ford Escort for us folks who like our vehicles weird, small, and square would be the first-gen cars. They were made from 1980 for the 1981 model year until the end of 1990. A sister Mercury Lynx was offered from the 1981 model year through 1987. The wagon is the top of the heap for me, although there was a battery-powered version made by Jet Industries that would be fun to own for car show duties. I wrote about two of them, here (even though my name isn’t listed, weird), and here.
It’s easy to nail the exact color as being Fawn, as seen on this color chart. The seller included a photo of the data plate, which lists the color as 89. I would have bet that it was Pastel Vanilla, but that wasn’t available on the Escort, so Fawn it is. We don’t get to see inside either end of this Escort wagon, unfortunately, so no rear cargo photos and no engine photo. Having that data plate photo is nice, but dang. Here’s a brochure showing the 1982 Ford Escorts.
I’m in Palm Springs right now, and this matching tan interior seems to have experienced a little aging due to the sun, possibly. I mean, not to generalize about folks living in Palm Springs and being in the sun 350 days a year for decades. Seats are easy to fix, and I’m betting that the steering wheel isn’t as bad as I often think when I see a steering wheel cover. The big deal inside is that this car has a third pedal. Yes, it has a four-speed manual!
The back seat looks fantastic, but I’d rather see an engine photo. This one has Ford’s 1.6-liter SOHC inline-four with 70 horsepower and 89 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by the four-speed manual sending power to the front wheels, the seller says it has keys (?!), and it runs and drives, so that’s good, right? It actually looks pretty nice for an impounded car. We don’t know the story on that, but would you take a chance on buying an impounded car online?
If it goes cheap,this would be a good daily driver,& would probably
get lots of attention,plus it’s a manual.When’s the last time you saw
one driving down the road?
A Duratec/Zetec engine swap might be interesting.
Is it normal to have a reserve at an impound auction? It seems counterintuitive to me, but I have no knowledge of these types of auctions.
Isn’t there a regular reader that daily drives one of these? Charles Atlas?