This is not a car that should excite me, but sadly, it does. This is a Ford Escort EXP, which is a two-door, “sporty” coupe that wasn’t particularly fast or sharp-handling, but that bodywork would say otherwise. You don’t see these EXPs pop up for sale much anymore, and it’s hard to say how many were ever sold given the EXP was lumped in with all other Escort sales figures. The car shown here isn’t in great shape, but again, beggars can’t be choosers, and it’s dirt cheap. For $750, it’s already fairly priced, but the seller challenges us once more to see if he’ll take less by showing up with a trailer and having a conversation. Check out this rare EXP here on Facebook Marketplace in Ellicott City, Maryland.
This EXP looks like it has lived on the East Coast, and sadly, you don’t even need to be near the ocean to see this sort of rust. The question is how far does it go, or is it just limited to the EXP-specific rear deck lid? The EXP was a strange assortment of ideas, with Ford creating this distinctive model to undoubtedly go after a younger demographic, but they didn’t give it a particularly enticing drivetrain to appeal to the hot hatch buyer. And, if they simply wanted to court a young couple, perhaps on their way to raising a family, Ford also deleted the back seat – so now, you have a true two-seater with no difference in performance over a base model Escort. Brilliant!
Now, I know there was a short-lived turbocharged version offered, but Ford sold so few of those I’m not even sure it deserves a footnote (and it wasn’t like the performance was dramatically improved.) The interior was somewhat sporty with bucket seats and a standard 5-speed manual, but in the late 80s, those features alone do not make for an exciting drive. When Toyota was cranking out the Celica, GM the Fiero, VW the GTI, and Honda a whole slew of sporty coupes and hatches, the Escort EXP was in a distant last place despite its intriguing bodywork and proportions.
Here you can see the deleted backseat, which is a decision that still seems to make little sense other than convincing Fiero shoppers that the Escort was just as cool (despite the Pontiac coming standard with a mid-mounted V6.) However, there are plenty of enthusiasts who still celebrate Ford’s small, sporty cars, and the company did begin to get things right with offerings like the early-90s Escort GT that shared its drivetrain with the Mazda Miata of the same era. These days, it’s getting more and more expensive to purchase a “rad-era” vehicle, so an Escort EXP for under $800 (and likely less, per the seller’s hint) is about as cheap as you’re going to find.
Jeff, I think you nailed the EXP. It was largely a swing-and-a-miss. I was in the market for a small sporty coupe when they were introduced. I was actually fine with the frog-eye styling, but though I didn’t need a back seat, I wanted one “just in case.” And the later version looked too much like a regular Escort. No particular styling or performance enhancements make for nothing special.
Which brings us to this forlorn example. At best, a parts car for the (very small number) of folks who have them.
Always admired the sharp lines of the EXP but can’t remember the last time I saw one on the road, most will end up on the hook 🪝
Rumor or legend has it that the reason why the rear seat was eliminated had to do with the fact that an executive tried to get into a prototype EXP that had a back seat, and ended up hitting its head on the backlight so he ordered the back seat removed. If you look at the picture, you can see the little indentation for the armrest in the trim panel as well as the provision for a fold-down rear seat back.
Would not be surprised if these used the same rear interior side trim as the standard 2-door Escort, as they shared the same wheelbase and door stampings, so that would explain the armrest recess in back here.
I think that apparent anchor for a fold-down rear seatback might actually be for a roll-up cargo cover, maybe using the same attachment point as the Escort seatback anchor.
I was referring to the protruded circle in the lower right hand of the trim panel.
This is one of the much better looking second generation models. The headlights on the first version were really ugly.
Probably fewer people remember the Mercury version of the first version called the LN7. I was helping curate a collection of historic photos a few weeks ago which included some photos of when Bill Stroppe ran a LN7 for a land speed record in the early 80s. The driver was Larry Wilcox – Jon from Chips.
Yeah, the first edition of the EXP had square sealed beam headlamps that looked awkward…kinda bug-eyed. The Mercury LN7 wasn’t much better. Almost forgot they even made that model, it was scarce when new!
Originally the EXP was meant to have hidden headlights; the prototype photos I’ve seen suggest they were just eyelid covers that would flip up and down, rather than fully articulated popup lamp units. Apparently this was nixed to cut costs, resulting in the “fixed popup” appearance of the production models.
The bubble hatch and black-pinstriped taillights seen here were originally exclusive to the Mercury LN-7 version, whereas the EXP initially had a notched hatch similar to the Mustang and all-red taillights, gaining the Mercury hatch and tails (along with an Escort front clip) when it was facelifted concurrent with cancellation of the LN-7.
Back in 1991 a guy I went to school with had one of these as his first car. He still had to ride the bus at least once a week because it would break down for various reasons.
In 1997, I had an ’87 that I traded an ’84 626 coupe with a broken rear suspension tower for. I wish I’d kept the Mazda and found someone to fix what turned out to be a common problem with those. The EXP had blown out struts and an automatic, and was a dismal little car until I put some work into the suspension (we had NO money and were just getting by). Then the engine decided to stop running. It was a 1.9 with CFI – just a big throttle body and injector slapped on where the carb would’ve been. I gave up on it when I realized it was something in the FI. Good times. Moved back to a Mazda after that – ’91 MX6 GT turbo with a 5-speed.
My brother bought one of these. It actually was a pretty good car. He drive it almost 200 k miles. I believe you could of gotten a back seat for an additional price. What’s ironic is that our neighbor bought a brand new Toyota Celica at the same time. It rotted out in 2 years and he always had problems with it. I don’t think it made it to 60k miles before the wrecker took it to the junkyard.
My brother had two of these. 86 and a 90’.
Both went through head gaskets as fast as air filters.
We bought one for my son as a first car. I t ran pretty well, but were told by the mechanic at the front end shop that it could not be properly aligned due to the design of the front.
I drove an 84 EXP Turbo for 5 years. Was a fun car to drive. I think it was an experiment by Ford because it had problems. Once the clutch was sorted out and the turbo oil system was rebuilt it ran great and had no problems. The front wheel drive made it great in the snow and rain of the pacific northwest. I’d like to find a good one and restomod it with a 302 and put in a rear axle.
I had the same year Escort with the 1.9 L CVH engine ( which should have been called the constant vibration and harshness engine) . My car ate through batteries and had a problem just shutting off on the highway.( finally diagnosed with a faulty connection to the ECU) .
This gen EXP looked more cohesive that the frog eyed version. A shame that a more potent and smooth engine wasn’t selected for this.
Rumor / legend has it that the reason why the backseat was eliminated from the EXP had to do with the fact that when a Ford executive went to sit in a prototype EXP with a back seat, he hit is head hard on the backlit and subsequently ordered the back seat removed. If you look at the fourth picture above, you can see in the rear trim panel a provision for an armrest, and the place where the folding rear seat back would have been attached (the circle in the lower right hand part of the trim panel).
You could probably find a better one than this in a junkyard. That is, if they all haven’t been crushed yet.
They seller’s idea of what a buyer could do with this junker are hilarious!
Too much rust better to be a parts car at least its a manual trans car.
I think my ESP is telling me this EXP is going nowhere except to the shredder.
mom had this car. I put the escort (’81/03) seats in this for her. EXP (’82/8) had none in back. BUT… same floor pan (W/bolting spots). She liked the lill cars (me too) after a move north (Baltimore to Boston) and a slip on the ice ina ’57 ford wagon, into a tree (a ‘total’ due to its age/repair costs). That was way back in ’64 but fiats, renaults and simcas (these 2 cars) from then on.
I liked the EXP. Did they have a notch back (no FB/lift gate but trunk)? I liked ‘the lines’. This one’s great too. They got an escort waggy later that never died…
The EXP only ever had the one hatchback body style, but the early EXP had a notchback-styled hatch similar to the Mustang. The Mercury LN-7 version got a bubble hatch, which moved to the EXP as of the later facelifted version seen here.
Well I like it – but then, I liked the Merkur Scorpio I owned too. Oh, and one look at the first pic here (above) with the red insert line in the front bumper reminded me of my Ford Escort Wagon, (’95?) which also featured that color stripe insert in the rubber trim all around (to give it that “Euro” look) which I seem to remember the Chevy Lumina had too. But the wagon – like Fords generally, loved the “autobahn” and at ~80 mph seemed right at home – HOWEVER, please verify (through research, rather than terminal experience – which is maybe what ‘EXP’ stands for) whether the engine in this joyboat is, like my wagon, an “interference” engine, because when the timing belt/chain goes, boom-boom out go the lights (bent valves, et al). Take that back hatch off and there’s your “hay hauler” (very) shorty pick-’em up truck – You’re in Ford Country!
Partly what killed these were that insurance companies charged higher rates for two seater cars. Being more sporty i guess?
Does anyone remember that for the first 2 years of the EXP/LN7 you could order them with actual lambs wool inserts for the seats from the factory? Remember the whole lambswool seat cover trend? It co-exist with the stick on Kmart scratch guards for the doorlocks and the snap on aero plastic windshield wiper aids. Good times.
Tell us about the Ford Escort Wagons!
this is beat down maybe a parts car at this point. i wouldn’t waste my time. scrap is paying $7.00 per hundred i would scrap it though