As usual, I’m hoping the Ford paint scholars in the crowd can nail down this color. Alabaster? Light Titanium? I just like to fill in the blanks whenever I can. Whatever color it is, we haven’t seen too many 1991 Ford Escort GTs here on Barn Finds. In fact, we’ve only seen one. Here’s another, and it’s posted here on craigslist in Springfield, Ohio, and the seller is asking $3,550. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Rocco B. for the tip!
You can’t get much for $3,500 anymore; that’s about the price point that a lot of us remember paying for dang near everything, from what we see in the comments on current prices for vehicles. If you’re someone who says $3,550 is too much for a small, American car with two doors and a sporty edge, not to mention a 5-speed manual, then I have no answers for you.
Ford made the second-generation Escort from 1990 for the 1991 model year until the end of 1996, and it came with two doors, four doors, and station wagon body styles, but the GT came in a two-door version only. What if they had made a GT convertible? I really like the details on the Escort GT with the asymmetrical grille, the spoiler, body cladding, and the directional wheels.
This is where the “like” ends for me, however: powered seatbelts. It’s such a scourge of early 90s cars to have these things. As far as I know, there’s no real good way around it, so it is what it is, as they say. The “like” hits hard again with the general condition of the interior, not to mention the perfect two-tone fabric seats with the great red piping detail. The back seat looks perfect, and we don’t get to see the rear cargo area, but I’m assuming it also looks clean.
The engine could have used a weekend of detailing, but this car has a whopping 256,100 miles on it, believe it or not! This is a Mazda-sourced 1.8-liter DOHC inline-four with 127 horsepower and 114 lb-ft of torque. It’s sent through a 5-speed manual to the front wheels. They say it has always been garaged but does have some rust and will need a new exhaust eventually. Still, for $3,550, this has to be a great car for the money. Have any of you owned a second-generation Escort GT?
Scotty…. You just struck a chord. For many years, decades in fact, my wife and I had bought only one brand new car. A ’94 Escort sedan ( we liked it better than the 5 door). It was an LX in Electric blue 1.9 4 cyl 5 speed. Had power mirrors and power steering and brakes ( something many of our previous vehicles did not have. ) And it had Air conditioning, and also, now are you ready for this???? An AM AND FM radio. We were living high on the hog. Theres a lot of this Escort that reminds me of ours. It served our family very faithfully for many years. You brought back a lot of great memories for me here. Even though ours was not a GT like this one. Great write up Scotty!!! Thank you!!!
Sadly what did ours in was rust. Lots of rust. And Scotty, if Ford built that little drop top Escort GT they would have had a Chevy Cavalier Z24 convertible fighter on their hands. It looks great without the roof. Nice job Scotty.
And one more thing…. Especially when it was new, these had a very nice shifting 5 speed as well. Not at all what you’d expect from and “economy” car. Mazda transmissions were very nice shifting units.
I vote for Light Titanium but I’m not sure. This Escort GT looks good considering the high mileage. Some fresh floormats, and probably various other this-and-that repairs or upgrades, would help. Could be some cheap fun…. if you can live with the motorized seat belts.
An Escort GT convertible like your chop, paired with a Mustang GT convertible of the same year, would have been cool.
The straight cut treatment on the rear wheel-well sure looks sharp on your convertible version SG. 😎 👌 Sounds like you had a cool little 5sp sedan Driveinstile … after yrs of hatchbacks I actually enjoy the trunk again. It has advantages too 👍
This is a dead ringer for our ’94 except for ours was an automatic. We loved it, very good passing power but it needed the revs… nice room too with hatchback.
We had a Mazda diesel in our ’88 Escort – no kidding – and that was an mpg monster and Ford was not shy about sourcing good engines from them. Was a salesman with large territory then so it was great (@ $5,000. Off lease sale from Ford). The various gas models we owned- including a Wagon- all were good cars. This one with the 250k miles is priced to fit someone’s needs just right.
The Mazda motor was sweet…especially following the unit from the previous generation. Torque steer was plentiful.
Good bunch of comments, and shows me that 5 speed compacts will be a future collectible.
These were fun to drive, efficient and sporty. Had one as a loaner for a week or 2 while warranty work was done on my truck in 94.
Have owned a small 5 speed ford hatch since. My 2014 Focus 5 speed has been the best car I’ve ever owned, sadly replacing it will be difficult. Get one while they’re cheap due to the DCT auto failure.
160hp, excellent handling and carry a ton of gear.
In about 5 years econobox manuals will be worth 2x as much as now.
I had a first gen GT. 1986 I believe. It was a fun car but embarrassing as my buddy had an ’86 Mustang GT. HHe used to call it the poor man’s Mustang. Mine had the power soulder seat belts too. Separate lap belt.
I would not buy it simply because of the mileage on it however these were fun little quick cars for the time I think Ford missed the mark on promoting them with better marketing they would have sold more
I ran the Ford Body Shop when I got one of these as my demo. Really enjoyed it and when it got 2500 miles they took it and sold my demo. I would get about 3 or 4 verious cars per year. I liked that little car enought I bought one for my wife, we kept it for a number of years and it actually held up extremely well. Fun to drive and if you kept your foot out of it, gave great fuel mileage. You hardly ever see one on the road anywhere.
I bought a 1991 Escort LX (ultra blue) and a 1994 Escort LX (brilliant blue) new. Both were 5 speed 2 dr hatchbacks. The ’94 looked like a GT because it had the Sport Appearance Group (14″ bright aluminum wheels, tachometer, rear spoiler, and rear GT applique tail lights), along with the preferred equipment pkg 321M). It also had silver side graphics added at the dealership. Both cars turned heads… the 1991 because it was one of the first seen in the Twin Cities area. The comments were mainly along the lines of wondering what it was, to knowing what it was, and hanging out their windows, because it was their first time actually seeing one on the street.
The ’91 did have its drawbacks with clear coat issues on the roof, and lower vinyl protective cladding a few months later. Both years were mechanically reliable.
I find it interesting that “mundane” little econo-boxes like this can elicit so many comments, almost all favorable. I think it’s probably because this was what we drove in those days and we enjoyed them very much, thank you. As I recall, the motorized seat belt was universally despised. I think the whole idea of the car being able to “strap” you in like your Mommy was a huge turn off for most of us. Lots of miles on this car but if most of them are of the highway variety, then this would make sense for the person with a limited budget and the need for transportation. GLWTS.
Scotty, having worked in a photo store in the photolab (remember those?) I truly appreciate your photoshop skills… if this was a convertible like your depiction, I would consider buying it (the price seems crazy low). ALTHOUGH I dislike Ford products (my first car was a four year old Ford Fairlane 2 door hardtop with a 289… fast, but I was getting 8 mpg when the gas crisis hit). I paid $400 for it…ahhh the good old days !!! PLEASE keep your AWESOME photoshopped vehicles coming !!!
That’s darn nice of you to say that, John and everyone! I’ll keep doing as many weird Photoshop “designs” as I can think of.
I grew up on Kodachrome and still have thousands of slides in Kodak reels ready to go at any time on the Kodak Ektagraphic projector and Da-Lite screen!
I sold these when they were new. They were a big deal when they hit the showroom replacing the previous generation Escort. This one’s light titanium and very well optioned. With the 5 speed these were really quick, more than you would think 127 HP would be good for. Mileage is high but these are disappearing fast, especially 5 speed cars. Too bad I have a couple of projects in the driveway to get rid of or I would add this.
Nice car! My first new car was a 93 wagon….It was economical and peppy. Senior owned, i.e. just driven to church on Sundays-is sort of funny when paired with a hot hatch w/ manual tranny
Listing update: the seller has deleted this ad; someone must have grabbed it.