1995 Ford Escort L review from UK and Ireland

The exhaust backbox fell off about 2 months after getting the car, a new backbox was needed.

Spark plugs needed replacing in January 2004.

For the £1600 I paid for the car I think it was quite a good deal considering it had only done 55000 miles. The salesman forgot to mention that the spark plugs had been in there a long time and would need replacing soon (see above), but apart from that hardly anything has gone wrong with the car during the first 8 months I've had it.

Fuel economy isn't the best considering it's a 1.4 litre engine, and even according to the Ford Escort manual the 1.8 Escort gets more miles per gallon than the 1.4 Escort! I probably get around 30 miles per gallon travelling to and from work every day, as it is along mostly urban roads.

For my Christmas 2003 present I had the car fitted with a 'chrome surface sports exhaust backbox' which really makes it sound like a more powerful car. What I found amazing was that even though we were told it would only increase engine power by around 3%, I can actually really notice the improvement in performance, as the 0-60 time is down to between 9 and 10 seconds. Maybe the exhaust will be worth the £350 extra insurance costs I had to pay (I am only 19 after all).

I find the Escort a large improvement over my previous Fiesta 1.8D.