This car is incredibly unreliable. So many things have gone wrong with it. first of all the clutch went, and then starter motor, then the heater, then the head gasket!!!
I thought these were suppose to be reliable, but now I can see why ford have such a bad name!
In regards to the rs 2000,any one who chooses to pride themselves with an escort, has to realise that first of all they are nearly classics (30 yrs) i hope I'm correct with this statement, so with that in mind one has to realize that a few things will fail or break, now if you want a car with no character and no soul by all means buy a run of the mill japanese car, and stand quietly with no stories to tell around a mates bar-b-que, and have clean hands with no scratches, these things come free with owning a near classic bri-ish (silent T) go now, and ponder what you really want in a car.
In response to your negative comments on your older ford escort I must tell you I own a 75 escort and have no problems and it drives like a dream. I suspect the condition of the car you purchased was not up to par when purchased. These cars are simple and easy to fix if there is a problem unlike modern cars, (computers). My escort is much older than the one you described and I have had no, NOT ONE, problem with it.
Brandon in Sweden.
Mate, what the hell are you whinging about? Your Escort is no spring chicken at nearly 30 years of age and of course components will start to fail, but no more than a contemporary car from the same era. Take into consideration too that the RS2000 was the factory hotted-up version of the standard Escort and as such will most likely have been subjected to hard usage before you bought it. Besides, had you done your homework prior to purchase re: British cars? Anyone who has done their homework WILL know that British cars from that era were known for having lesser standards of reliability and quality control, considering that the UK at the time was in severe economic trouble.
Maybe you should have stuck with your Toyota Starlet if you wanted a car with good reliability and no idiosyncrasies.
Actually, the Australian specification Ford Escort RS2000 used the Kent 2 litre engine, which is nothing like what the European spec RS2000 has. As a consequence, the Aust spec car had 70 kilowatts of power, with 148 Newton metres of torque.
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