1995 Ford Escort LX from North America - Comments

Everything.

Transmission

engine

air conditioner

rear window defroster

dinging

door locks.

What has not gone wrong with this car.

When I got this car it had already had the engine replaced, among everything else. The gas tank and the pipes have all been replaced. The driver side door wouldn’t unlock from the outside and then the everlasting dinging. The head gasket had to be replaced at only 50,000 miles. To top off all of the repairs that have been done on this car the transmission is going out at a rapid pace. When I stop on the street the transmission gets out of gear and won’t go back in gear. This is a very unsafe car, there are wires that are falling out of the dashboard and in the trunk. There is a rattle in the dash board and the rear window defroster doesn’t work. It also slows way down when I turn the heat or air conditioner on. I also had to fix the blend door so I could get heat in the dead of winter.

All in all I wouldn’t recommend this car to my worst enemy.

I can't see why you hate these cars so much then; it is the US model: I don't know what models you get in the USA; I have the UK model, an RS Turbo; it's fast, cheap to run, very reliable, and nice to drive.(at 10 years old being serviced regular) The only problem I've ever had are bulbs breaking. If you looked after your cars they would probably last a lot longer.

"Everything" went wrong? Did you test drive the car before you bought it? Did you see the maintenance records? Don't you think that an 11 year old car with less than 50,000 miles is a little suspicious (who do you know drives less than 5000 miles a year? Even my mother who is retired does more than that).

Did you check the gas and brake pedals for wear? Worn brake pedals could indicate much higher mileage and hint that the odometer was rolled back.

When was the last time the fluids, including the transmission fluid, were checked or changed?

And what do you mean by "Dinging"?

As for the door locks... if you don't lubricate them, they will eventually start to stick.

A car cannot be your enemy. A car is just an object. As for the previous owner of that car you have...

I also have a '95 Ford Escort LX. And the reason that I'm up here is to look for answers. The funniest thing is sense I bought the car almost a year ago it has done the same things. When I got it, it already had the "dinging" problem. Over the last 2 months it has just fell apart. The gages stopped working, the door locks started messing up, and in the past week the transmission has messed up until last night on my way home it stopped all together. And yes, it has been maintained up to date on everything.

I have a 95 Ford Escort LX; I beat the crap out of that thing. Even with 141 thousand miles on a 1.9 with auto tranny, I haven't had one problem with it, yet just regular maintenance. I actually tried killing it and it just refuses to die; these things are built like tanks. All I can say is for people that have problems with cars; you didn't do enough research before you bought the car.