Ford Escort is Replaced by Ford Focus

Ford Escort Mk 1
The Mk 1 Escorts became a very successful car, and they eventually went on to become the most successful rally car of all time. The Ford works team was practically unbeatable in the late '60s/early '70s, and arguably the Escort's greatest victory was in the 1970 World cup rally. This gave rise to the famous Escort Mexico 1.6 'Kent' engined special edition road versions in honour of the rally car.
In addition to the Mexico, the RS1600 was developed which used a 'Kent' engine block with a 16 valve Cosworth cylinder head. Both the Mexico and RS1600 were built at Ford's Advanced Vehicle Operations facility. .Even today the Mk 1's are still popular in the amateur rally scene. The
Ford also produced a RS2000 model as a more 'civilised' alternative to the somewhat temperamental RS1600 featuring a 2L Pinto engine. This also clocked up some rally and racing victories, and pre empted the hot hatch market as a desirable but affordable performance road car.

The square edged Mk 2 was the second generation, it used the same mechanicals as the Mk 1, although the unpopular 950 cc engine was dropped. The station wagon and van versions used the same panelwork as the Mk 1, but with the Mk 2 front end and interior giving the car a slight identity crisis. The Sport, Mexico, and RS2000 in the performance market, the Ghia (2-door, 4-door) for an untapped small car luxury market, and Base/Popular models for the bottom end. Panel van versions were catered to the commercial sector.

The Mk 3 was intended to be a hi tech, high efficiency design which would compete with the VW Golf and indeed the car was launched with the advertising tagline "Simple is Efficient". The Mk 3 was a radical departure from the two previous models, the biggest changes being the adoption of front wheel drive, and the new hatchback body, which introduced trademark styling cues which would be later seen in the forth coming sierra and GranadaScorpio, most notably the 'Aeroback' rear end the 'sawn off' bootlid stump which was proved to reduce the car's drag.

Mk 4 received another facelift. (although it was not officially the fourth generation), it was instantly recognisable as an updated version of the previous model, with a smooth scorpio style nose and the 'straked' rear lamp clusters smoothed over. New features included an optional mechanical anti‐lock braking system (standard on RS Turbo models) and the option of a heated windshield features which were at the time unheard of on a car of this size and price.

Mk 5 generation Escort platform (and Mk 2 Orion saloon) arrived in September 1990 with an all new shell and (instead of the Mk 3's fully independent layout). Initially the 1.3 L, 1.4 L and 1.6 L petrol and 1.8 L diesel units were carried over from the old model, and were starting to show their age in terms of refinement especially compared to Rover's state of the art K-Series engine launched in 1989.
Matters improved in 1991 when the all new Zetec 16 valve engines were launched bringing improved driveability, while also marking the return of the XR3i which was available with 2 versions of the 1.8 litre Zetec engine. The 150 bhp RS2000 also appeared in 1991 & 1992saw the launch of the Escort RS Cosworth, and a 5th generation Escort that was genuinely considered excellent. Intended to replace the Sapphire RS Cosworth as Ford's stalwart rally challenger, it used a turbocharged version of the 2.0 L Cosworth 16 valve engine, generated some 227 PS and was capable of 140 mph, as well as having four wheel. drive Its most memorable feature was its outrageous 'whale tail tailgate spoiler. The Cosworth ceased production in 1996.

Mk 6 Production issues dictated that Fords Escort had to continue in the showrooms for almost a year after the more modern Focus family hatchback was launched at the end of 1999. By then, interest in the car was already waning, so to shore up sales, Ford had earlier in the year introduced highly specified Flight and Finesse versions of the most popular 1.6 litre petrol and 1.8 litre turbo diesel derivatives. Its no exaggeration to say that these were by far the best mainstream Escorts ever built. In fact, they actually make quite a lot of sense secondhand, given the very affordable prices being asked.

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