Oregon arsonist of 1990's green Ford Escorts

[JODO 2]

maybe the guy got the wrong idea behind going green.

ha. I hope this arsonist isn't some Greenpeace wacko. Not that Greenpeace doesn't do good work most of the time, but some people can be too extreme.

[NickD 203]

Actually for that era, the Escort was Ford's most reliable vehicle with the least amount of problems. My daughter-in-law's 95 Excort did get her through pharmacy school, was parked on overly salted streets in Madison, poorly maintained, but did have 160K miles on the clock. She was attached to it after she married my son. A PFE EGR sensor was defective, so when her EGR valve wouldn't open, never gave her a HAL, that is what I call that heart attack lamp that lights up on the dash if there are any engine problems requiring attention. Correct term is CEL for check engine lamp, but if you are driving in subzero weather out in the boon docks like most of Wisconsin is like, could easily get a heart attack if that lamp comes on. That EGR caused the exhaust valves to burn, engine still ran, but had very low compression, so didn't run very well.

She got her use out of it and the AC was still working as well as the radio.

Ford's counter to Honda in the late 80's was to come out with a 3.8L V-6 and got very high reviews from Consumers Report, CT produces chit in my opinion, we still have an energy crisis, and the dumb bastards started anothe HP race. I had an 88 Accord with a five speed, and a 1.7 L engine that still would give 0-60 mph times of under ten seconds, with a top speed of 110 mph, plenty good enough, but the best part, would get 46 mpg on the interstate, at least 34 mpg around town. But CR downgraded this because the Taurus was a tad faster. But never said anything about the poorer fuel economy. If I had any faith in CR, these guys are loaded with BS.

The 3.8 was loaded with problems, Ford never learned how to attach an aluminum head to a cast iron block with constant head gasket problems, and their AXOD automatic transmission was more suited for a moped that a compact sized car. Ironically, they used this same piece of ####### in their flagship vehicle, the Continental. They also used Teflon in their AC compressors that caused black death requiring the entire AC system to be replaced including that dreaded evaporator that required removing the entire dash to change it. Plus their infamous sub-frame design, sure could for production, but extremely expensive for maintenance. The Escort did not share these problems. You can also add the Sable to the Ford lists of passenger vehicles, this line of ####### started in 1988 and was not corrected until 2000, twelve years of #######. AXOD, AC, and engine would go out shortely after warranty with a price tag of around $6,500 for repairs. And that was on a vehicle no Ford dealer in his right mind would offer a hundred bucks for a trade-in. Surprised Ford didn't go bankrupt. Also avoided lawsuits with their very poor alternator connector that was causing engine fires.

The bodies were good though and the Taurus with the 3.0L engine imported from Japan had a good history. Ford trucks and SUV's didn't share the mechanical problems, but their bodies were ####### and would rust out in the road salt areas, like here.

I gave my 88 Honda to my daughter, it had close to 250K on it, still ran like a clock, but it couldn't withstand all that road salt in Madison when she was going through college, so got rid of it. Honda's were very good back then, but like anybody else, the latter models are #######, but not as poor as the Ford's were. And for some strange reason, those Honda's held their resale value that I could never explain.

It was strange for me working in a field where the public was first accepting 100K miles of useful life then 200K, when also working in the semi truck field where not even an overhaul was required until you hit 4 million miles with a useful life of 8 million miles. All the automotive manufacturers are producing ####### in terms of what could be done. But don't blame the engineers, blame marketing.