With the 1991 Escort, Ford Has Its Best Idea for Subcompacts

By PAUL DEAN

April 20, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There is a quality feel to each part and a promise of durability to the whole that says just one thing about the car: Made In Japan.

Switches have a soft, solid click, and these knobs and levers are not going to fall off any time soon. The car’s suspension is a close friend of the steering that agrees absolutely with the transmission. So even daunting corners can be conquered with brio.

The doors actually fit better than a pair of Reeboks, one of the most comfortable configurations coming out of Asia these days.

Yet this 1991 Escort is built by Ford which is about as American as junk bonds, cheese steaks and Wayne, Mich., where the subcompact is assembled.

The second shocker is that this spunky little plum is a subcompact.

For as recently as, say, last month, the only insult higher than noting something handled like a big American car was to say it performed like a a small American car.

With the new Escort, the pejorative dies.

Here is probably the peppiest, most integrated and best-handling American subcompact ever. It is the best idea from Ford since the 1965 Mustang and a perfect addition to the Escort marque that for six of the past eight years has been the best-selling car in the United States.

Only freeway time and traffic will tell, of course, but during its maiden miles there was enough cohesion and tautness in the Escort test vehicle to suggest that at 24,000 miles it will not be rattling like a garbage sack filled with beer cans.

And with power steering, cruise control, air conditioning, automatic transmission, rear window defroster and a tilt steering wheel squeezed into a five-door hatchback costing only $11,000, here is a high-value vehicle where Ford gets the warranty--of better revenues and a stronger position in a domestic industry that is all downturn and shortfall these days.

In truth, Ford didn’t exactly go wrench-to-wrench with Japan in building a better buzz box from the ground up and from domestic parts bins. It did have a little help from Mazda. And as Ford is a 25% owner in Mazda, there wouldn’t be much point to the partnership if you couldn’t borrow a cup of technology once in a while.

So Ford--at an estimated saving of $1 billion in engineering costs--has based its Escort on the proven and pleasant underbody, transmission, brakes and suspension of the Mazda 323. The engine (with the exception of a sportier, multivalve Mazda engine installed in the GT version) is a Ford product. So is the steering, the shape of the car, its overall engineering, sheet metal and most of the internal bits.

About 75% of the Escort’s design work was done on Mazda’s computers. But from the standpoint of hardware, less than 20% of the Escort--excluding the GT again--is implanted from Mazda.

It feels more like 90%.

And that’s because the compatibility and solidness of any good car is much more a question of precise, fully monitored assembly than a simple matter of making good parts.

Realizing just that, Ford sent 350 key workers from its Escort development team to Hiroshima, Japan, to study Mazda’s production tooling, the philosophy of team engineering and error management as a responsibility of the individual.

Japanese metal presses were installed at the Michigan plant. Ford adopted Mazda’s techniques of robotic brazing and laser alignment. And bolted parts were attached through holes, not slots.

The American way, said a Ford spokesman, has always been to join steel parts by passing attachment bolts through slots. Items that weren’t a precise fit, he said, could always be jiggled and shoved into approximate place. In time, of course, those small misalignments become adult rattles.

“But with holes, something either fits or it doesn’t and if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t come off the line,” he added.

Aesthetically, the Escort (which enters Southern California showrooms Thursday and will also be marketed as the Mercury Tracer) resembles a small Taurus. Or a same-size Mazda Protege.

It certainly is sleeker than last year’s model. But whether a station wagon, a two-door GT (the prettiest pick of the litter) or a five-door hatchback, the entire line shines with a uptown elegance that effectively denies its midtown affordability.

If only something could be done about the wheels, a perennial contradiction by car manufacturers who continue to cosset their customers with side window demisters and every consideration down to cup holders and cargo lights.

Then they slap a set of plastic picnic plates over steel wheels that have all the stylistic charm of wire coat hangers, and with straight face offer these as “full luxury covers.”

The Escort’s interior--especially its back-lighted instruments and those Mazda control stalks with the wholesome clicks--is familiar and friendly. In keeping with today’s preoccupation with a place for everything, there’s a full complement of dash trays, glove boxes, cup holders, and assorted temporary storage places for audio tapes, keys, meter change and bubble gum wrapped in gas receipts.

Bucket seats up front and the rear bench seat (with a 60-40 split for skis and pool cues in the trunk) are well up to commuter comforts. And the positioning of seats in the cabin certainly offers more knee, elbow and wriggling room than last year’s Escort.

But informational lettering on the radio has shrunk to microscopic and consider this example of mucked up priorities: The Ford logo on the radio has absolutely no function but is exactly two-thirds larger that the squinty letters and numbers trying to tell us how the radio works.

Vinyl and cloth around the cabin are of standard quality with no excesses. But one color choice--the shrieking scarlet chosen for Escort’s upholstery--could take some muting and a movement closer to burgundy. Right now, the red falls somewhere between a blood bank and the inside of a pomegranate.

On the road, however, the Escort is tight, solid harmony and balance. Its 1.9-liter engine and 88-horsepower will not fill ears with the noise of power nor a soul with that bug-eyed appreciation of rapid motion.

But the car will get you anywhere--from vacation destination, to office and a day doing Melrose--with poise, gentleness and considerable refinement. Also, without the sense of inadequacy that has been known to occur when driving domestic cars with a base price of $8,674.

The automatic transmission--thanks to Ford’s decision to adjust the Escort’s throttle for quicker response--produces some mild jolts and surges in the kick-down mode. And it does get raspy. But a little management of footwork on long inclines or in passing situations will take the surprise out of that.

The combination disc/drum brakes perform soundly and there’s stopping power to spare. It is a front-wheel drive car with sufficient neutrality of handling to suggest a rear-wheel drive car. At no time does the steering lie about the set of the wheels and when combined with the optimum balance of the car, previously tricky corners become potential fun.

At long last. Domestic fahrvergnugen.

1991 FORD ESCORT LX

COST:

Base $8,674.

As tested $11,046, with options including automatic transmission, cruise control, air conditioning, tachometer, tilt steering wheel, central locking.

ENGINE:

Four cylinders, 1.9 liters developing 88 horsepower.

TYPE:

Front-wheel drive, five-door hatchback, subcompact.

PERFORMANCE:

0-60 m.p.h. (with automatic) 14.1 seconds.

Top speed (manufacturer’s estimate) 108 m.p.h.