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You Auto Know- The Ford Escort

In this month's You Auto Know Segment, our car expert John Weston takes a look at the do's and don't's of the Ford Escort.

You-Auto-Know The Ford Escort

                The Ford Escort is a car for the family or for the one that wants their first sports car.  It typically comes in three models; the Escort, Escort SE, and the Escort ZX2.  The Escort and Escort SE models also are available as station wagons.  The car is very roomy, especially the station wagon models, and drives smoothly.  They are pretty good on gas getting about 29 miles per gallon (and that’s on the ZX2 sport automatic.)  The car has a 4-cylinder engine and is front wheel drive making it a better choice for snow than the rear wheel drive sports car.  Although this car sits low to the ground it has the power to push through the snow on the days we get ten inches.  It also has very good handling for those times you are going a little too fast into a corner.

                Not too many problems to report on these vehicles.  Most of them experience an exhaust problem because most of the original owners really didn’t take care of them.  The exhaust rust out and can cost a grand to fix.  Also they experience rust problems on their rear axles and support arms.  The base rusts away and the spring bounces around a lot making a very strange rattle.  If it starts to go on one side chances are the other side is about to go too.  If you are ready to replace one side, make sure you continue to save up your money so you can get the other side done as well.  Like most people know, when you don’t have the money to fix it; that’s when it breaks.

                Overall, this car is a well rounded, reliable vehicle.  Most owners cannot say too much that is bad about them.  Need a car?  These cars are sold for very cheap prices from dealers and private sellers.  So if you need a cheap car just to get to work and back, this would be a good pick.

You Auto Know-Pontiac Sunfires

  This is our first segment of You Auto Know. Each segment our Auto Expert John Weston tells us his spin on what cars to buy and which ones to hit the brakes on. If you have a segment idea for E-Nepa send us an email anytime.

You-Auto-Know The Pontiac Sunfire

The Pontiac Sunfire is a very reliable car.  It has a 4-cylinder engine and is gas friendly.  It also very rarely had problems.  Doing some searching around on the internet or asking former owners of Sunfires, they will agree that they hardly ever had to drop a lot of money into their car.  There have been reports of rollovers on this car.  When the owner was driving them the car would reach that mark that everyone fears.  The 200,000 mile mark.  At 199,999.9 miles these cars still ran great and were still used by people who were brave enough to take their high miles car to farther places.  Due to the recent downturn in the economy and the closing of the Pontiac name, these great reliable cars will no longer be produced.

                Some problems these cars have faced are starting problems (most common in the years 1996 and earlier).  Cars all around the market used to be built with metal plates as the battery’s grounding unit and due to rust on the grounding unit many some would not start.  I owned one myself and I was told multiple times it was my battery or my alternator, which I knew wasn’t bad because they were just replaced.  When I finally was told by a mechanic of the common problem in this model year, I was able to ground the battery through the use of a wire.  The wire ran from the battery to the closest screw or not on the car that could be used for grounding.  After that the car ran fine.

                If you are looking for a used car, this is one to put onto your list to look at.

Story:John Weston

Editor & Graphic Producer: Nick Hughes