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IEN FORD announced the v Escort van early this year, naturally asked to carry out a road test. This we did in Febry, but it occurred to us that vehicle would be the ideal iject for a long-term test.
with Ford's agreement we arged to keep the van -a 1.355L model — for a full year )valuate its performance and .eport on any defects as well its good points. To date the
has covered 1 4,2 25km 141 miles) and has been with six months. For this reason have decided to include an ;rim report in this the Light iicles Number.
o ensure that the Ford would operated in typical user conons, we arranged for a series different drivers to try it. It 3 used for most of the time h the half load of ballast with ich it came from Ford and ir a variety of journey types. this type of light van is often ten by women, we sought nments from the ladies who sometimes looking for difmt standards than those of ir male colleagues.
he thing that impressed all ters though is the high stan dard of trim and equipment on the Escort. Ours is the L model and its list of basic equipment is irnpressive: Fabric trimmed seats; carpeting with extra sound insulation; side protection mouldings; a three-speed demister/heater blower with inboard and side window vents and a lidded glovebox.
Our comfort was further enhanced by head restraints, a combined radio/stereo cassette unit and a full bulkhead made of wire mesh behind the front seats — all Ford extras. It must be said though that the radio/cassette player seems to be of the lowest quality with poor reproduction and the cassette mechanism gave up the ghost after three months.
In spite of this relatively high general level of trim, there seemed to be a couple of surprising omissions and poor design features. For a start there are no coat hooks in the cab — essential for a light van of this calibre, we thought.
The L-version's door pockets were more of a nuisance than a help, as one tended to catch one's hand on them when winding down the window. Because of the position of the combined door pull/arm rest, most people used the pocket to pull the door closed.
The result, after only a few weeks' use, was that the pocket came loose at the front and finally came away completely. It seemed to be secured by a metal clip and this eventually flew into the cab next to one driver while he was pulling the door to. Nor is the door pocket any good for storing large documents. They stick up too high, preventing the
winder from being used and getting in the way generally.
If the door pockets were useless, the seating was excellent. Not only were the seats comfortable but they supported the occupants well regardless of size. However, long-legged drivers were unable to get the driver's seat far enough back to reach the pedals without sitting bowlegged.
The headlining which makes the interior quiet and looks attractive, seemed vulnerable. But as our van has a mesh guard, no objects could get to it to damage it.
Everyone liked the straightforward and clear dash layout. Instruments are easy to read and the controls well placed.
One driver thought that the positions of the wiper and light stalks on the right of the steering wheel should be transposed so that the light stalk was behind the wipers. He felt confusion could result from their present locations.
All drivers were quick to applaud the truly excellent gearchange. It is easy and smooth to use, comes nicely to hand regardless of the size of the driver and doesn't move fore and aft under acceleration as is the case with many front-wheel-drive designs.
One of our lady drivers disliked the reverse position and also said the accelerator pedal was too high for her small feet. To reach it properly meant rais ing her foot from the floor uncomfortable for any length o time.
In all other respects our testen were united in their praise of thE van. "Car like" was the mos common comment used, anc that for a van loaded for most a its journeys. Its quick accelera tion and good handling ap pealed to all while the brakez brought forth such comments af "faultless", "immaculate" oi "impressive".
As far as those aspects of thE van that could be measured art concerned its fuel consumptior can only be described as excel lent.
A mixture of short and lonc. runs — the latter at high speed: on the motorway — produced ar overall figure of 37.6mpg. For E 1,300cc van this must be ver} good by any standards.
Much of it must be attributablE to the cvh engine which feature: a hemispherical combustior chamber. It has hydraulic tap. pets, making for a quiet runninc, unit, and never once failed tc start even on nippy colc mornings. Seemingly the Escon automatic choke works consid. erably better than that on thE 1.6-litre cars. It set the enginE revs just right and allowed a smooth pull away regardless of the weather.
Each of the drivers liked the ride of the Escort as well as its handling. Visibility too, came in for praise, especially the small side windows behind the front Joors. They were most useful at 3cute road junctions where nor-nally the driver would have to 3rane forward to check side -cods. Forward visibility too is 3xcellent although the wipers — Nhich sweep right to the top of he screen — leave an area on :he nearside unwiped.
By 9,654km (6,000 miles) a -lumber of small faults had de/eloped which were mostly iandled under warranty during he 6;000-mile service. At just ]bout 3,000 miles the noise insuation rubber strip fell off never
o be returned. The rest of the tems were also of little conseluence.
The front interior light stopped Norking; the nearside interior ioor lock wasn't operable (the Dutton which normally is below -he trim level when locked failed
o poke its head up even when inlocked); a poorly fitted rocker ;over gasket developed leak; the horn vorked when it elt like it and he offside )rake light re fused to work. As I've mentioned, the cassette player side of the combined unit didn't function correctly, but the local Ford dealer refused to be associated with its repair despite its being a Ford unit.
Two points emerged from the 6,000 service which reflected on the Ford service set-up rather than the van. For a start, no oil filter was available for the service. I find this omazing as by now there must be literally thousands of Escort vans and cars on the road. From an operator's viewpoint this, and the fact that a door mirror glass (broken by some careless motorist in a car park) had to be ordered specially, must be worrying.
Nevertheless, they were ordered, duly arrived and were fitted quite quickly. But it did mean two separate extra journeys to the dealer with the loss of the vehicle for a day each time. No doubt one could have insisted on waiting for these jobs to be done but it all means lost time.
As a van, the Escort offers a decent payload area but has rather large wheel-arch intrusions..The back doors, and more especially the lock mechanisms and retaining devices looked flimsy to us. To open the rear doors more than 90° — for side loading in confined areas — a very cheap looking metal retention spring is unhooked.
There's nothing then to stop door in this position from b1( leg closed nor is there anyth to stop it hitting the rear Ii cluster. Even when the rear d, is held by its spring retent mechanism the slightest bre blows it closed.
For larger loads the two-s tion grille can be removed fr behind the seats, otherwise i one of the most useful extras.
Overall, we all found the cort to be a very nice van inde Its short bonnet and ind( short total length coupled IA good lock made it easy to panl town. Excellent all-round visi ity, very quick acceleration, h top speed, superb ride E handling, excellent fuel e nomy and good load area cc bine to make it a class leader. shortcomings are few and between and the only reser tions we might have is that many jobs it is almost too goo
• by Tim Blakemo