Found a relic from the past

"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee)
10/11/2020 at 15:46 • Filed to: None

This is my Dad’s Escort. That thing carried us for a dozen years and nearly 300,000 miles (including a yearly round trip from MA to FL) before the 5-speed finally grenaded and sent the car to the scrapper. My dad certainly got his money’s worth out of it and it faithfully carried us through many thin and thick times.

Judging from how laden the car looks here this was probably taken on one of those Florida trips. I bet this was somewhere on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which my dad invariably always took on the return trip.

DISCUSSION (18)

ttyymmnn > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 15:59

That’s cool. Love the BRP.

jminer > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 16:00

We had a close friend growing up that had those escort wagons as family cars. They were great, I think we need more small cars used as family cars.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > jminer
10/11/2020 at 16:02

You haven’t experienced claustrophobia until you’ve done 26 hours in the backseat of a compact with an infant sea t in the center.

subexpression > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 16:06

My parents had the Mercury Tracer version of about that vintage (early 90s?). It didn’t get that kind of mileage, but it was running until just a few years ago. It probab ly could still be made to run , it’s just that every time it got fixed something else would randomly fail from age/exposure right away. It may still be parked under a tree at my mother’s place now.

jminer > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 16:07

I’ll see that and raise you the jump seat in an extended cab S-10. Those are frankly way too small for even tiny sized humans.

ranwhenparked > jminer
10/11/2020 at 16:08

Its amazing what used to be considered acceptable. I came home from the hospital in a Plymouth Horizon, which was replaced by a Ford Tempo, and our main family drive-in movies. My mom had it in her head that minivans were too lumbering and unwieldy and refused to get one for the longest time, she really loved that Subaru though. Nowadays, when the 3rd kid’s on the way, the first thing you do is run down to the dealer to trade in your Explorer for a short bed crew cab F-Series of some sort.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > subexpression
10/11/2020 at 16:22

There wasn’t much to go wrong on those at least. My dad could’ve swapped the trans but the car was also getting con cerningly rusty underneath so he decided that was it.

jminer > ranwhenparked
10/11/2020 at 16:28

I grew up in a family of 6 kids so we had an econoline conversion van that my mom drove but my dad had a variety of small cars including an Alfa Spider, Escort hatch and Probe before he got an S-10 then a 2nd gen explorer.

ranwhenparked > subexpression
10/11/2020 at 16:29

I had a co-worker who had a '90s Escort wagon and absolutely loved it. He was always parking it under the car port of the administration building, and my boss was always terrified of leaving any vehicles there, because of fire risk, and was constantly telling him to move it. Well, one day the fuel line decided to let go and dumped a bunch of gasoline all over the place, which was a nice "I told you so" moment. It was trouble free up to that point, but that was the start of the endless repair train and he got rid of it 2 years later after nickel and diming.

ranwhenparked > jminer
10/11/2020 at 16:32

My dad had a regular cab Ranger, any time we went somewhere as a family in it, he and the 3 kids shared the bench seat, and my mom sat in the passenger side footwell. We didnt do that often, but she claimed to think it was fun.

For Sweden > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 16:38

They're good wagons

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > For Sweden
10/11/2020 at 16:39

Is there such a thing as a bad wagon?

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > jminer
10/11/2020 at 16:41

You basically can’t do it anymore. Today in most states both of those kids would need at least booster seats and neither could ride in the front. It’s worst from infancy until they get into a rear-facing convertible car seat, then it still sucks until they are front facing (which is anywhere from 2-5 years, depending on quite a few variables, but expect 3-4 years unless your kid is huge). I know people that put their kids forward facing earlier due to the fact their car was too small, but they could get ticketed and deal with CPS scrutiny if caught. Boosters and sitting in the back seat are until they’re 5'4", so probably around 12 years , though possibly older .

That’s the other driving force behind the CUV craze - all the seats and support equipment for children don’t really fit in such small cars. My car can just barely accommodate a single rear-facing convertible car seat, and it wouldn’t even be able to do that if I was of average height...

For Sweden > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 16:48

UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 16:55

That’s cool, definitely looks like a BRP pull off

feather-throttle-not-hair > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/11/2020 at 17:10

Four college dudes, backseat of the hatchback version, middle-right seat, guy in the middle left seat puked EVERYWHERE.

That’s my association with those escorts.

jminer > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/11/2020 at 17:29

I’m very much in favor of protecting children in terms of crash safety, but the length of time that children are supposed to stay in them is getting nuts.

My wife is 5’ 3” and it’s insane to think that a child her size which would be a teenager should be in a booster seat.

oldmxer > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/12/2020 at 02:13

i bought one of these with 165k and used it back and forth to work for years, ended up giving it away to someone who was afoot and it drove away with everything still working like new. had another one that was auto and the only reason I had to park it was tranny gave out at 175k, not worth fixing dollar wise. before that i had a 4 door sedan version my son totaled at about same miles or no telling how long it would have lasted. good solid cars. bought a first year Focus and it was full of problems