Junkyard Find: 1992 Ford Escort GT

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The early-90s Escort GT was a decently fast car for its day, but Escorts were always such disposable cars that you seldom see any of these semi-goofy-looking GTs these days, on the street or in the junkyard. Here’s an example that I found in a Denver self-service yard last week.

Weighing just 2,458 pounds and equipped with 127 horsepower under the hood, the Escort GT wasn’t quite as quick as the Nissan Sentra SE-R or Honda Civic Si. However, the Civic Si cost $11,900, the SE-R cost $11,850, and the Escort GT cost… $11,871? Huh?

OK, so the Escort GT wasn’t a great deal compared to the Japanese competition. Still, it’s sad to think that almost all of them are gone.







Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Droman1972 Droman1972 on Mar 25, 2012

    I owned this identical one, it was a 1991, white with the 5 speed. It was my third one. I owned an 88GT thru high school, that was a fun car, but the valve seals were shot within 30k. Luckily it was under warranty and Ford rebuilt the top end. I traded it in on new a 93GT and that was the best car I ever owned. After the lease was up I managed to find a 91 GT with only 70K on it for $2400. That that was in 1997, I sold the car last year at 150K to a kid going into the military for $950. It never once broke down, sure I had to replace things as it got older like timing belts, struts, bushings, clutch and body work to keep the rust away (northeast weather), but the car never once let me down. If I thought I could find a mint condition one today I would buy it just cause I miss driving it so much. One of the best cheap rides Ford ever built that didn't break down or cost a ton to maintain. (Thanks Mazda!)

  • Christina l kessler Christina l kessler on Jan 05, 2023

    I own a 1992 teal Ford escort limited edition. Great car. Good mileage. I got it for $1895 down from $2495 at a st Vincent DePaul.

  • Lichtronamo Watch as the non-us based automakers shift more production to Mexico in the future.
  • 28-Cars-Later " Electrek recently dug around in Tesla’s online parts catalog and found that the windshield costs a whopping $1,900 to replace.To be fair, that’s around what a Mercedes S-Class or Rivian windshield costs, but the Tesla’s glass is unique because of its shape. It’s also worth noting that most insurance plans have glass replacement options that can make the repair a low- or zero-cost issue. "Now I understand why my insurance is so high despite no claims for years and about 7,500 annual miles between three cars.
  • AMcA My theory is that that when the Big 3 gave away the store to the UAW in the last contract, there was a side deal in which the UAW promised to go after the non-organized transplant plants. Even the UAW understands that if the wage differential gets too high it's gonna kill the golden goose.
  • MKizzy Why else does range matter? Because in the EV advocate's dream scenario of a post-ICE future, the average multi-car household will find itself with more EVs in their garages and driveways than places to plug them in or the capacity to charge then all at once without significant electrical upgrades. Unless each vehicle has enough range to allow for multiple days without plugging in, fighting over charging access in multi-EV households will be right up there with finances for causes of domestic strife.
  • 28-Cars-Later WSJ blurb in Think or Swim:Workers at Volkswagen's Tennessee factory voted to join the United Auto Workers, marking a historic win for the 89- year-old union that is seeking to expand where it has struggled before, with foreign-owned factories in the South.The vote is a breakthrough for the UAW, whose membership has shrunk by about three-quarters since the 1970s, to less than 400,000 workers last year.UAW leaders have hitched their growth ambitions to organizing nonunion auto factories, many of which are in southern states where the Detroit-based labor group has failed several times and antiunion sentiment abounds."People are ready for change," said Kelcey Smith, 48, who has worked in the VW plant's paint shop for about a year, after leaving his job at an Amazon.com warehouse in town. "We look forward to making history and bringing change throughout the entire South."   ...Start the clock on a Chattanooga shutdown.
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