Saying good-bye to a old hero of a little car

[hyena429]

My first car i owned in my name was my Mustang, but the car i got my drivers license in and used on a regular every day basis, was this little Escort Wagon Ex Rental car, was only 6 months old when i took it on my drivers test as a late teen. i did not want to drive my mustang " due to the views" for my drivers test..lol..We nick named this car "The Tader" due to the color and shape

So this is my Good bye to the Tader.. You was a awesome car, you never let me down or broke down..I got my drivers license in this car, i drove the hell out of it and stacked on the miles. i drove it up on top of all the peeks of the horse heaven mountains and surrounding area's...Dragging rocks under her belly to get to spots mostly only for trucks... Down the dirty dusty gravel roads, and muddy pot holed drive ways,, and thru feet of snow and ice, Even gigs loaded with PA gear..and loaded down with friends..Fishing gear, pon toon boat, hundreds of pounds of papers, i took it up too 120 mph many times..burnt rubber in it..Was late on oil changes, and treated it like a kiddy would..lol. It never stranded me, it never broke down on me, I even slid off the road and hit a sign with it in the fog and ice, it still kept going.

Was originally a rental car in 93 and just 6 months old, my dad was like " great, that escort was going to break down any day being a ex rental..money pit and everything ..With good reason, escorts did not have a stellar rep of being a long runing rig.,,I think the car ran on " ill prove you wrong!!" lol at well over 300,000 miles, it was still runing fine. AC still worked great and never ever was recharged in its life, engine ran so smooth at 300k you could put a full glass of wine on the top of it with out fear of spilling.

I sold it 4 years ago to a buddy,He was impressed how well it run with so many miles, struts and such getting bad at this point thou, and he stacked on more miles!! His work car gave out and he ended up having to depend on this old car and he shoved on another amazing 40,000 miles on it " it never let him down", She is worn out and tired , it is getting dangerous to drive now " cv joints have had it and shocks are busted, struts too. at 340,000 AC was still blowing cold and working well.

But like a old dog, i had to take one last ride with the old tader, amazing car!! it outlasted everything..Many other cars i had, Toyota cam, Ford truck, Chev, and this car would always come back out of the drive way and keep me going down the road when the others failed. my friend use to bet me 10 years ago that it would blow up any day "cause he was going thru little cars left and right" he stopped betting and i told him, that he would loose money against the Tader, She gave it her all. Well designed, a tribute to the Blue Oval! She was never, "Found On Road Dead"! She drove 40 miles over to the salvage yard last night engine still runing smooth but could smell the little wiff of it burning oil now..Salute the TADER- Good bye old work horse!!"

 

[72 R Code]

That is a good story. Escorts were pretty good cars. We bought a 95 Escort 2 door hatchback for our daughters to drive in 98 when first learning. They called it Barney because the color was like Barney the children's dinosaur character. That car had a 5 speed manual trans and was quite fun to drive. It was handed down through all three girls and always did fine.

 

[Jim and Jutta]

Great story, kind of sad seeing it parked in front of the salvage yard, you should have warned us sensitive types about that picture.

 

[hyena429]

That is a good story. Escorts were pretty good cars. We bought a 95 Escort 2 door hatchback for our daughters to drive in 98 when first learning. They called it Barney because the color was like Barney the children's dinosaur character. That car had a 5 speed manual trans and was quite fun to drive. It was handed down through all three girls and always did fine.

They was, and it impressed me so much after the abuse i did too it, so many times i got new tires for this wagon and thought " that is the last set of tires ill have to buy for it" figuring it would blow up before it ever need a new set again..." i was sooo wrong" lol

Great story, kind of sad seeing it parked in front of the salvage yard, you should have warned us sensitive types about that picture.

Ya kinda was, but i had to show the full circle end too the old car. It did make me a bit sad to let her go to the scrapper. This car got to see alot more than some in its travels.

 

[Don65Stang]

Great story! I nominate it as our "Other Cars" COTM.

Fare thee well little escort wagon ye shall soon be reborn a Hyundai.

 

[72 R Code]

That is a good story. Escorts were pretty good cars. We bought a 95 Escort 2 door hatchback for our daughters to drive in 98 when first learning. They called it Barney because the color was like Barney the children's dinosaur character. That car had a 5 speed manual trans and was quite fun to drive. It was handed down through all three girls and always did fine.

I found a picture of "Barney"

 

[hyena429]

Great story! I nominate it as our "Other Cars" COTM.

Fare thee well little escort wagon ye shall soon be reborn a Hyundai.

{thumbs up} Was a good old car, never failed.

That is a good story. Escorts were pretty good cars. We bought a 95 Escort 2 door hatchback for our daughters to drive in 98 when first learning. They called it Barney because the color was like Barney the children's dinosaur character. That car had a 5 speed manual trans and was quite fun to drive. It was handed down through all three girls and always did fine.

I found a picture of "Barney"

That is very close, some of them were just tuff as nails it seems.