The Ford Escort is a small family car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company's European division between 1968 and 2000. The Escort name was also applied to several different designs in North America over the years .

The first use of the Escort name was for a reduced specification version of the Ford Squire, a 1950s estate car version of the Ford Anglia 100E, though this did not sell very well by comparison to the other members of the 100E family. 

The Mark I Escorts became very successful as a rally car, and they eventually went on to become one of the most successful rally cars of all time.The Ford works team was practically unbeatable in the late 1960s / early 1970s, and arguably the Escort's greatest victory was in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally being driven by Finnish legend Hannu Mikkola. This gave rise to the famous Escort Mexico (1.6 L "Kent"-engined) special edition road versions in honour of the rally car.

Ford also produced an RS2000 model as a more "civilised" alternative to the somewhat temperamental RS1600, featuring a 2.0 L Pinto (OHC) engine. This also clocked up some rally and racing victories; and pre-empted the hot hatch market as a desirable but affordable performance road car. Like the Mexico and RS1600, this car was produced at the Aveley plant.

The Escort quickly became one of Britain's most popular cars, comfortably outselling the conceptually similar Vauxhall Viva HB launched two years earlier. It was also a success on export markets, though in the larger European markets it tended to be outsold by the Opel Kadett, its General Motors rival. The car was built in Germany, Britain and in Commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Ford New Zealand's Seaview plant in Lower Hutt built 1.1 and 1.3-litre versions, initially as Deluxe (1.1) and Super (1.3) two-door sedans plus panel vans. The four-door sedan was added in 1970. Trim levels were revised after the 1972 UK facelift with just one run of 1.3XLs (with the GT instrument pack) before these were downgraded to 'L' trim. Base and L trims were offered to the end of the MK1 run. Some 1.6 Mexicos were imported in 1973-4 after the government temporarily freed up import licensing due to a shortage of new cars. Estate versions were mostly rare imports. 

Unlike the first Escort (which was developed by Ford of Britain), the second generation was developed jointly between the UK and Ford of Germany. Codenamed "Brenda" during its development, it used the same mechanical componentss as the Mark I.


The 950 cc engine was still offered in Italy where the smaller engine attracted tax advantages, but in the other larger European markets in Europe it was unavailable. The estate and van versions used the same panelwork as the Mark I, but with the Mark II front end and interior. The car used a revised underbody, which had in fact been introduced as a running change during the last six months of the life of the Mark I.

This car made a point, with just four body styles, of competing in many different market niches where rival manufacturers had either multiple model ranges or simply none at all. "L" and "GL" models (2-door, 4-door, estate) were in the mainstream private sector, the "Sport", "RSMexico", and "RS2000" in the performance market, the "Ghia" (2-door, 4-door) for an untapped small car luxury market, and "base / Popular" models for the bottom end. Panel-van versions catered to the commercial sector.

During the second half of the 1970s, the Escort continued to prove hugely popular with buyers in Britain and other parts of Europe.A cosmetic update was given in 1978, with L models gaining the square headlights previously exclusive to the GL and Ghia variants and there was an upgrade in interior and exterior specification for some models. Underneath a wider front track was given.

In 1979 and 1980 three special edition Escorts were launched the Linnet, Harrier and Goldcrest.

Production, after an incredibly popular model run, ended in Britain in August 1980, other countries following soon after.