Minneapolis Street Sighting: Mercury Lynx station wagon

In the 1980s, Ford's corporate twin had almost no models of their own(and really, when did they, save for one or two?) so there needed to be something done about the potential success of the Ford Escort; in the 1960s, the Comet was Mercury's smallest offering, and in the 1970s, the small car was the Bobcat. With the rise of the first "real" iteration of "world Ford", the compact Escort was born. I put real in quotation marks for two reasons. First of all, the first real "world" Ford--aside from the Anglias and Cortinas and such, was the Ford Fiesta sold here in the late 1970s, and the second reason for the quotation marks is because despite the "World Car" designation, the American Escort was an entirely different car than the ones sold elsewhere in the world.

The US got the Ford Escort in 1981, and with it came three bodystyles, a three-and-five-door hatchback, and a traditional wagon. Unfortunately (as with most Mercury products), the Lynx sold considerably worse than its Ford Escort twin. As a result, the little Mercury was dropped in at the tail end of the 1987 calendar year, at which point it was replaced with an Australian-built car called the Ford Laser. That car was sold here as the Mercury Tracer for a few years, then the nameplate was stuck on a virtually identical twin of the next-generation Ford Laser.

As a result of the whole rebadging-Fords debacle, Mercury finally shut its doors late in the 2000s; if Ford had been wise and given Mercury a different lineup that was, you know, full of nice cars sourced from Ford's European and Australian branches, maybe Mercury would still be around. But we already know how well Australian cars sell in the US.

I never really liked the Lynx in any form--heck I've always thought this generation of Escort is a disaster in itself; no it's not ugly (actually that's debatable), but it sure isn't a nice looking car. It does want it's designed to do, and nothing more.  Aside from the unfortunate tailgate rust and dent (mailbox impact, perhaps?), and the little mishap on the front left corner, this little econobox looks fairly clean.

Yes, the paint is faded, but its approaching thirty years old (the oldest ones were 1985 models), so fading is to be expected. I do think its cool how the rear bumper has remained intact all these years, and there is no evidence of the wheelwell rot that ate so many of these cars to death; same with the wheels--these stock 14s are pretty clean, and to be honest, I do like these wheels. I always have, really.

Would I drive this "classic" Mercury? Probably not by choice. If it was given to me? Sure. It likely returns good gas mileage, and because its skinny tires and relatively light weight, it probably does well in the snow. On that accounts, I'd drive it. But I don't think I'd buy one though.

Boise Street Sighting: Ford Escort GT

The Ford Escort has always been known for having sporting versions; the RS2000, the Mexico, the XR3i, and finally, the top-rung Cosworth. But none of those were ever sold in the US. For being a "world-car", Ford really screwed us over. The hottest Escort we got here was the Escort GT, and unlike its foreign kin, this particular Escort isn't very hot. In fact, I don't think it quite reaches even "lukewarm hatch" status. While I won't get into the specs, because honestly.. the 1980s weren't that great for American cars. It doe have something like 130 horses, and a 5 spd manual, but that alone doesn't make a car fun to drive. Yes, it has the requisite body cladding, and "sporty" alloy wheels with uprated tires, but a budget sports-car this is not. But fear not. This little 'GT' did make an impression on Ford-- the wrong one.
When the third generation US Escort debuted in 1997, it was left without a coupe variant. Ford decided that because there was also an EXP of this generation, that we would like another one. So, in 1999, the EXP's successor came alive. And that, too, was a disaster. Marked as sporty, fuel-efficient, and fun to drive, it apparently was none of those things, and was promptly killed in 2003 or 2004, I can't remember which.
Even with the arrival of the Focus, it seems Ford's US arm didn't quite get the hint that we did want performance Fords here. While the rest of the world got the Cosworth-developed Focus RS, and then a Focus ST to slot under the RS, the US was left with jack squat. Based on the worldwide success of the ST and RS, Ford is finally bringing us the Focus ST. Still no word on the RS, though.
Okay, so I wrote a summary of why Ford is a bunch of dumbasses when it comes to hot hatch performance. Sorry. I do like this generation of Escort GT, and have for quite awhile. This example seems to be in relatively good condition, considering its age. No obvious rust issues, and no paint problems aside from the typical "I-won't-age-well" Ford paintjob. Actually, I take that back. The whole car, while not a rustbucket, definitely could use a good wash/wax/polish day, unless the paint and trim are so far gone that the only solution is to do a respray.
If this little Escort were mine, I'd try to return to its former "glory" if you will. At the very least, get the paint job unfaded, and while the dealer plaque is sorta cool, I'd remove it. It doesn't belong here, and this is one case where I don't think the dumbass thing matters.