Ford Escort (Europe)

Ford Escort
Ford Escort RS2000 Mark I
Overview
Manufacturer	Ford Europe
Production	January 1968–July 2002
Body and chassis
Class	Small family car (C)
Layout	Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (1967–1981, 1987) Front-engine, front-wheel-drive (1980–2004) Front-engine, four-wheel-drive (1990–2004)
Related	Ford Orion (1983–1993)
Chronology
Predecessor	Ford Anglia (UK)
Successor	Ford Focus Ford Laser (Australasia) Ford Meteor (Australia) Ford Transit Connect (for Escort van) Ford Escort (China)

The Ford Escort is a small family car that was manufactured by Ford of Europe from 1968 until 2000. In total there were six generations, spread across three basic platforms: the original, rear-wheel-drive Mk.1/Mk.2 (1968–1980), the "Erika" front-wheel-drive Mk.3/Mk.4 (1980–1992), and the final CE-14 Mk.5/Mk.6 (1990–2002) version. Its successor, the Ford Focus, was released in 1998, but the final generation of Escort was phased out gradually, with the panel van version ending production in 2002 in favour of the Ford Transit Connect.

The Escort was frequently the best selling car in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s. A total of more than 4.1 million Escorts of all generations were sold there over a period of 33 years.^[1]

In 2014, Ford revived the Escort name for a car based on the second-generation Ford Focus, sold on the Chinese market.