Ford Escort owners have reported a total of 2,100 problems for their cars built in the 8 model years listed in the chart below. The chart shows the number of problems reported across all service years for each given model year of the Ford Escort. The 1997 Ford Escort cars have the most problems reported (711 problems).
| Model Year | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| 2003 Escort | |
| 2002 Escort | |
| 2001 Escort | |
| 2000 Escort | |
| 1999 Escort | |
| 1998 Escort | |
| 1997 Escort | |
| 1996 Escort |
The following chart shows the 22 most common problems for Ford Escort cars. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's air bags (360 problems). The second most common problem is related to the vehicle's electrical system (273 problems).
It would not be fair to compare the Ford Escort of an older model year to newer model years since older vehicles have been in service longer and thus are expected to have more problems. In order to compare the reliability across Escort model years, we use the PPMY index which is defined as the problems reported per thousand vehicles per Year. A smaller PPMY index indicates greater reliability of the given model year cars.
PPMY = P / S / Y * 1000,
where P = total problems reported during the life of a Ford Escort model year; S = total units sold of the model year; Y = years since the debut of the model year (the age of the vehicle).
The results are shown in Table 3.
Another way to measure the reliability across the model years of the Ford Escort is to use the total number of problems reported during the vehicle's first year in service, as shown in the Table 4.
| Model Year | Problems Reported |
|---|---|
| 2003 Escort | |
| 2002 Escort | |
| 2001 Escort | |
| 2000 Escort | |
| 1999 Escort | |
| 1998 Escort | |
| 1997 Escort | |
| 1996 Escort |
| ✿ Fuel Economy of Escort Vehicles |
| ☘ Escort Service Bulletins |
| ⚑ Escort Safety Recalls |
| ☤ Escort Defect Investigations |
| Compare Reliability: |