The British love affair with the Ford Escort
03/04/2018
The fact that the British love "their " Ford Escort becomes obvious when you look at the results of auctions at which special examples are traded, such as recently at Silverstone Auctions, when several Escort models from almost two dozen years ago were sold.
The 1980 Ford Escort RS 2000 Mk2 (pictured above) was worth £50,625 to the buyer, i.e. EUR 56,700 or CHF 65,813, and the sale price was easily 40% above the estimate. Low mileage (40,044 miles) and good condition drove the bidding up.
The predecessor model, an RS 2000 Mk1 from 1974, achieved £ 37,125 (EUR 41,580 or CHF 48,263).
A significantly less powerful, fully restored 1974 Ford Escort Mexico Mk1, modeled on the winning car of the London-Mexico Rally at the time, found a new garage for £ 24,525 (EUR 27,468 or CHF 31,883).
But it wasn't just the early models that fetched high prices. A 1996 Ford Escort RS Cosworth with just 29,000 miles also fetched the proud price of EUR 58,500 (EUR 65,520 or CHF 76,050).
The cult of the Ford Escort has presumably always been greater in the UK than in other countries, and it continues to this day. But it is not only the Ford Escort that is very popular with the British, the "power hatches", i.e. the fast hatchback cars of the eighties and nineties, are also very popular, as a Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 from 1988, with 73,000 miles on the clock and technically extensively overhauled, proved with a sales price of £ 19,688 (EUR 22,051 or CHF 25,594).
As all these cars were right-hand drive, it is also obvious that the British themselves, and not exporters, bought them. They just love these little powerhouses, which are so wonderfully suited to the "B Roads" that are so widespread in Great Britain.
The full results of the Silverstone Auctions on the occasion of Race Retro are documented on their website .
