Production chronology1980–open
Sourced production or model lifecycle range used by the main catalog timeline.
epa ↗1 year
← Ford
Ford / Model record
FordEscort
Production1980 – present
Recorded originUnited States
ClassCompact car
Also known asFord Escort USA
Background
The North American version of the Ford Escort is a range of cars that were sold by Ford from the 1981 to 2003 model years. The direct successor of the Ford Pinto, the Escort also largely overtook the role of the European-imported Ford Fiesta as the smallest vehicle in the Ford model line in North America. Produced across three generations, the first generation was a subcompact car; the latter two generations were compact cars. Becoming highly successful in the marketplace, the Escort became the best-selling car in the United States after 1982, a position it would hold for much of the 1980s.
Text adapted from “Ford Escort (North America)” on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗ · retrieved 2026-07
Chronology ledger
Dates with their meaning intact
US EPA model years1984–1999
Model years represented in FuelEconomy.gov; a US-market observation, not a worldwide production range.
EPA FuelEconomy.gov ↗Observed bounds
Canadian NRCan model years1995–2000
Model years in Natural Resources Canada retail fuel-consumption data; Canadian-market evidence, not a worldwide production range.
Natural Resources Canada ↗6 years
Netherlands RDW first-admission observations1958–2001
First-admission years observed in Dutch vehicle registrations; this is market evidence, not a worldwide production range.
Netherlands RDW ↗44 years