Time is a relentless jerk. Nothing looks perfect forever, and that definitely includes cars, especially economy cars. They have to live a working car’s life, after all. Which is why this 1986 Ford Escort is really special. It looks oh so clean after 34 years.
I was originally going to write about an ’80s Honda Accord so clean it spun my head, but that ad was deleted before I could get any information on it. This Escort, however, may be even wilder.
This ad came our way courtesy of the lovely The Way Back @ Jalopnik Facebook group and honestly, I’m at a loss for words. This car looks like it’s fresh off the showroom floor, not 34 years old with any miles above delivery miles.
Streetside Classics, a site more known for hot rods and muscle cars, not absurdly clean economy cars, notes the car is believed to be all original, from the paint down to the 49,000 miles on the odometer.
How this Escort has avoided turning into a pile of rust or having its paint scoured into dullness is beyond me. I suspect it has lived a pretty pampered life, never driving thorough salt and sleeping in a cozy garage.
Speaking of the benefits of a road salt-free life, the underbody of this car is absolutely amazing.
I’m having trouble finding any wear worth noting on the car. Under the hood, there’s an equally clean 1.9-liter engine putting out 86 horsepower through a five-speed manual transmission. If you told me this car came out of a museum I’d most certainly believe you.
I want to know who preserves a vehicle like this. There is probably an interesting story behind keeping a car in such good condition that it’s essentially a time capsule.
The advertised price for this time capsule is a whopping $10,995. I’m not convinced this car is worth that, however cars from this era have been selling for crazy high prices so I bet a butt will find a seat in that Escort.