After owning the green Escort for a couple of years, I felt that it was time to upgrade again, but as I liked the car so much I decided to just buy a newer model but a 1.6 litre version as by this time I was finding my 1.3 litre a little slow. As I preferred the MK3 Escort to the MK4, I was ideally looking for was a C-registration 1.6 Ghia which was the last of the line for the MK3, but this eventually proved very difficult as they were even rarer than my existing model. In the end I compromised and started to concentrate on B-reg cars, eventually buying a red 5-door model from a chap in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. The slight problem with this particular car was that it had XR3i wheels from the later MK4 Escort, and this really jarred with my stickling attitude towards the Ghia model being as perfect and original as possible. Indeed this trait of mine was demonstrated perfectly when my mate bought an almost identical car which was missing the chrome Ghia trim from the front bonnet and had the wrong wheel trims on it. I convinced him to order the correct items from our local Ford dealer and told him that I’d fit all the necessary parts for him, which I duly did. This particular friend happened to be the brother of the mate who’d bought the green Escort off of me, so at one point we were all driving the same cars, albeit green, red and blue models respectively. How sad we were.

Anyway, I managed to get over the fact that my car had the wrong wheels on it, and I must admit that over time I got used to them. The 1.6 litre engine was noticeably better than the 1.3, and this fact coupled with the extra facility of the 5-door body reassured me that I’d made the right decision. This car had a totally different smell inside, and the alloy wheels and fat tyres gave it a much more aggressive look which I was never entirely happy with. By this point the steering wheel design had been revised to a standard version across the range (apart from the XR3i) which looked very basic to me, and I felt that it took away some of the luxurious feel of the Ghia model.

There aren’t really any tales to recount from the time that I had the red Escort, other than the fact that the sump problem that plagued my previous car eventually occurred in the red one, a fact which annoyed me intently. I bought my next car whilst I still had the red Escort, and whilst I was having some trouble with the new car I had to resort to using the Escort again temporarily until my new car was back on the road. Unfortunately I couldn’t go over 55mph because of the sump problem; any faster than that would result in the loss of power and/or the kangaroo effect, a fact which didn’t help as I was having to travel up and down motorways to gigs at the time. As far as I can remember I never sorted out the sump problem, but I can’t remember if I sold the car with this fact apparent or whether I kept quiet about it. All I remember is that I advertised it in the Auto Trader and luckily sold it to the first person who came to see it. I managed to get £500 for the car, which I suppose wasn’t such a good return as I’d bought it a couple of years previously for £1750. I was certainly glad to see the back of it, though this wasn’t to say that I hadn’t enjoyed owning it; it was more to do with the fact that all my energy and enthusiasm was focused on my new car and it had really just been forgotten about. Saying that, I’d never become particularly attached to this car in the way that I had with the green Escort. This car was only slightly different to the previous car and so wasn’t such a jump in terms of luxury or looks, whereas the change from my first car to the green Escort had been a huge leap from an old banger to a cherished car.

However, the next car I chose was a monumental change in direction for me. It wasn’t a luxury model, it wasn’t a Ford and it wasn’t even British. In fact it was almost a downsize for me as it was to be the smallest car I’d owned to date, but in terms of looks and performance it was a giant. It was a car which was to frustrate me, put me into severe debt, be off the road more than it was on and even contribute to my being disqualified from driving for 6 months, but for all this I loved it to bits and during the periods it was working properly it rewarded me with the most enjoyable driving experiences of my life.