I suspect that many of you have noticed this: just by looking at a car – even from a distance or through the thick glass of your enclosure in the alien menagerie, or in poor lighting or whatever – you can usually get a pretty good guess as to roughly what part of the world that car came from. Maybe not exactly, but somehow you can usually tell if a car is American or Japanese or European and so on just from the quickest and most perfunctory of glances. How do we do this?
It’s not just one specific detail, but rather a sort of loose set of details, a certain overarching conceptual theme of the car, and that theme seems to carry overtones that are tied to the car’s region of origin. This is one of those things that you more feel than can often clearly enumerate, which is why it fascinates me so.
That said, I think there are some specifics that can be pointed out, and an interesting way to do so is to look at a car that is fundamentally the same everywhere, but has regional differences. These details were different in different periods of time, so let’s take an example from the 1980s, with Ford’s big “world car,” the Escort:
I think you could argue that the Model T was a “world car” decades and decades before the Escort, and the Escort didn’t really start as a “world car.” The Escort was a Ford of Britain car for two generations; this “world car” version was really the third generation Escort for Europe, but a first Escort for America.
And these were everywhere in America at the time, and Ford definitely played up the “world car” angle. Also, yes, that’s Casey Kasem’s voice there, the voice of Shaggy Rogers, a guy who lived in a van with a dog and stopped small-scale real estate scams involving elaborate costumes.
It’s amazing how extinct this generation of Escort is in America today. I haven’t seen one in the wild in decades.
Anyway, let’s look at this car, and how it differed in its European and American guises:
Body-wise and under the skin, these Escorts were quite similar, though none of the body panels are actually shared, which is odd, because they’re really similar. The programs for the Euro and American Escorts started from the same point, but diverged, and that’s where things get interesting and telling, I think.
The CVH inline four-banger engine is shared, and the auto transmission, and the suspensions are the same conceptually, if not parts-wise. These cars are a great example of how the design philosophies of early ’80s Europe and America differed.
Visually, Americans seemed to like chrome and more small details – more trim, a fussier grille, more of everything. European designs tended to favor simplicity and less detail and trim. Same goes for the interiors, too:
I mean look at that; Americans are less afraid of color, which I like, but they also have a strangely overdone steering wheel, complete with what looks like a little coat-of-arms in the center, which is especially strange, considering coats-of-arms are a traditional European affectation.
The Euro gauge clusters are a much more no-nonsense white on black with orange needles, and while the American instruments themselves are similar, they’re in an oddly taupe-colored panel with even more linear details and trim. The American radio has shiny knobs, the dash itself is more upright, the Euro dash has more chunky black toggle switches, and on and on but the point is all of us here could have called out which was ’80s American and which was ’80s Euro in seconds.
We all know these divisions deep down. What I’m less sure of is why.
What is it about American culture at the time that made us want more chromed and detailed cars? Why can I look at the American Escort’s side mirrors and know they’re not going to show up on a car from Europe? What is it about our national culture that dictates these things?
Are Europeans more likely to see cars with somewhat sporting pretentions? Does this have anything to do with the Puritans? Does it mean anything that, generally, the European sort of look “won,” and now more cars feel like they fit in that category?
I’m not certain. There’s more here I want to investigate, but now isn’t the time. But I’ll think about it, and I’ll read your comments, and maybe we can get closer to a Unified Automotive Sociocultural Design Theory!
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
We had three of these as delivery vehicles at my high school job.
An orange one that was a total stripper other than automatic and AM radio. Such a dog. I don’t think it even had A/C, but that was still pretty common back then. It had the plainest beige interior I’ve ever seen on a car. No contrasting colors, as if all parts were dipped in beige paint.
The red one was a Mercury Lynx, which was a higher trim level, but had a smaller engine, with A/C and automatic, and was even more of a dog than the orange one. I think the owner drove it home nightly.
The automatics in these are truly terrible. Power-sucking, while endlessly hunting for a gear when you’re driving around town.
I never drove the third one, as I think it must have been a manual, which I didn’t yet know how to drive. The company ended up with some customers hours away so they hired an old guy to drive a really long route that lasted all day, and that’s what he drove.
I have a 1981 Escort in the carport. Hop in the NYC taxi, drive it to Vegas, and you can make up for the last few decades by seeing it in the wild.
I’m pretty sure roadtripping across the country is part of the plan for the taxi, so let’s make this happen!
I think part of it was the notion that bigger was better. The chrome and junk make this car look bigger in my opinion.
Given the choice between two escorts, I will usually hire the more exotic one.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol assisted me in confirming the top speed of an 81 GL is exactly 85 MPH in 1988/89 while I was on my way to high school.
I think the American obsession with chrome in the 50s & 60s carried on into the 70s & 80s. Maybe not giant chrome bumpers anymore, but lots of chrome trim.
Well, here’s your $3000 ticket for a trip down memory lane! 1989 Escort wagon, 55k on the odometer, seller says it came from a museum.
Maybe you should contact Sabrina Carpenter.
I saw a silver one with red interior in a parking lot a few months back and literally stopped in my tracks and stared at it for a while. I was a like a mental record-scratch to see one after not for so long.
I saw a baby blue on a few months ago, a diesel even!
US bumper rules change everything. Once you stick on the huge US bumpers otherwise fine lines, are not so fine, so designers start to fiddle and fiddle…
At the time US had a much greater tolerance for squeaky plastic and faux leather finish than in the UK and Europe.
Little later “leather = luxury” took over in Europe till people realised that leather is slippery and cold and cloth is nicer to sit on….
Interestingly, Ford still stuck with the 5-mph bumpers even though the regulations were watered down to 2.5 mph in 1982.
Basically the Euro ones always look better…
Despite our many, many similarities America is generally more outgoing, flashier, visually louder and less tied to the whims of fashion than Europe. American design tends to be bolder and more colorful, while European design is more muted and considered.
Swiss Style aside mainland European graphic design is universally shit though.
I think a lot of the fussiness you see on display here is down to Ford being concerned that American buyers still thought of small cars as “cheap”. The European manufacturers hadn’t really gotten much of a foot in the door in 1981 and the perception was still that chrome and velour and “interesting” dashboards told the world that you were riding in style. A lot of this was due to actual consumer taste at the time, but many of the execs and product guys were holdovers from the chrome-and-tailfins era of the 50s through the 70s and that love of unnecessary detail and sparkly stuff was still part of the design equation.
And as I mentioned below, the US-spec car is a GLX and it was thought the customer needed “visual receipts” for the extra spend over an Escort L.
If the Escort is a ‘small’ car, what would the Fiesta have been known as in the US? A micro car?
This is around the time when American car companies put forth half-hearted “Euro” inspired versions of many of their cars which incorporated some of the differences you pointed out, but were largely lipstick on a pig.
I give you the Chevy Celebrity Eurosport as Exhibit A.
As someone who had one as first car, 100% this. Sure, the exterior was fairly devoid of chrome and looked sleek(er), but the interiors were completely American in the bad way!
At least some of them had a floor console shifter and tach.
“Sporty”.
Sigh…not mine. Column shifter and a vinyl bench seat. And b/c FWD, no transmission hump on which to attempt to mount one of those hilariously bad, grippy but not really “consoles” with the vestigial cupholder.
You’re comparing apples and oranges. The US Escort is a GLX which was the top-of-the-line non-sporty trim level and the Euro one is an XR3 which was the hot-hatch.
The sporty US Escort had similar blacked-out trim to the XR3, with an even “blacker” nose because Ford US couldn’t be bothered to paint the bumpers multiple body colors so they were all black, along with black bezels for the then-mandated sealed beam headlights. That was the Escort SS in 1981, a one-year one-model appropriation of what had been a Chevy nameplate that included no suspension or engine tuning but could be had on a wagon, and Escort GT later (which was genuinely hotted up but 2-door only).
The plush Euro Escort Ghia had a few bits of chrome on the outside along with a bit more color and detail in the interior.
Fun fact; a couple of easy ways to tell an ’81 is that it’s the only year for the globe-shaped “ESCORT” badge on the fenders, the only year FORD was spelled out in block letters on the grille and hatch, and came only as a 2 door hatchback or the wagon. The TV ad shows the ’82s with blue ovals “and introducing the new 4-door hatchback”.
On the other hand, you’re comparing 2-door hatchbacks. The Euro 4-doors had window frames that entirely covered the B pillar for a cleaner look. That aged better than the US setup – OTOH the fender/door upper feature line is softer on the US model, obscured in your pic by the pinstripe, which aged better alongside the aero cars in the later ’80s than the sharper creases of the Euro model. It’s easy to strip away plastichrome in a midcycle refresh!
I recall the US edition of the 1981 Escort had a lot of one year only components that were probably from the European version, including a unique one year globe-shaped badge on its fenders. Its carburetors were made with corroding pot metal and difficult to find in the 1990’s. To help a friend with heavy repairs on a 1981, I had to remove a used carb one-handed from a swaying stacked car in a salvage yard while standing with muddy shoes on the fenders of two wrecks that were at ground level. Good times.
“Visually, Americans seemed to like chrome and more small details – more trim, a fussier grille, more of everything.”
Did they really favor them or is it that was all that was offered?
I am not of the vintage to have been shopping in this period but I would wonder what the consumer would have actually gotten if they had the choice between US and Europe spec. I know what I would choose.
I was thinking the same thing. It’s what we were being TOLD to like, and as soon as viable alternatives started showing up in the form of better constructed imports that lacked all that crap, they took over quickly.
You didn’t have to buy the trim and the chrome, but if you didn’t you’d be easily identified as poor or cheap. Remember, the American way is “bigger is better” so most people thought it degrading enough that they had to buy a small car, so at least the chrome was a way to mask the indignity somewhat.
You’re right but it just astounds me how back then (maybe now?) it was “add some chrome” to make it look more expensive. The US version looks objectively bad regardless and I can’t imagine seeing the extras and think “that makes it better”. And I say this as someone who can appreciate the simple/bland styling of some of the 80s crap boxes.
Americans have always known that they have to signal to cops that they’re not prey.
They really were. I seem to recall that the two-door version in a sort of burgundy color was the most common.
The awful baby/powder blue is what sticks out most in my mind
My Aunt Betty had a wagon in that color inside and out, replacing the stolen-on-a-test-drive ’76 T&C. She regularly used an old-school full-serve service station whose proprietor tongue-in-cheekly told her he’d had to lay someone off because she was buying so much less gas.
Mine was closer to a tomato color, thankyouverymuch!
I think the (UK) one my parents had was a horrible orange/brown colour, but I was <4yo at that point so I don’t trust my memories. I do remember clearly that I chewed through the top corner of the passenger seat.
No mention of the Porsche style phone dialesque wheels on the Euro model?
I had a co-worker who retired 2 years ago that drove an 80’s Escort as his daily because it was efficient and paid for. His road trip cruiser was a 90’s Chevrolet Caprice SS. So there is still one Escort running around somewhere.
The US got those wheels too.
https://www.feoa.net/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.feoa.net/attachments/dscn1314-jpg.1286/
I’ve always seen that model with the odd flower petal-looking 4 spoke wheels, the phone dials seem pretty rare
IIRC the phone dial wheels were metric and required super expensive TRX tires which is probably why you haven’t seen any.
I tagged along when my Dad test drove a new Escort in the early ’80s. Granted, it was an automatic, but sheesh that thing could not have gotten out of its own way. He bought a Cavalier instead. Which proudly announced “Electronic Fuel Injection” on the badge at the back.
The European ones (especially the XR3) would be worth a pretty penny in their homelands as well but not the US version.
So at one time I had the most base model of the US escorts the Escort Pony. A four speed no frills just heat car. We added a radio scavenged from parts bins. It was a great first car but one that you would only drive as far as you felt like walking home from.
I got paid to drive those things as a bank courier in college. They did have the optional AM radio at least. There is nothing finer than a 2-3yo Escort with 500K+ miles on it. They were ran 24×7 with three shifts of drivers.
Love this! had so many of these cars, 2 doors, 4 doors and yes the wagon. even swapped the snazzy striped interior from an ’84 Lynx RS and the “H.O.” engine from an ’86 Lynx XR3 into a 2 door Lynx L (did i own the most Lynx’s (Lynxii?) ever?), so i could have the “best’ from each car and scrap the rusty remains of the Fe2O3-perforated donor cars. Great economical first car and easy to wrench on, even if the HO setup required a complete wiring harness redo…but yeah, the euro escorts looked better, although the later asymetrical xr3 and escort GT grills looked kinda cool
I’d actaully want the euro spec car, I wouldn’t spit on a US spec car. Though now I’m peering over the rabbit hole of doing a euro conversion on a US car….
Just look for a 1985 1/2-early 1988 model, or a wagon up through 1990. Those came with composite headlights and most of the plastichrome stripped off. Bumpers remained chrome on all but the GT until they got full plastic covers in the mid-’88 refresh, but at the same time the hatchbacks had a buttlift that just made the hard points look even more dated.
(Dearborn became fond of making changes to their C segment cars at midyear in this era, something that persisted through the last US Focus).
I’d want the actual euro spec parts on top of it. I’ve seen plenty of Escorts, worked on a handful in highschool auto shop, even more in the quick lube place I worked after graduation. You can’t look at them sideways without busting a knucle open. It’d have to have the eurotrash girl look for me to really be interested, and I know I’d have to build that myself.
I am old enough the remember these when they were new. The European one looks better in every way.
I’m old enough to have been paid to drive Escorts when they were new. Utter trash, in US-spec anyway. Cheap and dreadful, like every US small car of the day.
Hmm, it was a considerable upgrade from a Chevette or Pinto.
Not really. Crap is crap, and you could have more fun in a RWD car. Those also fell apart rather more slowly than early Escorts.
80s escorts left me on the side of the road more than anything else I have owned.
LOL – I am not surprised. Seemed to be the case with all the early Escorts people I knew owned.
The later ones I drove as a bank courier were tough cars, but anything will go a zillion miles if you rarely shut it off. The still fell apart cosmetically, of course.
My college girlfriend and now ex wife had an 84 escort wagon automatic from 1978-1992 and it was the worst pile of crap I have ever owned and I have owned 5 jeeps.