"Ford guy?"
Am I..... A "Ford guy?"
I was recently thinking about this after seeing an old picture of me as a kid, probably middle school aged. I was standing in the driveway of the house we moved into when I was in middle school next to a Ford Thunderbird. Behind it, in the background, you can see in the carport a Ford Escort. I vividly remember both of these cars. Unfortunately the Thunderbird which had the 3.8L V6 that was known for head gasket issues fell victim to that issue so that car was gone before I could drive, but the Escort is what I learned to drive on. By the time I was learning to drive we had a Chevy conversion van in addition to the Escort.
The reason I've never thought of myself as a "Ford guy," is because my dad was a Chevy guy. When he was younger him and his friends had Camaros, Novas, Chevelles, and he even had a 1941 Chevy (not sure what model) for awhile. Because of this, while other kids with budding interests in cars had supercars of the time as posters on their walls, I had old hot rods and enjoyed going to classic car shows. There was one thing my dad was more than brand loyal though..... Cheap.
We consistently had 8-15 year old junk heaps as family cars. My earliest memories are 2 malaise era Amercian scrap metal boxes, an Olds Cutlas (before they became FWD junk) and a Malibu (also before they became FWD junk.) My memories of those are fuzzy because I was very young. It was the next round of cars I remembered more vividly. Sticking with malaise era scarp, we had a hand me down 1977 Chrysler Newport, and a 1978 Chevy full size passenger van. No Fords yet. The next round of cars we had was when we finally made it into the 80s. And of course by this point, we were pretty deep into living in the 90s. Ford has entered the chat by way of 1988 Ford Escort, four speed manual. My dad purchased it from a coworker, no doubt for cheap. It was in good condition and fairly well maintained though. Our van at some point died as well and it got "upgraded" to another Chevy van, a 1988 conversion van this time. It would be these 2 cars I learned how to drive on.
Both cars were a blast to learn to drive on. The Escort was small, light, and manual. The van had a 350 V8 and an open diff which was prime for smoking the daylights out of one tire! After getting my license the Escort started having some issues, and my dad didn't like me driving such a small "unsafe" car, although I loved it. We ended up getting rid of that car and acquiring a Volvo 240 wagon. It belonged to a friend of my dad's parents, or relative, I can't remember. And I'm not sure if it was free or just very cheap, but either way, that's what became my car. It was heavier, slower, and not a manual, but I made the best of it, customized it, and learned some very important rear wheel drive lessons in it.
A number of years went by with no Ford products. When I was 20 ish years old, I ended up getting a job at a Ford dealership. It was just a porter position, and I got it because my best friend also worked there in the service department. At this point in my life I considered myself an all in JDM / Honda guy. I had a short lived 1993 Accord manual which I sold to my dad for my beloved 1994 Integra. The Ford dealer was a job, but Honda was my life. Either while I was working there, or just after my dad picked up a 1994 Ford Explorer, so after a 10 ish year hiatus, we now had a Ford in the driveway once again. This car was the primary car of almost everyone in my family at some point, including me. It ended up with my youngest brother who drove it until the brake lines rusted out. After that he got rid of it and replaced it with.... An Explorer Sport Trac.
At this point in the story, we're now into the 2010s. My brother is still driving his Sport Trac. My wife after college needed something cheap to replace a Kia in very bad shape. One of the cheapest things in decent condition we could find at the time were MK1 Focuses. And you could get them in manual for even cheaper. We found one in very good condition. She didn't know how to drive a manual, but we bought it anyway, I drove it home, and she learned. Around this time my dad, against both my and my best friends advice, bought a 2003 Ford Explorer, the ones known for transmissions issues. My brother and I ended up driving that to Vermont and back, which was a fun adventure.
As the twenty teens were starting to give way to 2020 (before we knew what we were in for...) my dad's explorer engine failed. That's another story for another day though. My brother had to get rid of his Sport Trac, for some reason I can't remember right now, and we were once again, Fordless... That is until 2016 or 2017. I purchased a 2013 Focus ST. I was so excited, finally a proper hot hatch of the time, on paper it looked like THE platform to have for the money, but there was only one issue, I really didn't enjoy driving it. The Recaro seats were not comfortably for daily driving, the car felt bloated and heavy, the turning radius was horrible, and it's handling was a little unpredictable, but not in a fun way. About a year or year and a half later I ended up trading it in for a Fiesta ST. Yes it's slower... a lot slower, but the handling is SO much better, the inputs feel better, it's very light feeling, and it's just as good at daily duty (good turning radius) as it is on fun backroads.
Today, 2026. I still have and love the Fiesta ST, although the time is coming where I'm going to need to get a "normal car." Believe it or not, as of this writing we also still have the MK1 focus mentioned above, it's been almost 15 years, which after purchasing for $3,900 is probably one of the best value cars I've ever had. Unfortunately we haven't driven it in a year or so, and I'm currently in the process of getting rid of it. I'm also slowly looking at replacements for the Fiesta that would be more of a normal family car. I'm looking at Subaru, Hyundai / Kia, Toyota, and briefly I looked at the Ford Maverick, which is the whole reason I started thinking and had to ask myself..... Am I a Ford guy!?
