Our 1999 Ford Escort, whom we nicknamed “Little Guy.” Location – McLain State Park near Calumet, MI (in the Upper Peninsula). That’s me in the passenger seat.
Rewind to 2000 – my husband and I were looking at used cars. We first saw “Little Guy” on the used lot at Gene Butman Ford in Ypsilanti, MI. I don’t recall what the “asking” price was, but he had only 8,000 miles on him. Being that he was just a year old and had only 8,000 miles on him, I felt he seemed like a good deal. We test drove him, and all went well.
I said to my husband:
If you don’t buy this car, I’ll divorce you.
Of COURSE I was joking! I was just trying to tell him – in my own “honest” way – that I felt this was a good car. As it turned out…I was right! If he were still on the road, he’d be 20 years old this year. You still see plenty of Escorts from around this model year on the road now – and if you’re really lucky – you might even see Mercury Tracers (the Mercury counterpart for the Ford Escort). I always feel I’m winning the “I Spy” game when I see Mercury Tracers, Mercury Topazes, etc…
“Little Guy” was primarily my husband’s car, which he drove to work from Ypsilanti, MI to Southfield and later, Troy. He was bare boned – with manually operated windows, a cassette deck (no CD player) – he got pretty darn good gas mileage – probably close to 40 miles per gallon (highway). He wasn’t the most comfortable ride for a taller person like me, though I did drive him around quite a bit – especially in the winter, because his heater worked better than mine.
My dad is no stranger to cars. He worked in Flint’s “Buick City” complex for nearly 20 years, then for Ford Motor Company/Visteon and even a short stint at Roush. He said to us that he thought Little Guy might be a “Wednesday car.” And he explained in former auto worker speak what that meant… I’ll do my best to paraphrase:
Wednesday is the day of the week when workers are least likely to be on vacation. Thursdays and Fridays people tend to be off for “long weekends,” which could also run until Monday or Tuesday. Cars made on Wednesday are likely to get the most attention.
Other than knowing that Little Guy was made at the Wayne, MI assembly plant, we have no way of knowing what day he was “born.” We’re just thankful he was such a good car to us for so long! He took us on countless trips to the U.P., took us to Virginia and back, and all over the state of Michigan.
We kept him on the road until March of 2017, when we traded in both of our older cars for a 2013 Chevy Malibu. We had recently learned that Little Guy had a problem that could “kill” him at any moment (he was stalling a lot). The cost of fixing him wouldn’t have been worth it at that point – and my Buick LeSabre didn’t exactly owe me anything either – it was time for a car that would be “new to us…”
Since my husband works from home and doesn’t have to drive to work, we figured it would be a good cost savings to go down to one car. We haven’t looked back – our new car “Sylvia” has been fairly good to us. She gets great gas mileage, but is a bit of a nag – she won’t give the passenger side person much time to arrange things on the lap before “beeping” at them to buckle up – and when she needs an oil change – she won’t let you put it off too long! We learned the hard way from another Malibu owner that it’s not wise to postpone the oil changes on the newer Malibus (ugh)! We still love her and all of her quirks! I don’t care if she thinks all of my Eagles songs are Bangles songs (it’s OK, Sylvia)…
hebspeaks 