I have never owned a Ford Escort, but have driven this car on quite a few occasions I have rented a compact car. Although, rental cars are supposed to be well maintained and taken care of by the companies, even so the car has managed to trouble me.
Appearance: The looks of the car are not bad for a compact car. The inside is not very well thought off though. The front seat is really low, so if you are more than 6 feet tall your knees tend to cramp up near your stomach while driving. I found Civic, Sentra, Focus, Golf, and Corolla to be much more comfortable. Back seats are fine for a compact car and so is the luggage space which can accomodate two big suitcases and a couple of handbags.
Driving Experience: This is where the Ford Escort really sucks. The engine feels really drained out once you switch on the AC and have 4 people sitting in the car. The drive is also pretty noisy. On hills the car performs really below par. On a hilly stretch between Seattle and San Francisco, I had a better driving experience with a 20 year old Nissan Maxima than with this car. And all the Escorts I drove were between 5000-25000 miles, so still pretty new.
Gives a good mileage though.....