Date: 8 February 1982 0949-EST
From: M Satya at CMU-10A
Subject: Re: 3 car purchase questions
To: Robert Neches
Origin:  C410SM40 at CMU-10A; 8 Feb 1982 1004-EST
Remailed-To: Harry.Bovik at CMU-10A
Remailed-From: Robert.Neches at CMU-10A (A350RN30)
Remailed-Date: Monday,  8 February 1982 1016-EST
Via:     A350RN30 at CMU-10A; 8 Feb 1982 1020-EST

I have a comment on the first question:  I drove a rented Escort for a 
week in California, for about 1000 miles.  It's much better than Ford's
typical junk, but I still wasn't very happy with it.  The manual shift and
clutch are VERY stiff and the gear often falls into third instead of first.
The handling and ride are OK but not great.  I drove a VW rabbit for the
next three days and the difference along all these dimensions was apparent
immediately.    If you're buying an automatic some of these comments
may of course not be relevant.