"battle wounds are the oldest form of storytelling" damn ok

He smokes newports but keeps them in a marlboro pack😂😂 Damn jayden

I drove this exact model of car for about eight years (got it as a high school present used @ 12k miles) and I swear the thing was cursed. -Got hit nearly head on by a lady on pills speeding shortly after I got it -After it was hit it fucked up the alternator belt pulleys so the belt would fly off randomly and leave me stranded; didn't know about this for a long time -Leaked power steering fluid from the day I got it from multiple places -Window motor was fucked up and could never figure out why, even after replacing the motor it still wouldnt work randomly -Every interior light in the damn thing burned out at 50k mile intervals -Got rear ended by a pregnant lady SEXTING (long story) who then claimed she was in labor and needed to run to the hospital and gave me false insurance info, never heard from her again -Finally at 120k miles I got EVERYTHING on it fixed (even the wonky pullies, a reputable mechanic finally figured it out) and some guy backed into me and totaled it at a STOP LIGHT -Got the worst insurance agent EVER and had to all but choke her in person to get my money for the accident -I GAVE the thing away to my nephew for free; he fixed it up and then flipped it going down the highway. After that it was sent to the junkyard for scrap. Sorry, just needed to rant after 8 years of driving this nightmare. At least it handled well.

"His favorite movie is The Purge..." LMAO

I'm disappointed with the lack of boat reviews on this channel.

My best friend in high school got one of these. Bone stock, optional 17 inch ford wheels, all the options, 5 speed. it was a goddamn excellent driving little car. Decent speed, good handling, comfortable, practical, and dirt cheap to maintain and insure.

That voice in the beginning sounds like Steve Carell's creepy character in Foxcatcher lol.

YOU FINALLY DID MY FIRST CAR!!! But in all seriousness, my '99 ZX2 was a great car for college and early working years. You could BEAT it to death and it would still run as long as you changed the oil. 28+ MPG and, for the most part, a decent sounding exhaust stock. No SVT Focus, but it was the curvy last-pre-2000 car that I will always have a soft spot for! Thank you RCR

vour zylinder

Last time I was this early, Mr. Regular was still driving his Echo.

I bought a 2000 ZX2 new off the lot in November 1999, drove it until 2010. I put over 200K miles on it. I miss it to this day.

Mr. Regular, I'm glad you weren't too harsh on this car. Yes it's not the cool Escort that Europe got, and yes SVT wasn't allowed to work its magic on it, but I think it's a decent car and part of a dying breed. Almost no one makes a cheap compact coupe anymore, except Honda which still makes a Civic Coupe.

I owned a 2001 ZX2 for a little over 10 years and 150k miles. And it's true, I learned a lot about cars by working on this. What's interesting is that my wife owned a ZX3 at the same time. The differences in the two was amazing, and she'd make fun of me for having the nicer car, but you know what? I'd buy another ZX2 in a heartbeat. I loved that little car.

Why does it have a shit stain on the drivers seat?

Owned a ZX2 S/R for five years and 70,000 miles. That car begged to be revved hard, chucked into corners, and otherwise abused. It was a total jalopy by the end, but it somehow never left me stranded. A great car for teaching a young person to love cars and love turning wrenches.

I'm so glad you mentioned the Marauder, and I really hope you review one some day.

Wow, that looks nothing like the Escorts we had in Europe.

I had to skip forward thinking "god please don't make this all in this voice"

Your Mercury Cougar mention was a hilarious truth bomb. I literally "HA!" 'ed really loud at the ceiling.

What I really like about this channel is that, no matter how bad a car may be, the narrator makes the story relevant and entertaining.

1:58 HE DIDN'T TAP HIS FEET TOGETHER WTF

A friend got Vander into escorts.

I love how you always end videos on a thoughtful solemn note. As usual, keep up the good work Mr. Regular.

2.4L? I don't think so, pretty certain it was a 2.0L.

why is the voice so accurate

I bought an 02 ZX2 for my first car and I've got to say I love it.

The dash cluster makes me feel like the alignment is constantly off.

I was dying at the intro. 😂 " anybody have a ciiigggaaareeeeeeeettteee"

6:44 Beautiful Evo

I think the front end of these look good, but fenders back is no bueno

When are we going to see a 1991 Ford Probe?

2.4L? always thought these were 2.0L. . .

Lmfao I love how you add characters and personalities of potential owners to each review 😂

I once reviewed a ZX2 for my high school newspaper. Good times.

Mr. Regular, you mentioned Mercury Marauder, i got one for you to reveiw. a 2003. perfect condtition. message me for details if you are interested.

Loved the style of this video, good balance between humour and review.

"but we'll get to that in a little bit. Okay it's a little bit later."

I had one of these for many years...a 99. I loved this car. I had the 5sp...the only issue was that the gearing wasn't pretty short on the top so you were really buzzing on the interstate. Gas mileage was awesome with mine..i can recall 40mpg+ on a few trips. The crappy thing was they have timing belts.

I love how you consistently don't know how compression works. It's charming.

Finally, you got to my first car. She was a good lassie, never failed me.

I spy an Evo at 6:48

Thanks for making these videos. I don't know shit about cars and you have the only channel funny enough to spoon feed me car knowledge.

OH GOD I LEARNED TO DRIVE IN ONE OF THESE. My dad bought one of these in the early 2000's when they were still reasonably "new" cars. He thought it was just the coolest, zippiest little thing. It was the car I took my driver's test in... also the first car I was in a wreck in, but not by my hands. Like most Escort owners, he eventually went to a Focus hatch, but he still talks fondly about that ZX2. Suffice to say, I've been waiting for this one to cross your radar, Mr. Regular, and I was not disappointed.

I just realized I'm "that asshole" who asks how much someone paid for their vehicle.........Thanks RCR!

these cars with a manual are really reliable and can be had super cheap. makes for a good beater. stay away from the automatic though. they had issues

It'd be fun to figure out a way to manually actuate the variable intake & have a switch in the cab for high / low rpm.

Your videos are getting better and better as time passes

That was the first car i purchased on my own. Still on my top ten favs! Thanks for the nostalgia!

My names Jayden and this was too accurate... is this a personal attack

Jennifer & Jayden: True story, right? Except Jayden & his profile pic now vape.

This was my first car. Well technically my first car was a 97 Civic LX but I only had that for 3 months. My mom's boyfriend(at the time anyway) ran it into 6 cars on New Years Day. Anyway, I had this for close to 10 years and it was still in pretty good shape when I finally sold it. I did some modifications to the interior and swapped out the stereo for something that wasn't the worst thing ever but, for the most part, I really loved it. It was light, relatively quick and easy enough on gas.

This Ford ZX2, in this styling - with the 2003 front bumper design, is one of the nicest looking Fords ever and I want to own one. Love this car!!!

Did you say "rear spray bar"?

"Battlewounds are the oldest form of storytelling." Brilliant. Who said that first?

For a blah car, it was extremely reliable and got competitive (for the time) fuel mileage. I wish we still owned it seeing the recent fuel prices.

My first "car" was an '82 Escort. Like, the Escort that still had the AM/FM/Cassette stereo with the big twist knobs for the tuning and when you turned them the little bar set into the frequency range display moved because electronics were expensive, and you could have five presets via huge white buttons that physically clicked in when you selected one, and the tape deck only worked for half of one side of NWA's "Strait Outta Compton" before it ate the whole thing. The escort that you couldn't really go up big hills in unless you had a real car behind you to push you the rest of the way up. It was silver, because "grey" seemed too ordinary a color, and it had a red interior because it had a hatchback and that looked way sportier. I don't remember much else about that first Escort because it lasted exactly 30 days before I discovered that they don't take well to trees, but I do remember that my second car, a 1984 Dodge Omni, seemed like a huge upgrade.

Wow. *That voice triggers me.*

So when you say it feels like a 90's car, you mean that the engine is nice and peaky and fun to drive? Because 2000's cars make power at low revs, then get all flaccid as the revs rise. Like a muscle car. But slow.

best intro song yet. good job RCR

I like the profile, like the idea of who owns this, that you set up.

I've owned my zx2for eight years now I can honestly say it's the best car I've ever owned and I've talk to Vander several times on the forums I still think my car is faster I do have Svt compression after all The only thing is car has over mine is the limited slip diff

Would love to see a svt contour review. I had a stock modular mustang and raced a clean svt contour on a backroad and we were dead even around turns and straights. Which was pretty amazing because there 2 totally different cars but performed the same.

My head hurt like hell yesterday when i got up this early, but now I feel better than ever. Now I can watch this I peace without popping Tylenol every 2 minutes. Damn, I'm a poet.

favorite review ever in the history of reviews

We never landed on the moon!

Wish you could find a clean, mostly stock V-6 Mazda MX-3 to review. That was my first car. Would love to see that.

Lynchburg, VA back in another review, Hell yeah!

My 07 Zx5 S trim is the same way, a great learning car. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a machine with potential and that's where it will forever live.

I like the Cougar. It has aged perfectly.

Hehe, the description says "show hoe"

I watched this video so much that I memorized the Jennifer intro and the little jingle😂

this is the greatest review ive ever seen

I have a 1995 Audi 90 and a 1994 Toyota Camry coupe LE. Any interest?

this car has Japan written all over it. Ford was really trying to appeal to the Prelude, Celica, S13 crowd. This thing looks like a RX-7 FD from the back, a Celica from the front, and an S13 from the side.

Had one of these but the '98 hot version for my first car ever... drove that thing into the ground on the back roads near my place... many good memories

My friend had a ZX2 S/R! I wanted him to take it to you guys to review, but he didn't think you would care hah

My father in law had a ZX2 s/r. It was honestly pretty sweet. If you find one and can afford to shell out the cash, get it.

Which Escort is best Escort? I'll answer this: The European Escort. Also hit the nail on the head regarding learning cars. Cheaper the car is, as long as it runs and isn't a deathtrap, will always return the best investment regardless of money spent: education.

My brother's first car was one of these. I had just moved to the USA when he got it and I thought it was cool as hell! All 2 door coupes were sporty and fast in my mind at the time. lol

Whenever you start one of your stories, I get a very specific image in my head on what the people in them look like.

That ZX2 actually looked pretty nice

6:22 You could replace the Blue Oval with a Chevy Bowtie on that grill and call it a Prism and no one would notice.... or care.

You can get the dual stage SVT Focus intake manifold working on the ZX2. You need a vacuum operated switch with a RPM trigger. Other ZX2 owners have done it. I owned a 1998 ZX2 and a 2000 ZX2 S/R. The nice thing about the S/R at the time was you could pick one up new for about $13,000 new while the 2000 Civic Si was $19,000. With the $6,000 I saved by not buying the Si, I built a 170+ WHP ZX2 S/R. I did the whole import drag thing for a while and won some trophies and contingency money. Then I ended up selling the S/R to buy a new Mustang and the guy who bought my S/R totaled it when he hit a Scion that ran a red light. Its true, that an old ZX2 is a great car to learn on. They are easy to work on. I rebuilt the transmission in my driveway a couple times until I replaced it with an Escape transmission and custom axles.

I learned on a 1987 Escort L - 40 some odd cars later, I still haven't forgotten those lessons.

Out of curiosity, was the Escort RS Cosworth ever sold in North America? It'd be cool to see that one in RCR.

Watching this in history

When RCR starts out funny and then gets hyper deep at the end

5:09 Mr Regular's one liners in "the voice" are gold

"rear spray bar"

Make fun of this car if you want, but I owned one and can honestly say it was the best car I ever owned. Reliable and actually pretty strong for the specs. You could go pretty fast in these things and they handled great. The only hiccup I had with mine was a clutch issue that I fixed and the alternator but other than that this is a great car. And plus there are still a ton of them on the road today. I think had ford kept it up as a model it would have done great. Especially in the Bush era when gas was pushing $5 a gallon.

Cool to see the same place I drive every day shown in a RCR video.

My best friend has a 1999 ZX2 with a 2003 Front end and a Focus SVT intake manifold quite like this one. I didn't like it at first, owing to it's FWD/4 Cyl configuration, but it grew on me. So much in fact, that when the transaxle blew up, I attempted to replace it myself (unsuccessfully) in the parking lot of his dad's plumbing storage warehouse. It sat for several months before I found a 2001 ZX2 for sale local to us with the same engine. We spent $350 on the donor car because it had really bad rot, so bad that You could stick your feet right through the floor. But we were able to drive it home and it ran and shifted well. So we transplanted the whole engine with the transaxle instead of just the transaxle. I regasketed the engine and painted it before we dropped in it and it started right up...except it kept blowing the fuel injector fuses. My buddy ended up taking it to the local dealership for them to fix the electrical problem. And the fixed it kinda, the car would only run for 20 minutes, and since he lives 5 minutes from the dealership, we didn't know until later. I could not, for the life of me, find out why it would run perfect for only 20 minutes then sputter and die. So we let it sit since like October, and I went back to it with a fresh mindset and goddammit, it was the alternator not charging. It would run for 20 minutes off the battery, then because it wasn't being charged by the alternator, it would sputter and die.

oh god the mercury cougar

speaking of big shiny finishing moves... Plymouth Prowler!

I'm literally so effing lost during some of these intros. Would love to have you guys review my Land Rover Discovery next time you roll through Nashville.

great video Mr. Regular

I'm a proud owner of one. They're fun car to drive. Perfect for autoX. The S/R version was much better.

Call me stupid, but aren't longer intake runners better for lower RPM, and shorter for higher RPM?

These cars are very durable and economical to drive. I've had 2 of them. A burgundy 98 and a 2000 yellow S/R. No problems.

I have a Ford Escort for almost 8 years now. Precisely a European 1997 Moondust Silver Escort Wagon Manual in a Ghia trim. It used to have a 1.8 16V 115HP Zetec engine, but I swapped a 2.0 Zetec silvertop from a 1997 Ford Mondeo into it and with exhaust, intake and a piggyback it is making 155HP. I HIT REDLINE EVERY TIME I DRIVE and the car is happy to do so. The reactions I get when I smoke people in brand new cars is priceless, especially since it is a Wagon and nobody expects a thing. However what's best about the car its it's handling and the truly instant reaction to throttle. I love my Escort. You see, I have, had or had access cars like Ford Focus LX, Euro Ford Focus, BMW E36 (3-series), KIA Rio, BMW E53 (X5) 4.4, Toyota Yaris TS 1.8, VW Passat, VW Golf, Opel Vectra, Opel Astra, Mazda RX-8, Skoda Fabia, Skoda Octavia or Audi A4 and I still find my Escort to be the most fun.