Thanks for reviving my thread. A couple of things...
1) The Escort isn't that awful a car. It's a 99 we bought in 2000 and it's taken us where we needed to go. Could have been worse, we almost bought a Neon instead.
2) I should be fully funded for the NSX search next week. I have deliberately not spent much time looking the last month because I can't take the disappointment of finding what I want and not being able to get it. Once the money is in the bank I am going to draw a 1500 mile circle around my house on a map and start looking for my car in that area.
3) There is no '3'.