91 ford escort gt

What kind of smell is coming from the car? Burning, smoke or more specific like an antifreeze leak or possibly rotten eggs which could indicate a clogged catalytic converter. The two things that came to my mind, because you said it was losing all of its power and smells bad, are a clogged catalytic converter, which if fully or partially clogged will stink and cause the car to lose power. The other was a blown head gasket (or a coolant leak at any spot in the cooling system for that matter), which would cause antifreeze to leak out all over the ground and the warm engine, which would cause a very noticeable burning smell. Plus it may have caused a lot of damage, depending on how long you drove it while it was leaking.

Note that these are only possible scenarios. You'll have to pop open the hood and see if you can spot any obvious leaks. If there are none, post back here and tell us what kind of smell your girlfriend was smelling. There are so many possibilities of smells that you have to be more specific. I only touched on two of them, but you could be smelling gasoline, which would be much more serious.

Sharky

when the problem started, did it always appear when it had warmed up? does it smell like sulpher? if yes to both, likely the catalytic converter.. check your exhaust and see if it seems to be putting out a normal amount.. if it's the case, the dificulty depends on the car, some are welded in, others just clamped, I think probably welded like mine is..

That sounds like the clutch went out-(the smell is a big clue)- You did say you shut it off and had it towed right?