A six-speed automatic is standard on all but the front-drive XLS, and it prefers to choose a gear and stay there. The Escape’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder gets you going briskly, albeit with a loud drone. Whether it’s the low-tech rear drum brakes or the lean-happy suspension that’s to blame, the results aren’t inspiring. Where other crossovers stop hard on all fours, the Escape’s tail gets squirrely in the same exercise. The brake pedal feels mushy and tentative, and the Escape’s standard antilock brakes kick in quite early. It feels as top-heavy as the Space Needle - listing hard into corners, squatting back or pitching forward when you speed up or slow down. If only the rest of the Escape followed suit. The wheel has gobs of power assist at low speeds, making parking lots a cinch, and at higher speeds it takes on winding roads with lively precision. Simple cruising aside, the Escape’s slow reflexes foil any chance of maneuverability - a shame, given its steering is decent. The Escape feels floaty at times - one editor bemoaned its ride for just that reason - but in terms of sheer comfort, Ford gets top marks. Pavement imperfections that filter up to the cabin in other crossovers simply don’t in here. The suspension handles larger bumps well enough, but it really shines over long stretches of highway. Ford’s entry is one of the few in this category that earns that label, and not just in a relative sense. There’s the tolerable Chevy Equinox, the choppy Kia Sportage, and - with a ride refined over the years - the comfortable Escape. In small crossovers, ride comfort is all over the board. The Ford Escape Hybrid and its gas-electric drivetrain are covered separately on. Click here to see Escape trims compared, and here to see the 20 Escape compared. Our test car had Ford’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder a V-6 is optional on the XLT and Limited. The XLT sits between the entry-level XLS and range-topping Limited, all three of which can be had with either front- or all-wheel drive. Driving a midlevel Escape XLT back-to-back with eight competitors, one thing became apparent: The next Escape can’t come soon enough. Somewhere in the scrum is the Escape, a popular two-row model in its twilight years. Today’s market offers a wide range of choices, from glorified hatchbacks to those just big enough to shoehorn in an impossibly small third row. To see what’s new for 2012, click here, or check out a side-by-side comparison of the two model years.Įven in its aged state, the 2011 Ford Escape still hits a sweet spot in terms of ride comfort, but its drab interior and clumsy handling leave it behind the increasingly flashy competition.Ĭar shoppers expressed their love for small crossovers more than a decade ago, and the auto industry responded. Little of substance has changed with this year’s model. Sgeffe I'm wondering if any tooling or whatnot from the original was used in the production of this beast.Editor’s note: This review was written in April 2011 about the 2011 Ford Escape.That 50% is predominantly unskilled labour. 50% of the total workforce over the next 20 years is at risk. Lou_BC I find it interesting that many act like it's just UAW jobs at risk from "robots".Analoggrotto Toyota will have refreshed almost the entire lineup by next year, sure they phoned a lot of it in (Land Cruiser-GX, GH-TX, Century.) but they are ready with fresh product instead of cancelling the entire show. Where's Bruno Sacco when you need him?Also, what's with the "hood" that doesn't open AND has panel gaps that are '92 Saturn wide? Back to the drawing board, guys. The culprit would probably be styling - whose idea was it to make those jellybean-mobiles? The EQS says "updated Olds Aurora" to me, and that car was a bomb back in '95. They were all in on the "EV by 2030 or bust" thing, which depended on their EVs not being sucky.which they pretty much are. I’m here to say that, while I was skeptical of this stunt, I’m now a believer. Ford is using one of its oldest, highest-mileage hybrids to sell journalists and the general public on the durability of this solution to electrified motoring. It’s been stripped of the meter and medallion, of course – can’t have shrimp-eating journalists trying to double-dip by hacking while being a hack – but otherwise is very close to how it rolled into Ford’s care a few months back. It’s the 2012 Ford Escape Hybrid Taxi, fresh from service on the mean streets of New York City, and with over four hundred thousand miles on the original hybrid powertrain. Yes, we know the design of this venerable website hasn’t changed significantly since then, but you have to trust us on this one – it is indeed late 2019, and yet I’m driving a cab from 2012. Despite all appearances to the contrary, you have not been magically transported back in time to halfway through the Obama administration.
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