Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ford Escape; good, bad and the ugly...

My wife is somewhat interested in buying a used Ford Escape. Anybody have first hand experience with them?

Depends on what vintage you're talking about we've got two of them here. My wife bought a 2015 SE a few years back. This year I traded my truck off on a 2018 SEL with leather and all the schittzle for her and for now I'm driving her old one. Check out consumer reports etc. No one makes much fuss about these little suv's that, let's face it look like all the rest there isn't much imagination in car design any more. But they rate highly for reliability and customer satisfaction. Both of these are the little 1.5 l turvo EcoBoost. Enough power and good mileage.

My wife's brother and his wife and teenage son were involved in a head on collision a few years ago. They were in a Ford Escape, the other vehicle was a GMC Suburban. Each was probably going close to 60 mph. The Suburban crossed over into their lane. The occupants of the Suburban were basically shook up pretty bad. My brother in law and his son were critically injured, and his wife died instantly. The Escape was demolished. The Suburban rolled over but remained pretty well intact.

Buy something rear wheel drive with a good stiff steel frame under it.

I bought a 2018 SE with 26,000 miles on it for 15K. It has the 1.5L Turbo and averages about 25.5 MPG. I took it on a trip that was mostly interstate running 75-80 mph and it got over 30 MPG. It is happiest running 65 MPH + due to the gearing. I think it might become my favorite all-around vehicle. It handles very well on marginal roads and has excellent braking.

So far I have no complaints except I would like a better sound system.

I'm part way in to a comprehensive destructive testing program with the little 2015 that I'm driving. I put a hitch on it, its rated for 2000 lbs I've towed 1500 lbs plus over mountain passes a couple times already and it keeps up with traffic fine. I knock it out of auto mode and use the paddle shifter, at 4000 rpm it sounds happy and does 60 mph up a long infamous grade nearby that has the trucks in the basement doing 30-40. I've got more in reserve the turbo makes decent torque.

I put slightly taller light truck tires on it and have crossed a lot of ditches and deactivated roads just to see what it can do. I've been surprised. I hate that you can't shift it in and out of 4wd, the computer does that. But it does OK. Clearance obviously is the issue, but being so short like I say its surprised me. Its getting scratched up pretty bad. The Catahoula went off on a pit bull that some idjut parked right beside us when I wasn't there. Lots of claw marks on the interior doors now. But there were quite a few before. I do plan on getting a truck as well before long but in the mean time I'm beating on this lil biotch to see what its made of. Hey they're disposable anyway right?

The business that I work for has a 2013 model as a delivery vehicle....it is crap.

I'm quite fond of them.

We have a 2009 RAV4 V6 Limited that we love. We have spent between 3-4 weeks driving a Escape Ecoboost Titanium (rental/loaner). If there is another vehicle (outside of another RAV4) I could see myself buying to replace our RAV4, it is the Escape. Very good vehicle to drive IMO. Seating position, for a 6'1" 270lb non flexible person with back troubles, is very good (fully adjustable seat on the models I've driven), better than the Explorers I've tried. I would seriously consider buying a Titanium.

I had a 2014 Escape with AWD Titanium package on it.

Simply stated, it was the sorriest vehicle I have ever owned.

Underpowered, the AWD was only fair in the snow if more than about 3 inches it was a no go, so-so gas mileage (23 mpg) , and the transmission went out with just under 90K miles on it.

Ford warranty service was a nightmare and I had to get ugly and almost had to sue them to get the tranny fixed.

My experience with the Escape totally soured me on any Ford product and I will never own another.

Shortly after getting the transmission fixed, I traded the Escape for a 2018 Nissan Titan which thus far has been flawless.

I had one for a rental car for about a week. Drove ok and the only thing I would really change is more storage room in the back.

Seriously looked at them, talked to my mechanic[friend] and he mentioned tranny problems.
Ended up with a CRV, love it so far.

I went with a Nissan Murano instead. A bit more room, plain old normally aspirated V-6, very similar mileage. I've got 95K on the Murano (I bought it new) and the only repair has been a wheel bearing under warrantee and that was a no-questions-asked fix in under 3hrs.

208785 miles on a 2002 and still driving every day!!!

We had an older model for several years, can't remember what year. Put about 120,000 miles on it, started having transmission problems, traded it off.

Don't know if true or not but the transmission guy told us the problem (at least with the older ones like ours) was ford /Mazda was putting basically a car transmission in them and expecting it to perform like a suv. He said the trannies in them were too wimpy for the intended use. But he could have been full of it, dunno. The newer ones may have stouter transmissions.

Hastings, sorry for your loss, but there are very few vehicles on the road (aside from other trucks) that would handle a head-on with a Suburban any better.

True about the Suburban. A local guy got hurt a fair bit last year when driving a lifted new-model F150 crewcab 4wd, which is a pretty big truck. He had a head on with a new-model lifted F250 diesel crewcab 4wd. The bigger truck won out and that guy walked away.

You're right. That's why I asked my daughter to get rid of her Kia and start hauling my little grand daughters around in something stouter like a Suburban. Weight and rigidity will almost always win.

Just traded my 13 SEL with 252,000 miles on it. I'm a road warrior, so 90% of my miles is interstate. Great vehicle, and synthetic oil changes every 10k. My only suggestion is to get the 2.0 turbo instead of the 1.5. I traded up to the Edge, Limited, and hope I get the same results

"Blondie! You know what you are Blondie?!"

Best to stay away from cross-dressers.