So my car's in the shop, and I'm driving this fully loaded Escape Titanium for almost 2 weeks now. Here is my short review..
The car is very luxurious and the interior is superb. The materials are a league higher than our cars, but a bit less fancy than a Fusion. Interior room and flexibility is excellent. Cargo area is enormous, and the rear seats fold flat to give you even more space for moving large objects.
Ride quality is good. Speed bumps in NYC could be taken at 20mph without much drama. Steering is decent but less sharp than our cars (longer ratio too), brakes are less touchy, and body roll is tremendous. The stability control cannot be turned off from what I can see - not even a button for it.
This particular car has the parking feature - it will parallel park for you. Unfortunately it will not fit into spaces that are the exact legnth of the car or just a few inches larger, as I have to do here in Manhattan pretty often. And sometimes, it will park itself more than a foot from the curb, which is kind of extreme and makes me the car furthest out toward the street..
The rear hatch is powered and you can swing your foot under the rear bumper to open it and close it if your hands are full.. Unfortunately, since it powered, it's almost impossible to operate it manually.. it will fight you and not latch if you just want to overpower it and slam it closed... and waiting for the power hatch to open and close is annoying.. it's too slow.
This Escape has a 2.0 EcoBoost and the average MPG so far is 19.. Exactly the same driving that I do in my FiST Yields about 27mpg..
One last thing. Automatic transmissions have come a very long way.. it is almost bearable in this car in sport mode, but still not quite.. I found myself missing my manual gearbox at least twice on my daily commute.
Conclusion: If I wanted a small SUV for myself, I would probably not buy the Escape and go for a Mazda CX5, which is way less fancy and slower, but more sporty. To everyone else, the Escape is pretty hard to beat in its class. It's extremely nice to drive, looks good, and feel like it's really well put together... And that power panoramic roof is SICK!
The car is very luxurious and the interior is superb. The materials are a league higher than our cars, but a bit less fancy than a Fusion. Interior room and flexibility is excellent. Cargo area is enormous, and the rear seats fold flat to give you even more space for moving large objects.
Ride quality is good. Speed bumps in NYC could be taken at 20mph without much drama. Steering is decent but less sharp than our cars (longer ratio too), brakes are less touchy, and body roll is tremendous. The stability control cannot be turned off from what I can see - not even a button for it.
This particular car has the parking feature - it will parallel park for you. Unfortunately it will not fit into spaces that are the exact legnth of the car or just a few inches larger, as I have to do here in Manhattan pretty often. And sometimes, it will park itself more than a foot from the curb, which is kind of extreme and makes me the car furthest out toward the street..
The rear hatch is powered and you can swing your foot under the rear bumper to open it and close it if your hands are full.. Unfortunately, since it powered, it's almost impossible to operate it manually.. it will fight you and not latch if you just want to overpower it and slam it closed... and waiting for the power hatch to open and close is annoying.. it's too slow.
This Escape has a 2.0 EcoBoost and the average MPG so far is 19.. Exactly the same driving that I do in my FiST Yields about 27mpg..
One last thing. Automatic transmissions have come a very long way.. it is almost bearable in this car in sport mode, but still not quite.. I found myself missing my manual gearbox at least twice on my daily commute.
Conclusion: If I wanted a small SUV for myself, I would probably not buy the Escape and go for a Mazda CX5, which is way less fancy and slower, but more sporty. To everyone else, the Escape is pretty hard to beat in its class. It's extremely nice to drive, looks good, and feel like it's really well put together... And that power panoramic roof is SICK!
![[:0]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_shock.gif "Shocked [:0]"){kind=icon}
