Does the engine sit sideways in it with it being front wheel drive?
How bout an "under the hood" picture?

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Jim

good deal man. I wish now I had bought a small SUV or a truck but I am not going to get rid of my cars and I really dont want to add a third car to the stable.

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1984 300SD Orient Red/ Palomino
1989 560SEC
2016 Mazda 6 6 speed manual
1995 Ford F-150 reg cab 4.9 5speed manual

Congrats!!

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Hey, congrats on the new purchase! We bought a 2012 Escape a year ago, also have the 2.5 but with the auto. Really like it, compact size (shorter than my C230) but with tons of interior space. Decent gas mileage for an SUV and a comfortable highway cruiser. Wife likes it because it's easy to drive and tall. Had a speaker go bad on us after a few months (fixed under warranty) and the interior quality isn't as nice as it could be, but the mechanicals and the chassis seem pretty good.

Had to add a hitch, and adding a smoke colored bugflector to give it some personality. Also will be painting the chrome grill black for a less feminine look.

Returning 24mpg intown with a heavy foot, and does everything I want it to perfect so far. Minor complaints so far are the pass seat belt doesnt retract very fast (warranty), the alignment isnt perfect (Thank you russ darrow honda, you SUCK!), but otherwise I love it.

Any engine work, ever, should be fall off a log easy. Tons of room. No covers. Can see and touch everything no problem.

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Sounds like you got a great deal. My wife had one as a company car years ago and I thought it was a great little car. Sure beat the pants off the Equinox she got after they retired the Escape. The Equinox was a total POS.

One of my nieces ordered a new Ford Escape last week from a dealer in the Kansas City, MO area. The only detail I got on it was that she ordered 4X4. No other info on it. Nice to read they have timing chains - that's a plus to me.

In the food chain of Ford SUVs - is the next step-up, Explorer, then Edge? The Ford Edge looks like one fine mid-sized SUV.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

The food chain is correct! Escape, Explorer, then Edge. I think the Edge looks weird! But I'm more of a small vehicle persona anyways.

2013 Escapes may be prone to starting on fire, if it's "eco boost" equipped,

~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

After living with the truck for a month, I wanted to touch back.

I'm getting around 24mpg in town if driven delicately, and up to 28mpg highway, again, if driven delicately.

Engine power is good, merges arent a challenge. It's not a fast vehicle, but it more then keeps up with traffic. For towing I've pulled a neon on a dolly and it did just great. The engine is a bit noisy, but not intrusively so. It's got a nice growl at WOT, I'm ok with that.

The transmission is clunky, but so are all SUV manual transmissions. Only complaint is that if you are moving more then 5mph, it does NOT like to go back into first gear. May as well stop, or grab 2nd. It's got enough low end power, unless you have a trailer on.

The stabilitrac is a babysitter of the WORST kind, I CANNOT make the truck slide in a parking lot. The parking brake is on the floor next to the clutch, so I cant even e-brake slide it. Rather unfortunate, but I'm sure that's part of "moving up" in the food chain of vehicles.

Radio and HVAC controls are well laid out, and a very easy thing to use. Not quite instinctive radio controls, but Ive learned them. The base radio gets fairly loud, and sounds decent. It's not great, but it's pretty good.

Interior fit and finish? No complaints.

Complaints so far? Folding the rear seats down is dumb. You need to remove the headrests, and put them "somewhere" fold the bottoms of the seats down, then fold the tops of the seats down. It is a 60/40 split rear, which is nice, but seriously, where did they think you were going to put the headrests?

Also dont like the light colored interior, it gets dirty, quickly, and I try to keep it spotless. They didnt make a darker interior, and I got the charcoal seats verses the white cloth seats.

It's been in for warranty once, for the passenger seat belt. It also has a crunching noise in the drivers seatback. I think it was owned by obese people, as neither have ever been reported on any of the escape forums I'm on. I'll wait on the seat to see if it gets worse. I only notice it

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Unfortunatly any newer car used as a daily driver will not last forever. I try to evaluate what is the best point for us to dump them.

There are formulas to follow. Or create your own. The best one can hope for is to minumise the average cost over the ownership years.

On our latest car two to three years of ownership looks like the lowest per year cost. It will stil have some power train warranty left. My wife does not really pile up the miles usually. This one is hers.

Beyond that in her situation runnning it into the ground makes some sense. I try to buy cars with consistant higher resale values. That does reduce the front end true cost in an abstract way. Of course the fly in the ointment is things can change over even the short term.

Buying decent auction cars a couple of years ago and driving them for the following two years. They are worth more on the open market now than they cost back then. The auctions are now priced too high in general now to pull this off. Things have seriously changed in the last two years.

One must have a dealership license to attend an auction, correct?

Wish I could have found this one at auction, nobody wants a 5 speed SUV anymore. I bought it at "good" private party value from a dealership, and have 6 years 100k aftermarket warranty on it.

Hopefully nothing major happens, but my formula was to find something simple that I could live with. I can do any foreseeable repairs on it myself, it's a very simple rig. Clutch changes would appear to be easy. Brakes are simple. Tune up is slightly harder then falling off a log. Parts should be cheap and available as well (Chassis is hardly changed from 2001-2012)

The forums arent anywhere NEAR peachparts though, too many grocery getters, nobody wanting to so much as change their own oil. Such is a new car thing I suppose.


~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Thought I'd share an update on the truck.

So far, it's been to the dealership 2x, one for a slow to retract seatbelt (airbag actuated thing, $600, free because of warranty) and one for a dead speaker and ratteling exhaust. Other then that, I've put on 10k miles, and had the oil changed twice.

Its comfey, truly. Great visibility. Love the interior layout (SIMPLE). It has an OK radio system (see dead speaker), but I'd love some actual bass. Hmmm. It handles predictably, in all weather, even when I forget it's a SUV not one of my neons. It does actually corner well without a huge amount of lumbering body roll. Surprising, because the reviews say otherwise, in a BIG way. With the snow and cold temps, I'm averaging 23mpg overall via fulley, highway brings it up to low 30's if I'm BELOW 70mph. I got 26mpg at 85mph with 3 people with me and an engine in the cargo area.

Also, the rear seat folding idea is stupid. Seat bottoms fold up to the front seats, one must remove the rear seatback headrests (3) and put them somewhere clean?, then fold the seatback in. It's a stupid pain in the ass.

Dont love the engine noise, it's a bit louder at idle then I'd like, and it sounds like a sewing machine.

The battery is where the air filter should be, and vise versa. The air intake makes 6 90 degree bends to get to the throttle body, and the throttle body points directly at the battery. Who's the idiot that figured out that airstream path?

Oh, and I got fired 2 weeks after I bought it. Been working at another place, and decided to go back to school... And then the ftards in office cut my tuition assistance, and made my tricare costs go up. Been a rough few months, but, I love the truck, and am doing well financially still.

It's a rough world out there for sure.
~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

All the cars that I've had with folding rear seats -- Jetta, Saab/900, Volvo wagon, Subaru Legacy -- were set up that way. I think the problem is that if just the back folded down, you'd have a very high flat floor, or the folded seat would have to be higher than the trunk floor.

Maybe it would be doable in a FWD-only car with no tunnel (i.e. like a Citroen DS) -- the rear seat bottom could drop to the floor with the back folding over it.

Update from my Brother the (Dad of Daughter that bought the new 4X4 Escape in K.C.)

He drove it when she came to visit, and he said it feels very solid. -He drives a lot of miles in his Ford Fusion company car (45K) a year, so I would believe his assessment of driving the Escape.

My feel is that they look too small if involved in an accident - but I'm a worry-wart on wanting something of size around me like a Ford Edge OR Explorer - from just looking at the Ford SUV food chain - but that's just my impression of them.

I would (probably) buy an Edge in a minute, if I had need for one - they look like real nice SUVs, and just about the right size for me. -This, from a loyal fan of Jeep guy.......

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

I remember it being "Explorer, Expedition, Excursion", before it went to "Escape, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion", and then I thought it became "Escape, Edge, Explorer, Expedition (Expedition EL replacing the Excursion), and then "Escape, Edge, Explorer, Flex (boy, that thing is ugly), Expedition". That last one is from Ford's website, and the Edge is also still considered a a crossover, where the Explorer is a full-fledged SUV. The Explorer is also more expensive than the Edge.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."