Originally Posted by Skid Row Joe

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.

Originally Posted by Nate

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