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| 2005 Ford Escape Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
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| Road Test | |||
As with all hybrids, the Escape's main difference is that you often sit at red lights with the engine off, like you're parked. And as with the Prius, you often travel on electric power alone at low speeds until the gas engine takes its 0.4-second moment to fire up and take over. Design differences abound: there's electric power steering (necessary for engine-off driving), regenerative front brakes (the battery's main source of recharging), and a Continuously Variable Transmission. Every command is computer-regulated; floor it in Neutral and nothing happens. Don't be alarmed by the occasional whistle or groan - that's just the generator and regenerative brakes doing their thing.In fact, don't worry about anything; just get in and drive. Adhering to hybrid commandment #1, driving the Escape involves doing nothing differently or feeling anything that doesn't become second-nature after some seat time. Ford engineered a decent amount of realism into the steering - the wheel self-centers and has some weight to it. The firmness of the brakes is a little random but they feel mostly correct, and are less grabby than either Honda's or Toyota's. The suspension is the same as other Escapes, so ride and handling are the same. Another shared piece is the 2.3-liter 4-cylinder, which is a relieving break from hybrid tradition of using a deeply downsized engine. However, Ford put this engine on the "Atkinson cycle" - a diet plan that has it inhaling less air and fuel in the name of 4% better efficiency. Horsepower falls from 153 to 133, which the electric motor restores back to 155. However, those two extra horses carry 365 more pounds than a 4-cylinder Escape, making Ford's claim of "V6-like performance" groundless. Why Ford saddled our tester with another 162 pounds from the all-wheel-drive system (it's a passive system that lacks low-range), I don't know. Underpowered as it may be, the smooth-revving engine never feels strained and the transparent transmission makes the most of it. The fairly early skidding of the P235/70R16 tires can probably be blamed on their high aspect ratio (the middle number) and/or their all-season design. The even more conservative 19.9:1 steering ratio - even slower than a standard Escape's - also makes you wind your arms a lot. Clearly, the Escape Hybrid isn't the best source of typical driving fun. So who needs typical? Fun is in the brain of the beholder, and the hunt for fuel economy becomes its own reward. Try seeing how far you can get in free mileage mode before waking the engine. It usually happens by 10 MPH but can stretch to 20 or 30 if you feather-foot it. Heck, if you drift downhill and stay under 40, you can glide all the way to the bottom without using a drop of gasoline. How satisfying. And in the daily grind, it's always tempting to top your high MPG score, measured in real-time by the computer. Like Tetris, some games never get old. The computer can educate as well as entertain. Its two bar graphs - one for instant fuel economy, another for charting the past 15 minutes - teach you the effects of your driving habits. Acceleration dips mileage to about 10 MPG; coasting downhill on any incline surges the reading to "MAX" (it stops counting at 60). MPH kills MPG: speeding it up from 70 to 80 drops mileage from 28.X to 22.X (does that sound right?). There were instances of inconsistency - an 80 MPH cruise had it reading 22.X one day and 26.X on another (same freeway, same weather) - but over several days, it was hard to get the "last 15 minutes" reading to ever budge from the mid- or high-20s. In other words, the Escape's mileage is about as good in the city as it is on the freeway. That I believe. Freeway driving is naptime for the electric half of the powertrain; all of the savings come from tooling around town. The Escape doesn't make the best cruiser anyway, thanks to excess road and wind noise that give the impression of an SUV that's not screwed together well. (To get rid of the ghostly whir above 40 MPH, remove the roof rack.) And considering the modest handling, the ride could be more controlled. The independent suspension is resilient to most bumps, but the worst ones hit hard and sometimes send you bouncing. Enough of this; just go back to the city where you can enjoy savings, smoothness, and the sounds of silence. My grand score through 1,127 miles of light-footed, mostly-highway driving: 26 MPG. A good guess for a 4-cylinder Escape would be about 21. Frankly, I expected more, especially from a full hybrid. The all-wheel-drive system weighed down our car to some degree and spending more time in the city might have helped, but it's doubtful any Escape owner would see more than 30 in the long-run. Contrast this with Prius owners, who rarely report less than 40. Range wasn't so special either; the only way to realize Ford's claim of "well over 400 miles" is to ignore the computer, which always dinged at me for a refill at 327 miles or less. Still, 26 MPG has the Escape setting one record: it's the most economical SUV on sale. |
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