The Top Line

I’ve been driving a 2001 Escape for the last five years – and I love it. Of course, there are a few things about the vehicle that can drive you crazy – more later. Last year I rented a 2005 and noticed a lot of improvements, so I was hoping for a continuation of that trend with the 2006 model. Recently I was on a business trip in Chiacgo and had an opportunity to rent a 2006 Escape for a week and drive it on a wide variety of roads in different weather conditions. ”I wonder what changes they’ve made?” thought I , “perhaps they took note of my consumer response surveys and all my epinions and fixed something”. And actually .. sadly they didn’t – almost nothing. So not much different from the 2005 review.

The Market

Originally targeted at the low-end market ($18-25k) the Escape, and its competitors are digging into the low-end of regular SUV sales (Explorer) as well as replacing the family sedan and station wagon. This section of the market is growing rapidly and is about the only thing putting a smile on your local Ford dealers face. The mini-SUVs, as they are now called, are bringing this kind of vehicle into new territory. When Ford initially launched the Escape several years ago they estimated that 44% of buyers are women, and nearly 2/3rds are new Ford customers.

If you are looking at this car, check out the Honda CRV, Hyundai Santa Fe, Toyota RAV4 and Saturn Vue. You should also look at the Nissan Xterra and Jeep Liberty if you want something a little rougher and more rugged. Also new on the market this year is the Chevy Equinox, which you could cynically say is the reason Ford updated the 2004 Escape. Although I haven’t personally driven the Equinox it has received good buzz so it is worth checking out.


The Engine

I drove a Hertz fleet 2006 Ford Escape XLT 4 by 4 with a three-litre engine and four-speed automatic transmission. Pay attention to the size of the engine – bigger is better. The 3.0L 24 valve Duratec V6 makes for a zippy ride, serving up 200 horses and 193 pound-feet of torque. Certainly enough to rack up a decent 8.8 seconds for 0-60mph. Pull away from lights is more than respectable and I had no problems merging onto high-speed interstates or overtaking slower-moving cars when needed. The engine, which previously used to get a bit noisy at around 80mph, has apparently been recalibrated, and seems to be quieter and more refined. The constant road noise that used to plague the Escape has definitely been diminished (score #1 for the Ford engineers). The absence of the roar initially made me think they’d compromised on power, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

The Escape can tow up to 3500 pounds, although I have no direct experience of towing anything with either my own 2001 model or this 2006.

In previous years Ford offered the option for the lower-price models of getting a 2.0L manual engine. This magnificent animal used to offer 127 horsepower and was woefully underpowered for the vehicle. Can you say ‘acceleration of a dead sheep” ? New for 2005 was the upgrade of the 2L to a 2.3L , 153 horsepower four cylinder which makes it far more competitive with vehicles such as the Toyota RAV4. Although I have no personal experience with the 2.3L model (which is available in manual or automatic) it was such a major improvement over the 2L model which was so truly awful that my local Ford dealers hardly ever stocked them.

Fuel economy is average at best. I experienced 17mpg driving around the city of Chicago, and about 21mpg on the highway. Which brings me to one of the largest drawbacks of the Ford Escape - THE GAS TANK IS TOO SMALL. Fitting 14 gallons on a good day, you get an effective range of 250 miles. Our local gas station attendant knows me by name. Ford claim it’s a 16 ½ gallon tank, but I just don’t believe them. The 2006 Escape also allegedly has fuel economy figures of 20/25 mpg – but I classify those figures the same way that I judge height/weight stats for NFL players. So the economy has improved over the last 5 years, but not to the point where you stop imagining that the road noise is actually the sound of dollar bills being sucked out of your wallet.

The fuel gauges in the escape operate in “hurry and up wait” mode. This means you drop alarmingly from “F’ to about ֿ/4” , then take a similar amount of time to get to “E”. After a few weeks you learn not to pull into the gas station when the gauge shows ֫/4” otherwise you’re only putting about 9 gallons in – another psychological point which underscores the teeny gas tank size. I’ve noted this “feature” in every Escape I’ve ever driven.


Handling

One of the biases I bring to driving the Escape is the fact that I have owned one for five years, so I pride myself on knowing how all its quirks with regard to safe and efficient cornering impact the driving experience. I drive on the marginally aggressive side of average, without whipping the vehicle into corners and leaving skid marks across the local asphalt.

That said – the vehicle handles well, probably the result of being based upon a car chassis, although if you really put your foot down coming into the turn you can feel the back-end of the vehicle wanting to go its own way and at the same time the front end “leans” into the turn. The steering at regular speeds is “Goldilocks-class” neither too heavy, not too light – so you really get a good feel about what is going on as you speed down the road.

As mentioned previously the road noise has significantly diminished from the prior years models, as the newer styling has also had an impact on wind noise. All in all a major improvement.

Exterior

Only a few changes marked the new 2005 Escape. The front and rear fascias have been reworked, for the better, featuring new headlights and a grille design. Comparing two vehicles side by side I realized that the major difference was that the headlights and fog lamps are now round instead of rectangular and there was a more elegant use of contrast-grey in the paneling. Minor changes, but a definite upscale effect. For 2006 other than a few new colors and a couple of insignificant trim changes the engineers apparently slept through the past 12 months.


The Interior

Wow. The interior has changed from 2001 – but these are all 2005-year modifications. The most noticeable change is the movement of the gear-shift from a clunky column-mount to a center console with a ergonomically designed and “grippy” gear lever. Yeah!! The console itself meshes into the front-end instrument panel.

Also noticeable are newly designed instrument gauges. Initially introduced in 2004 with the white-faced gauges the design was marginally changed in 2005, probably to the overall detriment of look and feel. I personally liked the 2004 version better, but that’s just personal aesthetics. The radio/stereo controls continue to drive me nuts – apparently being a heat-seeking missile for complexity. Something as simple as working the stereo shouldn’t be that hard. When I sat back to figure this out I concluded it was workflow – the controls just weren’t in the physical position I was expecting them to be. One by-product of the gear-shift movement is that the column shift no longer obscures the stereo (or whether the rear-defrost is on or off).

My rental model had cloth seats , which were comfortable enough but I’d probably go for the leather if I was buying one for the family. Most third-party reviews of the leather rate it as so-so, but cloth vs leather for around $300 is a no-brainer. I’m also happy to say that Ford has reverted to the seat designs from earlier years. The 2003 and 2004 driver seats were distinctly uncomfortable and the rear-seats may as well have been a flat park bench; in distinct contrast to the 2001-2002 versions. Thigh support is much improved, and a three hour drive across I-90 left no strain on my hamstrings, which I’ve noticed in some other SUVs.

I also noticed there were still no rear floor mats in my rental. Strange. That happened last year too.

Despite all these minor annoyances, when it comes right down to it, there is a lot of room in these Escapes. The rear seat can be folded down in a 40/60 split (and remember to remove the headrests and tuck them under the front seats before you start) yielding 65 cuft3 of space. The rear seat is also roomy, I managed to fit three six-footers in the back without anyone’s knees getting damaged.

Safety

ABS is now standard on all models ( used to be the XLT and Limited) and all V6 models have 4-wheel disc brakes. The new 2005/6 safety feature is a (optional) Side Canopy system offering full-length head curtain airbags for side collision and rollovers. The Limited also has a reverse sensing system – very useful for parallel parking and making sure you don’t run over your boss who is senselessly standing behind the vehicle. In Government tests the Escape earned a perfect five stars for frontal driver impact and four for the passenger. Side-impact crash tests also yielded five stars.

NHTSA Crash Test Results

Head-on accident Driver GOOD
Head-on accident Passenger GOOD
Side Impact Front EXCELLENT
Side impact Rear EXCELLENT
Rollover Rating NOT TESTED
Offset Crash Tests Acceptable (improvement from Marginal IIHS test-2004 Result)

Reliability

My Ford Escape has never left me FORD (Found On Road Dead) so I should be grateful for that. The Escape has traditionally been one of the most recalled vehicles around – although never for anything really incredibly stupid or dangerous. My friends in the car rental business tell me that their fleets actually age well, although at around 35,000 miles (this is for a 2004) they need a fairly comprehensive overhaul that can easily exceed $1,000 for the general public. My one week with the 2006 yielded no problems.



The Bottom Line

Aside from a pea-sized gas tank and a little more road noise than you’d expect I can’t find a reason not to recommend this mini-SUV if you’re in the market. The 2006 model sports many improvements over the earlier versions, both cosmetic and mechanical, and offers you a sporty, zippy ride. It is not the SUV to buy if you will be spending a lot of time off-road as the 4WD is more for show than necessity, but you can comfortably fit 5 in the vehicle, feel safe driving around town and the highway and know that it is reliable enough to get you there.