Wow! Post that in a Hybrid forum and you'll be attacked!!!! Many have stated that FWD Escape is so good in snow that 4WD/AWD isn't even needed!

 

I doubt it. The hybrid forums have their share of people who aren't happy with the hybrid - just like this site has a share of people unhappy with their Ford (fill in the blank model). The people unhappy with the hybrid Escape are outnumbered by the people thrilled with them probably 50:1 or greater. Someone who was given one to drive can't be expected to be as happy with their FEH as someone who chose to buy one. He's probably bitter the Navy didn't give him a Hummer to drive around in. And like most people who are handed the keys to a vehicle they don't own and maintain (plus a gas card), he probably abused the snot out of it.

The fact that it is a hybrid would have absolutely no bearing on how it does in the snow so I'd say that part of it is a criticism of the vehicle itself. There are enough of us here who have had good experiences with their Escapes in the snow to know how they are.

 

this comment is proof we all have our own likes and dislikes. not everyone is the same. as far as i have heard,you are the first negative comment concerning the overall impression of the Escape. a persons impression of a vehicle is influenced by what their expectations of the that vehicle are. a F350 crewcab dually 4x4 superduty deisel, wont impress the guy that compares it to the cornering capabilities of a ferrari,of a mustang,etc. our escape would not compare to my f350 dually 4x4 in power or towing either. our escape is a great little rig.it serves us well. it is great on gas,easy to drive in town or on the highway,it is easy to park at the mall. our escape fwd is good in the snow even with the factory tires. i would not expect it to be my next mud bogger, or extreme offroad buggy for rock crawling. we find it to be roomy and it is comfortable to take on long trips too. the escape does exactly what we bought it for, it's my wifes truck and she loves it.

 

Please reread my post, nowhere did I link the two statements! A FEH at 23mpg is poor. Questioning anything pertaining to a FEH when you don't own one in a FEH forum is sudden death! Been there done that!! I've been placed on several user's ignore lists.

Ah! No wonder, two FEH! Why are you people so defensive?

 

You people? You have something against minorities?

If you read what I posted you will understand what I was talking about - instead you jumpto conclusions. What I said was that there are people who own hybrids who are unhappy with them (for various reasons) and their opinions aren't attacked - in fact, someone who has driven one for 50k miles is a valuable asset to the forum for ANY vehicle because they can provide real-world data about how they drive, where they drive and so forth. I don't think anyone in their right mind would want someone buying a vehicle that doesn't suit their needs, driving style and driving conditions. I've encouraged people NOT to buy a hybrid because it wouldn't suit them. But, yeah, going into a forum for any type of vehicle and making uninformed or ignorant statements about that vehicle is probably going to result in your getting hammered and ignored.

As for your mistakenly connecting my two comments in the earlier post, they were separated by paragraphs which means they were separate thoughts. I didn't attribute any of that portion of my post to anything you had to say.

By the way, 23 mpg in an Escape hybrid is much lower than EPA ratings but wouldn't be too hard to imagine. High altitude, mountainous terrain, snow, studded tires, wide open highway all combined with the fact that he didn't own the vehicle and wasn't paying for gas? I'd say he was doing okay. He probably would have been getting 15 mpg or less in the same conditions in a V6 Escape. Put it this way - drive an Escape V6 (or even the 4 cyl in most cases) side by side with the hybrid version in ANY conditions and drive it any way you want and the hybrid version is ALWAYS going to do substantially better...guaranteed.

 

I said that 23mpg was very poor too.

There was no need to mention that he probably wanted a Hummer!

I made no ignorant statements in the Hybrid forum just challenged some of the regulars on 4WD operation. As it turned out, I was correct and they weren't. Also found their ScanGuage-II Xguage 4WD PID to be incorrect.

Have you ever seen a Poll Thread on how many people would like to see a certain user leave a forum? No, it wasn't me either! The only time I seen where a moderator stepped in there. A regular free for all there!

Even the user that did all the ScanGuage progamming for the FEH which is widely used no longer posts there!

 

I used the Hummer as an example but I still think it is a valid point - he may not have like the Escape (hybrid or not) because it isn't the type of vehicle he wanted to drive. Think about it - here is the Navy recruiter pulling into the high school parking lot in an Escape next to the Army or Marine recruiter in a Hummer.....which do you think would attract more attention? The military sells macho and the Escape is a lot of things but it is hardly macho when parked next to a big *** 4x4.

JMO of course.

 

I see a bit of Hybrid defensive attitude in there. Do Marine recruiter's really drive gas guzzing Hummers?

 

I own a 06 Escape Hybrid FWD. I average 33.8mpg based
on hand calculations over 44K miles. It is a different beast
than my 06 F350, but then I use it differently as well.

This Ford is what brought me back after 30yrs of owning
Chevys...

 

Let it go, dude.

And around here, some do.

 

Agreed, something wrong with the Navy recruiter's FEH or his driving style but no need to jump him over it! Question the results and opinion but don't get personal.

 

As I have said many times, driving style and conditions can greatly affect mileage. 24 mpg isn't too hard to imagine in mountainous, snowy conditions.

 

Just picked up a 2010 Escape Limited Hybrid on Wed. Had to drive over a 100+ miles to get to a dealer who had one in stock. So far I love it. Drove home at freeway speeds +70 and got 32 mpg! Amazing how Ford got the 2.5L engine to start and stop so silently. At about 40 mph the engine kicks in and the only way you can tell is the tach moves up. Great ride and looks, no complaints.

 

We bought a 2005 Limited AWD new in 2005 for my wife. She loves her car. She finds the size of the car just right and she can see the 4 corners of the car very well from the driver's seat. Having room to carry stuff when visiting the kids and grandchild are an added plus. The AWD system worked exceptionally well last winter when we experienced several weeks of snow and ice. I also can't complain about how well the car has held up. We have just under 50K on it and have had no issues other than replacing the front brakes at 36K which is to be expected. All in all I have a positive feeling about the car. I do have some issues.

The car is very noisy on the highway. At first I thought it was the Continental tires but even the replacements create enough road noise to make hearing difficult (for a 56 year old). There should be more sound damping material installed. I find the only seat comfortable for long trips (I'm over 6') to be the driver's seat. The back seats are torture especially with the headrests installed. Ford should have made a power passenger seat an option. Maybe they did in later year models. The Information Center is very nice but there is no outside temperature reading or compass feature. I thought that should have been part of the Limited package or at least an option. The switch for the heated seats is in a stupid location. You have to be a contortionist to see if the little light is glowing and why do they automatically shut off? A tempurature control switch mounted where you could actually see it would be a better way to go. Finally I could use a little better instrumentation in the panel.

All said, it is the wife's car and she is happy with it. I typically like a bigger vehicle so that may be coloring the things I don't like about the car. Happy wife, happy life.

 

Do you have your roof rack cross-bars installed? Try taking them off and see if the noise improves. I never use mine so I took them off right after I bought both of mine. Never really thought about noise until I put them on a couple weeks ago to go pick up a Christmas tree. What a racket it made. The 2007 and newer models have a different roof rack design if I remember correctly that doesn't have cross-bars.

Also, regarding the sound damping - I recently rotated the tires on one of mine so I borrowed the jack from the other. I noticed that the 2005 actually has more padding material in the jack storage area than the 2006 has. I found that interesting and wonder if it was a build-cost saving thing.