The rust I have is inside the left read door where the outer skin is folded over the inner door. The rust is eating away the steel. The rust is on the inside panel right at the edge of the folded over outer skin. It is not surface rust and the service manager at my dealer agrees. Ford did offer to sandblast and paint the area, but the body man says that will not solve the problem, just cover it up. I have contacted Ford's customer service and basically their response is "no hole, no warranty". They won't even send someone to look at it. The service manager took pictures and sent them to Ford, answer still "no". I am going to try again this fall and hope for some satisfaction.

 

I have a 2009 escape with 38 thousand km , and noticed rust and paint blisters on the lower left corner inside the the rear hatch as well . The local dealer was very quick to suggest a repair under warranty . He sent me to the body shop that they used for an evaluation .The manager said that they could repair the issue but it would only be a temporary fix as he thought that the rust was under the horizontal seam and he could not get at it . I went back to the dealer and told him this and suggested a new real hatch would be appropriate he said if that is what the engineering dept. at Ford Canada recommended that is what I would get . Ford said all I needed was a for the body shop to part the seam sand blast the area fill it with a sealer re crimp the seam and paint . They sent the specs. to the body shop for the repair .
This was there take it or leave it response . They also suggested that I get the dealer installed rust coating at a cost to me of $600.
I had the repair done but wanted Ford to cover all or a portion of the rust proofing . They refused .
I like the vehicle but I will get rid of it soon . By the way it is sport blue in colour if this problem is paint colour specific .

 

That is basically the same result I had. I am going to try again this month. My dealer's service manager feels that the door should be replaced and will try to convince Ford that is the only permanent fix. If that is not successful there won't be any more "Fords in my future". I have been a loyal Ford owner for a number of years. I really like our Escape hybrid, but don't like what has happened. My Escape color is Tungsten grey metallic, so it is probably not a color issue.

 

I have an '03 XLT and thought I had a rust-free vehicle for the first time in my life but your posts made me go out and look. I opened the driver's rear door, which I don't use much, and found some nasty rot going on around the wheel well. It's hidden pretty good when the door is closed by plastic trim so I never noticed.
Guess I've got another spring-time project! Jack
'03 Escape XLT 3.0L
'08 Explorer (wife's car)
'95 F350 7.3L PSD CrewCab 4WD
'90 E150 300/C6
'79 F250 360/C6
'67 VW Bug
'61 VW Singlecab Bus

 

Wow... I see i am not alone. Well, i finally took it in and i basically got the same responses as many here have received. Sorry, only perforation is covered. This is my first Ford and the last.

What with
the transmission shift issues,
the leaking tailgate hatch struts
DS glass close issue
Numerous blown bulbs
Very easily stained cloth seats
And now this...

I would so much like to sell it, move on and never look back

 

No offense but basing a companies quality with one bad experience is dumb.

Back to the rust thing, went out and looked at the 08 escape and it has the rust at the seam on the hatch. This is not my personal escape but i told the owner he needs to shove the car up the dealers ***.

 

No offense however i would tend to say that resorting to insults or name calling would be considered a tad irrelevant to the threads purpose at hand.

Share your logic elsewhere please.

And to just add some substantiation to the thread for those that feel the need to insult,

I have had my Escape in now a total of 7 times for the transmission. And i am no further ahead than i was when i bought it new.

So.... I am not just basing my opinions on this piece of **** on just a single issue. I also list a bunch more just above.. Guess you missed that as well....

 

I was not trying to insult you if that is how you took it, and there were no names directed at anybody, merely stating an opinion. I see the same thing happen on several Ford forums. They get their first ford, have a bad time with it and then swear the company is terrible. My next door neighbor has done the same thing. Its just silly.

Back to the subject, could this be covered under the bumper to bumper warranty? Ford obviously doesn't want to fix them under the corrosion warranty, which is dumb.

 

gecko5- what is happening with your transmission? Something we should all be aware of?

Sorry you have issues with your Escape. I found rust by my driver's rear door and you only see it if you open that door, which I don't have a need to do very often. I did have problems with the alternator burning out because of where Ford located it on the engine back in '03. The alt would tend to overheat. But NAPA has been standing behind their replacement alternators and replaced it free, including labor, last time. Also have issues with the driver's side headlight cable getting crispy when I use the fog lights a lot. Other than that, I have 141K miles on it and it's going good.

Let us know what manufacturer you switch to that doesn't rust or have breakdowns so we can all switch too!

Thanks and good luck. Jack

 

Recently purchased a 2011 Escape and once I had it home and started to polish and wax, I found the rust on the back hatch. It is not visible to me by any means, but you can see small bubbling along the entire length. When I drag a cloth down the seam, I see the brown rust on the rag.
This is a 2011 with 15000 km. There should be no rust...period.
This is a big fail on Ford's part.

I'm sorry, ...you think this is one bad experience? I don't think you should be calling anyone dumb.

 

Please reread what i wrote, i called no one dumb, i merely called the act of bashing a company because of one bad experience dumb.

 

I did read it...did you?
I don't recall gecko5 saying anything about Ford's quality. He listed some issues and said it would be his last ford. You then implied he was dumb.....

 

This whole thread is about quality. I wasn't saying he was dumb, nor was i implying it, i was calling his thought dumb, i even apologized to him in my next post.

 

I thought this thread was about rust issues.....and now you are just sayin' that his thought process was dumb.
...and you did not apologize in the next thread, you denied trying to insult him.
Perhaps you should quit now.....or at the very least, put the pipe down.

 

I believe you also stated that it was your opinion.
Well you know what they say about opinions. They are like ashholes, everyone has one and most of them stink