Surely with the popularity of the Escape, Ford would reconsider. I guess it will depend on how many Edge's they sell.

 

Bold New Moves.

 

There's no way ford is going to drop the escape after 08, it sells to well, it's not in the same class as the edge and they just spent money to redesign and retool for it. The new craze is crossovers, the more the merrier. The escape is thier epa champion with the hybrid. My 01 v6 escape got 18-19 around town and 24 highway, so I don't see how it's a gass guzzler and mine was a awd to boot. Also there's the duratec 2.3 option besides the hybrid and v6. It's a very versitle vehicle, it appeals to the young and middle aged alike. Bill Ford might have done something stupid like kill the escape, but the new is asking why they let the taurus die a slow death after being the best selling car in america. He feels that they need to build on thier sucesses, not let them die a slow death. 3 of thier sucesses has been the escape, ranger and focus, the focus and escape are new for 08 and the ranger for 09. The escape doesn't need a new power trains, if it isn't broke, why fix it. I'm sure they will continue to improve mpg, as a matter of fact, the 08 escape is going to get the 6 speed automatic, that alone will help, so there is a drivetrain improvement for 08, the tranny.

 

Maybe this will help or add more to the rumor:

Ford confirms new transmissions

Those disappointed with the 4-speeds in the F-150 and Escape/Mariner/Tribute can rest easy.

They will both soon be getting 6-speed transmissions. This information is nestled into a press release announcing $866 million in investment in Michigan.

* Van Dyke Transmission Plant received $320 million to install a flexible machining line to assemble a fuel-efficient, high performance 6-speed, front-wheel drive transmission for the next generation Ford Escape.

* Livonia Transmission Plant received $88 million to install flexible tooling to increase its production of a fuel-efficient, high performance 6-speed, rear-wheel drive transmission for the 2009 Ford F-150.

Source: Ford Motor

It’s not clear when the next generation Ford Escape is due. The likelihood is that, like the Focus, its lifespan has been considerably shortened, as Ford moves to increase global platform sharing (both the Escape and Focus ride on orphaned platforms). While the Escape is sold globally and assembled both in Japan and Kansas City, the Focus is only sold in North America and only assembled at Wayne.

Ford’s investment in Wayne is sufficient only to purchase new tooling for the Focus, therefore, the future for this plant is still somewhat up in the air, as it is not a flex plant.

This was taken from BlueOvalNews.com and linked to this Media.Ford.com article.

 

How do you mean not-too-efficient ?

 

I am not speaking for DoctorCAD, but expressing my own opinion. For vehicle of the size of the Escape, fuel efficiency is lacking. The mpg that the Escapes gets seems it would be more on the order of what the Explorer should get, but of course we know the Explorer is worse off than the Escape. Typically a vehicle the size of the gasoline powered Escape should try to achieve a mpg rating more like 22/26 and that is with the V6 engine and auto trans. It seems the combination of the 3.0 V6 and CD4E is a bad mismatch attributing to the poor gas mileage of the Escape.
What makes it more noticable is the small gas tank Ford used in the Escape. Most Escape owners are constantly filling up their tanks, at least those who use their vehicle for commuting back and forth to work. For a vehicle getting such poor gas mileage, a 20 gallon tank should of been the minimum size used.
Going on an extended length trip you will be stopping every 350 to 400 miles for gasoline and that is with all highway driving.
I would consider that not-too-efficient..

 

VERY cool, I was looking at an Escape, to attempt.......... to replace my 86 BII......In a lot of ways I completely agree, I thought it would have been a bit better on MPG……I am wondering how well the 08 will do if any at all!

 

Puts in my 2 cents Gearing has alot to do with mpg in any vehicle if you were to put say 3.09 or 3.27 gears in a escape then you would great mpg but if you go with deep gears say 3.73 or 4.10 gears your mpg goes down and your rpm's go up until you put on the correct size tires to bring your rpm's back down.

 

I've had 4x4's all my life and still do, the mpg of an escape is good compared to alot of others. I'll take 24 mpg highway all day with 200 hp and 4wd. If you don't think escapes mileage is decent, you should try driving my v6 jeep liberty, or a 4x4 ranger. A guy on the ranger forum was talking about his friends tacoma. It's a 4 cylinder 4x4 and he gets 17-18 mpg. 4x4 systems create weight and drag, not as bad on the escape, cause it doesn't have a t-case, but it's still there. I can't speak for the 2wd ones, but the 4x4's do pretty good and when they get the 6 speed, will do even better. If you buy a 4x4 looking for great mpg, your barking up the wrong tree, that dog won't hunt as they say. I would like to see a 6 speed manual behind the v6, that would unlease more useable power and add to the mpg, but I'm sure thats gonna happen !

 

My '04 was only FWD and I was lucky to get 17 mpg on my daily commute to work (24 miles, mix of highway and "Parkway" type roads), even worse in the winter. That was maybe a 1 mpg improvement over the 1999 Explorer 4.0 SOHC that I traded in for it. To me that was unacceptable.

I did one long trip in the '04 (3000± round trip) and was able to squeeze 27 mpg out of one tank but that was in near perfect conditions - 65 mph, 100% highway, decent weather. I could have lived with that but pure highway driving is rare for me these days.

I have a dumb question though. When the Escape gets a 6 speed auto, will this improve highway mileage at all? The ratio for the highest gear will probably be the same. Even in city driving, does the Escape really need more gears - I always thought the V6 had a pretty good power band and never remember it struggling in any gear nor over revving.

 

With all of the Escapes running around this area Ford would be making a huge mistake discontinuing it. Although I don't think they will any time soon. I like the concept of the 6 speed. Mated to the 2.3 and proper tuning 35mpg or more would be possible. When we bought our 04 with the 3.0 my only regret was not buying a 05+ with the 2.3L. The power of the 3.0 is nice but I could give up 50 ponies for 7 more mpg. I did get the 2.3 in my Ranger and never regretted it.

 

The only reason I brought up the "not-to-efficient" statement, is when I went looking for an Escape I tested drove the same year Honda CR-V (2003). Comparing the two it was hard seeing any difference in performance, but more than likely there probably was in certain situations. The V-6 Escape had only 40 more horsepower than the CR-V had, but the gas mileage of the CR-V was 22/26, this with 4wd and Auto trans. There were a few reasons I did not buy the CR-V, most significantly was the price. Same year Honda CR-V with 20K more miles on it than the Escape was $4000 more than the Escape. I paid $14K for my 2003 Escape with 31K on the odometer back in October of 2005 at the same dealership they had a 2003 CR-V with 52K on the od and were asking $18,999 for it! I probably could of got it for $18K. Just shows you the re-sale value of Honda versus Ford..

I also did not like the shifter on the dashboard of the CR-V, looked kind of funky if you ask me, also the back hatch door opened liked a regular door, where the Escape lifts up...

 

It is not a dumb question at all especially when I compare my Mariner to my parent's Mercedes Benz ML. My Mariner gets between 19 and 23 mpg in mixed driving which is about the same for my parent's ML. That is pretty poor considering the ML weights more, has a larger engine, and has a transfer case with low range. IMO it is the whole package that Ford missed something. The Escape/Mariner/Tribute is a nice package, but it should be better than what it is.

 

The Escape can get good MPG, Our 2005 fwd 2.3L with 5 speed gets consitent 24+mpg in city driving and 29-32MPG on cruise control at 70mph or under. Wind and road speed play a big factor with the Escape as they are very tall and boxy. rpm at 70mph is 3000.

My opinion is the fwd 2.3L is the best kept secret. It will go through more snow than most people will ever need to and has very good power (at least with stick shift, I have not personally driven the auto).
Dan

 

You are absolutely correct, but maybe you are missing the point. I think the discussion is based upon the convenience of an automatic transmission, the power of a V-6 engine, and safety of AWD (4WD) when conditions warrant.

There is no doubt that the I4 combined with the manual transmission in the Ford Escape is indeed great on fuel and gets good mpg.