solomonschris

I have had Ford 150's and one Tundra is my boat yards. The 150 is far more rugged mechanically but the interior is not as durable. This is after 225,000 miles in each case.
A semi-inlaw is involved with Yellow Cab in SF. They have to have an increasing percentage of hybrid vehicles in their fleet each year. They tried Prius and found that cab service had them falling apart at 70,000 miles. They switched to Ford Focus .hybrid and Escape hybrids and he claims they never break. He told me they have some with over 300,000 miles on their original battery pack! Cheers....Chris

CP

Chuck,

The Escape hybrid has steller reviews. I should go check out their seats and see if they improved any. The ones in my BIL's car really sucked.

CP

Travis

We took the plunge and bought a Flex in '09. It's an AWD limited model and a first year model to boot.

Right after we bought it, we drove straight up to Yellowstone from SF, all told about 3.5K mile road trip. Made it back and forth without incident. Whew.

During our research, we put 'buy American' as one of our criteria as a nice to have, but not a must have. Ford was in the mix mainly because of the Flex. We shopped the Traverse and the cousins, Acadia, Outlook, Buick blah blah blah. Mazda CX-9 and a couple others were considered as well.

The design, overall driving dynamic (it actually handles very well for a 2.5 ton vehicle) and functionality of the vehicle was what sold us. The rebates also helped a ton (almost $9.5K off of sticker)

After 2 years, we've had a few incidents, one major, the rest minor. My wife got stuck on the freeway when the ECU fried itself on the freeway at speed. Dealer service was decent, no different than BMW or Audi as far as I can compare.

Is it as luxurious as a Benz or BMW? Heck no, but it's not supposed to be either. Build quality? Not quite either, but so far so good...We're happy though so perhaps that's the a good indicator.

CP, the Escape is supposed to have a refresh available late in 2012 as 2013 model? Looks more modern than the ho hum current body style. It's not the Kuga model as in the pics, but the Escape is supposed to be based on the Vertek concept.

cheers,

-travis

JM993

Nice Darin. Here's mine with a few updates since you last saw it.....

aron in toronto

I had an Escape as a rental a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised. So much so that when I was shopping for a new DD I looked at them again but decided they were to small for my needs and that an Edge was a better fit and far better quality than the traverse from Chevy. The only issue with the Edge is that I needed/wanted a third row which its cousin the Mazda CX-9 has and which I bought.

I had hoped to come home in an American vehicle but the Mazda won out.

993/907

Though I haven't driven a Ford lately, I sure had fun with the '91 SHO I owned prior to buying my '95 993.

4 door family sedan with a nice 6 speed and high revving Yamaha designed engine...surprised a lot of street racers when Pops was beating them to the next light.

tcsracing1

todays ford is a good product.

good heavy duty trucks
the mustang has never been better and with the coyote 5.0L engine it is a true performer.

ford motorsports parts are nice product for those who use them.

the ford f-150 with 5.0L motor is a great addition.

raptor truck, Ford GT...... great products.

ford really is a neat domestic option if looking for affordable transportation.

nile13

CP, one of the main issues with buying a new Ford is having to deal with Ford dealership. You wife might not like it much after Lexus.

993/907

Yup, nicely designed products, reliable....and a BIG PLUS....they didn't need bailout money to survive, a tip of the cap to them.