I thought about an Escape, but bought my wife a CR-V instead. I liked the fact that the Escape had a V6, but I couldn't get over the fact that the Escape has bad crash ratings.

 

and the fact that its a ford and is going to fall apart on you. i would rather have a crv personally.

but if you really want a subaru but can't afford a wrx, look into getting a ts wagon or something. thats definatly cheaper.

 

I didn't want to mention it at first, but what wrx ish said is probably true.

 

I've done a lot of driving in an Escape. First of all I have to say I was impressed by the little v6 and the interior, while plasticy, was satisfactory. It feels like it has more room than the other small SUV's I've driven. As far as road manners it was a little squirly in the ice I much prefered my legacy to it. Despite the good presentation of the car the week after the purchase of the Escape it was in the shop for repairs. The warranty covered the defective part but it was suprising nonetheless. There havent been any issues with the car since then, but it has made me wonder if it will die far sooner than it should.

 

I work for a ford dealer and the escapes only problems are, you may get a cel due to moisture that gets in the dpfe from the egr, rear end humming cause ford decided to go with an all aluminum rear end housing, they seem to lose their preload,resulting in exsessive backlash between the ring and pinion. i cant even count how many of these rears ive replaced, but good thing is they always go bad while the warranty is still good lol. last is you may have a shutter while accelerating due to a needed pcm update/reburn for the shift strategies and torque converter lockup,and also a change in line pressure. the reburn seems to take care of them all pretty well. anyways just sharing the known quirks.

 

TS wagon, definately. I'm not saying this car is the fastest, I own one and I KNOW it is quite slow in anything but a start.

But I'll tell you, I've had a number of idiot SUV drivers try to jump out and cut in front of me at lights, and the torque coming from the 2.5TS engine has always been more than enough to prevent them from doing it.

And that's with a feather light start, I never launch the car hard.

The TS is also going to last a lot longer than any Ford. And from what I've heard the CRV has some problems with the 4WD system breaking down.

 

Look under an Escape, the exhaust is designed soooo badly. It is so bad that it is kind of funny. Check out Jeep, my girls Cherokee has 180,000 miles on it, almost no rust, origional motor and tranny, just replaced the thermostat and water pump last weekend. That was the worst problem she has had since 120,000 miles when she bought it. I agree with a TS, better off road/crappy road condion AWD system, looks better, will run for a much longer time than the Escape. Since you want somthing with some umph, there are performance upgrades for it in the shape of 2.5 rs and such exhaust, intake, body modifications, and there is alot more help from subie enthusiests than escape enthusiests if there is such a thing. VW have very reliable vehicles too. This is the big question for the moulah issue, do you want new or used?

Good Luck,

Nick

 

ok i'm exaggerating- owned a ford mustang(loved it) awesome car. i borrowed my cousins excape for 3 weeks. i liked it, but the bottom line is its an american product. does it snow where you're at? if so...go ts wagon. the power might be in question versus a v-6 excape but how fast do u really wanna go? if you really gotta save money go ahead with the ford because the book values are definitely lower than a subaru---if u plan on keeping the car for "life" i think everyone in here will recommend the subaru...

das jus me...