Capsule Review: 2015 Ford Escape Titanium AWD - After only a brief stint in 2015 Ford Escape tester last week, I was already angry again...
After only a brief stint in 2015 Ford Escape tester last week, I was already angry against this very optioned Titanium AWD specimen [
anger has nothing to do with our first record to the other side of Halifax. And I'm not even in the Escape, let alone driving, when my resentment blossomed. I shoveled our input during a lull in the snowstorm that left New York in peace, hammered Boston, and slathered the capital of Nova Scotia with ice after a few inches of snow fell. With four vehicles stuck in our little alley to avoid the parking ban on Winter Street, the tailgate of the Escape insisted on opening its own agreement with frustrating frequency.
• USD As-tested price: $ 38,075
• Power: 231 @ 5500 rpm
• torque: 270 lb-ft at 3000 rpm
• observed fuel economy: 19 mpg
grocery Brewed? Yes, tailgate handsfree opening might be useful, if you can maintain your balance while maintaining the feed in your right hand, perching on 15-month-old child on the left hip, and do the jitterbug in the rear bumper.
But when you are committed to clear a driveway of snow and a hatch opens again and again and again ... and again, allowing a large amount snow blown into the car, a shovel tailgate activated becomes the worst few ever fitted to a modern car kit. As memory recalls, when a foot waving called hands-free tailgate to open in our Ford C-Max car test two winters ago, he generally refused. Now when I shovel into a winter storm with keys to several cars in my pocket, the tailgate of the Escape gets overzealous. What must the neighbors think?
Fortunately, during the week we spent with a 2015 escape provided to us by Ford Canada, nothing else has created this irritability.
The Escape, now the third model year of its second generation, are not without persistent faults. MyFordTouch does not really bother me, but need to reach and turn my Spiderman shaped wrist like to use the lower part of the screen is not cool. The upgraded stereo Sony never impressed. A number of internal bits, including the steering wheel "leather-wrapped" and the rods mounted on the column, are downmarket items suitable for cars in another spectrum of prices, as well as noise levels and vibrations that are their way into the cabin. the defroster is painfully slow. 240 horsepower (231 on regular fuel) does not feel as special as you think 240 horsepower would feel in a small SUV because the horses are saddled with nearly 3800 books . energy efficiency real world measured a daunting 19 miles per gallon, hampered by the freshness of our escape who traveled from the factory to our door. (the escape is rated at 21 mpg in town, 28 on the highway .) Worse from the disappointments of the escape, the general interior space does not come close to matching the Honda CR-V in which we wallowed earlier in January
.But a week of training in 2015 Escape, with its torquey 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder and the Euro Ford dynamic, it was easy to see why this is still the most sold second American utility vehicle. To really drive the Escape - not only reside there, but to engage in the process - is to realize that the pleasant road behavior can be found in a high crossover of riding, even one that is not made by a premium brand.
The ride / handling balance is wonderfully refined. The suspension, even on 19-inch wheels, the impact of hard road imperfections masks while remaining communicative enough for the driver to feel confident on a winding road. It is more agile and tossable the CR-V, but its heavy curb weight Escape holds back the anxious feeling of the Mazda CX-5, the latest version of which we tested tipped the scales with 233 fewer books that Ford. Steering feel is mostly absent, as it is in almost every new car on sale today, but the rack of the Escape is fast and consistent. The brake pedal would be facilitated by a somewhat more gradual, and the 6-speed automatic could be held to sacrifice some of its smooth slushiness for more rapid changes.
The Ford still ranks among the best choices of live pilot in the small SUV category / crossover, while the 2.0L EcoBoost does not turn the small escape in a pocket rocket.
to $ 38.075 as-tested (Titanium AWD Escapes start at $ 33,085), it is also among the most expensive candidate, if our example was certainly loaded with high-tech gear. Ford Active Park Assist needs to work perfectly without fault, and it always has in my hands, or rather, free from my hands. Blind Spot monitoring, Cross Traffic Alert, access local, navigation, sunroof: it's all there. The problem with that is an escape that burden is the wide range of SUVs and crossovers available for the same price, many will suffer from a viewpoint of the equipment, but will more than compensate for their poorer spec with space additional usable.
But how many of them will drive more slowly? If space is sufficient for you - and it is clearly acceptable for hundreds of thousands of buyers every year -. Then the knowledge that other small SUVs offer more space for people and goods are not terribly relevant
In this case, the 2.0L EcoBoost Escape is a charming device, especially if it has a lower level of equipment that would not cause it to be compared with its upscale brother, Lincoln MKC. Especially if tailgate remains firmly fixed in the middle of a nor'easter January.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net , which obsesses on free and frequent publication of US and Canadian sales figures of automobiles.
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