2010 Ford Escape Hybrid User Reviews

Pros

Love the extra room w/great gas mileage & sitting up higer in an SUV

Cons

2005 w/GPS; so price was higher than it needed to be due to a GPS in 2005

Purchased As New

The perfect vehicle for me. Love sitting up higher, can sleep in the back if I pad it enough. Need that on long trips when driving alone.
Gas mileage is 27/32 without using the air conditioner; using the a/c brings mileage down about 5 mpg.
Usually goes to battery when stopped at stop lights/feel like that is my way of not contributing to global warming. I'm a 'big gal' and there's plenty of leg room and it rides decently.
We had an Explorer that we used for vacations and slept in the back; husband is now deceased. I stayed with the format when I bought the Escape. Hope to have it for 10 years or 100K miles and will certainly consider buying another For Escape Hybrid at that time....read morehide

Pros

Great fuel economy, decent performance, build quality, Sync

Cons

Limited package seems incomplete

Purchased As New

At first I thought the Escape Hybrid was overpriced, but the "Limited" package gives you quite a few nice options (Sync, heated leather seats, reverse assist, moonroof, tire/wheel pkg. trim upgrades) and the dealer offered a considerable discount from sticker as well a good trade-in allowance for my 3yr-old Mustang GT Convertible. When you add in the $3000 Federal income tax credit it turns out to be a pretty good deal.

Having said that, a couple disappointments are with the high-end "Limited" option package. First there's no adjustable lumbar support in the driver's seat as you would expect in such a package (and as there were in my previous two Fords). Also, the "leather seating" is actually just a couple small patches of leather where your butt and back hit the seat - any place your hand reaches is vinyl... I think that at least the whole seat top could be leather. And while I'm griping, there are no assist handles or center armrest in the rear passenger area. That's okay for a base model but not in an expensive Limited package. It would also be nice to have a seat back tilt adjustment for the rear seat.

Aside from those couple of complaints, I'm really enjoying driving the car and I'm very surprised that you would never know that there is only a small 4-cyl. engine for power. When you step on it, the electric motor really provides enough extra oomph to get it moving. I also enjoy watching the car kick into electric-only mode at 35MPH for 2 miles all the way into town from my house. While Ford says to expect mileage will gradually improve over time up to about 32MPG, so far I have averaged about 30MPG combined.

I have experienced no problems at all in the first month and have found that the car is solidly built, with attention to details in fit and finish. It's also surprisingly quiet and smooth for an SUV.

The Sync system is one of the coolest features, handling both my Blackberry and iPod at the same time. The voice commands work great (better than my Blackberry hands-free voice commands) and I didn't need a lot of training to get everything working. Also, I like the fact that it was included without having to buy the overpriced Nav system.

The purchase experience was great too. No multi-hour high-pressure ordeal as I've endured in the past. I researched the car on the internet and did about 90% of the transaction via email and telephone. I did a lunch hour test drive on Friday with no sales pressure when I was finished. On Saturday when my wife and I went down to the store, we were greeted by both the internet salesperson and the general manger and all the paperwork was complete and ready to sign.

Knowing how tough the auto industry is these days, I can honestly say that I think Ford has their act together and I'm happy to be a Ford customer....read morehide