General Comments:

This is a great little car and drives very smoothly - especially considering that I bought it used with over 90k miles.

Other than oil changes, and an air filter, this car has needed nothing!

It hauls my bass boat just fine - no need for anything bigger.

Great handling, nice acceleration, good brakes...

No complaints at all!!!

Faults:

Peeling gold paint on the roof. After owning the vehicle for 4 years and 11 months/66000 miles (well out of warranty), I took the Escape to my dealer, and they repainted the roof, with Ford covering 50% of the cost. While 100% would have been better, I am happy to have gotten the 50% considering that the vehicle is well out of warranty.

Creaking/squeaking back hatch - The dealer fixed.

Poorly designed garage door opener holder - The dealer could have fixed correctly, but didn't.

General Comments:

Great little SUV. Good gas mileage considering engine power, off road capabilities, decent amount of room on the inside, heated seats are great, tows my 19' boat well.

Ford could have done better on the inside (i.e. door panels, dash board vents, etc.

I went offroading with one of my friends, who has a '05 Jeep Wrangler (6 inches of lift and 33's). I went everywhere he did, including submerging the Escape to the middle of the headlights, then towed his Jeep offthe trail and back to his house. The Jeep has been in and out of the shop for warranty work, for the last 4 months (never spending more than 2 weeks between shop visits). The Escape suffered a bent front license plate, and some water/mud in the fog lights (and it was a pain to clean the underside). I only wish there were a low gear sytem available, and a decent lift kit available. My friends don't laugh at the escape being "not a true 4x4" anymore. The truth is that it is not a true 4x4, but it is durable and handles a lot of abuse well.

Faults:

Paint peeling on lift-gate at glass corners and on rear quarter panels where bottom edge of cargo glass meets body panel.

General Comments:

Paint began peeling several weeks prior to scheduled appointment for annual inspection (at time of appointment paint was only peeling on lift-gate - has since spread to side panels). We requested the service department examine the paint problem and advise on warranty and/or Ford's position on repair. We were informed the peeling paint is not covered under warranty and not covered by Ford. The estimate to repaint the lift-gate only was just shy of $500.00 USD.

Excellent vehicle for varied terrain and climate prone to weather with snow and ice, i.e. Central Pennsylvania. Definitely not an "SUV" or off-road vehicle though.

Excellent fuel economy and agile - drives and handles like a car/vehicle with lower center of gravity.

Very poor materials both interior and exterior.

Faults:

I purchased a 2003 Escape in June 2003. It is one of the gold colored ones. It has only 17,000 miles on it.

The paint has just begun to peel off of the rear tailgate close to the window. There is no primer below, just metal.