Ford Escape
The Ford Escape is a compact crossover SUV, although Ford markets it as a regular SUV. The Ford Escape was introduced in 2000 and it quickly became one of Ford's most popular vehicles. Like many of Ford's most successful vehicles the Escape is actually a version of a Mazda vehicle in this case the Tribute. Following Ford's acquisition of Mazda it quickly became clear that Mazda were much better at designing and engineering vehicles than Ford were. The result is that Ford started to base more and more of it's vehicles on designs that Mazda was already producing. In most cases this turned out to be a very successful strategy and it was with the Escape as well.
The Ford Escape is available with a 2.5 litre Duratec I4 engine that produces 171 horsepower or with a 3.0 litre Duratec V6 that produces 240 horsepower. These engines are upgrades over previous models and in addition to increasing horsepower they are also more fuel efficient. Both engine options are now couple to a six speed automatic transmission, this means that the Escape has the same drive train as the Ford Fusion, a step taken to reduce the cost of building the vehicles. The current model also has a new exhaust system. Other features are Ford's Sync system and a capless fuelling system.
The Escape is also available in a hybrid version, which was the first hybrid SUV when it was released in 2004. The Escape hybrid uses an internal combustion engine with an Atkinson cycle to improve fuel efficiency. The result is a vehicle that is 75% more efficient than the standard Escape. The hybrid version gets 6.9 litres/100 km of city driving. The hybrid version also include regenerative braking that is supposed to use the heat from breaking to help power the engine. On early models this resulted in a somewhat mushy feeling to the brake pedal, to deal with this Ford have added a vacuum assist that is supposed to help address this problem.
The Ford Escape has been awarded a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, where it received a good rating in head on and side impact collision testing. However the Escape only received a a marginal rating for roof strength. The current model includes electronic stability control as a standard feature. Due to the high theft rate of SUV's Ford has included a passive immobilizer which is a chip in the key. The vehicle will not start unless it receives a signal from this chip, even if an exact duplicate key is used. The Escape has the lowest rate of insurance claims of any vehicle in it's class.