Review Ford Escape Automatic 2008
Review
0 useful votes
Submitted by daughter1
Key strengths: Comfortable ride with a touch of toughness. Good offroad for its size.
Areas for improvement: Fewer goodies for more dollars than competition. lousy mileage.
I drove a Hertz fleet 2008 Ford Escape XLT 4 by 4 with a three-liter engine and four-speed automatic transmission. Pay attention to the size of the engine – bigger is better. The 3.0L 24 valve Duratec V6 makes for a adequate ride, serving up 200 horses and 193 pound-feet of torque. This engine, now underpowered in horses and technology compared to the competition, racks up a mediocre 9.6 seconds for 0-60mph. Pull away from lights is more than respectable and I had no problems merging onto high-speed interstates or overtaking slower-moving cars when needed. The engine, which previously used to get a bit noisy at around 80mph, has apparently been recalibrated, and seems to be quieter and more refined. The constant road noise that used to plague the early Escapes has definitely been diminished (score #1 for the Ford engineers). The absence of the roar initially made me think they’d compromised on power, but that doesn’t appear to be the case – although I kept feeling this 2008 model was slower than any other Escape I had driven back to 2001.
The Escape can tow up to 3500 pounds, although I have no direct experience of towing anything with either my own 2001 model or this 2008.
In previous years Ford offered the option for the lower-price models of getting a 2.0L manual engine. This magnificent animal used to offer 127 horsepower and was woefully underpowered for the vehicle. Can you say ‘acceleration of a dead sheep”? New for 2005 was the upgrade of the 2L to a 2.3L, 153 horsepower four cylinder that makes it marginally more competitive with vehicles such as the Toyota RAV4. Although I have no personal experience with the 2.3L model (which is available in manual or automatic) it was such a major improvement over the 2L model which was so truly awful that my local Ford dealers hardly ever stocked them.
Fuel economy is average at best. I experienced 16.3mpg and about 20mpg on the motorway. Which brings me to one of the largest drawbacks of the Ford Escape - THE The running costs for Ford Escape Automatic are normal
Areas for improvement: Fewer goodies for more dollars than competition. lousy mileage.
I drove a Hertz fleet 2008 Ford Escape XLT 4 by 4 with a three-liter engine and four-speed automatic transmission. Pay attention to the size of the engine – bigger is better. The 3.0L 24 valve Duratec V6 makes for a adequate ride, serving up 200 horses and 193 pound-feet of torque. This engine, now underpowered in horses and technology compared to the competition, racks up a mediocre 9.6 seconds for 0-60mph. Pull away from lights is more than respectable and I had no problems merging onto high-speed interstates or overtaking slower-moving cars when needed. The engine, which previously used to get a bit noisy at around 80mph, has apparently been recalibrated, and seems to be quieter and more refined. The constant road noise that used to plague the early Escapes has definitely been diminished (score #1 for the Ford engineers). The absence of the roar initially made me think they’d compromised on power, but that doesn’t appear to be the case – although I kept feeling this 2008 model was slower than any other Escape I had driven back to 2001.
The Escape can tow up to 3500 pounds, although I have no direct experience of towing anything with either my own 2001 model or this 2008.
In previous years Ford offered the option for the lower-price models of getting a 2.0L manual engine. This magnificent animal used to offer 127 horsepower and was woefully underpowered for the vehicle. Can you say ‘acceleration of a dead sheep”? New for 2005 was the upgrade of the 2L to a 2.3L, 153 horsepower four cylinder that makes it marginally more competitive with vehicles such as the Toyota RAV4. Although I have no personal experience with the 2.3L model (which is available in manual or automatic) it was such a major improvement over the 2L model which was so truly awful that my local Ford dealers hardly ever stocked them.
Fuel economy is average at best. I experienced 16.3mpg and about 20mpg on the motorway. Which brings me to one of the largest drawbacks of the Ford Escape - THE The running costs for Ford Escape Automatic are normal
Safety: 78
Equipment: 78
Reliability: 84
Driving: 77
Comfort: 80
Design: 79
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This is a subjective opinion from a ebuga.co.uk user and not from ebuga.co.uk.
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