I bought a FWD, Titanium, 2.0L, Ginger Ale Metallic. It looks much much better in the sunlight, it really sparkles gold. Here's a write up I posted on the Blue Oval Forum earlier today.
This morning I took a 210 mile road trip which consisted of approximately 105 miles on the interstate and 105 miles of two lane highway. The Escape was a dream to drive and I don’t regret at all upgrading from my Focus, despite fewer mpg’s and a higher monthly payment. This 2.0 has great power and acceleration and goes like crazy when you need it to. The 6 speed is smooth, but sometimes seems to be searching for the best gear to often. Overall the ride is smooth and the cabin is very quiet. The ride is a little harsh going over expansion joints and imperfections in the road traveling at freeway speeds, but that’s to be expected for an SUV. The steering is very responsive in turns and curves and requires very little driver response in the straights. I tried to activate the Curve Control but couldn’t. I guess between the Torque Vectoring and me being chicken, I may never experience that feature.
If you want to squeeze out the best mpg’s, you will need to be very light on the accelerator. I noticed when you take off from a stop with a heavy foot, the average mpg’s drop very quickly. The highway portion of the trip in Western Wisconsin was all curving, rolling hills, with small towns every 8 to 15 miles or so apart. The mpg’s reading is really sensitive on this car, much more than my Focus. It reacts to nearly every transmission shift when it’s under any kind of load and drops a few tenths going up hills and vice versa going down, no surprise. The best mpg I got was 34.5, driving 55 on a straight flat road. On the rolling hills, with the cruise set at 58 (Wisconsin Troopers are notorious), I was getting 29-31 mpg’s and generally, when I’d cruise into a town it would increase to 31.2 and drop to 28.4 as I got back up to speed. I’ve always done this, but it’s a good idea to use the accelerator to gradually get back up to speed then reset the cruise, rather than hitting the resume button, downshifting and racing to speed, your mpg’s will take a BIG hit when the turbo kicks in. I did take it up to 110 for a brief time, maybe 45 seconds to a minute and it was smooth and handled really well. I tried to run it at different speeds; at 75 for 10 miles it read 26.2, at 70 I got 26.6 and at 60 got 28.7 and climbing, but I had to exit to head east to Wisconsin. Seems the mpg sweet spot is right around 60, again, no surprise. For the entire trip I averaged 28.7 mpg on Trip 2.
It was a rainy and dreary morning and the rain sensitive wipers worked great, there are much more reliable and consistent than my Focus. Yesterday, after much work, I finally got the seat to where I like it. I only got out of the car twice and my butt and legs were comfy the whole time, no circulation cut off on my legs like in the Focus. Being able to tilt the front of the seat cushion down really helps. The Escape seat is wider and my left leg doesn’t get strained by the seat bolster. There are a few things that could be improved on. The interior could use a cubby for cell phones, change or whatever. The side windows could use a rain channel, (remember cars before the 80’s that had a big chrome rain channels) because the rain pours in off the roof. It was humid and the windshield fogged up easily, all I wanted to do is have some air flow, but couldn’t, had to use the defroster, which runs the condenser, which lowers mpg’s. I don't care for the look of side window deflectors, but they're a must if you want to have the window cracked when it's raining.
The fit and finish of my interior is perfect. All the pieces line up, are tight and evenly spaced. There are no rattles, squeaks or thumps. There is some minor creasing in one area on the passenger seat and on the drivers side rear seat where the cloth and leather meet, but nothing to get worried about and someone not looking for it would never notice. Other than those two minor things, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the interior, and I looked. The paint is flawless, but I suppose I might find something when I wax. All the doors and hatch are aligned perfect, all the body lines match and the tires were only inflated to 40 psi rather than 36. All in all a great package, excellent work LAP.