Ford captured lightning in a bottle with its Explorer SUV in the 1990s. Eventually, everyone would want an SUV, regardless if they never came close to using its capabilities. The Explorer was so successful that Ford let it guide its product naming schemes, a move that almost resulted in the Escape having a much dumber name.
The Ford Escape was a big deal when it launched in 2000. The Explorer, which launched in 1990, and the Expedition, which launched in 1996, brought Ford a fortune. But Ford saw a little bit of an issue, and it’s that it left a small-SUV-sized gap in the market. Much of the automotive world had been experimenting with a remix on the SUV known as the crossover. These vehicles, which included the Honda CR-V, the Toyota RAV4, and the Subaru Forester, had butch looks and all-wheel-drive systems, but were based on car platforms. They rode and drove like cars, but looked like SUVs.
Ford turned to Mazda, and together, they developed the Escape and the Tribute, a pair of crossover SUVs that had the right look, but left the locking differentials and body-on-frame construction to bigger rides. The target customer was someone who lived an active lifestyle, but wasn’t really interested in doing much off-roading.
But how did Ford land on the name “Escape?” As it turns out, things could have been way weirder.
As Automotive News reports, Ford wanted all of its SUVs to have a uniform naming scheme. The Explorer was massively popular, so every Ford SUV would start with “Ex-.” Leo Williams III, then a marketing manager at Ford, was tasked with naming Ford’s future SUVs.
Apparently, naming the Expedition wasn’t that hard since Williams was a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. Ford’s full-size SUV was supposed to go anywhere and do anything, just like a Marine. The Marines call that “expeditionary,” Williams said, so there you go. Williams called Ford’s then-new SUV the Expedition.
Automotive News wrote that naming the Excursion was harder as the team wanted a name that makes people think about how rugged and work-ready it is. After about 11 or 12 names, Excursion was chosen.
But the Escape? Williams remained dedicated to naming every Ford SUV with an “Ex-” prefix, even if that called for creative spelling. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. From Automotive News:
“I actually wanted to take a risk and name it ‘E-X-C-A-P-E,’” Williams explained in an interview Ford released on its media website. ”This was around the time hip-hop was becoming popular and automotive names were getting more creative. But my bosses got bogged down in the fact that it wasn’t a real word they could find in a dictionary. They liked the concept of being able to ‘escape’ the everyday world, so we kept the name but lost the unique spelling.”
Ford eventually gave up on the “EX all the things!” idea. We all remember the EcoSport, right? Oh, and that’s pronounced “Echo Sport,” not “Eco Sport.” Of course, there have been times when spelling doesn’t count, such as with the Pontiac Aztek, or times when a car isn’t even named in English, like the Ford Galaxie.
Hindsight being 20/20, this was probably the right call. While I doubt calling the Escape the “Excape” would have hurt sales, it clearly wasn’t necessary. The Escape would become a home run and a leader of crossovers in America. The Escape was even ahead of its time, as the Ford Escape Hybrid became the first production hybrid SUV in America when it launched in 2004.
But in an alternate reality, there is a Ford Motor Company that named every one of its SUVs with “Ex …”
Top graphic image: Ford
fun fact theres another, ahem, “car” blog that posted an also ran version of this subject today, a mere 4 days later than your post.
The Plymouth trim level Expresso enters the chat (a few days late).
Shoulda fully committed and given us the xXeXcapeXx
Escape is the second best name for this vehicle.
“This is not the greatest car in the world…“
I’m sad the little Ford crossover is about to excape the production cycle. I grew up a lot in the back of an early yellow first gen.
Me too. I’ve even come to like the current version – it looks like what it is, an urban crossover, not a fake offroader. I appreciate the honesty of it.
Yep. But unfortunately that’s probably the main reason it’s dying…
If you like pinochle, Ladas, and getting caught in the rain…
That was brilliant!
The Ford Excuse?
The Ford Excelsior?
Stan Lee, your car is ready.
Yep, he inspired me!
lol
Ford should make a sporty SUV with a loud popping muffler and call it the Expectorate.
I am embarrassed to say it took several months of actually working for Ford before i noticed all the cars and CUVs were “E” names….To be fair though, no one working there uses the names, its all chassis codes. D544 this, CD539 that.
First Gen escape DID have a locking differential! The center diff, but still cool! We’ve had a 1st Gen Tribute, and currently have a 2nd gen Escape. They are pretty solid mechanically, but you can certainly tell they were built to a price. The 2nd gen is a SIGNIFICANT upgrade, even though we dropped from the V6 to the 4 cyl.
Excape, the vehicle for former super heroes.
Escape, the vehicle for people who like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.