The term “hybrid SUV” or “hybrid crossover” probably won’t elicit much of a response from someone today. A buyer on today’s market can bring home an hybridized version of everything from the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V to the Lincoln Corsair and the Jeep Wrangler. Two decades ago, the words “hybrid” and “SUV” were seemingly mutually exclusive. In 2005, Ford was the first automaker to change that, putting the very first hybrid SUV on the American market. Here’s how Ford predicted the future of big hybrids with what was then the innovative Escape.
Hybrid cars and crossovers are all over the marketplace today. If you head over to a site like Consumer Reports, you’ll find that 58 of the 151 electrified models currently rated by the publication are some form of hybrid. Of those 58, a whopping 38 model variations are crossovers and SUVs.
Check out any car buff mag’s rankings and it’s a similar story, where you might find a Honda Civic Hybrid or Honda Accord Hybrid breaking up a huge list dominated by crossovers and SUVs from several automakers. Best-seller lists are populated with the likes of the Toyota RAV4 hybrid and the Jeep Wrangler 4xe.
What I’m getting at here is that hybrid SUVs are a pretty big deal in today’s world. It’s easy to see why, too. The Honda CR-V hybrid, one of the most popular hybrid crossovers in America, scores a combined rating of 40 mpg in EPA testing. For reference, my beloved Smart Fortwo got 41 mpg at best in EPA testing.
A hybrid crossover offers the kind of fuel economy that small hatchbacks used to get but in a larger, arguably more family-friendly package. This makes a hybrid crossover a total no-brainer for countless American families.
Yet, when you check out hybrid crossover and SUV ratings, there’s one entry that is curiously missing from the podium, and it’s the genesis of this whole movement. That’s none other than the Ford Escape Hybrid. Today, it’s a crossover that Car and Driver puts into eighth place in its compact hybrid SUV rankings, behind the Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid and ahead of the Dodge Hornet Hybrid. It’s a sad place to be for a crossover that was once so ahead of its time that it kicked off hybrid SUV sales in America.
Ford Fills In A Gap
As the Los Angeles Times wrote in 2000, Ford had realized that it had left a gap in the SUV market. The Explorer and Expedition were hot-sellers, and the Excursion was holding its own, but losing some steam. Back in the 1990s, there were some new kids on the block. The Honda CR-V, the Toyota RAV4, and the Subaru Forester all offered the sort of security and all-wheel traction that buyers expected from traditional SUVs, but in smaller packages. Then, even Hyundai joined in with its Santa Fe in 2000.
The crossover SUV, as some still call it today, had SUV style, but a car platform. Crossovers have long exchanged raw off-roading capability and towing capacity for better handling, better fuel economy, and a carlike feel.
When Ford decided that it needed a car-based SUV of its own, it turned to Mazda, which had a controlling interest at the time. The Los Angeles Times notes that while the Escape and its Mazda Tribute sibling were the result of the cooperation of Ford and Mazda, it was the latter company that took the lead in development. The Escape and Tribute would ride on the CD2 platform, which was derived from the GF platform that underpinned the Mazda 626. Despite their mechanical similarities, both SUVs took different approaches to ride, aesthetics, and marketing. Ford, in explaining all of the work put into the CD2 platform, specifically told MotorTrend in July 2000 that the Escape is not based on the Mazda 626.
In Mazda’s case, the Tribute was a big deal because its last SUV in America was the Navajo, a rebadged Ford Explorer Sport that sold slowly until Mazda finally killed it in 1994. This time around, Mazda wanted the Tribute to be a bit of a near-luxury vehicle with a little more emphasis on style and driving. From the Los Angeles Times:
Tribute brand manager Gary Roudebush says Mazda is positioning its truck to be “an upscale, sophisticated SUV with the soul of a sports car.”
Meanwhile, Ford wanted to target the same kind of customers that Honda and Toyota were; people who lived active lifestyles but didn’t exactly need locking differentials or body-on-frame SUVs. The Washington Times reported Ford’s strategy:
Ford insists it’s not abandoning the company’s heritage of producing durable, rugged SUVs but rather is reaching out to new customers looking for a versatile, affordable vehicle that fits active, urban lifestyles.
“We believe Escape will appeal to a wide variety of consumers, including those who have not owned an SUV before but now require the space and versatility an SUV provides,” says Stuart Smith, Ford Escape brand manager. “Whether they are young singles, newlyweds, small families or empty nesters, Escape is designed to be an affordable and fun option.”
This wasn’t exactly the original plan. As WardsAuto wrote in 2000, a major reason why Ford was late to market was that it had identified that small SUVs were going to be big, but Ford was indecisive about which one of its divisions was going to lead development. Apparently, WardsAuto notes, the indecision alone delayed the SUV by about two years.
However, WardsAuto reported that being late also allowed Ford to watch how buyers reacted to the small SUV market and change its SUV accordingly. This would turn out to be a winning formula. Keith Takasawa, chief program engineer for the original Escape, noted to the Los Angeles Times that the Ford Escape was designed to scream “truck” to a Ford customer and to hopefully ride on the wave that was Ford’s sizzling truck sales. But like other baby sport utilities, the Escape had to be softer and more daily driver-friendly.
As a result of all of these differences, the original Escape and Tribute actually shared little bodywork. The siblings even had similar, yet different interiors to match.
Ford’s Great Escape
The mission of a softer SUV was reflected in the bones of the Escape. It was built with a unibody construction like a car and it rode on a fully independent suspension. MacPherson struts hold down the front while double lateral links and semi-trailing arms bring up the rear. Drivetrain choices included front-wheel-drive or front-biased all-wheel-drive. The Escape’s Dana and Mazda-developed AWD system, which utilized a viscous coupling as a center differential and twin clutches, drove just the front wheels in normal conditions. Once a difference between the driveshaft and the rear differential’s pinion gear speed is detected, the AWD system kicks in, and is able to deliver up to nearly all of the available power to the rear axle. A switch on the dashboard can also command the system to lock itself into a 50:50 torque split for more demanding situations. Yet, the Escape wasn’t really designed to go where an Explorer could.
To further drill in how much this wasn’t an off-roader, MotorTrend noted that the Escape had an approach and departure angle of 28.5 degrees and 22 degrees, respectively. Ground clearance was 7.8 inches. MotorTrend reported that all of these off-roading numbers were actually worse than the competition, and those crossovers already weren’t meant for off-roading, either.
At launch, the Escape’s base engine 2.0-liter Zetec four good for 130 HP, and the higher engine was the 3.0-liter Duratec V6, which punched out 200 HP. At launch, the four was reported to hit 28 mpg in EPA highway testing while the V6 sipped with a respectable 24 mpg. However, it should be noted that these numbers came before EPA revised its structure in 2007, which devalued mpg ratings.
It wasn’t enough that the Ford Escape looked like a bigger Explorer, it also had to be smart. WardsAuto said that one feature that made the Escape stand out was its $1,695 ($3,111 in 2025) roof rack. This expensive bit of kit had a set of top rails that extended over the tailgate, connecting to vertical rails that went down the tailgate. This invention, which was created by Ford designer Roger Kim, allowed the Escape to carry luggage on its roof and two bicycles on the rear, or a total of four bicycles.
Ford was so proud of it that official marketing materials displayed the neat hat trick:
The Ford Escape launched in 2000 for the 2001 model year and it was a hit out of the park. Car and Driver complimented the SUV’s acceleration, handling, and interior, concluding that it did not expect the Escape to be as good as it was.
MotorTrend had so much fun with the Escape that the publication treated it like a proper 4×4, getting impressive airtime with the little guy. However, MotorTrend‘s test also revealed that the Escape wasn’t really supposed to be an off-road rig as the Escape got stuck in a shallow stream.
WardsAuto declared the Ford Escape the king of the segment before the first year of production was even over. That’s how hot sales were. Indeed, the Escape would almost immediately go on to battle the imports for the top spot on the sales charts. The magic? WardsAuto noted that the Escape had that V6, which MotorTrend was so powerful that it could only be bested by a Honda CR-V with a manual transmission and an abusive clutch drop.
Going Hybrid
Ford had another trick up its sleeve as it announced that by 2003 (later revised to 2005), it would have a new version of the Escape, one that would combine the gas engine with a hybrid system. This was huge news. Remember, Hybrids were sort of weird and experimental in the early 2000s. The Honda Insight was an eco-nerd’s dream and the Toyota Prius was still finding its bearings. Yet, here was Ford saying that it was going to put hybrid power in a small SUV.
As Fast Company writes, then-CEO Bill Ford Jr. wanted to create a new image for Ford. The automaker’s gargantuan SUVs and gigantic trucks had earned it the scorn of environmentalists. At the same time, America was also expressing tons of interest in green vehicles. After all, the country had spent the 1990s getting teased about an all-electric future, only to have that swept out from under them. The California ZEV mandate might have been gone, but the thirst for green vehicles was not.
In the late 1990s, Bill Ford wanted to up Ford’s green cred and dramatically up Ford’s fuel economy ratings with a project that, at the time, must have felt like something like the Ford equivalent of the NASA Apollo program. Ford was not only coming out with a hybrid, but its hybrid was going to be the first mass-production hybrid SUV of any kind in America.
Leading the Escape Hybrid program was Phil Martens, and Fast Company writes that the Escape Hybrid team was filled with geniuses. This team was assembled after one interesting drive, from Fast Company:
Ford’s Escape Hybrid program got its start in a Toyota Prius, of all places. After being tapped to head the team in late 1998, Prabhaker Patil went for a test drive with then-chairman Alex Trotman. As the two had suspected, the soon-to-be-released Prius sacrificed too much performance. Trotman insisted that Ford’s hybrid do better.
To develop its unconventional vehicle, Ford created an unconventional team. Typically, researchers and product engineers don’t work closely together. At Ford, in fact, they work in different buildings. Researchers act as consultants; they share their expertise while commuting from the Ford Scientific Research Laboratory. But Ford’s team would itself be a hybrid: scientists and product engineers inventing and building software and hardware together, then shepherding their creation through production. “The people story is as interesting as the technology story,” says Wright.
Patil, 54, was a hybrid himself, a PhD scientist who worked in Ford’s lab for more than 15 years and then in product development for the past four. He sought team members he knew would be open to collaboration. They included Anand Sankaran, 39, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering and is a nine-year veteran of the research lab. “It has always been my wish to take something into product production,” he says. Still, Sankaran was curious about the fit. “There was a little bit of concern, because I come from a background where I deal more with solving problems technically but it’s not fine-tuned to be put easily into production.”
Fast Company notes that while the Escape Hybrid team was packed full of people known for solving some of the most complex problems, collectively, the team actually had little experience in putting solutions into production. There is a difference between solving a math problem and putting that solution on a production line.
To keep the engineers on track, Martens got Mary Ann Wright on board, a gearhead with a knack for hitting deadlines. Fast Company continues with the struggles the engineers had to deal with:
In December 2002, for example, just nine months before the first media test-drive, the team was scrambling to prepare the car for a cold-weather battery test in Canada. In early February, the temperature was expected to reach 40-below — just right. “If you miss it, you’re out of luck,” says Gee, the power-train control supervisor. Ford would have to wait another year — a disaster.
Meanwhile, researchers were still tinkering with the battery, one of the hybrid’s main muscles and one of its trickier components. At 330 volts, it’s about 27 times more powerful than a standard car battery, and it’s stashed under the rear cargo space. It provides power to the electric engine and gets recharged when the brakes’ heat is converted into energy. In extreme cold, the battery is vulnerable to overcharging; it can only generate and receive so much power, and if it overcharges, the cells can become damaged. Instead of tossing the problem over the wall, as is often the case at Ford, the researchers worked with the engineers to make sure the vehicle’s computers were constantly taking the battery’s pulse — calculating its state of charge some 50,000 times a second — and providing enough, but not too much, power. The team made the deadline, but just barely. “We were working 16-hour days, seven days a week, right up until February 7,” says Gee. “I took Christmas and New Year’s off. I didn’t do any Christmas shopping. My wife did it. She recognized the situation.”
Internally, the hybrid team is simply Team U293. It occupies a long stretch of gray cubicles a one-minute walk from the tinted glass door of one of Bill Ford’s offices. The bulletin board celebrates new babies and new patents (“Method for controlling an internal combustion engine during engine shutdown to reduce evaporative emissions”). Schedules wallpaper the conference room, along with a banner that says, “By When?”
Fast Company‘s reporting only escalates the story from there. Ford had considered just licensing Toyota’s technology, but this sat the wrong way with Ford because it meant that Ford would have Toyota’s first-generation hybrid technology while Toyota was already working on a new system. No, the only way Ford was to beat the competition was to design its own system. Ford did license Toyota hybrid tech, but just as a legal formality. The Escape Hybrid was all Ford.
Fast Company continues by noting how the development team had to engineer different ways out of huge issues. For example, the engineers constantly had to make changes to the vehicle’s main computer system. To streamline this, they had a laptop hooked up to the prototype’s “brain.” They’d test the prototype, retrieve the data, and then re-write the module’s code right there on the laptop.
At one point, the team reportedly had about 300 sensors hooked up to the car and when they tried to start the prototype, it wouldn’t come to life. This became a roadblock stretching several weeks long as the engineers figured out why their car wouldn’t even run. Reportedly, it took hundreds of changes before the prototype Escape Hybrid even fired.
Still, development stalled, with Fast Company claiming that some issues had been unresolved for months. Martens had a solution: The team would be able to develop the Escape Hybrid for half of a year without management breathing down their backs and slowing things down. This was enough to let the engineers run wild and solve issues.
From this point forward, development was in high gear. Fast Company noted that the word “no” no longer became an option. For one example, the Ford team ran into a language barrier with its battery supplier in Japan. Ford’s solution was to find a battery engineer who was fluent in Japanese and sent them out to Japan.
America’s First Production Hybrid SUV
Fast Company called the Ford Escape Hybrid “the most complex project in Ford’s history — and maybe its most important product since the Model T.” Maybe it was true because Ford was doing something that hadn’t been done before. Until that point, no automaker in America had been crazy enough to try to sell a hybrid SUV.
Sure enough, the Escape Hybrid was a huge deal when it launched in 2004. This green — literally — Escape featured an Aisin HD-10 hybrid CVT, a Sanyo 330 volt 1.8 kWh 250-cell nickel metal hydride battery, and a 2.3-liter Atkinson cycle four-cylinder engine good for 133 HP. Toss in the 94 HP electric motor, and total system power was 155 HP, but the instant torque of the electric motor actually gave the hybrid specs that were closer to the V6 in performance.
The Escape Hybrid was also thoroughly modern, with drive-by-wire, regenerative braking, and the ability for the vehicle to run primarily on engine power, electric power, or a combination of both. In August 2004, the EPA certified the Escape Hybrid for 36 mpg city and 31 mpg highway, which would be good even today.
MotorTrend‘s first drive was very short, but got straight to the point in only a single paragraph:
This may be the best-engineered hybrid product to date, making more use of its electric motor with less dependency on the gasoline engine than on any other hybrid we’ve tested. Eighty-five percent of the vehicle’s parts are recyclable, and Ford claims that the Escape will release less than one pound of emissions in 15,000 miles of driving. Score one for planet Earth–and for those of us who inhabit it.
CNET Roadshow had mostly good things to say:
With a larger electric motor than the Toyota Prius, the Escape remains in electric mode longer, and its gas engine shuts down at every stop. The electric motor consistently fires up at about 30mph and can be gently persuaded to about 45mph before making the electric-to-gas transition. Whenever you start driving uphill or stomp on the accelerator, both power trains kick into gear for lively acceleration. Unlike the Prius’s undetectable transition to gas power, there’s a slight nudge when the Escape’s gas engine hooks up. The Escape’s continuously variable transmission always has the right gear ratio for fuel economy and acceleration, and the gas engine and the regenerative braking system charge the battery while you drive. As is the case with the Prius, the Escape has an addictive screen in the middle of the dashboard that shows the power flow as you drive but adds a first-rate fuel economy screen that combines an average for the past 15 minutes with an instantaneous gas mileage bar gauge.
The all-wheel-drive Escape is one of the fastest hybrids on the road today, with the ability to accelerate to 60mph in just 8.5 seconds. That’s hardly sports car territory, but it’s several seconds faster than the Prius or the Honda Civic hybrid (10.3 seconds and 12.1 seconds, respectively) and is on a par with a V-6-powered Escape. Plus, the Escape hybrid can go from 30mph to 50mph in just 3.5 seconds–plenty of midrange torque for freeway on-ramps. However, it’s not entirely a smooth ride. The truck registers an annoying 75dBA (decibels adjusted) at 60mph to make for a bit of a noisy drive that’s on a par with the Honda Accord Hybrid but much noisier than either the Prius or Civic Hybrid. The MacPherson front strut suspension and a multilink trailing-arm rear suspension hug the road, but the suspension is also stiff enough for plowing over dirt roads. On the downside, the four-wheel disc brakes aren’t up to the competition, taking 163 feet to stop from 60mph, nearly 30 feet longer than the Honda Civic Hybrid. Also, the drive-by-wire system leaves the brake pedal feeling stiff and lacking tactile feedback. That said, the Escape weighs 1,000 pounds more than its sedan cousins, so there’s more car to stop, and its range is on target with that of other smaller SUVs. We were able to get 30.4 miles out of each gallon–good enough for a 450-mile trip before requiring a fill-up.
The 2001 Ford Escape had a low base price of just $18,160 ($33,339 in 2025) for the XLS. That got you front-wheel-drive, the four-cylinder engine, and a manual transmission. $19,710 ($36,185 in 2025) upgraded you to the better-equipped XLT (which netted you with aluminum wheels, anti-lock brakes, cruise control, and fog lights), but you still needed to pay another $1,480 ($2,717 in 2025) for the V6 and $1,625 ($2,983 in 2025) for AWD. $25,750 ($47,274 in 2025) bought you the XLT with the V6 and all of the trimmings. The price for the 2005 hybrid was $27,400 ($46,480 in 2025), and that was before you added options.
CNET noted that this price was $7,000 more expensive than Honda Civic Hybrid or Toyota Prius, but it was also more vehicle. It was pretty much as close to a guilt-free SUV that money could buy.
The Escape Hybrid was a hit out of the park, too, with Ford noting that it sold more than 17,000 examples in the second half of 2004 alone, or four times its expectation. Between 2004 and 2012, Ford managed to sell 114,000 Escape Hybrids. The Ford Escape’s upscale twin, the Mercury Mariner, also got a hybrid, but the Mazda Tribute did not.
One Of Many
The Escape Hybrid would never rise to the level of the sales seen by the iconic Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic Hybrid, or the Toyota Camry Hybrid, it was still a huge leap forward. It wasn’t long before America saw other American hybrid SUVs like the Chrysler Aspen Hybrid and the Saturn Vue Hybrid. Meanwhile, there was also a Chevrolet Silverado mild hybrid in 2005 as well as GM hybrid SUVs as well.
But Ford was first. The Escape Hybrid was ahead of the curve on chunky hybrid SUVs and crossovers. If period reviews are to be believed, the Escape Hybrid even worked better as a hybrid than other first-generation HEVs. Ford predicted a future where people would want hybrid SUVs and it was right.
Sadly, being first doesn’t seem to help the Escape Hybrid much today. While I have not found sales data specifically for the Hybrid model, Escape sales as a whole were well into the 300,000 range in the first half of the 2010s. Now, the Escape regularly sells less than half that each year. As I noted earlier, the Escape Hybrid doesn’t usually rate on the top of the hybrid crossover charts, and the Escape itself has been rumored to be discontinued this year. Ford Authority has clarified that the Escape will live on until at least 2026, but it’s unknown what will happen after.
Still, regardless of what happens to the Escape, it’s awesome what Ford was able to achieve in 2004. The company could have just slapped a Toyota powertrain on a car and called it a day. Instead, Ford spent five years grinding it out to create its own hybrid system, and in doing so, did something that no other American automaker had done at the time.
Top graphic image: Ford
I remember seeing a profile that mentioned an up-and-coming Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama drove an Escape Hybrid. You know you’re a car nerd when that is one of the first things you remember reading about a future president.
Season 5 of Curb Your Enthusiam, Larry drove one.
IIRC, post-president Bill Clinton had one he was driven in. Mercury Mariner actually, and there was some modifications to the rear seat for more leg room.
For a while there this was *the* vehicle for any politician who wanted something rugged, yet environmentally responsible and American.
So, given the trim exterior dimensions of yesteryear, it’s hard to find a new replica in 2025 for the Escape Hybrid. You can either get a small (Escape Hybrid) sized CUV, or you can get a Hybrid CUV, rarely both.
As far as I can tell, there’s only 1 near analog: a trimmed-out 2025 Toyota Cross XSE Hybrid
The Cross is near identical in size to the 2007 Escape and gets better mileage. Also, by inflation adjusted costs, the Cross is also cheaper than the Escape was in its time (sub $40,000 Cross vs $46,480 Escape)
Dimensions: Toyota Corolla Cross 2020-present vs. Ford Escape 2007-2011
I have thought of the new Bronco Sport as the modern equivalent to these early Escapes in both dimensions and styling. The Corolla Cross and recent Escapes are really just tall car CUVs and really don’t scratch the same itch.
It sounds like the Bronco Sport is getting a hybrid option in an upcoming refresh which will be interesting because as you point out there really isn’t anything similar with a hybrid or PHEV in the market right now.
https://www.carsized.com/en-us/cars/compare/ford-escape-2007-suv-vs-ford-bronco-sport-2021-suv/
You’ve really hit something on the head.
I’ll be shocked and disappointed if, unlike big brother Rav4, the Cross does not get an offroad oriented trim level in the near future.
I’m not sure what all the Bronco Sport brings to the table regarding offroad ability, either by the marketing department or engineering, but it seems like Toyota is missing a trick by not attempting to flirt with that segment with the Cross, as they do with nearly every other SUV/CUV in their lineup
A new Bronco Sport Hybrid and a theoretical Cross Woodland Edition is the match-up I would love to see realized in say 2028
Since the Escape and Bronco Sport are just different flavors of the same platform and the Escape is getting discontinued, it makes sense that the Bronco Sport is carrying over the hybrid powertrain. I wouldn’t be surprised if the PHEV is dropped because it doesn’t have enough range for CARB ZEV credits as an Escape, and the current Bronco Sport has terrible aerodynamics which affects the gas version’s highway MPG pretty badly. It would need like double the battery which is unviable.
My girlfriend’s sister was looking to replace her Honda Insight (2nd gen, not the interesting one) with a crossover as small as possible, and it needed to be a hybrid. I looked into it for her and yes, the only real option was a Corolla Cross. So that’s what she got and she does like it
This is when I confess that we actually did choose the Cross Hybrid I described above. As you said, there’s nothing else “compact” and hybrid. Though I wanted to give a Crosstrek or Honda HRV a chance, the drivetrain options felt out of date despite being still similar in price.
We’re at 9k miles now and though I could easily point on some minor criticisms, we are extremely happy with it.
The fuel mileage on my highway commute consistently beats my ’17 Corolla and the extra interior headroom is genuinely heaven sent. Then, it’s nice to kick it into EV modes around pedestrians or in state parks, makes me feel at least slightly less guilty.
I’m glad your acquaintance took your advice all the way to the bank! I’ve tried for years talking family into more sensible choices and every single time I’ve been bested by worse automobiles
I came very close to buying one of these used as my first real car purchase when I was 21. Had a budget of $10K for a decent used car that would carry me from Georgia to Kentucky for a job transfer. I looked at one of these Escapes, an ’06 Explorer (very very base model), and an ’05 Sport Trac XLS (had the bed cover and the bed extender).
Ended up with the Sport Trac and loved it until a wreck caused the transmission cooler to begin leaking slowly and unnoticed (there was almost no damage to the Sport Trac) and then the transmission gave up the ghost in Atlanta rush hour traffic. Got awful gas mileage, had no 4WD, wasn’t too comfy, and had no cruise control which really sucked on I-16 in Georgia because lordy that is a boring stretch of road.
The Escape would have been a much smarter purchase looking back because it had less mileage, better economy, and a much nicer interior. Still would have done most of the truck-related things I used to do regularly. One of those automotive near misses. I still very much enjoy the styling of the early Escape and really dislike the new ones.
A Coworker in Austin had one, he used to try and squeeze every possible mile out of a gallon of gas. He nearly cried when my ’91Tercel got 40 MPG on a trip to Dallas.
I cannot imagine anyone being terribly jealous of a Tercel.
Honestly it was a fine automobile, I was primarily riding a sport bike at the time so it was only used when a roof or AC was needed.
A reliable economy car (thinking of low tco) or a small pickup seem like the most common 2nd or 3rd vehicle pairing with a motorcycle
It’s kinda funny because when I upgraded to a WRX years later I rode the bike less and less.
They did all that and then completely forgot to rust proof the rear shock mounts?
Not familiar with these but it sounds like the kind of problem easily repaired by Bubba and Junior down at the local welding shop. Similar to the Vue / Equinox rustout at the front unibody to engine cradle.
See, they install that TruCoat at the factory, there’s nothin’ we can do. You don’t get it and you get oxidization problems. It’ll cost you a heck of lot more’n five hundred.
My friend had a non-hybrid Escape with the 3.0 V6 and it did a lot of duty shuttling her kid to softball practices and games all over the state. It had one persistent problem where it wouldn’t run right after it rained, several people and garages tried different things including a new catalytic convertor but no help. Turns out somehow water was getting into the holes where the coil packs were and causing electrical and spark plug issues. Not sure if that was a unique problem or something common to Escapes.
Great article! My parents traded in their third gen Caravan for a first gen Mariner Hybrid in 2006, and I think it did everything it was supposed to. Good looking little ute, great fuel economy, and AWD good enough for driving in snow.
Unfortunately, I most remembered what I didn’t like about it. It was no fun to drive (couldn’t do donuts in the snow like in our Subaru, and couldn’t even rev the engine in Park), and the interior felt super cheap (everything was crappy hard plastic). The most egregious was the plastic shifter; I think I managed to scratch my finger on the flashing that ran right down the middle of it. Considering this was supposed to be the “premium brand” version, it was disappointing that is was cheaper inside than the mainstream brands we previously had (Dodge, Subaru, Honda).
Also memorable was the CD-based navigation. It was the first vehicle we had that came with navi, but it still seemed out of date when brand new. (The cheapest Garmin dash-mounted unit was so much more usable.)
I’ve driven a few Escapes/Tributes of this generation and I feel the same. I know they were popular, practical, durable, and long lived. But the interiors…oof. Depressing hard plastic surfaces, and seats so uncomfortable my dad had to request a different company car. I did car detailing for years and I hated Escapes in particular because the plastics always faded and looked like shit no matter how clean they were. Some would discolor as soon as you tried cleaning them no matter how gentle the cleaning solution was. Sometimes the plastic dye would rub right off onto a dry towel. The interior of the refreshed model was much improved though.
It also drove a bit like a truck–a plus to many, from what I understand, although it wasn’t to my taste. But I’ve known several folks to get 200k-300k miles out of them, so they were definitely built to last and the people who have them seem to love them. And that’s all that matters.
From about 2006-2015 it seemed like every Crown Vic that was retired as a NYC taxi was replaced by an Escape Hybrid. I never owned one because I had a gen 2 Prius and by the time I had worn that out the gen 3 version of the Escape was out and had dropped the hybrid and was a far less interesting car but I recommended them to several friends and family members with moderate success.
They were ubiquitous for quite some time. I left Manhattan after 35 years in 2014, and they were still all over the place. I’m thankful I was there long enough to get the occasional Checker too.
I moved here in 2005 just as they were starting to show up but far too late for Checkers I think. I remember being impressed with how quickly the industry coalesced around the Escape Hybrid as successor before the Panther platform cars were even dead and buried.
Yes, that was late for Checkers. The last one tooled around Chelsea where I lived, so I got it occasionally. It was semi official.
We had tons of Escape Hybrids in San Francisco serving taxi duty.
They did pretty well – but Panthers had more luggage space and lasted longer.
Prius’s also had more luggage space and lasted longer – but their interiors were trashed in no time – and the everlasting on-off toggle drivers did with accellerators made our heads nod and our stomachs nauseous. (I was once forced to get a driver to stop so I could lean out the door and orally relieve myself of a couple Manhattans due to this)
Then a new app called “Uber” came out, changing everything – and I found myself in black Town Cars for years afterward…
Uber drivers stab the accelerator too, does anyone know why?
Because a lot of people don’t know that accelerators and brakes are not “On/Off” switches. It also occurs when people drive EVs and have them set to one-pedal driving and don’t know that to maintain constant speed you keep your foot in place somewhere between 0 and 10. Or set the cruise control.
The first years of Uber were professional Carey Car drivers doing side gigs rather than sitting at the curbs behind Wells Fargo, Schwab, BofA etc wasting time and not earning any money.
So they knew how to drive smoothly.
Things started going downhill when Town Cars became “Uber Black” and everyone with a Prius could pick up fares the way Lyft did (but without the pink moustaches and hi-fives)
But the stab-pause-stab thing seems almost deliberate. But then I see folks driving that way in other cases – cruising parking garages for dropped items, things like that.
Ignorance is often deliberate.
Wasn’t it supposed to run the meter up in a cab? Then cab drivers became Uber drivers…
You know the ‘CHG-ECO-PWR’ meter that replaces the tach in Toyota hybrids? A lot of drivers who are less informed think that by letting off the gas so the car goes into the ‘CHG’ regen zone it saves them more fuel, thus they vacillate between full-throttle and no-throttle. Never mind the fact that on-and-off acceleration almost certainly results in worse economy than driving smoothly. I fully blame Toyota for implementing that gauge at all.
Good car, but why couldn’t they match the number of hybrid badges and hybrid graphics that GM put on their early hybrids? You can barely tell that the Ford is a hybrid.
I had one of these for a long time and really enjoyed it. Good car. In 2020, at 250k miles, it was having oil consumption issues and I let it run low and it threw a rod. It was also rusting out, so I chose to scrap it rather than replace the engine, and daily drive my Suburban instead. Big mistake – gas prices doubled over the next two years.
I might buy another one some day. And watch the oil level more carefully.
Interestingly (to me at least), a trimmed-out 2025 Toyota Cross XSE Hybrid is near identical in size to the 2007 Escape and gets better mileage. Also, by inflation adjusted costs, the Cross is also cheaper than the Escape was in its time (sub $40,000 Cross vs $46,480 Escape)
Dimensions: Toyota Corolla Cross 2020-present vs. Ford Escape 2007-2011
First gen Ford Escapes were ridiculously good, period. If it wasn’t for the rear rust towers rusting out on them in the north there would be a lot more of them still around. Ford gave them three good powertrain options, a suprisingly durable exterior (that plastic likes to fade, but it holds up very well), The first two generations of the Escape still look good (2nd gen was almost as good as the first, and better looking) and among crossovers? Surprisingly practical.
I don’t know why Ford ruined a good thing in the 2010s and have continued to make it worse, but old Escapes (and their Mercury and Mazda siblings) were freaking great.
Local Craigslist has a few in decent-looking condition for under $3000. That’s just crazy value for money.
Damn this makes the AWD hybrid Maverick look like a steal
In 2007 I bought a lightly used Escape XLT V6 to replace my gas-hog Explorer(s). I liked it okay for commuting, but it wasn’t built super great, and I didn’t keep it very long. I sort of kicked myself for not getting the hybrid, but the price premium was just too high to justify it.
Still, we have some friends who drive a first-gen Escape Hybrid today, and despite my gripes about build quality, theirs is holding up pretty well with almost 300,000 miles on it.
Fun topic. I worked as the N.A. quality lead on the U293/U377 launches for Aisin AW, embedded with the Ford launch team at PDC. Great times in Kansas City (KCAP trips), steaks every night.
“an upscale, sophisticated SUV with the soul of a sports car.” Gary. Cmon now.
I do like these cars though, our Tribute might have been a rattly piece of shit, but the V6 and lockable AWD was a really great combo. We have a 2nd Gen 4 cylinder now, and it’s been dead reliable.
Did it have the bumper sticker that says,
“This is not the greatest car in the world, no
This is just a…”?
The Escape Hybrid was a definite break through. It is important to note that Ford didn’t “license” patents from Toyota, they entered into a patent sharing agreement that gave Toyota access to some of Ford’s newer patents that they hadn’t purchased licenses for earlier when Ford abandoned the series PHEV they had developed.
The big thing was the dual axis transaxle architecture. That is what allowed the Escape to shut off its engine below 42mph. Meanwhile Toyota’s early system could not shut off the engine above 12mph. If the engine is shut off or dies above that speed the starter generator will exceed its critical speed and explode. It is also what allowed the use of larger motors in a shorter overall package. That is why all the current Toyota power-split hybrids use that Ford patented architecture.
Unfortunately they are getting thin on the streets but for the longest time my #1 suggestion for anyone that wanted a vehicle with 4wd/AWD and a low cost of operation was the Escape Hybrid. We had one for a while and I purchased a couple for other family members too, one of which is still in the family.
While Toyota and Honda produced aero subcompact hybrids that got fantastic MPG and not much else, The Escape/Mariner hybrids were the first that had real world versatility with AWD and even a tow rating! And while any callout involving a Prius provoked well deserved fear in first responders and fire fighters, Ford did the right thing and put a clearly marked master shutdown switch for the hybrid battery right under the hatch gate.
Even the non-hybrid versions of these escapes would put on higher miles vs most of the other Fords sold during the same time, they were well built.
One weird note from 1st gen Escapes was a hatch rattle. Owners and dealers were being driven nuts by a kind of “thunk” sound that sounded suspension/brake related.
Turns out it was the hatch, so dealers would do what they could to mess with the latch, striker, etc.. and none of it worked.
The solution? Still doesn’t make sense to me as to why it would fix it, but a special grease was recommended by Ford to put on the glass hatch striker area… noise gone, from a fix that takes maybe 60 seconds.
How the hell did that work? No idea. Did it work 100% of the time, yes.
My ’05 Escape had that rattle and the grease was only a temporary fix. The Houston heat would cause the grease to become runny and drip out, so I learned to park near the center of my office’s parking garage so the sun wouldn’t shine on the hatch.
Ah yeah, that makes sense. The Ford dealer I worked at was in the northeast so not as much of an issue. Texas heat? for sure could see that happening.
Also, they did use the 1st gen Escape hybrids as NYC taxis and had (as expected) the shit beat out of them constantly. They held up well in that situation too, but I always hated riding in them as taxis, because the taxi driver protection barrier thing was just too big for the Escapes, took away too much leg room in a vehicle that wasn’t huge to begin with.
The first and second gen Escapes do a lot well and I’ve always admired the styling. It’s boxy but doesn’t have any off-roading pretensions. It looks exactly how it should as a crossover. The third gen did away with that and went in the opposite direction to a more forgettable but aerodynamic shape. I think that was a mistake, but the Bronco Sport makes up for it.
The first and second gens are also great deals on the used market. The hybrids have held up pretty well to age and there is an enthusiast community around them that can help diagnose battery issues or provide information for replacement. Now I want to find one with that extendable roof rack.
I’ve heard people say that Ford licensed Toyota hybrid tech to create the Escape hybrid as if Ford didn’t do the bulk of the work themselves, so it’s good to have you clarify.
This generation had a Aisin CVT transmission. The next generation of Ford Hybrids (C-max and Fusion) has a Ford built transmission that has bearing problems in its first few years. I have a 21 Escape PHEV – it gets better mileage than the C-Max it replaced.
That’s right
Well, the third gen was no Escape. It was a rebadged gen2 Ford Kuga. Ford will tell you it was ‘designed for both America and Europe’ but we all know that was bull. It was barely even a revision of the original Kuga’s unibody. The original Kuga used Volvo engines which were sadly dropped for the second gen Kuga since Ford sold Volvo, thus leaving it with no redeeming features whatsoever.
My aunt (who also owns the NA Miata I learned to drive stick on) had one of these for a decade. She racked up nearly 300,000 miles without any major issues and averaged over 30 MPG the entire time. She sold it a long time ago and has had RAV4 hybrids ever since but she says she misses her hybrid Escape…and she knows cars so I’m inclined to believe it was a damn good one for her.
It’s funny, buying the first year of a new model/technology typically goes one of two ways: Either they nail it completely because they have to (and subsequent years go downhill) or, more commonly, you want to avoid that car for a year or two because it’s so unproven.
Sometimes the former gamble pays off.
We have some friends with a first-gen Escape hybrid with around 300,000 miles on it. They are the type of people who use, abuse, and neglect things but then complain when stuff breaks, so I am still surprised their Escape works without issue today because I know they have done only minimal maintenance on it. Certainly a testament to Ford’s design.
Wow, I failed to realize how well they nailed the formula. I was hung up on how crappy the base rental-spec first gen Escape was in general. But the V6 models with additional options (and presumably the Hybrid) weren’t half bad.
Like you said, almost all of those stats are still pretty good today! And adjusting for inflation is always questionable, I think with additional scale and tech improvements, I think it’s safe to say this would be about a $40k vehicle in today’s money. That’s right on par with the leaders.
I don’t recall them calling these crossovers yet, I think most of the journalists were still hung up on the “cute ute” term until a few years later.
You’re right I think – “crossover” didn’t really get commonplace until the ’10s. Just like how “SUV” was pretty rare in the ’90s.
And BMW was really trying to make “SAV” happen there for awhile
Don’t forget the short run of “Progressive Activity Vehicles” for their GT series and some of the “coupe SUVs” (which still blight our vision to this day).
Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet:-)
One of the more gloriously magnificently makes no sense vehicle released foe sale by a major auto maker in the past 20 years
I have a BMW X3 SAV!
Actually the current Escape Hybrid starts at about $32,500 for a FWD version. It of course has a lot of improvements including at ~33% increase in MPG.
I do see one or 2 hybrids driving around still, so they are built pretty tough for city driving.. though they all look really rough, the metallic plastic seem to not wear very well.
I do wonder about the fail mode of these types of hybrids.. if the battery fail can someone on the street know, other than noticing the car ICE kick in from a stop? or the car stop operating?
It depends on how bad the battery fails, but if it is a significant failure, or for some reason the HV battery is deeply discharged, the engine won’t start. That is because like the Toyota power-split system there is no 12v starter, the HV starter/generator starts the engine. One quirk of the early Escapes is the ability to jump start them. There is a button on the side of the dash that you push and it will charge the HV battery off of the 12v system.
Wait, so it can jump start itself basically? That’s very interesting!
Yup, see below for why it was present. Along those same lines, ~30 years ago there was a “self jumping” car battery marketed for a while. There was a lever on the top of the case that when flipped unlocked a second set of smaller cells that in theory would give you enough juice to start a vehicle. I think it was marketed by Exide but I can’t be certain after this much time.
Why would you want to charge in that direction? Usually hybrids get stranded because their 12V battery gets too low and can’t close the contacts for the big battery. Other than long-term storage (which would kill both batteries) I can’t recall hearing of someone’s hybrid battery being so depleted that it couldn’t start the car.
I could totally see having a manual way to energize the hybrid battery though. That would have saved a lot of Prius drivers from getting stranded with old 12V batteries.
Actually it was the Prius that prompted that button, that I’m certain was very rarely used. On the first Prius Toyota didn’t set a proper min SOC so it was possible if you ran out of gas that you could then run the HV battery so low it wasn’t capable of starting the engine. The only solution was to tow it to a Toyota dealer where they could charge the HV battery high enough to start the engine. Ford did make the vehicle stop moving before the HV SOC was too low to start the engine, or at least attempt to start the engine. So yeah long term storage was pretty much the only time that you would use that button. And yes that meant that the 12v was probably too low to boot the computers and close the contacts. However a set of jumper cables or standard 12v charger can get enough juice in the HV battery to get the car started.