Ford Escape EcoBoost Titanium 2.0 AWD: Escape the city!

The Escape is clear proof that Ford has found its way in the small car market.-

I’ve honestly never been a big fan of Ford until much recently. Their lineup of turbocharged cars, crossovers and SUVs has really grown on me.

It’s similar to what people say about money and problems: pouring money into a problem might not be the most efficient way to solve it, but it often gets the job done.

In the same vein, add in a healthy dose of power (and torque) into any vehicle, and it becomes supremely far more enjoyable. EcoBoost is life!

The third generation Escape (we never got the second gen, while the first gen, quite frankly, looked horrible for me) looks properly globally modern: it neither looks too Americanized, nor an Asian version of an American product. It truly looks like a global citizen at home in Asia, Europe and America.

It is powered by a choice of two turbocharged and direct-injected engines, one displacing 1.6 liters, and this top-model AWD Titanium variant gets the nicer 240 hp and 366 Newton meter four cylinder.

It delivers power quite smoothly and progressively to the front wheels via a 6-speed automatic transmission.

Ford’s 2000cc EcoBoost engine

Aside from the really nice engine (a real gem), we also get Ford’s latest tech toys, namely: Ford Sync, My Ford Touch powered by Microsoft, and Intelligent All-Wheel Drive (essentially an on-demand, all-wheel drive system that delivers torque to the rear axle once the fronts start slipping).

You almost never feel the intelligent AWD working: it delivers power seamlessly to the rears, but there’s so much mechanical grip from the Escape’s front wheels and tires to begin with.

On a cold day, on a slippery and wet driveway, or with mud-covered tires, you might get it into action, but it happens so smoothly you don’t really think much about it.

Suspension is via a Macpherson-strut front and a multi-link rear, which provides a very controlled and compliant ride despite running on 19-inch wheels with 235/45R19 tires. It’s on the firm side, but I like it, and it matches the Escape’s Bahn-blasting demeanor.

The Escape’s 18-inch wheels

Other SUVs may handle better than the Escape, but that’s not to say that the Ford doesn’t want to play in the corners; it just really prefers more modest curves, and lots and lots of wide open highways.

But there’s an abundance of grip for sure, and even on dirt-roads, the Escape’s chassis and suspension cope admirably.

There is noticeable body roll (it is a tall crossover, and not a sports car), but it’s all good. You can feel the structural stiffness, and the suspension’s stroke working fine soaking up all the high-speed road imperfections.

On my weekly sojourn to Tagaytay, the Escape preferred SLEX and the Skyway more than the winding Tagaytay Santa-Rosa Highway, but it was fun nonetheless as the 366 Newton meters of torque and the instant, lag-free response meant overtaking slower moving cars, tricycles and cyclists was like shooting fish in a barrel.

I guess if I were to levy a mild form of complaint, it’s that there’s a slight delay in the Escape’s weight transfer from wheel corner to wheel corner. But then again, that’s nit-picking in this segment.

The engine/transmission’s response can also be a bit rough when you accidentally tip into the gas pedal a little harder than you would have wanted. Again, nit-picking.

Thanks to turbocharging, I was able to get a very decent sub 7 km/liter in the city with a good mix of traffic and stop-and-go situations, and a very good 14 km/liter out on the highway, carefully observing the speed limit and my right foot’s erhm position.

Despite being turbocharged, the Escape’s EcoBoost engine isn’t picky with fuel, so 93 RON Octane is fine, but if you plan to keep blasting away, higher is better.

Inside, driving position has also vastly improved compared to the previous Escape.

Steering effort is on the light side, but offers decent feel. There’s that sense of getting used to American-style ergonomics versus Japanese style, but after a few hours behind the wheel, you get used to where the controls and buttons are.

The rear seats are surprisingly not as roomy as one would expect, and the interior plastics still need to catch up to some of the Japanese brands in terms of fitment, durability (the Escape’s plastics scratch easily), soft-touch feel, and tactility.

Spec-wise, the Escape is right up there: seven airbags, ABS-EBD brakes, front and rear parking sensors with reverse camera plus cross-traffic alert (handy when clueless pedestrians walk past you as you’re backing out), and traction/stability control.

The hands-free tail-gate opens with a kick underneath the rear bumper, and cargo space in the boot is pretty good.

You also get a moon roof that really sets the mood for some star-gazing on a clear night sky. There’s even a three-prong 110-volt electrical socket in the rear.

Thanks to the One Ford Program, Ford is rationalizing and aligning products with markets all over the world, simplifying their product range, and thus freeing up R&D budgets to design, engineer and build better cars.

Smaller markets like the Philippines will benefit from this as we get better specified cars; while markets like the US will in turn get more fuel-efficient cars.

The Escape is a really eye-opening car. The F150 pick-ups, Mustangs, and large SUVs like the Explorer and Expedition, have always been a staple and core product of Ford. But their smaller cars haven’t been able to match the Japanese.

Having tried the Escape and Focus, though, I’m convinced Ford has found its way in the small car market. There’s a genuine sense of enjoyment and excitement when you get behind the wheel of Ford vehicles now, something that was missing a few years back.