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Ford Escape 2013 4dr Front-wheel Drive SEL
Ford Escape 2013 4dr Front-wheel Drive SEL
2013 Ford Escape SEL 4dr Front-wheel Drive SEL
- Base MSRP:
- $28,170
- Free Dealer Price Check
- Vehicle Class:
- Small Sport Utility Vehicles 2WD
- Fuel Type:
- Regular unleaded
- MPG:
- 23 city / 33 hwy
- Warranties
- Basic:
- 3 Years / 36,000 Miles
- Drivetrain:
- 5 Years / 60,000 Miles
- Roadside:
- 5 Years / 60,000 Miles
- Rust:
- 5 Years
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- Body Style: Sport Utility
- Vehicle Size: Small
- MSRP: $28170.00
- Mileage: 23
- Fuel Type: Regular unleaded
- Fuel Capacity: 15.10
- Horsepower: 173
- Seating Capacity:5
- Build Location: Louisville, KY
Overview:
The 2013 Ford Escape is a total redesign that moves the top-selling compact SUV into the times, with high-tech small engines, a smooth 6-speed transmission, aerodynamic front styling, and electronic wizardry.Ford claims 11 features exclusive to the Escape in the compact SUV class, everything from a capless fuel nozzle to Torque Vectoring Control, which helps the Escape corner more securely.Gas prices have fueled the compact SUV market (in Europe it's quadrupled in the last decade), so this is a class that's important to Ford's ongoing rebound, and they've pulled out all the stops to make the Escape good.
Fuel mileage varies from an EPA-estimated 23 City/33 Highway mpg with the 1.6-liter front-wheel drive Escape to 21/28 mpg with the 2.0-liter all-wheel drive.We drove both versions and fell below those marks, however, averaging 22.7 mpg in the 1.6-liter and 19.7 mpg in the 2.0-liter, while driving them spiritedly.That's still better than a comparably equipped Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4, and good enough that the Escape Hybrid has been abandoned.
The 2013 Escape lineup features three engines, including the returning tried-and-true 2.5-liter, less powerful and efficient but with a lower MSRP than the new EcoBoost engines.The four-cylinder EcoBoosts make their North American debut in the Escape, although they've been running in Europe for three years.There's a 1.6-liter making 178 horsepower and 2.0-liter making 240 hp, both twin-turbos with direct injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing (Ti-VCT), although having different designs.
This review is a Tale of Two Escapes, because we found the 1.6-liter FWD to feel completely different from the 2.0-liter AWD.The 1.6 is quick, lively and visceral, a blast to drive.The 2.0-liter AWD feels more grownup, civilized, solid, heavy.If you want a four-cylinder compact SUV that feels like a midsize V6, the Escape is for you.
Creature comfort is impeccable, even with the standard fabric upholstery, rugged and handsome.The chassis is 40 percent stiffer, and the ride is smooth.The interior materials are soft, and the plastic high quality.Rear legroom is decent, at 36.8 inches, and rear climate control is standard in all but the base S model.There's excellent cargo space, 68.1 cubic feet behind the first row and 34.3 cubic feet behind the second row, and the standard 60/40 rear seat folds flat wonderfully fast, with one lever.
The nose of the new 2013 Escape is distinctive, sort of aero stubby, with the blue oval emblem in its wide narrow grille to say it's a Ford.Although the Escape emulates its big brother the Explorer SUV, its new nose more resembles its little brother the Focus hatchback.The hood has nice character lines, and the headlights sweep sharply back and up into muscular wheelwells.
One clever innovation that others are already copying is an available magic release for the liftgate.Kick your foot under the rear bumper, and presto, the liftgate pops open so you can drop your heavy things into the back without having to set them down.It's a feature we like, and would buy, although you can do the same with a remote keyfob that opens the liftgate, that is if you remember to carry it in your hand with your thumb over the button when you leave the grocery store with your arms full.
We'll save the worst for last, in this overview.MyFordTouch has been totally redesigned after its disastrous first generation in 2011, and you can now get the new program downloaded for free in your 2011-12 Ford, so definitely do that.The new version, as they say, is simpler and the screen is cleaner.And to be sure, we have, at times, gotten it to work for us.But it still ain't easy, and you need a real sense of humor to talk to Voice Command.It's kind of like talking to your teenagers, and getting them to do their chores.
Well, there is more in the good news department.Last but not least, the price for the Escape has actually come down.The base S model has dropped by $200, while Ford claims the SE has $1000 more content for only $200 more, and the SEL has $2300 more content for $1500 more.
The base 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine delivers good power at high revs for those who like to wind it up, and decent torque for acceleration when you need it at any speed.With a balance shaft to offset vibration, it's smooth.It delivers 10 less horsepower than the 1.6-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost, 14 less foot-pounds of torque, and 2 less miles per gallon.The 2.5-liter engine is about keeping the purchase price down.
When we first drove a front-wheel-drive 1.6-liter EcoBoost, we were impressed by its quickness.With 178 horsepower this good, who needs 240? we asked aloud, thinking of the 2.0-liter EcoBoost we would drive next.The word that came to mind to describe the way the 1.6 gets around is scoots, and it scoots all the way up to redline.
The ride in the 1.6-liter front-wheel-drive model was smooth, while at the same time it felt like it wanted to dance.It darts but doesn't jerk, and you get used to it.There was a bouncy motion to the suspension, but it wasn't harsh or disturbing, unlike the back seat of the Explorer we rode in from the airport.It's very nimble, and we love how it handles on two-lanes.
That's probably Torque Vectoring Control at work, an impressive feature for a compact SUV.It uses the stability control module to monitor the dynamics 100 times per second; when the front inside wheel starts to slip in a corner, brake is applied to that wheel, balancing the grip with the left front wheel and reducing understeer.
Torque Vectoring works with standard Curve Control, which is like electronic stability control, only quicker; it senses when a vehicle is entering a curve too fast, and cuts power and/or applies braking to individual wheels to reduce speed by up to 10 mph in one second.Think freeway on-ramps or off-ramps, especially in the wet.
The brakes are quite aggressive, or rather we should say the sensors that control the brakes are aggressive, because the mechanical feel to the pedal is just right, nicely progressive.But as we dabbed the brakes before corners on the twisty road, it felt like they were surging and biting.Once we felt the stability control come on, and it actually made a tire chirp when it braked just one wheel.
In some challenging choppy switchbacks, the suspension did good job of smoothing it all out.We assume that Torque Vectoring Control was at work, but we didn't feel it.
The automatic 6-speed transmission kicks down into 5th on the freeway quite a bit, unnecessarily we think, but they all do that, even way powerful cars; the more gears there are, the more the transmission tries to get out of top gear.We tried to keep it in 6th by shifting to Sport/Manual mode, to no avail.We tested its tolerance by slowing down to 40 mph in 6th gear and flooring it; it downshifted to 4th gear, while indicating in the digital window that it was in 5th.
It makes us realize that Sport/Manual mode is a paradox.In a 'sport' mode, a driver would want the transmission to downshift aggressively; in a 'manual' mode, he or she would not.
Our run in the 1.6 included a lot of relaxed driving, so for much of the time our throttle foot was light, but we only averaged 22.7 miles per gallon.It's EPA-rated at 23 city/33 highway.
Our Escape 2.0-liter EcoBoost felt like a totally different car: heavier, more solid, less visceral.The handling is slower and suspension steadier than the 1.6, which most buyers will probably be more comfortable with.The 2.0 Escape feels substantial, for a compact SUV.However, we should point out that our 2.0 was all-wheel drive, and the 1.6 was front-wheel drive, and maybe that explains more about the feel of the car than the engine.Tires and wheels are different, also, with 17-inch wheels on the 1.6, 19-inch wheels on the 2.0.
The all-wheel-drive system is new, with sensors that analyze data from 25 signals, 20 times faster than the blink of an eye, and deliver torque to the wheels as needed, through a new torque converter and electromagnetic clutch.
The 2.0-liter is not just a bigger version of the 1.6.Although both are turbocharged, direct-injected, 16-valve, aluminum four-cylinders, they're from different engine families; the 1.6 is the older Sigma design, the 2.0 is Duratec.The 2.0 feels like a V6, compared to the 1.6.Using different turbochargers, the 1.6 has a steeper torque curve, further adding to its quickness and visceral feel.The 1.6 makes 184 pound-feet or torque at 2500 rpm, while the 2.0 makes 270 pound-feet at 3000.We can't say we felt that big difference, but you sure will if you tow anything.Properly equipped, the 2.0 Escape can tow 3500 pounds, which is a lot for a four-cylinder compact SUV.
Even having 62 more horsepower, 240 hp vs.178 hp, the 2.0-liter Escape doesn't feel much faster in a straight line; and maybe ours wasn't, because of a taller rear axle ratio.The 1.6 FWD comes with a 3.21 final drive, the 2.0 AWD with a long-legged 3.07, which didn't help fuel mileage much; we got 19.7 mpg with the 2.0.It's EPA-rated at 21 City/28 Highway with all-wheel drive.
Transmissions are the same on the 1.6 and 2.0, but programmed differently, the 2.0 sportier.Like the Ford Taurus SHO (but not the Mustang), it has rev-matching downshifting, meaning you'll hear a little blip from the engine as it goes in gear smoothly, when you manually downshift it hard.And like the SHO, sometimes it upshifts curiously.Once, in Sport/Manual mode, with our foot on the floor and racing to redline, it upshifted on its own into 4th gear at about 4200 rpm, immediately after reaching redline no problem in 3rd.The SHO did the exact same thing.These quirky and contradictory transmission habits usually get down to one engineer in the development team, that automotive journalists rarely can reach to ask why.
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