My wife is in need of a new car within the next year. Her Hyundai Santa Fe is a craptastic pile of parts so we've been looking at new 4runners and fj's(she's not a huge fan of one for her but its a way of me to get one) for her next vehicle. We were talking to her parents about it over dinner and they offered us their fairly new ford escape in trade for her Santa Fe so they could trade it in for a new car for her mother. This keeps us from having two car payments and they say that since we never ask them for anything and we've helped out with a huge burden recently so they were already thinking of doing it.

I believe it's either a 2010 or 2011(there's a possibility it's a 2012 but its a small one) with around 40k miles and I've never heard of them having a problem with it. I've driven it once on a 3 hour trip and it seemed like a good car. What are your experiences? I don't think it could be worse than what she has now and since its free I see no reason to deny them from giving it to us.

Do it

Doooo Itttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good karma and all that stuff.....

Dexter Morgan approves.

150k+ on my '04 and still kicking strong.  Nothing other than normal wear and tear.  Nothing unexpected.  I  have the V6 w/awd.  I've pulled a utility trailer a bunch with a zero turn mower, a cord of firewood, and pallets of landscaping stones.  I really like to drive that vehicle.  Not fast, not sporty, not particularly attractive.  But definitely an all around good vehicle.

The good thing is that she drives about a half mile to work so as long as we don't take too many trips in it it won't rack up the miles quickly.

IIRC this one is a base model. It has the steelies so it probably is. I haven't heard of people having major problems with them but it's not a vehicle that I have done much research on.

Escapes hardly ever give any problems. I've built a couple transmissions on them, fixed a few oil leaks, and done some light drivability work, but nothing big and repetitive.



Go for it.

I had a 2002 and it wasn't a great vehicle.  Had an oil pan leak that I could never fix....even after replacing the gasket twice.  Slowed it but never fixed it.  It was good that it was leaking though because when I pulled the pan off, there was a lot of some material (looked like some gasket material) that was jammed inside the oil pickup tube.  I suspect that it would have eventually starved the engine of oil.  

It wasn't particularly comfortable to drive either.

We sold it and, while I really wanted to like the vehicle, I just never could.  

However, in your case you are being offered a GREAT deal.  Even though I'm still not an Escape fan, I'd be all over that deal!!

My experience with the Ford Escape is dismal.  I borrowed one for a round trip to the Sacramento Airport from the California Foothills. The owner told me to be patient with it, because the engine and the transmission didn't play well together in hilly and mountainous country.  On the other hand, he said that that it was annoyingly reliable.  He called it the Ford Mistake.  I found myself in agreement.  As a dirt road road or rough country vehicle, it would drive me nuts (or more so) pretty fast.  But if I was under your circumstances, I'd go for it!

My wife has one and she loves it.  It's a fast little sucker and the 4x4 is a must here in Utah.  It rides pretty smooth and is quiet which is important to me.

Had a 2006 that we liked then got a 2012 limited v6 4x4 ands have taken it on numerous long 1000+ mile trips and its a great car.  With a cargo container on the roof 2 dogs and 3 people we were getting 22mpg on the interstates.  It also handled the snow a lot better than I expected.  It plowed through 4inch snow covered road with stock tires no problem.

I'd recommend the escape to others

The pre 2012 Escapes were/are pretty good and easy to work on. The 2013 on up are a POS, electrical harnesses are made by the same company Chrysler must use.

I need to find out if its a 4 or 6 cylinder.

Cant speak for the newer ones, but we bought a new '02 Ford/Mazda  Escape and long story short is was a $HITBOX. Had major issues with destroying front tires for the first 50K miles, the rear wiper assembly had to be replaced twice, and to cap it all off blew the AWD tranny at 105K to the tune of $3900 . One and done with Mazda SUV's .