Her Escape has a MULTITUDE of problems. Some of the more common problems my mother has is that the transmission shifts very rough through the gears, particularly from first to second gear. In addition, there's many times where the clutch slips for a couple seconds before jerking into gear and thrusting forward. Even while driving it'll slip the clutch too much and will be a bit jerky when transitioning into higher gears while moving. Some less common problems that she has is the engine revving at extreme RPMs (redline) while accelerating from a stop. She's had this happen many times. She steps on the gas and the car will act normal for a second, but then it will shoot the RPMs to above redline, and accelerate extremely slow (or barely), then it will slip into gear and accelerate. She's also had the SYNC 2 infotainment gremlins, where many times she has got into her car and the infotainment system said "911 Assist Fault" and disabled the 911 Assist. So practically with that error message, you're telling me if my mother runs off the road because she couldn't stop in time to avoid an accident, and she is severely injured, you won't call the authorities? Well, I wish you luck Ford because you'll have a lawsuit on your hands if she is ever involved in an accident that she can't get to her phone and this feature is disabled. She's also had problems with the car refusing to start in cool temperatures (around 40-50 degrees). She's only had this happen twice in the five years she's owned it. In addition, she says that the car gives her extremely poor average fuel economy, averaging between 16 to 20 MPG (if she's lucky), in which her car should be getting 22 city and 29 highway. Not once in the many times she has filled the car up has she gotten anywhere close to the EPA estimate. Even road trips that she was on the highway for the majority of the time. I have even struggled to get that number driving it.

The SEL trim (as tested) had the 1.5L EcoBoost I4 paired with the great Intelligent 4WD system. The Intelligent 4WD system does a good job in the snow, but it reacts very late as it will often spin the wheels for a couple of seconds, even if you are light on the throttle on snow-covered roads. In addition, the traction and stability control kicks in dangerously late, often slamming on the brakes to straighten the car out. The 1.5L EcoBoost I4 is really slow when you put your foot down. It's hampered by that 6-speed automatic that shifts lethargically, making the car really slow. In fact, pair the 1.5L EcoBoost I4 against the 1.6L turbo in the Hyundai Tucson in a drag race, and the Tucson will walk the Escape in 0-60, doing it 1.5 seconds faster (I timed my Tucson and it ran 0-60 in a best 7.27 seconds), despite having nearly the same horsepower (the Tucson has four less horsepower), but 195 lb/ft of torque compared to the Escape's 177, as well as a 7-speed dual clutch compared to the lethargic 6-speed automatic in the Escape.