Ford Escape?

[Eggman]

Got a low mileage 2020 Ford Escape Titanium used at a local Ford dealership. It's the Ecoboost turbocharged 2.0L with AWD.

The Titanium has lots of technology and features that'll take some getting used to. Fancy leather interior. Adaptive cruise control that not only keeps speed but keeps from hitting the car in front - it'll adjust speed until the obstacle is gone, then it'll resume the set speed. It'll even come to a complete stop, as in a traffic jam (haven't tried that one yet.) It also has lane departure avoidance when using the cruise - in practice I found it weird that the steering wheel kept trying to center in the lane. Definitely interesting seeing how I think I'm centered and how the vehicle electronics say otherwise haha. Lots of collision avoidance sensors. Auto stop & go works fantastic. TPMS readout on the dashboard for each tire. Satellite radio subscription included in the sale for about three months. Also onboard WiFi & navigation. This service includes remote start through a registered mobile phone, which works great. Both key fobs include remote start capability. The liftgate opens with a sensor mounted under the rear bumper with a wave of the foot (still learning that trick haha.) Windshield wipers turn on automatically in rainy conditions. Dual zone automatic climate controls. Lots of USB charging ports front & rear. Built-in garage door opener remote. Automatic high-beam control too. The list goes on.

The 2.0 turbo AWD imposes a fuel economy hit according to the US EPA website compared to the other drivetrains available. It's rated at 23 city, 31 highway with a combined rating of 23mpg. It's already been on two road trips in our possession - one to Northwest Ohio and another yesterday down to Canton. Here's the interesting thing - on the trip to Canton (roughly 50 miles) the dashboard trip fuel economy gauge registered over 42mpg - a real pleasant surprise. Trip speed was kept near the posted speed limit for the majority of the trip which was between 55 and 65 mph once on the highway. The return trip was 40 mpg - half backroads instead of highway and the numbers weren't quite as good but I suspect that is due to not using the 8-speed transmission's higher overdrive gears at the lower speeds. Our Ford Fusion never beat it's fuel economy rating - I thought only the Mirage would do such a thing. After driving this new Escape I was very happily surprised that the fuel economy numbers displayed on the dash just kept going up & up. The trip only took an hour - I wonder where it could have gone had we kept driving? Another road trip might give the answer.


The car market is in a funny place these days. The salesman said the computer chip shortage is causing big problems. They normally keep around 300 new models on their lot, but due to the chip shortage they were down to 30 as of last Monday. Once those are gone all they'll have to sell are used cars. On top of that because new cars aren't selling they aren't getting used cars in on trade - all they'll have for building their inventory will be auctions, and you can imagine the impact that'll have on used car prices.