"Iowa883" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> Ok,
> As you all know if you have been reading, I am looking for a mid/small
SUV.
> Blazers aren't getting such hot reviews. How about a Ford Escape ?
> Thanks,
> Iowa883
Hard to say with the "Escape" in one country being different to the "Escape"
in another.
If you mean the faux-wheel-drive version, i.e. the soft-road version. Then
don't take it off-road.
We had one do a simple fire-trail drive with our 4WD club here in Australia,
and it didn't make it.
This track was no Monster-Truck-Killer. It was a simple fire-trail. The sort
of thing I used to take a Subaru Liberty on all the time without problem.
But it sure stopped the Ford Escape in it's tracks (about 4 times, at 20-40
minutes per time to fix).
The humps they put across tracks here in Aus. to prevent erosion by causing
water to run ACROSS the road rather than DOWN the road, kept hitting what I
think was the bash-plate, and driving it into what I think was the
driveshaft, requiring 40 minute stops, to clamber under the vehicle and try
to bash it back away. Which wasn't made easy by the fact that the offending
item was mounted on rubber bits, so it simply "gave" under the hammer blows,
rather than "moved" back to where it should have been.
The owners had to cut the weekend trip short and take the blacktop back home
rather than continue through the bush for the second day of the trip.
They didn't seem too damned impressed with their newly acquired 4WD after
that, and haven't been on a trip with us since.
If you only intend to use it on road, then get an on-road vehicle. If you
intend to go off-road, then don't go in an "Escape" as you might never
escape.
Trentus
