I can see MSRP price gouging already! "You want one? There will only be 20,000 available all year. Pay $$$ now or you might not get one"

As my wife’s small SUV is getting up there in years, I recently went on a search of local Ford dealers selling the Escape Hybrid. The only dealer I found in the Portland area with one in stock was charging $5,000 over Ford’s MSRP. Not surprisingly, this same dealer is also charging (and getting) $5,000 over Toyota’s MSRP for the Prius.

ah yes, america, the land of opportunity

Well, Fords stealerships are only giving me one more reason to wait untill Ford has had some time to prove that they didn't find a way to screw up their reverse engineered Toyota system.

Wolfman all these times i kept thinking you were making typos.

i see now that you knew exactly what you were doing all along.

my sister works at the ford dealership in town and they got their first escape a few weeks back. before she got a chance to look at it, it was sold to a lady who stopped by on chance (the dealership has not been taking advance orders for the vehicle because of unsure allotments or delivery dates) for $9,000 over MSRP!!

my sister and all her work buddies thought it was hilarious, i thought it was pathetic.

Sheesh, when did 31mpg become "fuel-sipping"? Cars were routinely that economical back in the early 80s.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wolfman\";p=\"47728)</div>

I was under the impression that Ford licensed the original THS from Toyota, rather than reverse engineering it. Apparently Toyota wouldn't license their new system used in the 04s and beyond, but the old one was fair game.

Dave

i think ford used some of the technology from Toyota as a basis for designing their own proprietary system. so not quite reverse engineering but close...

I think the claim was that Ford designed their own, but it turned out similar enough to Toyota's that they figured better safe than sorry and licensed it. I doubt they would ever admit to reverse engineering. The amazing similarity was pure coincidence.

welll ford did design their own, but only AFTER they licensed Toyota's technology.

if left to do it by scratch, they would still be working on it.

Re: Ford faces battery shortage problem in '05 for Escape Hy

The story I herd, FWIW, is that Ford developed the whole thing but was having trouble with the computer control system and got that from Toyota. I am not sure I believe that story. Over all the US has had better computer programers than Japan. The only hooker is that no one said that the programers for Toyota were Japanese. We will get answers years from now. Oh well.

i worked for intel, and they had some of the best programmers money could buy. and yes, some were american but the great majority were not. to say that the US has better programmers overall than any other country is imo, way wrong.

the US doesnt rank in the top 20 for education anymore. our literacy rate is about 25th. (there are about 10 countries with 100% literacy) over a dozen countries produce more scientists and engineers.

the only thing i can say, is the US has the best programmers that money can buy. but even that is becoming less true. companies like microsoft have been forced to open offices in countries like India since they can no longer convince the best and brightest to come to the US for any amount of money.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA\";p=\"51771)</div>

And the big Indian companies can and do pay equal or more money for the top people plus a lot of incentives( free acomodation, chuffer driven cars, childcare etc) and the benefit of staying closer to home. In addition, for some bright people there are more opportunities in say, India as the IT industry is rapidly enlarging and more and more cutting edge research is being done there, not to mention all the outsourcing.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kjb516\";p=\"47694)</div>

As my wife’s small SUV is getting up there in years, I recently went on a search of local Ford dealers selling the Escape Hybrid. The only dealer I found in the Portland area with one in stock was charging $5,000 over Ford’s MSRP. Not surprisingly, this same dealer is also charging (and getting) $5,000 over Toyota’s MSRP for the Prius.[/b][/quote]

Why would anyone want to buy an Escape for over the MSRP when the Prius is bcoming easily available nowadays and is a far superoir and more fun vehicle. It can carry almost as much cargo as the Escape, is reasonably roomy,far less likely to roll over, much better handling, cheaper, more cutting edge( an especially designed hybrid vs putting hybrid sys in a regular Escape) and provides far higher-nearly double-MPG.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Gurmail\";p=\"51781)</div>

I can't argue with many of your points, but the cargo capacity of the Prius is 16.1 cu ft. The capacity behind the second seat in the Escape is 27.6. I don't know if they measure cargo area as 'floor to roof' or 'floor to rear seatback height. Nor do I know if both companies use the same measurement

For 'comfort' ( defined as space by me )

• 
  
  I'm sure that for some people these differences might be important.
  And for some, the SUV image might be the deciding factor.

Re: Ford faces battery shortage problem in '05 for Escape Hy

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas\";p=\"51731)</div>

That is incorrect, Ford developed the whole thing completely from scratch. I know someone who worked on the development team.

Read the story - click here.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pepa\";p=\"51883)</div>

Fact of the matter is that Ford did buy a license from Toyota to use its hybrid technology.

Ford will use Toyota's hybrid technology - International Herald Tribune

Re: Ford faces battery shortage problem in '05 for Escape Hy

Ford locally isnt even considering having orders placed...so trying to get one here is not even a possibility,until such a time Ford gets there act together. The local dealers apparently dont want a waiting list fiasco like toyota had for prius. So even if they get one in, it isnt going to get promoted ...if somebody walks in, pays a premium and gets hit for gross plus $1000s, then they will sell it..

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius\";p=\"51923)</div>

Tarzana, the article states that Ford WILL use Toyota technology, not that they DID. I can find zillions of articles like the one you presented. The fact is that Ford initially made effort to purchase some of the technology from Toyota (the announcement spawned reports like this one), but the deal was never finalized, and the transaction never took place. Ford developed the technology used in Ford Escape completely on their own.