Escape Hybrid Marketing Packet with CD

Did they have any details on the LCD screen? I thought that I had seen that it is only available as part of the navigation option and not standard.

 

Sounds nice, we need more hybrid cars anyway, so it's good to have some choice!

 

I believe I read somewhere that the display screen would be offered only on the navigation/fully loaded package.

 

The Honda display works that way.

I hope they do well. Word of mouth spreads and tends to encompass things not directly related. My neighbor told me "they" (I'm guessing he had read articles on hybrids) don't get the mileage they are supposed to. He claimed 25 mpg. So, to him, all hybrids are the same. Another person told me that they heard on "Car Talk" that hybrids have "engine problems".

If Ford flops, meaning they have problems with any part of the vehicle for any reason, "the reviewer" doesn't get the mileage Ford claims, etc, we will be hearing that hybrids suck and are unreliable.

I, for one, would be far more wary of the Escape as a first year vehicle than I was of the 2004 Prius. I shy from first year redesigns, but this for Ford, is a first design. They do not have the good history Toyota does with hybrid models going back many years in Japan and 4 years here with the gen 2 & 3 Prius. And, though it is supposed to be humor, Found On Road Dead and Fix Or Repair Daily most likely have some basis in historical problems with Ford products.

 

I checked out the Ford web site and got to the Hybrid Escape pages. The hype brags about their full-hybrid design and makes is sound as if the other hybrids are all mild-hybrids.

 

Sucess of Escape might not be as good as some seem to think. If hybrid SUVs become succesful, most people who want hybrids( after hearing about them) would continue buying SUVs needlessly as at present, thinking these SUVs are great as they are hybrids. GM and others will take advantage of this by creating dubious hybrids which improve mpg by 1(one!!) mile per gallon. This would drive attention away from beter cars like the Prius which give much beter mpg. Escape for example doesn;t have any changes at all. No reduction in size, compromise in power, no lighening of weight, nothing at all. Yet, everyone believes this to be a great development. Most people here just want the hybrid technology to be promoted. One must ask the question: why was a hybrid invented? It was to get better mpg and reduce emissions. ICE has been around for over a 100 years and can be used in a Hummer(8-10 mpg) or in cars widely used in Europe and the rest of the world to get over 50 mpg without them being hybrids. Similary, a hybrid system is better used in a smaller but functional vehicle like the Prius than in a SUV.

 

Even one mile per gallon adds up with enough cars. People will buy SUVs. People have the right to buy SUVs. Why not give them a little bit of an alternative? Any improvement is better than none.

 

I actually agree with both you and Gurmail Unless there is pressing need (how often is THAT in SUVs?) for more power in a given vehicle, I see no reason to "hybridize" it to gain 1 mpg, even if that is a 10% increase. IMHO, Toyota and Honda have proven they can get equal or better performance AND 45% or more increase in mpg.

 

People do have a right(today) to buy an SUV but, the government must do all it can to disuade them. SUV are the cause of our dependence on imported oil. If everyone could switch to smaller cars, we could actually start exporting oil and everybody could still have a car. In addition, SUVs are extremly dangerous and pollute a lot more. No person should have the right to waste precoius resorses needlessly and the government can esily curb it by demanding they meet higher mpg and adhere to more strict pollution standards and not be more than a certain weight.