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There's a very good reason I've been relatively quiet lately, especially regarding the Bronco Theres a BUNCH of stuff I could say but I'm not going to because I don't want to deal with the consequences.

My dad has recently had his truck in for service, and he wound up getting a loaner vehicle - a 2020 Escape SE. I know we've all seen pictures, read reviews, etc. of it - good and bad - but I figured I'd take the opportunity to see what the real deal was and took it for a short drive around town. First a couple of pictures: The overall exterior design is nice looking, though perhaps not necessarily "exciting". I personally like the back end more than the front, which is a bit bug eyed - other iterations of the European front ends look better. It does have some nice curves and surfacing that may not be evident in photos. Being an SE, it is missing some nicer trim pieces, but I don't think I'd say it looks cheap. Moving to the interior - it's mixed. Some people have said it's ultra cheap/low rent, and I'll disagree with that assessment. It's not anything extravagant (I don't think higher trims change drastically aside from the silver piece across the dash becomes a wood look piece and the digital gauges), but it's not horrible either. It is, however, missing some of the nice detailing and trim pieces that I've seen in photos of the competition. Upper pieces are a nice "rubberized"/squishy, while lower parts are hard plastic. Switchgear is mostly Ford parts bin stuff, but I don't see that as a problem - the switches and everything works just fine. The lower center console area where the shifter is is a sort of textured plastic. In an odd obvious cost cutting move, the center air vents have a nice looking silver accent on 2 of the 5 slats, as well as an accent around the bottom of the vents. The outer vent doesn't have those same silver accents, which gives it a cheaper look. I'm not sure if higher trims resolve this issue. The standard gauges.....when I saw them in pictures, they look very cheap. Seeing them in person, I do agree that they look out of place in a modern car without some more detailing (even just some chrome rings around the speedo and tach would dress it up some), but they aren't as bad as photos suggested. The small color screen in between them is nice to have, as well. The door panel design also leaves something to be desired. The front doors are better than the back, but the little cutout accent things look like what they are - filler to have some sort of "design" in an otherwise giant expanse of soft touch plastic in the front and in the back an even bigger expanse of hard tupperwear like plastic. I still don't understand the complaints on the rear seat legroom. I'm 6'0" and have the front seats set how I'd sit, and while I do have the rear seats all the way back in the photo, there's plenty of room in that setup. If the rear seats were set all the way forward, my knees would be against the chairs, but when you can slide the seats, unless you had to, I don't see why you'd have them in any position but as far back as they go. One each of a USB-C and USB-A port are in the back of the lower center console for rear passengers. Now for the driving part..... First, for some reason, the tilt feature on the steering wheel/column was not working on this model. I even looked up the order guide to see if it another cost cutting move and whether it just didn't have it, or if it wasn't working. Well, under the standard equipment, it lists the tilt/telescoping wheel, so it wasn't functioning here for some reason. Going into this overall look at the new Escape, after having read reviews of how sluggish and slow and noisy and terrible the 3 cylinder EcoBoost was, I expected to be vastly underwhelmed and as if I could go faster if I pedaled car Flintstone mobile style. With a Mustang GT in the garage, just about anything else will feel slow, so when driving different vehicles, I always try to judge the vehicle on what it is/what it's supposed to be doing/competing against and not a blanket "THIS IS SLOOWWWWW" compared to what I'm used to, as that wouldn't serve a purpose. I'm also not afraid to say if the powertrain didn't live up to expectations and underperformed, even if they were low to begin with because of the aforementioned reviews. So with that said, I 100% disagree with the reviews that said the 3 cylinder EcoBoost was a bad or horrible sounding engine. On the contrary, I was absolutely impressed by the little engine, and would've thought it was a 4 cylinder had I not known otherwise. I thought it performed quite well in this vehicle - it didn't feel sluggish at all.The only time I found some sluggishness was when I had to brake quickly for a car in front of me unexpectedly turning, and then quickly speeding back up, it took a second for it to "catch up". Otherwise, under normal driving, it worked great. I was also surprised to find the SE has driving modes including normal, sport, eco, and weather (I think there's a 5th but I don't recall). Sport model also wakes up the gearing and tightens the steering to make the driving even more fun. I found the ride to be smooth and relatively quiet. Upon full acceleration, the engine does make noise, but I didn't find it obnoxiously loud or harsh like reviews have said. I've included a video below for you to see. Guess I should've continued it down to idle to see a comparison, but oh well. I didn't observe fuel economy, because in such a short drive, had I reset it, the number would've been ridiculous and not at all representative of what it could get. https://i.imgur.com/MqKedDm.mp4 I should preface my closing thoughts by saying I have not driven any of the newest competition, nor have I been in them at the auto shows in a while (I need to make a better effort at that should Covid have not been the final nail in the coffin for auto shows - let's hope not). On its own, I found the Escape to be seemingly very competitive. It drove well, despite what certain other reviews have said. The engine has some pep despite being a 3 cylinder, and the selectable drive modes in even this SE trim help you further tailor the driving experience to whatever way you want to drive. The interior, while I'd agree is not as detailed as the competition and would benefit from some stylistic upgrades, it's not the horrid playskool level interior it's been made out to be. Interior space was great front and back and in the storage area. I think it'd be a great choice for anyone looking for a compact crossover.

How long have I been saying MAP has the best launch team in the company? This is the result of that.

Not bad for a hack job.

Yes, because that 20 extra horsepower will be critical in the hypothetical street races discussed over a few beers. If anything, those extra horses become even more critical as more beers are consumed during the discussion.

There is a long standing policy that you do not accept pictures from a OEM employee. TFL broke the long standing code, TFL lost. nuff said.

All new drivetrain, major frame changes, suspension changes, moderate electronics changes, and not to mention an all-new factory and a crew that has never worked with this platform either. The chances for a fuck up were well within bounds. The MAP guys have a big hand in the success of this truck.

"Cars.com reports 70% of shoppers consider a car’s U.S. economic impact a deciding factor and COVID-19 boosted that sentiment." https://www.marketwatch.com/story/michigan-assembled-ford-ranger-named-most-american-made-car-in-annual-list-that-includes-tesla-for-first-time-2020-06-23

If you like Ford's F-150 tweet on twitter they send you this image as a reply.

The cost cutting approach has existed for decades. The Harvard "bean counters" almost put Ford out of business in the late '70's. Unfortunately, Ford never learns from it's mistakes and the problem and negative impact have only gotten worse within the past 5-10 years. The cost cutting leads to the customer perceptions of a lesser quality vehicle design, some customers go to the competition, Ford loses market share, existing customer are dissatisfied when the problems start to appear and the recalls are launched, Ford incurs the warranty cost spike, the profit objective is missed, the shareholders are hurt, the negative media play (biased or not) impacts the overall perception of the company, etc. Ford management thinks and acts short term, often as a matter of career preservation, and in inconsistent in following through on long term plans that would benefit the company, its customers and shareholders long term. And ever time there's a change in upper management, whatever long tern plan for vehicle development was in effect gets scrapped because someone has a "better idea" and the cycle starts all over again!

Don't feed the troll

Love mine! It was built with pride and it shows!

You're severely overestimating the impact of these outfits on actual sales. Nobody is "falling all over themselves" for these so called journalists. If they don't play nicely with the OEMs and follow the rules they'll be shut out like TTAC and others in the past. At best it's just entertainment. And it has nothing to do with being highly principled - it has to do with protecting proprietary information and not releasing information early. Ford was planning to keep these features secret until the reveal - now that's spoiled. It's all about acting in good faith. Ford allowed them early access to vehicles and use of their test facilities and this is how they repay them? You can't have it both ways. I predict within the next month TFL will issue a formal apology once they realize the impact.

Did you read the bios for those gentlemen? They have serious Bronco history and credentials. If anyone thinks Ford is anti-minority, they're crazy; It sounds like Ford simply hired the best people for the job. Diversity is fine, but it shouldn't be forced. By calling them out for the gender and skin color, you ignore the sweat and hard work they've put into leading the community and helping us get to where we are today. Not cool.

Did you forget where you are?

I remember during the "Have you driven a Ford lately" era, after a Nascar race, Darrell Waltrip said he hadn't driven a Ford lately, but he sure had been chasing one.

So Ford is supposed to just ignore their refusal to take down the illegal pics? Take them down and apologize and promise not to do it again and maybe they can get past it. Otherwise screw ‘em.

Oh wtf, they actually moved the 2021 Bronco reveal date because of this OJ Simpson birthday thing! 😫 https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/2021-bronco-reveal-officially-comes-july-13-moved-from-july-9.1403/ What a bungling this reveal has been.

I said it in the other thread, it's Ford's sandbox, it's their rules. If you want to post leaked shit, then go right ahead but then don't bitch about the consequences.

Deanh understands the situation well from the dealership level and I agree with him as I've been managing the order bank for my dealership for 34 years now. I've argued for years about the need to simplify the ordering process. The more free standing options available the harder it is to order and stock the most desirable inventory mix to satisfy a dealership's market demand. From a production standpoint, it might not make a difference on the assembly line to install different grilles because of the way parts arrive and are sequenced "just in time" but there are other factors involved. Ford has to contract with the suppliers to a production quantity, timetable, etc. Some of the decisions are made based on marketing research and projected demand. Every additional freestanding option adds to overall production costs and makes the dealerships ordering process more difficult. And forget about dealerships swapping out parts at no charge. Most dealerships are not going to cannibalize their inventory by changing parts that would then make it more difficult to sell the affected vehicle to another customer or Ford Dealer. The larger Ford stores have dedicated accessory departments that stock a wide variety of parts and accessories to meet the demands of their own market. Otherwise, Ford dealers stock the most common parts and accessories for their market and customer base (Bedliners, etc.) and order other parts from Ford or other distribution sources that can either be delivered the same day or next in most cases. The reality is that probably only 10% or less of new vehicle sales are retail orders from the factory. Most customers don't want to wait for a retail factory order and will buy from a dealership's stock inventory, unless their needs are specific and within the bounds of the vehicle's order guide. Some vehicle order guides are pretty good and allow dealerships to stock similar vehicles in quantity that help the sales rates. Other vehicle lines (F-Series, Transit, etc.) have much more complicated order guides to meet potential commercial requirements that make the whole ordering process more difficult for stock orders. There is no way that Ford will consider multiple order guides for any vehicle line. The customer can either buy from Dealer stock or place a retail order within the regular order guide requirements!

6 speed with Creeper gear in the Bronco.

You mean news outlets are supposed to report facts? You wouldn't know it these days.