focalxplosion

Their reporting is riddled with errors. Take a look at their fuel economy ratings and they list the 2WD FEH with the EPA fuel economy numbers from the AWD. I haven't seen that statement anywhere else regarding ride and insulation. Unless proven from a more reliable source, I think that is false.

On my first two tanks I got 27 mpg and 28.6 mpg. My FEH has AWD and all options so it is likely going to get the lowest fuel economy of all FEH's. The computer says my current tank is 31.8 and since it was dead on with the first two tanks I imagine this is accurate. We haven't had to use AC in weeks, which is why fuel economy has improved.

Nav is new for '08, I doubt it will change. If it gets Bluetooth it will likely come with SYNC if that makes it.

I am looking at window sticker right now and it's not listed, but we have it. Our Escape is also a Hybrid.

In addition the biggest supposed benefit is that it is much less expensive to manufacture and Ford will be developing their own transmission.

I'm not sure what will happen in July, but we just got ours last night. Here in Portland we got $500 cash back. The additional $545 is only on the regular escape now.

I think the 0% offer was only for the '07 model. It was a bit tricky because the commercial showed an '08.

Mercedes already does this.

I think that is imperial gallons, which are larger than standard US gallons.

If we order our Escape with Sirius. Does it still get FM radio if we cancel the Sirius. My guess is that it does b/c I think I remember seeing the standard antenna, but I'm not sure.

It's U.S. antitrust law which prevents manufactures from setting prices. Vertical price fixing is per se illegal.

Do you have a source for that. This is the first I had heard of this news. It would be interesting, but I doubt Ford will make the investment. The '08 focus looks more and more like a stop-gap to get to 2011 global focus.

I am an engineer, a mechanical engineer working for an OEM truck company. Disk brakes are fantastic and have many advantages over drum. However every OEM makes trade-offs on every component in the vehicle. My point is that it is unnecessary to have rear disk brakes in this class vehicle.

Customer perception. While it is true that on many applications disk brakes are better, it is not universally true but customers perceive it to be.

Cost is the reason, but please don't extol the virtues of disk brakes. Drum brakes don't sacrifice any performance for vehicle of this type. I thought it was pretty similar to the carpet in the RAV4. Compared to what? It is just as quite as the CRV and RAV4 we test drove and the comparison tests seem to back that up. This bothered me too. I'll have to look again but I thought I had seen them on some trim levels. EPA ratings are going to drop for every vehicle on the market, but I doubt that V-6 will ever be a fuel economy champ in its class. I'm sorry you didn't like the Escape, but I think Ford is competing just fine. Sales for the new '08 are not highest in class, but they are pretty high up there. Good luck with your purchase.