I'd have liked to read it but it's unfortunately behind a paywall.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2025/09/16/ford-new-headquarters-glass-house/86167361007/   long but interesting read analyzing the move. Allegedly The Glass House is decaying from the inside out. 

From what I remember, the glass (if opened) wouldn't have hit the car if the tailgate was opened on the 2010 and prior Escapes too...my wife had one and I think I tried it once. 

Our 2009 Mariner had the opening glass w/manual tailgate, never opened the glass. It was a reach to the floor of the cargo area, and you could soil your clothes leaning over the dirty or wet tailgate & bumper. The Mariner's tailgate was an easy open & close. The BS loaner we are using has an easy manual tailgate as well.    As I understand it, Ford Connect relays all kinds of data to the factory, including arcane info like if the Homelink opener was even programmed and how often it is used. Apparently a lot of folks don't bother to program it or park outside so it gets dropped, or it gets moved to a higher trim pr package and the price is increased.

Mark VII-Fox(as seen above) Mark VIII-MN12 below:  

Tbird/Cougar not Mustang (MN12)

Damn that is in really nice shape. Thankfully its based on the Mustang, so parts shouldn't be too hard to find, outside of the Lincoln Specific stuff.    I've seen people having issues getting electronics for products that weren't even 20 years old already  

Thanks! The history of the car is that the seller's father bought the car new as a gift to his father, the seller's grandfather. The grandfather passed away so they decided to sell the car. I'm not sure how much the car has been used lately but based on the age of the tires and the amount of tread left on them I would say that it probably hasn't been driven much in the last thirty years. It's obviously spent most of it's life in a garage and I doubt that was in the one where it's being stored now.  

We had the opening tailgate on our 2017 Escape and to be that person, it just added complexity and cost (had to have it fixed out of warranty). It was nice, but my wife doesn't really miss it on her BS. 

Much like the homelink thing in Mustang, I view it as yet another example of Ford starting to decontent on "in your face" items that competitors have.  They might get away with it for a while, but it's going to affect sales at some point.