chinook

I have just been offered a Ford Escape from the guy I am replacing at work, when I move to Calgary.

It is a silver Ford Escape XLT 2005 with 58,000 on the clock. He is asking about $15,500 for it.

Being in the UK I have no idea if it is a good deal or not, however I do trust the guy. It is certainly a type of vehicle that we were looking at, family of two but newborn on the way, + hopefully lots of visitors.

Is it a good price?

Is it a good, safe, reliable vehicle?

Is it good on fuel?

Are they popular, if not any suggestions to what I should be looking for.

Really appreciate any comments.

Novocastrian

Nope. If a family of two with baby on the way means you will have 1 kid when or soon after you get here, there's no reason to buy such a behemoth. Try a Honda Civic or a Toyota Yaris with a car seat

tobapaul

wife has had the same car (even same colour) since we arrived 3 years ago.

How many visitors are you expecting at a time? It is only a five seater (and will be cosy in the back with three adults) we need two cars, so also
have a 7 seater Freestar for when we have visitors.

Not sure if the price is good, full service history? good condition?etc (try searching online).

We have had no major problems with the car & my wife likes the added "security" of 4 wheel drive in winter.

Mpg is OK but obviously there are different options that are more fuel efficient.

They are very popular here in Winnipeg!

Also don't forget to look at insurance costs

Solarfish

We have had the 2008 model since August last year, it has been very good so far and has just shy of 30,000 kilometers on it. I have no idea about resale values, but our was about $33,000 new.

I would agree with some of the comments above though, it is no good for lots of people because of 5 seats and you have to question the need for a 4x4.

We have one because my wife works at Sunshine ski hill and those of you who know the access road there will realise that it is simply not appropiate to be driving that every day without 4 wheel drive.

However we are now thinking of getting a second car and certainly won't be getting another 4x4 because outside of the minor roads, there really is no challenge getting around this area with two wheel drive if you are sensible.

ray1968

try autotrader.ca to do comparison pricing and note dealer price is the "asking" price not necessarily selling price. SUVS are going out of fashion fast with rising price of gas

Sam-in-Okotoks

Hi - I would stay well away from an Escape - we had one and the automatic gearbox failed at 70,000 kms. The Ford mechanic said this is very common on this vehicle and they get lots come in for repair. The cost of repair is $4500 and Ford wouldn't cover it on warranty. If you want an SUV Toyota, Honda and Subaru seem to be the most reliable. We now drive a normal front wheel drive vehicle that is far more economical. During the winter we had proper winter tires fitted and had no problems at all. I hope this helps
Regards Samantha

Surrey Expat

We have a Ford truck, hate it, transmission went at 119,000km ($4000 bill). Would not buy another. We also have a newer Toyota truck and love it. Very robust vehicle, good for us as we tow and use it on the farm. Manual tranny 4 x 4.

Piff Poff

Hubby's comment on the Escape: They're all right when they're new but the ride gets harsh as they get older.

Oh and he always screws his face up when talking about them!

(he's a Ford mechanic)

Mikey B

I wouldnt exactly call an Escape a behemoth, our F150 is a behemoth that likes to drink gas like its going out of fashion but the escape we have is a decent SUV (as Ford's go but its still a Ford), lots of room, good ride, not ridiculous on gas, I do about 5000km a month and put in $600 at these crazy prices but it all depends what you want from a car, his sounds a smidge pricey to me, Im looking at selling ours which is an XLT only 18 months old with 55,000km for about 16-17k so I think $15000 for an 05 might be just a bit OTT.

Dave+Jules

I have a 2005 escape and it is heavy on gas (wow I'm turning Canadian).

My recommendation is that resale value will probably plummet due to MPG performance.

I leased mine for 3 years and hand it back at the end of this year. I liked having a 4 wheel drive (needed it during the past winter) and I will look for a 4 wheeled drive replacement. I am not sure that I would buy an Escape. Our second car is a Ford Focus (manual gearbox) and my wife loves it.

Oh one more thing, when visitors came over I rented a 7 seater for the times we needed one. I

dbd33

I leased a series of Escapes in order to meet an obligation to provide "an SUV with leather seats". I never drove them but would certainly have heard of any problems so I'd have to say that they're reliable and reasonably cheap to run. I wish we had one instead of the bloody Honda.

MikeUK

I've had a 2001 2.0l manual as good and safe as any other SUV drive within it limits and its a nice car plenty of room for long road trips (Toronto to Asheville NC) and quite capable of handling bit of rough terrain (80kph across a field)

Is it better than a car in the winter, its only advantage is its ground clearance, 4x4 drive doesn’t mean much that can’t be achieved with a smaller car and good winter tires, My 2.0l Ford Focus is a better drive in the snow with proper top end snow tyres than the Escape, just less weight means you have more control in slippery conditions

Fuel, I used to average about $208 a month in the 2.0l manual escape, my 2.0l manual focus now costs me around $160 (consider gas prices have risen in that period ) same comute averaged over a year

If I had a family of three with rising gas prices I’d go get a Ford Focus estate cheap to buy , cheap to run and cheap to insure and plenty of space

MrGreen

We got one of the 2007 models late in 2006 and it's been fine...It's one of the most popular north american SUV's out there and we have no complaints. Decent in the snow with the 4WD and not bad on long road trips either. Pretty basic but does what it needs to do.
Something did go wrong with it early this year with the overdrive light coming on and it wouldn't change through the lower gears. It took a week, but Ford covered it and did all the necassary repairs.
People badmouth Fords but I've always driven them with no real problems.
Just haggle the guy down price-wise as the second hand SUV market is awful now with gas prices etc. Domestic SUV's are set to plummet in value from now into the next few years. You might be able to use that to your advantage.