Ford banks on more macho look for next Escape

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 01/18/2007 3:23 PM  |  Life

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta

Ford says it has sold more than one million Escapes since the small Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) was first launched in late 2000. That is no small feat, as the small SUV is actually a mixed bag of hits and misses, while Japanese automakers such as Honda and Toyota have built small SUVs with much more consistent quality than the Escape.

My guess is that the Escape's popularity is driven primarily by its exterior styling. Subjectively speaking, it has been one of the cutest car-based SUVs on the market, and in fact it was the shapely profile that pulled me to it in mid-2004.

Too bad then that the first major redesign of the six-year-old Escape is going to result in a very different look, as the photos available on the web show. Ford's designers have decided to give the Escape the ""Ford Tough Truck"" image of its bigger brothers, the Explorer and the Expedition. The first picture of the 2008 Ford Escape I saw reminded me of the boxy Land Rover LR3. Indeed, there could be some family connection here, as Ford has owned Land Rover since 2000.

To begin with, here are some of the things that are going to change in the exterior styling of the 2008 Escape: First, the fascia. Second, the beltline, which is the border between the sheet metal and the glass windows on the sides. The beltline is now a tad higher. The tailgate will get a minor facelift while the headlights and taillights will look unnecessarily different. From the outside, the Escape has essentially evolved from a sexy teenage pop idol to a professional wrestler without any growth in size. It is precisely this metamorphosis that has given me the first reason to feel disappointed.

The side plastic cladding is gone, too. Frankly, it was those unpainted plastic covers that caused me to steer away from the CR-V toward the Escape at the last minute. If you had the chance to check them out, you would have noticed that the plastic covers on the Escape's wheel-well flares are much thicker than the ones on the current CR-V model.

These plastic covers can provide very useful protection in Jakarta's notorious vehicle battlegrounds. In a skirmish with a bajaj, the three-wheeled, Indian-made small public transportation vehicles frequently used as an armored assault weapon by their drivers, its rear bumper managed to slice one of my plastic fender flare covers in two. However, the paintwork on the fender was unscathed. Now you understand why the disappearance of the plastic wrap for the Escape's lower body panel is another big disappointment to me. Surely, aftermarket products will be available to provide this kind of protection, but I always prefer standard amenities.

The third disappointment is that the new 2008 Escape will have essentially the same choice of Duratec engines as the current ones. There will be the 3,000cc V6 or the 2,300cc inline four. I don't think we'll have the hybrid version any day soon here because of its higher price tag and more complex technology. This means that the new Escape will still be a gas-guzzler. If you were planning a round trip to Bandung and you insisted on filling up with Shell's Super, you would have to first fill up the tank before you left Jakarta.

By the way, staying with Shell's Super is a good idea. Forcing the Duratec engine to run on Pertamina's Premium or the downgraded, kerosene-added Pertamax gas will make the car noticeably anemic and hesitant.

The fourth disappointment is that Ford still uses the 4-speed automatic transmission in the Escape. Although the transmission shifts relatively smoothly, it does not do much for fuel efficiency. I believe a continuously variable transmission (CVT), such as the one found in the Escape Hybrid, would offer more help in lowering fuel consumption. At least Ford should let us have a choice of a 6-speed automatic or a 5-speed slap-shift.

There are a few other things that bother me, such as Ford's decision to once again use a drum brake in the rear, while the 2007 model already had disc brakes on all four wheels. Some early testers rated the stopping capability as inadequate. They have also reported that the throttle is as sensitive as the current one, which means we can hardly glide smoothly away from a standstill. In Jakarta's stop-and-go traffic, this will mean that passengers will still be constantly jerked back and forth as the driver tries to keep up with the flow.

On the other hand, there are several commendable refinements Ford is introducing in the new model. Safety is improved with the inclusion of an anti-rollover control system using Ford's own Roll Stability Control (RSC). The number of airbags is increased to six, including side curtains and side airbags for those sitting in the front seats.

Under the hood, about the only major improvement is the replacement of the power assisted rack and pinion steering system with an effective speed-sensitive Electric Power Assist Steering (EPAS) system. This is supposed to make the car a bit lighter and slightly improves its fuel economy.

The interior appointment seems to have received a lot of careful attention, though. The dashboard looks more contemporary. The audio system has an audio input jack for your portable music player. The cupholders for the rear passengers are now placed higher, so you will no longer have to pick up your drink using your feet.

Perhaps a first in the U.S. automotive industry, the seat fabric is made of materials recycled from what is usually destined for landfills. Ford has also improved noise damping by using a thicker insulation material for floor carpet and by adding an acoustic layer inside the windshield. The result, according to Ford, is a 15 percent quieter ride.

So, do I still have any more wishes? Unfortunately, yes. I will miss the cute look of the current model, which has all this time given me pleasure in proudly staring at the car after spending two hours washing it every Sunday morning. Next, to allow for more legroom for the middle passenger in the back, I also wish the designers had simply taken the center console out and left the space between the two bucket seats empty -- like Honda did with its CR-V. Distribution of climatized air should be designed to meet the need of the tropics. As the car has quite a large cabin, the air should be distributed in two separate zones using automatic temperature control (ATC). In the current model, the driver and the front passenger may already be freezing while the rear passengers are still feeling uncomfortably hot.

The 2008 Escape was first unveiled to the public at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November. With a new bold look but the same engine, only time will tell whether it will be able to successfully compete against the increasingly refined and peppier SUVs and crossovers from Japan.

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