Bought in 2005 used. It has been a pretty reliable vehicle. I haven't had any major issues with it in the twelve years we owned it. It has been a pretty stress free vehicle. Its been good on gas mileage and has taken us on may different vacations and camping trips. Overall its only problems have been with tie rods which we have had to replace several times. Besides that we also just recently had to replace parts of the exhaust system. Other issues we have had was just the brakes going bad and the shocks but again this is twelve years old and has one hundred and twenty thousand miles on it so I don't think that is so bad. The interior has held up well and it holds pretty much everything we have needed to haul from groceries to camping gear. Again we have taken this vehicle all over on dirt roads and long road trips and it has been reliable to us at all times so far. It also picked up a rattle recently but the mechanics have not been able to find the issue and believe it is just a rusted part that needs bracketed down. Also has some minor knock during shifting but has always had this problem.

Overall, the Ford Escape is a great SUV. It has enough get up and go to get you where you need to go and is small enough to park anywhere. The heating and A/C work fantastically. We have put on almost 90,000 miles, and it is going strong! The ride is very smooth, it is more like riding in a car than in a SUV. All in all, I would recommend this to anyone! In fact, my in laws bought one on our recommendation. They too love theirs.