I believe this vehicle is extremely well made. There is zero rust on the vehicle, although we did have to have the dealer remove the panel above the back wheels as the paint was bubbling. In looking at other Escapes, we have noticed this to be common. It has a solid body and does not drive like a truck, even though SUVs have somewhat of a truck base. It is a smooth ride for sure. The interior is leather and feels like a high-end vehicle. It has all of the features I would look for in a vehicle including CD player, Sync to my phone, dual climate control and heated seats. My family can get in and out of this vehicle easily. I love the fact that it still has the SUV style body and not the crossover body style. I have driven the car for about 25,000 miles with no issues mechanically whatsoever. It is roomy enough to take on vacations and yet functional enough for me to drive everyday. The remote start is definitely one of my favorite features and comes in very handy in north Iowa winters. The only thing I wish it did have was DVD/entertainment system for my children. I wish it had mechanically opening rear hatch just for ease when loading things in the back. I do wish that Ford would have kept this body style past 2012. I would own a newer version if they had. Even though there are a few things I would change, I will definitely go looking for another car exactly like this one.

The car drove well - not smooth, necessarily, but I felt safe driving it. Until we started having problems with the brakes and tires, that is. Brakes have to be replaced in any vehicle, so that's understandable. But, the tires were apparently difficult for mechanics in our area to remove, and after spending quite a lot of time and money on the problem, we finally found out one of the tires was not repairable due to something being wrong with the knuckle. I'm not even sure what the knuckle of a tire is, but one has to trust the mechanic. We did have rust on the underside of the car, and that contributed to the problem. The mechanic said if he were to try to remove the tire, it may break something altogether, and the car would not be drivable. Or, we could keep driving it as is, and risk the tire falling off as we were driving. We drove it for a very short time after that diagnosis out of desperation, but ultimately stopped using the vehicle for fear of the tire falling off. The car is currently just sitting in front of our house. We have called about having it hauled away, but we were offered less than two hundred dollars for it, which makes us upset, since we paid almost five thousand dollars for it and drove it less than a year.