Day-by-Day Review: 2013 Ford Escape SE 4WD

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

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On Saturday I took the Escape to Montreal and back, and from that trip I learned quite a few things that I like, and a few that I dislike, about the Escape. For starters, the voice-activated navigation is horrible. I spent thirty minutes talking to the system trying to get it to understand that I wanted to head to the intersection of Autoroute-40 and Boulevard St. Charles. Let’s just say that after 30 minutes of almost getting it but not quite, I pulled my phone out, swiped a few times and it was done.

Once I was stopped, though, the system worked fairly well, just do not expect much from it without having to manually enter information. It was like I was speaking another language: it certainly did not understand the word “Quebec,” but if I spelled it out, it was fine. I won’t go too far into details; you had to be there. It was both humourous and frustrating.

The gas tank on the Escape is, from what I can gather, too small! According to the manual, it is 57 L in size, but when the gas gauge read empty and the “kilometres remaining” readout read 10, I stuffed 45 litres into the tank… that’s a fairly large reserve! But still, after just 500 km? I expected the Escape to go a little further: the trip to Laval from my home in west Ottawa and back resulted in my arriving home after the fuel light had been suggesting I should fill up for the last 50 km of my trip.

Average fuel consumption for my regular weekly driving was 9.8 L/100 km, which is not bad. On my trip to Montreal, I used major highways and set the cruise for 118 km/h; fuel consumption was, again, 9.8L/100 km. On the return voyage, I wasn’t in a hurry, so I set the cruise for 108 km/h, and the result just proves how much of a difference 10 km/h can make: this time, I averaged 8.3 L/100 km! Proving, once again, it’s not the ratings but drivers themselves that make a huge difference when it comes to fuel economy.

*Rating out of 5:

2013 Ford Escape
Acceleration
Handling
Comfort
Interior
Audio System
Gas Mileage
Overall

*Rating based on vehicle’s classification
MSRP as tested (including destination): $35,899

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