I was thrilled to get to test drive a 2013 Ford Escape – ever since I saw it on the show Escape Routes I knew I wanted to drive one 🙂
I first got to drive one this summer at a Ford event, I loved it then – and stayed curious as to how it would work as a family vehicle. From the experience this summer and all the performance driving I knew that it handled amazingly in sharp turns, at high speeds and all kinds of crazy scenarios…so, how did it fare as a mom car for the week?
Awesome! I think one of my favourite moments was loading up the groceries – had a cartful, it was starting to rain as I left the store. How cool is it not to have to find your keys and unlock the car, and even more amazing to just flip my foot up in front of the gate and have it open up and I was able to quickly put away all of my groceries. The hatch was huge, room from groceries, sports equipement, all of your every day stuff.
Makes a great family car – but it’s sleek and sexy too! 🙂 Room for 3 kids with carseats in the back very comfortably, the doors open nice and wide for the kiddos to hop in and out of. As you guys all know, I”m not the best driver. Takes me a while to get used to driving something new, but with the Escape there was no learning curve. Hopped in and took off, with all the fun features it makes it a breeze to drive. Like wipers that turned themselves on when it rained….I had no idea it even did that, maybe you saw me cheering the car on driving down Fermor?
The storage in the Escape is really well thought out too, lots of little hidden compartments, even a bottle holder in the door. Which sounds weird at first, but then you think to how many times you hear a bottle rattle in a car. Anything to keep things from becoming projectiles is super genius to me.
The safety features in it too make it really family friendly, all of the sensors that alert you of other cars coming in your path – which of course my husband set off as we were leaving a birthday party. There was a car speeding down a backlane and he went into reverse and the car warned us…very cool! I like that the features are there, but not in your face. Use your usual common sense and street smarts while driving of course, and those features are the icing on top. The Escape has the rear camera too and park assist, which are great for those who hate to park, go downtown a lot etc. With the new garbage carts I had a great test of the sensors and camera, trying to back out of our backlane driveway. It’s a tight fit already, and throw in 2 bins on each side at angles and you really get a good feel for how the extra technology makes life easier.
I think the coolest safety feature that I didn’t even know existed (my husband did, said saw it on a car show) is the inflatable seat belts.
Check out the video for all the information – one of those great new safety features that everyone should be aware of. Anything extra to keep the family safe gets a big thumbs up for me! This is something that will help reduce the amount of injuries for kids too which is something we are all looking for.
All in all it was a great week – the entire family loved the Escape. A smart looking vehicle, safe and fun for the entire family. It’s also a very affordable vehicle, starting at $21k in Canada. All of the extra features in the one I drove were great of course, but I think my favourite thing about it was how fuel efficient it was – we drove a lot during the week and only used about a half tank of gas. That’s including an out of town getaway, lots of driving around for fun, all of our errands etc. Check out ford.ca for all of the technical info, and more great info about the 2013 Escape.
I have been driving an Escape for the past 4 yrs now. I absolutely love it. I am not to sure whether the newer styling will be for me though. As we do lots of bush camping. the new style looks more like a car than the older one. I worry about the clearance underneath for the bush. I have driven Fords my whole life and have had no problems with them.
I think it would be high enough Helen, but check with a dealership for sure. I’m sure they’d be accomodating for a test drive to see. (maybe not actual bush driving though! 😉 ) It’s funny, i’ve gotten a lot of emails from people with older escape’s who are already looking to the future with another escape! Pretty neat!
I felt the same about the styling though, was a bit futuristic for me compared to the older ones – but once you get in it you’re hooked.