Gadgetory

the Ford escapes actually been through a number of iterations over its lifetime it started out as a simple boxy little truck then it became one of Ford's first hybrids and now we've got in front of us the 2014 model now the 14 escape can actually be had with a lot of tech but this SV model we've got in front of us is what I think in the sweet spot let's take a look at it now our SC model isn't equipped with the top-of-the-line MyFord Touch system it's actually got the basic deceptively simple actually let me take that back it's not very deceptively simple because I mean well look at all these buttons but don't worry you won't actually spend a lot of time touching these buttons and that's because this Ford Escape is equipped with four think with app link and what that means is that you'll do a lot of your interactions with the infotainment via voice you install the app you turn on your car and you're done it's just that simple you don't even actually have to touch the phone in most of the situations sync saying please say a command mobile apps mobile apps please say a command Pandora Pandora please say a command play The Hives radio that would ask for but it's clucks listen to the hives radio there we go so Ford actually lists about 22 or more apps between the platforms Android Blackberry and iOS I've got a couple of them installed on my phone a lot of them kind of overlapped though if you've got MOG for example or Rhapsody maybe you don't want to install Spotify you've got a lot of different choices here and when you're talking about apps choice is good interestingly the Bluetooth audio stream doesn't seem to show album information when connected to my Android phone some of the other cars that I've tested have the rest of the audio sources are going to include your standard sort of CD slot here USB port for connectivity to iPod devices or your mass storage you've got an auxilary input you've got AM and FM radio and Sirius XM satellite radio with a really neat trick when you're listening to satellite radio you can actually access this feature called replay and what that allows you to do is very briefly pause live radio and then get out of your car you can pause for about thirty minutes and when you get back into your car and hit play it'll pick up right where it left off and then of course you can jump back to direct play so if you're in your car you're listening to a baseball game and you've got to get out to fill up or pick up something from the store you don't have to worry about missing the play further down the console you've actually got your dashboard mounted shifter right here for the six-speed Automatic transmission you do have a sport mode at the bottom of the shifter which is going to actually change those shift points and give you better access to the 170 thumb out horsepower that you have it does feel a little bit better a little bit more responsive for performance driving if you want to put that in quotes than the standard drive mode and when you put it in reverse you'll see that the 4.3 inch screen and the dashboard also serves as a rear-view camera if you've got the trunk open like we do you get a nice exclamation point letting you know maybe it's not the best time to start moving here's where things get a little bit weird now all week I've been grabbing right here what looks like the logical place to open the lift gate and getting nothing actually the grab points down here there's a little button where you open it up the old-fashioned way it's a little bit confusing and I think it's one of those things that's left over from that stretched out vertical focus design where they just slap that on there willy-nilly now the Ford Escape can actually be had as an S model with a 2.5 litre duratec engine that's a workaday engine it's a naturally aspirated it's got quart injection it's good for about a hundred sixty-eight horsepower but our se model is actually stepping down in this placement stepping up in power this is a hundred and seventy eight horsepower 1.6 liter EcoBoost engine that's good for about 184 pound-feet of torque so you're getting a little bit more efficiency 23 miles per gallon in the city 32 miles per gallon on the highway and that's 1 mile per gallon more than the duratec by every one of those metrics and the power is actually a little bit more usable now that power is gonna go through a six-speed Automatic transmission with select shift manual shift mode that's the only option that you're gonna get on the escape you do have the choice that the SE model between front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive this is a front-wheel drive model so you get better efficiency though wheel drive is going to give you a little bit more traction when the weather gets a little slippery and a lot of automakers have been doing a lot of talking about downsizing engines and adding turbos to get big displacement power with small engine efficiency so we've got the 1.6 liter under the hood instead of a 2 or 2.5 like you'd expect and a vehicle of this size Augmented of course by that turbocharger and by George I think they've got it but the power is good particularly in the sport mode where the transmission seems really happy to stay in a lower gear and kind of give you better access to those high revs the power you kind of at low speeds and around the city kind of get that good planted Ford Focus feel that European tune steering and handling that Ford's been promising us with this new generation of their C platform vehicles but the problem is that when you get up to highway speed it just kind of feels like it's moving around a lot the whole vehicle is just kind of moving around a lot underneath you not the most planted vehicle that I've driven this month now the 2014 escape can actually be had at the base F model 422 7 and that's a pretty good car with the duratec engine it's perfectly serviceable and reasonable about a tech you can also go see that style as Brian Cooley likes to say and jump up to the titanium model with the turbocharged engine and lots of power you can go crazy with the tech and make this thing parallel-park itself and open the trunk automatically but then you're gonna be pushing the price close to $35,000 now this se model which starts 225 550 it's right there in the middle at eight hundred and ninety five dollars for your destination charge and I think you're gonna find that less is more in this case