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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Ford Escape Hybrid Prices Paid and Buying Experiences
706 messages, Last post on Nov 18, 2009 at 12:41 PM
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| In this battle of hybrid little SUVs, what are people's opinions of one versus the other? It seems that the Toyota Limited is $5-10K higher in cost. | |
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Replying to: gheimur (Jul 06, 2005 12:12 pm)
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A reporter is interested in speaking with owners of the Ford Escape hybrid. If you own or lease one and would be interested in speaking with the reporter, please send your name and e-mail address to Pam Krebs, Edmunds.com PR, at pkrebs edmunds.com.
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Replying to: jbaroni (Jul 07, 2005 12:32 pm) If you buy a 4 cyl Escape, and keep it for a long time, it might actually be better for the environment. A hybrid will eventually have to have the batteries replaced, and batteries are not only expen$ive, but are "environmentally costly" to produce and recycle. Did you know that a hybrid causes more pollution to build? They do, it is a fact acknowledged by Toyota. If the hybrid gets far superior MPG to the car it will replace, there is the potential for the lifetime pollution to be less from the Hybrid, but that rule simply doesn't apply to the SUV world; the difference in MPG is not enough. The argument for environmentally friendly hybrids fall apart when the hybrid is a heavy, high profile SUV. At this point in time, only the smaller and lighter vehicles have a chance of being truly more environmentally sound, because they can be pushed to higher MPG.
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Replying to: stevedebi (Jul 07, 2005 10:21 pm) That is a very good point. With the bigger batteries and electric motors in the larger vehicles it multiplies the PM (particulate matter) especially. That is the stuff that causes smog. Also one of the major reasons for not allowing diesel cars in CA. As can be seen in the graph, PM is higher over the life of a hybrid than a conventional non-hybrid. Actually the only significant advantage to the Prius is CO2 is about 1/3 less over the 150k mile life of the car. I wonder if Toyota has done a "Life Cycle Analysis" on the RX400h & HH? Maybe Ford should give us an analysis on the Escape Hybrid. With the real world gains of less than 25% on the hybrid SUVs it may be we are fooling ourselves on the hybrid environmental advantages. 
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 08, 2005 6:07 am) In most cases I think the answer would be "yes". Other times, it may be a wash but due to lifestyle issues (having kids, etc) the owner would have been moving to a larger vehicle (thus higher consumption/pollution) in any event. Clearly hybrid technology is not the only answer to the problem, because it ultimately does not eliminate the need for petroleum. However, it is a useful way to buy ourselves the time to come up with alternatives that do. To merely dismiss the tech as saying "it's not good enough, therefore I'm keeping my gas guzzler" is as foolish as it is to say hybrids will solve all the world's problems.
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Replying to: stevewa (Jul 09, 2005 2:40 pm) I would never do that. I want to see some dialog that does not start from the premise that Hybrids are the only way we can save the planet. The Prius came on the scene as THE answer because a few no nothing Hollywood types endorsed it. I think that the reason that Toyota was so caught off guard by the popularity was they know it is far from what is needed. It may be a baby step forward or maybe backward. Hear me out. First off most here would admit that the average American uses too much fossil fuel. How do we cut back? I think that driving less is a start. Not just making cars that allow us to go more miles in a year for the same fuel used. Now back to the chart. As you can see if, the average person only drove their car 75k miles over the 10 year projected life of the Prius, they would have not only contributed more PM to the planet, they would have contributed at least as much NOx & SOx as the non-hybrid car. If you must drive a lot of miles per year the small hybrid can have a positive impact. I would like to see some studies on the larger hybrids showing a positive gain over their non-hybrid counterpart. I'm sure Toyota has such a study if it can be found. the owner would have been moving to a larger vehicle (thus higher consumption/pollution) in any event. That is only looking at it from a consumption & emissions at home aspect, not a global impact perspective. Manufacturing is still the major portion of the pollution. The people that buy a new car every 3 years are the big contributors to global pollution. The guy that buys a Corolla and keeps it for 20 years with 250k miles racked up has done a heck of a lot more for the planet, than the fellow that buys an RX400h and keeps it 3 years and gets a new one.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 09, 2005 3:50 pm) kirstie_h Roving Host Host, Future Vehicles & Smart Shopper discussions |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 08, 2005 6:07 am) Global warming and CO2 are a different pollutant and different story and not regulated yet by the federal and State governments. A "real energy" would go along way to solving many of the issues Americans are confronted with on a regular basis. |
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Since this is supposed to be the buying experience forum, I thought I'd actually post mine instead of some of the random reports here recently. We did find several Escape Hybrids scattered about Houston dealerships. We were originally looking at a Charcoal Grey model with the two options we wanted, the upgraded sound system and the AC outlet. The dealership was 25 miles away and offered $700 off sticker to make it worth the drive. We decided the color was too dark for hot Houston summers and found the Titanium Green to our liking. A much closer dealership had one with an additional feature we did like - the side curtain air bags - and two we weren't interested in paying for - leather seats and the "appearance" package. It turns out the flyers for the 06 model have the same model on the cover. The dealership immediately offered $500 off sticker, it was the first hybrid the salesman had the chance to sell. They came in $600 above Edmunds.com's trade in value for my 96 Explorer - but we started to leave as we didn't really want to pay for the two extra features. The dealership really wanted the sale - they offered another $500 for my trade in - up to the private party sale value - so we bought it. Very happy with it so far - will be posting a review but my first tank was 29 MPG and the next three have hit 30 - very nice when gas went over $2.40/gallon here today.
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