Video: 2023 Ford Escape Review: Can’t Escape Its Flaws
By Cars.com Editors
May 8, 2023
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This is the 2023 Ford Escape ST-Line Elite. It's our first chance to drive it after it's refreshed, and we had it as part of a recent comparison test. Here's what we think. (upbeat music) We haven't seen one of these for a while.
It's been refreshed for the '23 model year. What did you think about it? I really liked it. I think the Escape ST-Line Elite lives up to the ST-Line part of things here. It's one of the most fun to drive. It's one of the two sort of sports cars we have here. Thought the powertrain was great. Lots of power. Also the most fuel efficient, which is a nice bonus. Very nimble, agile handling. But there are some penalties. <v Aaron>Yeah, the ride quality is just okay. It is kind of bouncy. That's part of the whole, I think, sporty atmosphere of this thing. I would definitely agree with you on that EcoBoost powertrain. It was one of the most powerful engines here, and it felt like it, especially when you're up in the twisties in the mountains like above us here. The thing felt nimble. It felt light, it felt agile. And I think that's also partly due to the fact that it's really not necessarily the biggest vehicle in this group. That shows up in the cargo numbers as well. Yeah, and you know, if fun to drive were a really important part of this testing, this would be a great choice. But these are family cars, and it's not really what you're looking for. But what really let the Escape down was its interior. I thought the quality was just subpar, especially for what's the most expensive vehicle here. And comfort was also an issue. We rated it least comfortable upfront. I felt like I was sitting on top of the seats instead of in them. We do enjoy the large SYNC 4 touchscreen. That's a bonus. Great graphics, very nice configurability in the digital instrument panel as well. But the interior is really where this falls flat. Yeah, some of the plastic quality in here, you're not talking about hard plastics, but you do feel like they're cheap plastics. And that also shows up in some of the technology as well, like the very unusual heads up display that operates on this flip-up transparent plastic panel that then essentially puts the information on the hood. If you're over five foot six, to have to lower this thing far enough to actually see it, it really would wash out, especially if you had a white vehicle. You have the white text on the white hood, you're not gonna be able to see it. And there's also a little unusual plastic button that controls a number of different features. Yeah, you get your camera controls. your automatic parking assist, also your max defrost button. It just feels like they wanted to put a set of physical buttons in the car and then were told by accounting we can only do one. Yeah, and it's one button that knows where your finger is on the strip, but when you push the entire thing, the entire thing moves. And that and a couple of other issues just made it feel like they've cheaped out on some parts of the interior. So, great vehicle in terms of fun to drive, not terribly comfortable, not great in terms of plastic and interior quality, which really shows up when you've got a number of other vehicles in the test that are a couple thousand dollars less that have nicer interiors. And that's really kind of what let the Escape down. <v Narrator>If you'd like to read more and see how it fared in a compact SUV comparison test, you can find it all on Cars.com.
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