This is the continuing story of my saga on the incredibly poor engineering of the 2001-08 Ford Escape.

Recently, I bought parts to repair the ABS light and the TPMS system light. They were new front and rear half axles with unrusted "tone" rings and four TPMS semsors on valve stem to replace these items with dead batteries. When my mechanic put the car on the lift to start work, he noticed that both left and right rocker panels under the doors were rotted out with rust. He called me and told me that there was no point in installing the new parts since he could not, under PA DMV guidelines, pass my vehicle for a PA inspection sticker because the rotted rocker panels were a "structural" part of the car!

He referred me to a local auto body shop that did "Rust" work and their rough quote was about $3-4K for a car with Blue Book value around $5-7K. Their considered opinion was that the repairs would be pretty temporary, because the subframe holding the engine and transmission were seriously rusted, plus one rear shock tower would need repair in a year or so.

My temporary "fix" was to go to another inspection station and see if they were as thorough as my mechanic. Eureka, found one on the first try, a nation wide repair shop that sells parts too, they passed the car regarding the rust without comment, but "found" $700+ worth of repairs that were "needed" to get the sticker! I passed on that quote and my mechanic fixed the "issues" for about $150 and now I have a breather to sell the car to someone.

The advice from the Auto Body repair guys was to sell the car ASAP to someone, since I am in western PA, that will be someone who will register the vehicle in Ohio which has no annual safety inspection (just emissions in some metro areas)...

Rear fenders both rusting out on the same sports as mentioned here numerous times. Both sides in the exact same sports. I wax this car every week so that's probably how it went longer than most here, before it started to spread. Definitely annoying. Between electrical/transmission/exhaust and now paint, this has been yet another annoying issue with this car. Just poorly made.

Sad, because I still like the looks. Our Honda has 230,000 miles and looks brand new. I give this car the same treatment and change all fluids every 3000-4000 miles. I will not be buying another Ford. Honda for me at this point. I run an auto shop as well...this is not the first time I've seen this, just the first time on my car.

I bought my 2008 Escape used in October of 2012. About three months later I noticed a bubble in the paint on the rear passenger side. It's now rusty and looks awful. I'm noticing a bit of rust on the drivers side in the same location as the drivers side. This is not ok and it needs to be fixed and not at my expense. I have noticed another vehicle close to my house that has the same problem.

Update from Mar 28, 2016: The rusting on the passenger side is pretty bad. Now it's starting on the driver side.

This piece of crap truck has cost me more money in repairs than it is worth. When I bought it they had covered up the rust on the rear

wheel wells on both sides and in the mean time on the driver's side the rust has gone right through. I've tried to do a temporary body fix on my own last fall but over the winter it came back even worse. I don't understand why the vehicle wasn't taken to Ford before the warranty expired and I wish I had thought to take it myself while it still had a little bit left on it.

Would Ford have even fixed it? How does a vehicle get so much rust on the rear wheel wells, inside doors and the back hatch when its hardly considered old. I don't have this kind of money to constantly repair this truck on a monthly basis and then have to worry about body work.

Ford you should be embarrassed to have this kind of crap on the road with your name attached to it. Shame on you.

I purchased this as the second owner in 2009 from a dealership, which has since closed shop. I started noticing little rust spots coming through the rear wheel well paint. Then the metal started splitting...WTH? Now the passenger side rear well is rusted out and the paint is rusted off. The driver side is starting also.How ugly and totally non-acceptable. The dealer now tells me that my Escape is out of warranty and basically too bad. The driver door INSIDE of door is starting to rust also. My SUV is garaged and driven to and from work. My husband has a 2005 Chevy Colorado that has not a stitch of rust ANYWHERE!

Why is this Ford so poorly constructed and then they fail to back their product? I also had a water pump go out on me. What a pain that was also! It had to either be brought into a Ford dealership to get fixed, or find someone that has the "propitiatory Ford" based pulley puller because they put the water pump behind a pulley that has to be pulled off the camshaft! My mechanic (and myself for that matter) were truly disgusted. I will NEVER purchase another Ford vehicle again and will buy my next vehicle as far away from a Ford dealership as possible! They will never get any more of my hard earned money in the future. This vehicle will soon become some high school kid's beater vehicle because it is turning into a low class, junky, beater car!

About 25 years ago the Japanese developed reliable technology that I though had made rust through a thing of the past. American makers apparently decided soon after that they might as well employ modern rust proofing technology instead of completely going out of business. In the last 20 years, the rust through which was typical for almost all older cars in PA almost completely disappeared.

I was floored when I say the telltale bubbles in the paint running along the wheel well, about 3/4" up from the edge. This was the classic spot for rust through in the 1970's (I had a 78 Capris that I had to essentially remake both fenders above the rear wheels from pop riveted band iron, fiberglass and Bondo on in the late 80's), along with the bottoms of doors and below gas caps. But I thought that such rust, like Bubonic Plague and Mullets was a thing of the past.

Thanks Ford, I didn't know how you did it, but you managed to bring back the 70's. Last Ford we buy.

I expect that, since the rust is coming from below, that I will find MUCH more when I start grinding.

I bought a used (1 owner-leased) 2008 Ford Escape XLT which, as one would expect for a 2 1/2 yr old vehicle, appeared to be in great shape. After leaving the dealer I made a stop at the pet store and upon putting the bags in the back I happened to look up at the hatch and noticed bubbling, rusting paint along the seam (about 3 inch long). Upon closer inspection I noticed more rust along the seams on both front doors, inside the wheel wells on the passenger side, and under the hood along the seams. Also, the seats had horrible water? spots on them.

I did research and found out that both of these are known issues for the 2008 Escape. I will never buy a Ford again! Why can Honda, Kia, Toyota and other Japanese car companies make cars that are reliable and have long lasting bodies? I admit the reliability on the US cars is getting better, but the bodies still suck. And, the resale value is loathsome as well. I want my car to look good at 5, 10, 15 years or more for all the hard earned money I spend on it. I just traded the Escape in for a new Honda and there is no looking back.

I love my Ford Escape. HOWEVER, I have had multiple paint issues with it. Rust, rust,rust on both back wheel areas, and on inside door and hatch seams. I took it into the dealer twice for these issues as they started happening within the first 3 years of ownership. They "fixed" the problems at no charge to me, although they acted as though they were doing me a favor.

This summer as my husband was backing into the garage I noticed MORE rust on the passenger side of back wheel. I was Mad ! I fine toothed the body and found more rust coming back on areas where they had supposedly fixed it. By this time my SUV was 5 years old and had a 100,000 miles on it. I figured Ford wouldn't help me since they never responded to my emails about this continuing problem. I took it to a local custom paint shop for an estimate, $1500.00, no guarantees, they would sand blast. I then took it to a local MAACO for 2nd estimate. They said $730.00, 3 days, would sandblast small areas and cut metal out and replace on larger area. No guarantees. I went for MAACO. I am so glad I did. My car feels like like brand new again. It was a lot of money but to get that new car feeling again was worth it. I felt the MAACO was honest in their service and what they delivered. Time will tell on how long it lasts.