In 2010 I graduated High School and to commemorate my accomplishment my family decided to give me the greatest gift of all. A Ford Escape...I thought this was a blessing in my life, to my dismay this car has been nothing but a gigantic waste of my time, my money and my faith in American made cars. Within a year, my 2008 brand spankin' new Escape was a frequent flyer at the mechanics. By 2013 my transmission had blown...out of nowhere.

3,100 dollars is hard for a starving college student to come up with, I took on a second job and saved to pay for a new transmission. But I made it happen my family had owned nothing but Ford cars my whole life. EXACTLY a year later I am driving home from school and my engine seized causing the main piston rod to shoot up and crack my engine! I have put all of my money into this car, when I went to Ford to have them fix it, they gave me the run around saying I hadn't taken care of my car...even when I provided invoices proving I had.

They looked at me like a little girl who doesn't know what she is doing and quoted me at 4,500 dollars to put a new engine into my escape. This car was supposed to teach me lessons on fiscal responsibilities...and it has. If you don't want to start out your adult life in debt...don't buy Ford vehicles!!!

My 2008 Ford Escape XLT has 4 cylinders. After ONLY 47000 KM, one of those 4 cylinders had to be replaced. Diagnostics showed there was a misfire on cylinder 3, the truck was chugging and the engine light was on. RIDICULOUS!!! SHAME ON YOU FORD!!! This is potentially a $1000.00 problem and with ONLY 47000 KM who needs that??? I went to Canadian Tire and found out from the mechanic that this problem is common....so common that Canadian Tire had the part in stock! According to the mechanic, some customers had to replace ALL 4 cylinders. The average cost for each replacement is $350.00. Average cost for the replacement cylinder is $150.00. Add the hourly labor rate on top of that and you potentially have a huge repair bill. I'm not impressed at all. My next car will be a Honda.

Had problems for the last year (Dec 2010-Dec 2011) with coils and plugs going. This last go around, I smelled gasoline fumes inside the vehicle, no engine light, but running pretty rough at idle. Took it in and had all plugs replaced and a coil - drove home, then engine light came on, took it back, detected cylinder 5; which was recently replaced prior to this visit. Upon further testing, cyl 5 was at 50% during compression test, all other cylinders at 100%. This pointed to a valve issue - big money! Due to its history over the past 20K miles - we decided to replace the engine. Head job too risky, as we know what could possibly go wrong after that....

This is really sad that a just 4 year old vehicle needs an engine or even major engine work, especially these days! Very disappointed and this will be the last Ford I own.

I am writing today regarding my 2008 AWD Ford Escape Limited. I purchased the vehicle in March of 2008, slightly used from a dealer in Elmhurst, IL with around 14K miles on it. I drive far for work and for fun, so now in July 2011 I have approximately 67K miles on the vehicle.

Up until May 2011, I have never had a single issue with the vehicle. I kept up on all required maintenance, got oil changes as instructed, and take great care of the car. I started having concerns in April where the check engine light would go on and then off right away. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, as the car had been driving normally and the light would go off. In May, the vehicle performance started to suffer so I brought it into a small mechanic shop in Elk Grove Village, IL called TACCS Auto. I explained the issue as having trouble shifting gears when starting to drive and shifting between gears in the high end (such as when passing someone on the expressway). TACCs checked out the car (free of charge) and stated that there was an issue with the rear catalytic converter and recommended I take it to the dealer as it would still be covered under the emissions part warranty (as the car had approximately 66K miles on it at this time).

I took their advice and brought my car into Bob Rorhrman Schaumburg Ford in Schaumburg, IL. I advised them of the diagnosis from TACCs that it was the catalytic converter. Ford advised that they would look at the car and if it was the catalytic converter, there would be no charge for the repair however if it was something other than the catalytic converter, they would need to charge me $125 for an estimate. I expressed concern that they would only charge me if they found something other than what I told them was wrong and that seemed concerning, but authorized them to check the vehicle anyways. They called me back the next day to advise it was not the rear catalytic converter but the ignition coil that was the issue. I authorized them to replace that part so we could get the car fixed.

Within a few hours I received another call from Rorhrman Ford stating that it was not the ignition coil but that I needed a new engine. I was surprised at this as the car was only three years old and had 66K miles. They advised the cost of the engine would be over $6K and that it was needed because there was no compression in cylinder four. As I am not an expert with cars, I asked my father to speak with the mechanic to ensure this repair was necessary and the diagnosis made sense. My father asked if there was anything wrong with the transmission and was advised that there was not. We took the vehicle back to TACCs auto who advised that the issue was with the valves and could be fixed for between $2K-$3K. Knowing there was no warranty on the valve repair, I opted for the more practical choice, with a warranty, and decided I wanted to go forward with the engine replacement. I called Ford Corporate multiple times to express my concern that this happened to such a young vehicle. Ford Corporate, upon finding out my car was paid in full, advised all they could do was offer me friends and family discount on a new vehicle. I advised that I was not interested in buying a new car at this time especially not from Ford considering the issues I was experiencing at this time. Bob Rorhrman allegedly also tried to call Ford Corporate and eventually was able to bring the price down to just over $5K to help me a little. I replaced the engine and got the car back in June.

Approximately a week and a half later, I started to notice that the shifting in the high end was still not performing as it should and brought my car back to Rorhman to be checked out again. This time they waived the estimate fee and did an analysis on the car. The gentleman I was dealing with, Jon Tallega, was not returning my calls over the next two days so I knew something was wrong. I finally spoke with someone in the service department who advised that my car was having transmission trouble. Jon advised me that to fix the transmission could be anywhere from $1,200-$2,400 in parts and that his advise would be to replace the transmission. This would be approximately $4K.

I was shocked that after the expensive engine replacement that I was already having trouble with the car so soon. We asked again about the transmission as we specifically asked about it when doing the prior repair and they advised they could not “see” the issue as the low power in the engine did not allow them to see past that problem. I advised that I was not willing to do another expensive repair on the car at this time and wanted to get a second opinion.

We took the car to King Transmission in Elmhurst, IL who advised there is absolutely nothing wrong with the transmission. He noticed the shifting problem, however advised he thought it was a computer issue or potentially a sensor that was causing the problem. He even joked that he wished it was a transmission issue because that is all he does at his shop. We explained the poor experience we had had with Rorhrman Ford and he referred us to Larry Roesch Ford in Bensenville, IL. He spoke highly of their mechanics and advised us to take it back in.

I then took the vehicle to Larry Roesch Ford for a diagnosis. We paid for the evaluation ($125) and were advised we would hear back in a day or two. Larry Roesch agreed that there was no issue with the transmission, however struggled to diagnose the vehicle. They started ordering parts (fuel sensor, fuel filter, catalytic converters, etc.) to try to repair the car, but nothing seemed to be fully correcting the problem. Finally on July 28th, they advised they were bringing in Ford Engineers to help review and evaluate the car. As of today, August 2nd, they still have not diagnosed the issue. They provided me with loaner Ford Focus today to help alleviate the struggles I have been dealing with, but the reality is that I need my car back and functioning ASAP.

Of the last 2 months, I have had my car a total of less than two weeks. I have been told a variety of things are wrong with my car, spend several thousand dollars in repairs, and still do not have my vehicle. This car is three years old. I never would have guessed that a car like mine would only get 66K before needing all this work to be done.