The Escape is an old design, technology-wise it is already far off from more modern competitors like the Tucson/Sportage. But if you are willing to overlook that, you'll see that it's a very good car. Some faults of the Escape that I would like to mention which occurred with our 2003 2.0XLT (the 2010 2.3XLS had no problems met as of this date) include the low position of the air intake. Try to avoid deep floods with this car, and drive slowly if you cannot. The alternator has been replaced a couple of months ago after it would sometimes stall during big throttle input on takeoff. And then the power steering pump was replaced sometime in 2008 after there was an apparent leak. I would not take these concerns to heart since the Escape is actually the most abused and neglected car in our family (babae ang normally gumagamit, kaskasera pa ). And then we must consider that our Escape is from 2003 pa so may edad na rin. And also, it was bought 2nd hand on 2007 and we do not know how the previous owner used it.