As a family with a Ford Escape, we’ve never regretted our decision to add an SUV to our household. We’ve may be a little on the biased side, but that’s a thing people do when they buy a car – spend the next few years convincing themselves it was a good decision. It’s been perfect for us though. Since we’ve had the black beast, we’ve gone from two city professionals, to a family with two children. We’ve lugged an enormous amount of baby gear, toddler gear and now suitcases, bikes and scooters around – whether it be to my parents house for the night, or a road trip to the Eyre Peninsula. We’ve even managed to transport oak wine barrels from the Adelaide Hills to my dad’s house where we make the family vintage. It’s basically the Tardis. We’ve fit more in that car, that you’d be able to expect, and had virtually no mechanical issues along the way. It was a good purchase.
We’ve always said we’d buy another Ford Escape at some stage, and with the launch of the all-new Escape this year, it may be time.
Flying over to Sydney to check out this bad boy was well worth the effort – with the new lower priced model (yep, they’ve made it more affordable) far exceeding my expectations. And it’s PACKED full of features.
To check out the car properly, Ford invited me to attend their drive day, to find out what I loved, and loathed about it.
QT Bondi
Harry’s Bondi
Harry’s Bondi
Right across the road from the Camilla Beach House in Bondi is Harry’s. The low key coffee Mecca turned out to be a great place for a pre-drive day breakfast, and their Summer Bircher Muesli tasted as good as it looked.
The business owner in me loves how slick it is. I could easily take work colleagues or peers from point A to B and not feel like a soccer mum. It’s small enough to be maneuverable, but still large enough to hold a holiday’s worth of luggage and more. There’s even tray tables similar to those on a plane, in the back for the kids.
The mid-size SUV is a hotly contested, growing segment in Australia, with sales of SUVs outstripping that of sedans for the first time. It’s great for consumers, as manufacturers now need to step up their offering. Ford has come to the party, serving up the Escape with a sharper all-round proposition.
With a fresh look which is more rugged and bold, it’s already been awarded Australia’s first 5 Star Ancap rating for 2017. Reversing cameras are standard, along with a guidance system which alerts you when you stray outside your lane when you’re travelling over 60kmph. There’s also adaptive cruise control with forward alert. Basically, if you come up behind a car when your cruise control is on, your car will adapt to their speed, and return to the set speed once that car moves lanes. Super handy for long haul trips when you encounter those who don’t have cruise control.
Ever had a traffic light bingle? I’ve had a few. Started moving when the lights turned green, before the car in front of me did, and gave it a gentle bumper kiss. There’s a new feature on the Escape which has forward sensors, which activate the braking system when the car is travelling under 30kmph. We tried it on the sand, and it worked a treat. It should also help prevent you hitting a pedestrian, but we didn’t try how effective that was (and you shouldn’t either).
Travelling at 20kmph on the sand, hands on the wheel, foot off the brake. The car stopped before it hit the foam wall every time.
A blind spot info system has been added to the Escape, which offers rear cross traffic alert. In plain terms, that means when you’re reversing out of your spot in the carpark, and can only see behind you – not who’s cruising for a parking space – your car will alert you to oncoming threats. No more bingles in the car park. Awesome.
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