We have the car and are driving like mad! Over a 1,000 miles already and are getting 29-30 mpg on two tanks of gas so far. In all we really like the vehicle, though Ford really needs to take some lessons from Toyota on the little things that make vehicle great- such as grab handles - there is only one for the passenger in the Escape and that one is positioned down the A pillar in an inconvenient location- and *none* for any other vehicle passengers. Just the small things like that make the difference between a car that you will rave to everyone about, and one that does the job, but is not excellent- "Ford makes good vehicles" is not a very strong statement.

And let's not get started about how many buttons or rocker switches there are to control the various systems- I am not kidding when I say there are over 20- maybe 30 buttons to control the AC, radio, and other options. Try finding the defrost button for the front while driving in heavy traffic - on the other hand - don't! As I drive the car and feel the various ways that things were done, I keep coming back to that idea that this car was not really designed by someone or a group of people that were very smart and working together. Not saying the folks at Toyota are genius, but boy they sure know how to make a car feel easy to operate.

Ok, enough negative- we do love the vehicle and there are some very nice features also. I like the dual climate controls and the "just turn the knob" to turn on feature. The external mirrors with the blind spot "super mirrors" are really a nice touch- as is the backup camera and warning system (we have small children).