2008 Ford Escape SUV (ZD)
April 2, 2008 by George Skentzos
Ford has released details of its new Escape SUV, unveiled today at the Adelaide International Motor Show.
The new range is now comprised of just one highly specified model – the ZD Escape, the equivalent of the previous XLT model Escape.
The ZD Escape sports a 2.3-litre four-cylinder inline petrol engine producing 109kW at 6,000rpm and 199Nm at 4,000rpm, and returns fuel economy of 10.5-litres per 100km.
“There is now a clear-cut discernible difference between what Escape and Territory represent and what they offer our customers. The two models now complement each other in the showroom better than ever before.”
This is mated to a four-speed automatic transmission with on-demand AWD (max 50 per cent rear) and push-button lockable full-time AWD.
Key changes include new front fog lamps, headlamps, alloy wheels, grille treatment, bumpers, wheel arch and door cladding, tailgate and rear tail lamps.
Standard safety includes Anti-lock Brakes (ABS) with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) as well as front seat side/head thorax airbags.
The new-look Escape goes on sale this month with a recommended retail price less than the equivalent ZC 2.3-litre four-cylinder inline XLT model it is replacing – with a recommended retail price of $31,990.
Print it: 
WTF is ther a ford in oz that has that fugly 3 bar theme it disgusts me the old model looks way better
even the last Mazda Tribute looked better….Mazda why did you axe it..
Definetly an improvement. But are we now going to see that front end on all cars as is on Falcon, current Fiesta. Bit disappointing old 4sp auto is used! I believe they have a good product range across the board, they just have to market a lot better and update old hack Territory, Falcon wagon is a joke, get the Iosis and Verve here and augers well!
a new interior and and a bit of restyled sheetmatel cant disguise a 7 year old platform. By todays standards 109 kW is also underpowered. And the old 3.0 V6 was too thirsty. Yor money could be better spent elsewhere.
Shows how desperately Ford AUS need the Kuga.
Very nice Ford will be a winner for sure, heaps better than that junk rebadged Captiva, money well spent, interior and exterior looks fantastic…..
one word kuga
until then CR-V RAV4 X-trail tiguan outlander and even dualis
looks like four potter could leave the Tribute at a disadvantage although economy is good given the size and type of vehicle. Captiva looks schmick but the cabin is very cramped compared to the Tribute. Tribute price in xlt with all bells and whistles and a much improved interior by the look is on the money. Should do well unless Toyota starts to discount the RAV6.
I can’t put my finger on it…I don’t know what it is that makes this look sorta old and outdated already…
Maybe it’ll look better in real life.
4-speed Auto? in 2008? :-S
If Ford applies some FG magic to the Territory they will have another winner. The Territory really is a magic design and so much better than ladder frame SUVs in so many ways.
What makes it look old is that it IS old.
As usual the Ford post is full of “if Ford does this and that it will be on a winner”
Ford numnuts live in a dreamworld, little realising their dreams can be answered now, buy buying a Holden :)
Realcars enlighten all os uf what makes its ‘magic design’ better than others? Last I checked the Kluger won Drives award for the segment, not the Territory (Waiting to hear the usual response… Wheels rollover bla bla bla)
Territory won WHEELS Car of The Year. Toyota waiting for first COTY. Kluger tripped over its door handles to earn its summary, ‘we cannot recommend it”.
Sad… :(
When did it win…. when the Kluger wasnt around. I will take Drives test thanks, they dont have going around a gravel bend at 100km/h as a criteria… now thats a real world situation isnt it!
Good to see Ford has thought long and hard about designing this NOT. What a cheap interior and no diesel option whith all those lovely torques. Nah get the Euro fighter Kuga in diesel which will sadly cost you $9K more.
It is a real world situation, TP. WHEELS are in Sydney, not Pluto. The Kluger was driven round a real road (ok, not a gazetted one) with real bumps on real gravel on earth in Australia, not a make believe road on a computer programme. I’ve driven cars around gravel bends at 100km/h…did it for 4 years in the country.
And it…fell over. The only car ever to do so. oopsy! No COTY this year.
Sad :(
The front looks decentish, but the back looks like it hasn’t been touched. Hurry up with the Kuga.
Territory was Wheels car of teh year in 2004, the Kluger was around Paul, and that model didn’t come close to the territory. There is no denying the Territory as one of the best SUV’s anywhere in the world. Sure the Kluger is good, but as with all toyotas in aus, they usually drop the ball when it comes to performance/handling.
Granted the Territory may not look as much like an amphibius
craft as the recently updated Kluger but as far as a RWD or TRUE TRUE TRUE AWD it wins on both counts.
The territory cabin is far more spacious and the seven seat option infinitely more practical.
…and I prefer the no nonsense styling(oh think I already mentioned that).
Plus the gruntier Falcon engine i.e doesn’t peak like a two stroke.
Seems like the last gasp to me.
She wont win to many beauty contests with a front end like that. Makes even the Honda CRV look pretty!!!!
No The Kruger wasn;t around when the Territory won Wjheels COTy. However; I think the point Golfschwein was getting at is the fact that the Territory won the award within the first year of its release.. the Kruger had been out for just over a year now and it didn’t win the COTY even though it was sposed to be a revolution in cross-over vehicles/soft roaders
Territory’s clean styling still cuts it and looks more modern than the Toyota Frumpy Chumpy Klumpy Fall-Over-y. An FG-esque facelift would give it added impetus, I imagine.
Sorry, I’ll stick with my ageing look Territorys, thanks.
i prefer the kuga…why cant ford oz just drop the escape and bring the kuga down here?
Personally, I would disqualify the Kluger just for it’s odd-ball name. Toyota Aus were obviously scraping the bottom of the barrel to pull out the German dictionary, and Hyundai must have been chuckling that they already had rights over the ‘Highlander’ name which ‘die scheisse kluger’ is called everywhere else.
Ha Ha Toyota can’t spell. Kluger Kuga. tee hee
Kuga clearly a better product.
Kuga was other car on my first post right at start forgot to mention. Shytes all over Escape and the average boring slab like (side on) looking Kluger!
Golf should I glorify that with a response, 100km/h around a gravel bend is a practical test? PULL YOUR HEAD IN.
Alex the current Kluger won Drives award for the segment… the current Kluger is top of the sales charts for the segment. I dont care about an old model, the current model is the best yet and has it all over the Terriroty. You mention performance, then Id suggest you do abit more research, the Kluger wins. Handling? Havent really heard anything saying the Kluger is better or worse. The icing on the cake, a friends of mines family who are strongly Holden fans recently bought a vehicle. Guess what it was? A Kluger. Nothing but praise for it. It is the market leader right now, simple as that.
TP,
and how long did it take the kluger to catch the territory in sales?
and how long did it take it to win an award?
the territory was a sales hit and cleaned up in the awards department pretty much on debut.
if you question the praise for the territorys handling then you are a sad uneducated individual
on topic,
yep definately time to ditch the mazda donor car. the kuga is well overdue
We know you’ve never driven around a bend at 100km/h and never will. Ask people in the country if their roads are straight, TP.
And don’t do it in a Kluger under any circumstances. Your statement that you haven’t hears that Kluger handling is better or worse is laughable. Have you heard that WHEELS tested one in their COTY testing (which it didn’t win…sad) and Editor Bulmer drove it around a gravel bend like they did all the other cars and the ESP didn’t act in time and it went over like a lead-winged Cessna?
No? Well you have now.
What a car to recommend to families. So WHEELS don’t.
Isn’t the territory a Falcon with higher clearance?
And doens’t it have a V6, like the Kluger?
And doens’t the Escape have a 4 Cyl, thus making it in a different segment to the Kluger/Territory?
Didn’t Mazda stop selling the Tribute a while back? How come Ford is still selling the Escape!?!?!
Mazda dropped the Tribute in the last quarter of 07 and its day a few years back it was a great seller but the competittion got better. The Tribute/Escape was more Ford than Mazda but with the CX7 selling this killed the rugged little SUV as would you bush bash a CX7….
Mazda/Ford will more than likely bring out a new small SUV in the next year or so..
Look I dont need to continue… the Kluger is the current sales leader. People are doing the talking with their wallets, they dont listen to idiots like yourselves, they test drive them all… and buy the Kluger. They are the ones spending the big bucks, they are the ones who buy the best vehicle available. Clearly thats the Kluger.
Ford needs to stop searching around their parts bin “updating” the current sheetmetal of their vehicles. They have the KUGA with style, saftey and economy and new DNA – stop mucking about and just bring that here. Consumers are not stupid. We see through a chrome grill and color coded bumpers. A new Territiory is well over due. Keep the elements and improve on it. Thats why TOYOTA is the number 1. Evolution….something new to them i guess..
No way would i put my family in a car that rolls @ 100 kmh on a gravel road …. lived in Narrabri and drove on dirt roads at sometimes very silly speeds for over 20 years and yes over 100 round bends, never rolled anything. Who else saw Today Tonight about a month ago roll testing SUV’s in the US ??? Buy the Volvo XC90 nothing safer or stronger.Watch it on you tube you will also be convinced
I think ANY SUV will roll if you act incorrectly, as Wheels did. Might I add Ford was under attack for the poor rolling capabilities of their vehicles in the U.S.
Klugers rolling off the road OMG, I will stick to buying a Ford Teritory thanks, looks much better any way and goes better…….
Kasparov,
the territory has different suspension to the falcon. the falcon will now gain the superb front suspension from the territory.
the territory also has the same range of I6 6cyl donks as the falcon range and not a V6.
the territory was basically a clean sheet design where the designers put a hell of a lot of thought into designing it. they came up with a large range of acessories for it, and that was only out done by the amount of storage compartments they designed into it.
do you remember the ads where they promote the many storage compartments?
I know this much, go into a Toyota dealship and order a 2WD/FWD Kluger – you’ll be waiting around 2-3 months.
Walk into a Ford dealership and order a Territory, and you’ll get it in a few weeks (if not a few days).
…and thats got nothing to do with the Kluger coming from Japan, it just represents how popular the Kluger has become, and it looks as though Australians have accepted it well. Toyota said they would beat Ford’s Territory, and they did it in 4-5 months. Enough said.
The Territory is just a raised Falcon stationwagon, with an Iron-block engine that hasn’t had its shape updated for 5-6 years.
As for the Escape, its had its days – time to dump that Dinosaur. Maybe the Kuga can be introduced and work as a viable competitor to the Rav4/Dualis/X-Trail/ Honda CRV.
TP,
how are families meant to test the safety features during a test drive?
the airbags and ESP etc are the features that you hope to never have to use.
when you are in trouble you would like to think it would save you.
if they are going to program it for 60kmh on a dry black road then it is useless.
dont take it so much to heart because all that this critisism will do is persuade the toyota engineers to program it a bit better.
dont forget its competitors did the same test at the same speed
I wouldn’t say that what Wheels did was incorrect.
sure they drove the Kluger around a corner at a relatively high speed on a road which changed from tarmac to gravel.
Yet as the car is available with 4WD or AWD you would think that the designers would have realised that some would actually be driven off road and therefore set the cars suspension up to be versatile enough to handle such conditions
Plus when city slickers venture out of the burbs into the country some of them tend to go nuts; drive at excessive speeds and would probably attempt a similar manouvre.
Then given that there are other AWD cars [like the Territory or the Outback] which can handle such a corner – people are entitled to think “whats wrong with the Kluger; why did it roll?”
I think that Ford Aus are planning to bring the Kuga to Australia, but as far as I am aware it is not production-ready yet. So, it may not reach our shores until 2009 at which point the Escape will hopefully… er, escape.
An updated Territory is on the cards, but Ford Aus can’t justify giving it a huge overhaul until the new imported engine arrives for it and the Falcon.
Philip – it is production ready, launching May/June in the UK. Auto express have clear photos of one parked 7 miles from Ford HQ in the UK in black gleaming paintwork. Watch this space.
My Ford Escape has just the BRIDLE track to HILL END with no worries,yes the 4 cylinder is underpowered compared to a V6 but this is the 1st new vehicle ive owned that has been totally faultless in the 12 months ive owned it.Does everything ive asked of it and if i want performance i go for a ride on my fast motorbikes.I wish FORD AUSTRALIA would bring in the AMERICAN HYBRID version
of the Escape.Not everyone needs or wants a Landcruiser.The sooner governments get there act together
and do something about the road congestion in Australia the better.I say bring on a CONGESTION TAX and unmarked SPEED CAMERAS.
James A has summed it up… along with the sales figures released… I highly doubt Australian consumers are that ignornat as people here, they buy the best, and the Kluger is currently a huge hit. Its a breath of fresh air in the market really, the Territory is bland, outdated chassis and lacks features for its price.
It’s time to concede Klugga is a top seller.
I suppose a new generation of the same style-challenged people as the ones who unquestioningly handed over wads of cash to buy a Fat Boy Camry wagon all those years ago with its bloated twin-wiper arse are doing it this time with the Klugga.
Any concerns they may express of the Klugga’s propensity to tip over like my friend Jacqueline, assuming they’ve heard the reports at all, are likely to be warmly dismissed by the salesman assuring them that the car passes ISO tests and that Toyota tested the WHEELS car to find nothing wrong. And Maam, OF COURSE I’ll throw in window tint with the nudge bar.
Of COURSE he’ll throw in window tint with the nudge bar. I’ve seen that on a related blog on this site, with mention of the roll-over on posts either side. It’s all most people care about at the end of the day, together with the fact it’s new. They heard that somewhere too.
Golf you are one of the more ignorant posters here. As I said earlier a friends family with a strong Holden background bought a Kluger, very happy with it, and they knew about the Wheels issue. The problem with your assumptions is they are based on people being as ignorant as yourself, but people dont go out and spend $40k willy nilly, they check the competition, they make a choice… the choice is Toyota on most occasions it would seem.
You are like the John Laws (cash for comments) of car blogs. Except I dont think theres any cash involved, and certainly no brain cells. It’s very comforting to know people like you exist.