Five years in on a Ford Escape and it suddenly looks like the old tough logo has changed. Bad enough to have design problems such as requiring a jack with well over 20” lift (16” just to reach any solid part to place a jack under). Maintenance issues like having to remove the under engine shroud taking out no less than 20 bolts just to access the oil filter and plug are frustrating. Equally silly is the requirement to remove the entire air cleaner box in order to change the battery. Honestly, if your trying to screw over people who live in cold climates, this is the way to go because we all know the battery generally fails on a cold and windy day. And how about making the FOB battery change a bit more straight forward and intuitive?
General maintenance aside, what’s with the door falling off at the hinges? Ford Tough? Leather stitching falling apart, seat belts that don’t retract well, and passenger door finger unlock sensor pooched too? Five years? Are these vehicles disposable now? A catalytic that is plugged up already and has been for a year with no indication of when Ford will deal with it? The short term fix was to reprogram the power train to ignore the fault so the service light wouldn’t come on as much. Really… no fix date in sight despite the fact that this is incredibly hard on the vehicle fighting the extra back pressure and will surely lead to other failures. Take your time, Ford.
Guess what the answer was when Ford was asked if they would reimburse if the owner paid to have the catalytic replaced. You got it… no guarantees whatsoever. Pure nonsense to generate delays while the issue lingers on to introduce more problems later. This isn’t the Ford Tough they used to advertise but it sure does look like tough luck for the Ford customer.