The front end reminds me more of the current Dodge look than Ford. Not very exciting overall.

Wow, those comparison pictures really show how outdated and ugly the current escape is…

Meh. Whatever handsome appeal that the original had has been lost in the redux. Too bad.

totaly lame

Big jump in onterior design though the buttons are still cheap plastic

I could take it or leave it. Exterior is an improvement. The inside looks nice except for the really cheapo looking center console plastic down around the shift gate and cup holders. The “beefed-up” looking HVAC/stereo knobs look kinda cheesy too. Would have been better off w/ a flat ribbed texture or a simple chrome ring trim along the outer rim.

I like it. If you look at the design line that runs between the headlamps and grill, and then it follows down into the bumper, it picks up cues from that Bronco concept a few years ago.

Looks good, but not great. Gonna suck waxing the “Escape” logo embossed in the bumper though.

This will look really good in a dark, metallic gray.

the front grill reminds me of an old nissan!! back exterior looks promising but the front looks like a sad throwback ;/

Wow, are you serious? Is Ford living on another planet??? They stuck that espace logo, which doens’t need to be on the front in the first place, right where it’ll get partially cut off by the license plate! Geez Ford, way to go. Now it’ll look stupid the moment I buy it o.O

I own a Ford Escape and there’s definitely something about the current design and proportions that just right. The new design seems lost — kind of like it’s on steroids but in all the wrong places and angles.

And the front fascia and grille are so wrong it’s not even funny. I can’t believe J. Mays actually approved this design.

I predice the Escape will be cannibalized by the Edge in the next 2-3 years.

Ugg… this is a bold move? I don’t think so. I can smell the cheap plastic of the interior from here. What a loser design.

All I can think is Pathfinder on estrogen. Most will opt for the Edge.

This is where the Escape should have been two years ago, waiting for a redesign in the next few months. Ford is once again playing catch-up. Someone in the previous post about Ford nailed it, by saying they have good designs, but take way too long to get them to market. The 500, Fusion and Edge would have been great cars four years ago, but now they are old news the day they go on sale.

Not very interesting. I guess the design was finalized before their “bold moves” campaign.

WTF?
This Lego-land plastic console and Dodge Nitro front end doesn’t do anything for this little truck. What happenned to the 3-Bar Chrome grille like Edge and Fairlane – why can’t they use that???

Geez, if there’s one way that they’ll get sales over to Mercury it’s putting out crap like this under the Ford nameplate…

Had an ‘02 and drove it 60k miles. Liked the rugged outside looks and hated cheap-ass interior.

This new one has lost the ‘look’ and, althought the interior is better, now is just a smoothed-over mini-Expedition.

Where is the Bold Move on this one??

Too bad this design is so safe. A repeat of the Explorer/Expedition story.
While all other carmakers are designing curveous and interesting lines into their CUV’s, Ford keeps making the same square blocks.
CRV sold over 20,000 units in Oct. This will not make a dent in their sales figures.

Looks alot like the Old Ford Explooder from the 95- 99 years. Looks good keep up the good work.
Everyone here hates on the cheep plastic insides but that is what it is a cheep car. So deal with it or buy a Navi

Hot damn that is one boring design. Barely looks like a minor reskin of the current POS.

Put the disguise back on.

Hell, I like it. I think it’s a nice evolution from the previous gen. I wouldn’t expect too much from the design. The old escape was just enough SUV to get you by. This one is the same, but the balls dropped about another half inch.

Respectable job, Ford.

yeah its not bad at all. certainly better than that monstrosity they call the freestyle.

ouch. Someone please pass along the memo that the Nissan Pathfinder meets the Dodge Durango is F-OLD move. Pronouced as the word “fold”, the “F” represents “Ford” while the “OLD” makes clear Ford is quite the experienced expert at shooting themselves in the foot. The dash in the name is symbolic in keeping with Ford’s unique truck nomenclature. I’ll excuse the previous generation Jeep Cherokee butt – there’s only so many ways to design an SUV’s ass.

Talk about completely hit or miss. No middle ground. Between the the Edge and the Fairlane heading in the right direction, I guess Ford needed a companion for the Freestyle so they can balance out their two cool street machines with two snores trapped in the 1990’s. At least Ford is consistent about being inconsistent.

FWIW, I think the Edge beats this Escape re-design, hands down.

This is a failure. Considering where the company stands, this design will NOT bring in much needed buying.

Funny how the Taurus was leading edge and a huge success in similar times … now, the company seems satisfied to ignore product and cut fat instead.

Unfortunately, this steak has very little meat left.

what is wrong with it. It looks good looks like a ford not like the old one it looked just like the mazda. you want to much its not the type of suv that you think you want to get a 50k package in a lower 20k price get real numbers dont work that way. All things concedered it looks great bet drives good. I wish all of you would leave your biest opions at the door. Go drive one or look at one in person before saying it sucks.

Actually, the Escape is much more pleasant than the Mariner. I like the interior in both, but the exterior in the Escape is much nicer, in my opinion. It’s definitely an improvement.

However, the rumors of the 3.0L and 4-spd auto continuing unchanged do not make me happy. There is supposedly a new 3.0L debuting in the fall of ‘07 along with a 6-spd for it, but that’s a long way off for an uphill battle.

Boy—I sure hope it looks better in person than it does in these pictures. I see way too much Isuzu Ascender in the grill (and that is not a compliment). I’ve always kind of liked the current Escape, but this re-style looks like a step backwards to me.

Hey Foster—you really should consider going to Community College somewhere and brushing up on your writing skills. Did you sleep through your English classes in grade school and junior high? Ever heard of punctuation and capitolizing the first letter of every sentence? And question marks at the end of sentences that ask a question?

The Escape was the best selling small suv the last few years. They didn’t try to reinvent the wheel because the current Escape sells so well. There is no reason why this Escape will not keep that trend going.

This vehicle is a slight improvement. I wouldn’t buy it, but the larger front makes it look like an Explorer. Good that the picture shows the new and the old.

@Scott Kempton: I believe they call that “stream of consciousness” ;o) That said, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. It’s “capitalizing,” not “capitolizing.”

unfortunately it looks dated already but I guess this isn’t necessarily the final design

it’ll blend in well with the other boring American vehicles.

I kinda like how they subtly used three bars of chrome on the front, but I’m not sure that I like it. It does look horribly outdated; however, having a choice between a blocky Escape and a more curvy Edge might not be a bad thing.

Right Cooper.
This car is not supposed to be edgy. It is for Soccer Moms on a budget etc…
It is an excellent vehicle and conservative by design.
Not supposed to be bold. IMHO.

I assume they’re going to change the grill and a few other things on the exterior in the final version. Otherwise, like everyone said, it won’t get Ford out of the water they’re in.

But where’s the three-bar grille?

Ford is ruining everything…
I absolutely loath the new 3 bar grilles…I really wish they wouldn’t do this

looks like an old japanese truck, id chose the old model

Oh yeah, the hood line over the grille doesn’t even match the fenders. So f-ing horrible.

Ford, you suck.

Easy there spider, the Escape is already the top seller in it’s segment. So Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and GM are chasing Ford.

It’s also pre-production, so hood and fender lines aren’t expected to be perfect. The interior has mis-aligning panels also, but again this is a pre-production test vehicle.

The clock is not accurate. Someone forgot to fall back.

well, the gen1 CRV-ish looks of the facelifted Escape looks better for me.

Boring Ford design as usual.

ferg, no you must be suffering from amnesia, that’s asian vehicles.

Has anyone noticed that the display screen for all the controls on the center stack is way above all the controls? That appears to be a bit of an ergonomic blunder.

90Z—you’re absolutely right. I KNEW I was going to get that wrong!

This looks sooo much more dated than the current Escape, it’s unbelievable. It looks like Ford’s trying to unsuccessfully mimic the recent Honda Pilot update, which was done nicely, turning the original Pilot from an outdated design to a pretty modern-looking machine, ala Land Rover. Ford, on the other hand, took the Explorer grille from it’s original 1991 configuration and slapped it on what was once a modern-looking cute-ute. They then took the blockiness found a current Jeeps and their pre-1996 F-series pickups and made the back look like a truck. In total, this Escape redesign looks like a 90s-era truck or van that was made to have lots of dents and dings and rust, not the futuristic cute-ute that it once was. I still think the rounded jelly-bean look with gray body-cladding works better for cute-utes than blockiness. But it seems like Ford trucks are all getting blockier. Just look at the current F-150. I consider it a step backwards from the jellybean-rounded one that debutted in 1996, though not as much as the current Escape to this redesign.

Yawn.

This is a really, really out dated, ugly design here. It’s interesting because its very simple to re design vehicles if only to make them look more modern, but this is a step backward. The interior is made out of chintzy looking plastics and any form of “design” is missing. The exterior is blob like, and has lost its purpose.

Pass or Fail? FAIL.

Look at the new Rav4, look at the new redesigned Outlander, look at the new CR-V, these are designs that are modern, 21st century designs.

Fatstrat, a car doesnt need to look like it’s from the 90’s to appeal to soccer moms, look at the three vehicles I listed above, those are geared towards soccer moms, and they look fresh and new as well, not stodgy and old.

Another “bland” move by Ford, this sure isn’t going to save them.

Foster, this isn’t a “cheap car”, this is no Kia Rio here, it will retail in the $20,000 range, and an interior that ****ty looking has no business being in a car costing that much. ONCE AGAIN, look at the 3 SUV’s i listed in my above post, and all three have interiors that blow this one away, for the same money. Deal with it, the interior blows and it has no excuse to. The end.

Check out the gauge cluster… This is a hybrid version.

I think the front end of the older Escape looks better. And I would have liked to see some drive train improvements but it seems that it will get the same 3.0l with a 4 speed auto instead of something like the newer 3.0 in the Fusion with 6AT.

This was designed by a stiff nerd with thick rimmed, square black glasses.
He wears pocket protectors, has a square head, and a combover.
The car was styled after his own image.

I cannot get over how crudely constructed the interior is!

Sweet Concept and in the right direction!!! as long as they keep using the CD3 Platform the quality will be there with design!! ex. Fusion!! GT40, Mustang SHELBY GT COBRA, MKZ, EDGE = DOMINATION!!!
Ford just cannot fall asleep again!!