The purpose of my Guide is to help you in the decision of your next new vehicle purchase, Do yourself a favor, make sure you Test Drive the Ford Escape Hybrid First! The best of both worlds, comfort and fuel efficiency! 

     I've always heard negative things about buying a Hybrid vehicle, things like the batteries Don't last long and they cost a fortune to replace, or they are expensive to buy and you don't get much of a car for your money; they are small and cramped. They won't last long, you don't get the return for the investment, the list goes on and nobody ever says anything good about them. But that all changed the day I test drove the Ford Escape Hybrid!

    My son recently wrecked or should I say totaled our car (aren't teen drivers a blessing) so we were in the market for a new one. We knew the next car we bought would have to get great gas mileage but also be roomy enough for the whole family. We didn't have a fortune to spend either but really need the dependability of a new vehicle. We spent weeks looking at many different makes & models always keeping a very close eye on fuel economy, but usually finding the cars we liked allot were in the mid to upper 20MPG range. With gas closing in on $3 a gallon we needed to do much better.  we were starting to get sick of looking, always it seemed the cars that got the best gas mileage weren't so appealing to ride in, usually small and cramped; no room for the whole family to go out shopping together, at least if you were intending on buying anything and bringing it home with you.

 We found ourselves at Mullinax Ford one Saturday afternoon looking at Ford Escapes, we were sick of looking and were going to settle on buying an Escape because it was roomy enough to fit the kids and the groceries and it rated in the mid 20's for gas mileage. And it looked sharp ; ) . We decided to walk around the lot to see what all options were available in the escapes. That’s when we saw it; the window sticker of a HYBRID. Of course we didn't know at first it was a hybrid, what grabs your attention first is the fuel economy information. That Great big 36MPG City, then you see it, the word Hybrid? Then you look at the price (only $25,600.MSRP) then you start to realize that’s not much more than the price of the V-6 Model at $22,920. MSRP. How is this possible? Everyone always said they cost so much more?
  We had already test drove a couple of the escapes but never a hybrid, so we went to get the salesman. As we put our seatbelts on and prepared for the test drive the salesman jokingly said to us that everyone who test drives the Escape hybrid buys one. As we left the dealership lot you could clearly feel this was a vehicle with power. It accelerated as if it were equipped with the V-6 engine. It was a little weird at first when we slowed down at the first light and the engine stalled. We thought it had stalled, but no it was just waiting, silently waiting for the need for it to turn back on. It wasn't for a mile or two and after the second light when the gas engine turned back on, you didn't feel it, you barley heard it, but you could see the needle on the tachometer come to life. We were sold, a vehicle with the comfort and safety of an SUV with the fuel economy better than a Toyota Corolla!

 When we arrived back at the dealership we started to get into some of the more important questions. Warranty! What kind of warranty came with this thing? On the sticker it said 36/36 bumper to bumper - extended Hybrid warranty - 24 HR roadside assistance? It turned out the extended Hybrid warranty covers all Hybrid parts for 8yrs/100,000mi. And that includes that battery everyone always said was so expensive to replace. WOW! That’s all that went thru my mind, the expensive parts are covered for longer than most people own or plan on keeping a car. How could you go wrong? Then came another big surprise at the end of the year we get a tax credit of $2600. That just made the price of the car the same as the V-6 model.
     Take it from me if you are in the market for a new car, check out the Ford Escape Hybrid you won’t regret it!

        Great gas mileage
        Safety and comfort of an SUV
        Great Looks
        Reasonable Price, especially after tax credit
        Worry free, the warranty can not be beat! 8 Years /100000mi. on the hybrid parts
        You’re doing something great for the planet  ; )                     
 

update: 8/30/06

 I received an email from someone today in reference to the 330-volt nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery pack That is in the Ford Escape. It stated that it was a hazard to the environment and it could not be recycled. Well not being one to argue without knowing what I am talking about I started doing a little research. It turns out that this is totally wrong; in fact The NiMH battery yields the best return compared to other rechargeable battery packs. Recycling NiMH produces enough nickel to pay for the process. The only way I would be harming the environment is if I threw it in a landfill but we don’t do that with lead acid car batteries so why would it be done with the NiMH battery?  Also just a little fun fact to keep in mind The battery that comes with the Ford Escape Hybrid is warranted for 8yrs.-100,000miles. in fact that type of battery is rated to have an 8-10 year service life. But in the unlikely event your battery fails before the end of the warranty who cares, you get a new one free!

cost of gas to drive 100,000 miles with gas price of $2.50 per gallon:            Ford escape Hybrid est.36mpg = $6,945

                                                                                                    Equally equipped Ford Escape est.20mpg = $12,500

                                                                          at $3.00 per gallon:                            Ford Escape Hybrid  =  $8,333  

                                                                                                                   Equally equipped Ford Escape   =  $15,000                

                        For some truth about recycling batteries check out this link  www.buchmann.ca/Article16-Page1.asp

update: 8/31/06

  Well it seems some people think I would be better off buying a higher mileage non hybrid compact car if I want to save gas and money. The comparison I am hearing about the most is with the Honda civic. let’s take that apart a bit, they always claim the standard civic starts at $14,000.00, well you can get the absolute cheapest model for $14760msrp. Then they always come up with some ridiculous price for the hybrid model. The truth is it starts at $22,745msrp. But we really can not make a true comparison of these two vehicles based on these prices because they are not equally equipped. Yes if you don’t mind not having any creature comforts like automatic transmission power windows and such you can go out and get that elcheapo model and save yourself a bundle. But I bet the people pushing that argument have all the luxuries that make driving comfortable in the car they have now.
     The information I gathered from the Honda website, everyone can go and check it out for themselves, the closest comparable non hybrid civic is the Honda Civic Sedan EX 5-Spd AT it rings in at a comparable price of $19,855.

                                                                                                                    MSRP     
          So for the real apples to apples:                         Honda Civic Hybrid $22,745
                                                                                   Civic Sedan EX       $19,855
   
                                                                                    Only a difference of $2890

5-year maintenance and repair cost as per Honda web site:            Hybrid     $1,701
                                                                                                   Civic EX   $1,894
       
                                                                            Lowers the difference to    $2697

                                                                      Income Tax Credit for 2006:    $2100 
      

                                                                            Lowers the difference to     $597

 Well in my opinion the Hybrid is definitely the real winner here with a true price difference of only $597, which will be erased easily in the first year if you calculate in the fuel savings which by the way is totally dependant upon ones personal driving habits.

 So it is safe to say myth #2 is completely busted

Don’t let the example above fool you I still think the Ford Escape Hybrid is the best Hybrid you can get! Better warranty, Better looks, and way more space! I just used the civic because there is such a large difference between models that people lose sight of the concept of comparing apples to apples.

update: 04/09/06

      I would like to share a small argument I am having with a couple of people, it is about the resale value of my Ford Escape Hybrid, and in fact it will apply to all hybrids. I don't quit understand how people can argue about how much something will be worth in the future when it has no history of sales records to back up the facts they are trying to claim. In the first place the only argument that they have is who wants to replace the battery pack?, well just like every other consumer item as more and more companies make a product the cheaper it gets. At this time the batteries are only manufactured by a few companies, but as we all know aftermarket companies are researching new battery technology to extend the fuel mileage achieved by all hybrids and as they come out with new products they become cheaper. Just like in the case of flat screen TV’s. 
     Now back to the hybrid, let’s just say that the battery did last the eight years/100000miles it is warranted for but had 100000miles or more use. I originally paid $25623 - the tax credit of $2600  = $23023 final price. Knowing you will have to change the battery and fix all the other problems on an 8yr old vehicle I would not want to buy it at present day costs either but lets face it; it will have a value, and in eight years there may be hundreds of salvage batteries from wrecks or the price of aftermarket batteries may come way down. But for arguments sake lets put a resale value at $100 dollars on the Hybrid.  Only $100 dollars? Now if I had bought a Ford Escape V-6 model $22300, instead of the hybrid, (V-6 model and Hybrid have similar performance) I would have a much greater resale value according to everyone’s arguments lets just say $5000 (again a future prediction).
        Now look back at the fuel costs over just 100000 miles with the hybrid and escape V-6 model we can easily calculate the savings for the hybrid. If gasoline is only $2.50 a gallon (a good average anymore) with the hybrid you save around $5500 in the time you own your car.
 So if you only were able to get $100 for the hybrid at the end of eight years of service (warranty period) are you really at any loss? 

              2007 Ford Escape            2006 Ford Escape       2005 Ford Escape
               4dr 2.3L Hybrid                4dr 2.3L Hybrid          4dr. 2.3L Hybrid 
                $25,600 MSRP                $26,900 MSRP          $26830 MSRP
                                                                                           $22,900 Current Retail

Thank you for reading my guide and please don't forget to select yes this guide is helpful