Ford Escape test drive since 2008 SUV
Why is the Ford Escape better than the Honda CR-V sales leader?
A simple American Ford Escape came to ruin a Japanese garden ... The estate of crossovers is traditionally the country of the rising sun. Quality, balanced prices and the optimal set of consumer qualities. If you do not take the premium segment, then the Japanese fortress was and remains unbreakable. And when everyone has come to terms with this, where Ford Escape made in Thailand came from, and said: I heard, then the passions were boiling, maybe I will try? So the idea of \u200b\u200bthis test was born: the sales leader of 2008 among the Honda CR-V crossovers against the newcomer Ford Escape.
If this happened before the crisis, I would put some of the Chrysler losers against the Ford, but now the times are others, and the non-casualness of the model is already paying off a lesser price, which means that cheap Escape even has a chance in competition with the Japanese.
Again past the radio
All crossovers of this class are hopelessly scary. It makes no sense to consider them outside. Another thing is inside. There is already something to discuss here. Escape is in a loss beats the eyes of a black dashboard hole. Gloomy greetings from the 90s. A reminder of those times when the insides of machines were made of old rubber boats. But this rudeness is compensated by the beard with the climate control unit and music. Americanly huge, not saving even in front of Schwarzenegger's fingers, the temperature twin reigns over everything. My fingers are not so fingers, but I could put on hockey gloves and would also confidently control it. The recirculation, which sometimes you are convulsively looking, driving under the exhaust pipe of the surviving KamAZ, is arranged divinely. It is combined with the force of the stream: you twist to the left and the wind from the fan, growing, circulates inside the cab, and the entire right radius, increasing the draft, takes the air outside. Surprisingly an ergonomic algorithm. Nobody has made him more convenient yet. It is a little more difficult to control the radio due to the fact that the search for stations is not allocated into a separate block, well-read by the eyes. But the circle of the volume, combined with the switch -on/turning on, does not hide right in the center. Many competitors do not have this.
In Honda, algorithms are wiser, you need to understand and get used to it. But the finish is much more noble, more beautiful and pleasant in tactile sensations. The Japanese salon is finished with leather. The American can only offer textiles, and although the Janka rag is the most worthy of the cheap soft and pretty, coupled with Eskaypovsky plastic, she is generally not the most attractive picture.
Passenger - a nail
In the back row in CR-V is more spacious than in Escape, and this is a big minus. Too much space for other people's knees. Having heard about this property of the Japanese crossover, someone will surely fill up your fellow travelers, then he will want to smoke, then he will want to shove his disc instead of your favorite radio and the trip is hopelessly spoiled. The passenger should feel the obligated driver, and his comfort is the last thing. At Escape, fellow travelers are less spacious, and it pleases. The joy overshadows that the rear seats Ford are made in the manner of the amphitheater, passengers will like it very conveniently to watch the road.
I open the Ford trunk and I understand: this is a powerful stimulant. There is a black strip in life, but open the fifth door of Escape and your failures will seem like a mosquito trifle compared to problems in Ford factories, where the felt is added to the shelf with Chinese tape, and the spare tire is covered with a beloved alien chair.
Honda does not allow such a circus, but she has so many problems. For example, she goes smoothly and is well controlled. The chassis was tuned to this. But this rusticity of the steering wheel is too good for riot -asphalt. In Japan there is no landfill sold by overloaded trucks. In America, there is no, but Ford is not afraid of ruts and bumps just like that, without any settings, goes in the right direction. And CR-V is destroyed by thoroughness. Why do we need refined controllability? Fidget from a row in a row? But, no matter how the steering wheel, and the neighboring line always goes faster. Vanity.
Pulling and spatting
Hondovskaya power plant Nimble, mischievous. It does not have a sports regime and without it. The motor is acceptable. Acceleration is not sluggish. Unpleasant. Depressingly correct characteristics. The valve control system works too well. Bustle. The Ford pair of the engine sets another example. It falls asleep on the go, showing indifference to paranoid modern trends: a timekeeping, a career race and consumer fever. A dumb steering wheel, oak suspension, a dead motor are the benefits on which, like on a white horse, Escape entered our market, and if today 2007, he would not be lucky. But in 2009, no one will pay any attention to this, because only the price is interested in everyone, and Ford has normal.
Matter: Honda CR-V
Matter: Ford Escape
Renovation with island
On off -road, Escape can hope for good geometric cross -country ability, a high profile of rubber and sweeping suspension passages. By the way, its reserve is full -fledged. But there is no anti -wings electronics. Many will not notice this, because budget electronic assistants are often meaningless in mud, but actually insulting. It remains to take obstacles to the acceleration, in UAZ. The entrance angle of 27 degrees allows, because for the SUV everything that is more than 25 degrees is already fine. If the manufacturer tried to protect at least a little, it would be more fun. CR-V has underground also open to all branches and logs. And the equipment of the test car Mugen was not entirely successful, with an extremely low front bumper. This, you see, a version with a sporting body kit. Only an imitation of inter -long locks saves if you can clearly catch the algorithm of its action.
I will never buy myself Honda CR-V, but I understand the people who make her a cashier. Simple creatures with an indestructible craving for fashion-commercial aurore. I hope no one will make me go to Ford Escape. I do not want to change the wiped tape in the trunk at the official dealer.
Author: Dmitry Leontyev, photo of Alexander Ortnova-Baranov
A source: Magazine 4x4 [July /2009]
