My 19 y.o. niece would only consider larger sedans when she was car shopping 2 years ago... SUVs looks “hand me downs” in her opinion.

The Escape is more competent on-road too. From better handling, to higher towing capacity, to much better fuel economy... They are distinctly different vehicles with different market demographics. Believe it or not, typical car buys still like roundish, tall, hatchy things. Escape checks all the boxes, and offers more…

You’ll never hear a Bronco of the racket of the Side By Sides that have taken over most of the trails...

I’m confused. Did you forget that the original Escape was boxy, through 2012? The 1st gen even had a selectrable driveline lock, but they removed it on 2005 after too many people trashed their diffs locking it on pavement. People got tired of boxy, and the rounded 2013 was all the rage. Now we get both design flavors,…

I think that’s already beyond the practical limits of FWD. Even my Focus ST has  more power than traction unless it dry, clean pavement.  Torque steer at 90 MPH on a 2-lane mountain road is pretty terrifying.

I’m going to guess you haven’t driven them? Awkward as it looks, the EcoSport drives fine. The one time I rented a Versa, I felt like I might die anytime I had to merge onto the freeway. If you launched from a stop, and kept your foot planted, it was ok. But if you lifted ever for even a moment, it would upshift so…

Probably about 4 hours, although some of that time is just letting the coolant drain. Worst part is pulling the A/C condenser. That alone is going to stifle most DIY efforts. But sometimes you can just let it hang without actually disconnecting the lines. A good local shop will evac your A/C system for a minimal shop…

The sell a bead-lock kit for their wheels. Street use, tire goes inside flange. Bead-lock use, it stays outside the wheel flange, and gets clamped by the ring. https://performanceparts.ford.com/download/instructionsheets/FORDINSTSHTM-1021-F15RB.PDF

I had to borrow that pic, somehow all my Audi service mode pics are lost... Anyways, most major cooling system repairs, A/C compressor, steering rack, timing belt, alternator, oil leaks etc. Not every service requires this, but it doesn’t take long to learn that you’re better off doing it this way, because you almost…

If you’re into the TT as much as I am, should be able to find a decent-condition convertible model with manual transmission for $5,000. Keep the $35,000 to clean it up a bit...

That entire segment is bad, except maybe the CX-30. I even had a GLA for a week for work, and it felt cheaper in almost every way than my Focus ST3, and Mercedes somehow managed to put in an infotainment buggier and lag-ier than Sync2.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Police sedan. For the last few year, 9/10 are Explorers, with a few F-series and Tahoes scattered in there. The only modern police car I’ve seen is the Mustang.

Also the comparable size segment is the Edge, which I though was pretty nice the couple times I rented one. Not my cup of tea, but if I had to buy a 2-row midsize SUV, I’d probably pick that but with the 2.7L EcoBoost.

This is my experience as well. Love my Focus ST. Which replaced a Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost which was also great. Other car is an E350 V10 with nearly 500,000 miles. But the dealers range for mediocre to terrible. Once you get past the sleazy finance managers, every time you go in for service, it’s like everybody’s first…

All of my Alaska friends have unibody crossovers. They just ride better on washboards roads. Doesn’t matter that the the Yukon has soft springs. That rear axle still bounces all over the place. Plus, the Flex has more torque if its an EcoBoost) and more payload.

So if some hyper-aggressive men in civilian clothing ran up, surrounded you, and forced you into an unmarked vehicle, you’d be cool with that?

I’ve seen plenty of folks of all makes and models get duped into a brake job because they had mild pedal pulsing. The typical driver never gets their brakes hot enough to ever bed them in.

I agree with all of that, except the need for HEVs for commercial construction sites. Some large projects have hundreds of trucks idling around, and they usually don’t drive more than 15 miles a day. And charging is readily available most of the time, because temp power generators are sized for peak loads. Usually,…

My bad! I just assumed towing since we’re talking pickups.

You’re off an order of magnitude, at least for towing applications. For example, an F150 at max GCWR of 17,000 with a very modest  rolling resistance @ .015 and 60 sq. ft. of total frontal area with a Cd of 0.5 (which a modest boat might be, but any box trailers would be far higher), and total engine efficiency of 28%…