Seems the FEH is not known for its ammenties! I was surprised to NOT SEE any sort of indicator that CC is enabled (capable of responding to the SET/RESUME etc inputs. Did I miss this feature, present in every car since the dawn of CC? Yes, I note when CC is actually engaged, SPEED CONTROL ON shows in the the MFD. But simply toggly ON/OFF doesn't seem to show up anywhere!

While this car is quite novel and fun to drive and obviously enjoys better FE it's a bit unnerving to read about the notorious "chirp" from the rear, which my brand new 07 began doing (for just one episode yesterday so far), then when I read what the hybrid battery sells for! $14K? Ouch! And then the minor little things left out in the way of ammenties--lack of storage where it would have been easy to factor in, such as the often seen ceiling mounted console for sunglasses, light, storage etc.

I hope n pray we won't be plagued with copious minor (or God forbid major) problems with the vehicle. We certainly are enjoying it so far.

Just out of curiousity, is the battery system recyclable? $14K? OMG! You can buy a solar array and battery storage system for a house for a few grand over that much!

 

1. The indicator, as you said, is the "Speed control On" message that is displayed in the gauge cluster message center. I'm not sure what else you want. In every car I've ever owned or driven, the only indicator that CC was on was a light in the dash....I've never seen any vehicle with an an "off", "resume", "coast" or anything else. When you push off or touch the brakes, the CC goes off and the message goes off. When you reset/resume CC the message comes back on. What do you want it to have?

2. What is the concern with the battery? it has a minimum 8yr/100,000mi warranty on it...so even if replacement costs TODAY were $14,000 (which hasn't been confirmed by anyone here in the US), 8 years from now that cost will be significantly reduced. It is not something to worry about in my opinion. (Yes, the battery is recycleable and will definitely be recycled....in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that there is a large 'core charge' as a part of that $14k figure that gets refunded with the old battery.)

3. The rear end squeak is annoying, but the Ford repair on the TSB seemed to correct it. Just be happy it was just an annoyance and not a safety issue. You've got the 3rd model year of the FEH so you can feel pretty confident that they've ironed out most of the issues specific to the hybrid. As for the rest of the vehicle...well, the Escape hasn't really changed at all since it was introduced so I wouldn't expect any new problems to arise now. As for people buying the '08 models....well, there are always issues with first model year vehicles.

4. Yours doesn't have the sunglass holder in the overhead console? My MMH has it but I've got the sunroof. What do you get without the sunroof? I saw someone here who, I think added a console from another vehicle with a fold down DVD player. Not an option with the sunroof but a nice touch.

 

>>What do you want it to have?

Well, my 2000 Maxima, and 94 Honda, and 98 Voyager, all indicated when CC was enabled. Notice there is a toggle ON switch on the FEH's CC, there is just no indicator when it is ON, except when it's activated. No biggy . . .

>>I wouldn't be surprised to find that there is a large 'core charge' as a part of that $14k figure that gets refunded with the old battery.)

Let's hope so . . .

>>Just be happy it was just an annoyance and not a safety issue. You've got the 3rd model year of the FEH so you can feel pretty confident that they've ironed out most of the issues specific to the hybrid.

Yes, just be happy it's not a bigger issue always applies.

>>Yours doesn't have the sunglass holder in the overhead console?

As I say, there is no console whatsoever. We were very fortunate to be able to buy the FEH we wanted with 95% of the feature set, but a moonroof was not part of the one model that fit our other wishes at the time we purchased in Nor Cal, so we forwent (!) the moonroof. Twas just a surprise that no overhead was present in a vehicle with leather seats, A/C, 6disk CD, etc. Hmm, is it possible to find and overhead for it as you suggest? Where could we look for this item? Perhaps retrofit from Ford/Merc? Is the one you have ATTACHED to the moonroof, or not in which case perhaps one could be added that is actually made for our car?

 

When I first bought my FEH in Feb. '05, I went to a major Ford parts dept. and ordered some oil filters, O-rings and picked up some Motorcraft 5-20W oil. Word got out that I had an FEH and about 10 guys from the parts dept came out to look at it. Florida was not one of the States that could order an FEH until Feb. '05, so the dealer aloted one I got was one of the first. Anyway, I was a big hit around there and they were all excited that my navi showed over 40mpg with about 1,000 miles on it. After we went back inside to finish my order, some of the guys looked up the price of a HV battery. They said it was $7,200 at that time. That floored us all, but we didn't know that the battery came as a unit with the fans, TBCM and all the other components. I don't think the price has gone up, but it may be worth buying the battery in the US and taking it to Canada if that was the price you were quoted.

The message center does indicate CC when it is on, but I also wish Ford had not taken that area to display it. This is only because I like the MTE reading that gives me an added gauge to monitor my mileage on trips. The cancel feature is nice on the CC, but most of time I just slip it into neutral which cancels CC anyway.

GaryG

 

Lift back the carpet in your cargo area. Read the big honkin' label on your high capacity hybrid battery. The battery is recyclable... even has a number on it to call when that eventual day comes, should the vehicle still be in your posession at that time.

As for the cost of battery replacement -- Why worry about the retail cost of a battery that is waranteed for 8 years in most areas and 10 years in CARB states like California (which you indicated you are in, so you've got TEN YEARS and 150k miles to drive your new baby with zero worries about battery replacement costs)? So every new FEH/Mercury Mariner buyer gets 8-10 years where Ford/Mercury will cover any battery replacement issues that come up -- which to date, there have been precisely NONE that I am aware of that required a brand new battery. Even a handful of total battery replacements under warranty would be rightfully judged outliers that were the result of some manufacturing defect...

The lack of storage/stowage would have been obvious to you at presale and purchase time. No big surprise, there. I looked at tons of GAS-only Escapes to get a feel for the body style and general fit/finish of the vehicle the FEH was based on, and I test-drove the FEH I ended up buying, along with extensive research online because our family doesn't buy a new vehicle but once every 6-10 years (my last car? A 1992 Toyota Corolla, sold for $2,600 to a grateful college student.)

The chirp? We don't all have it, or at least not to the level of annoyance that some members have posted about, and there *are* some dealer service options to look into that may potentially resolve it.

What more do you need to indicate cruise control is engaged? SPEED CONTROL ON will only ever display if cruise control is engaged... if you don't see that, it's not engaged. Don't worry about if it's ON or OFF -- even if you ever accidentally engaged it (pretty hard to do) you'd immediately see the SPEED CONTROL ON message on your dash display. Pretty simple.

The manual's useful and may fill in any other gaps you have.

You will enjoy the vehicle if you gauge it fairly on its merits and not on things you knew about prior to sale.


Enjoy the vehicle. Drive it. Get to know it. Then you'll see it on its merits like any other major purchase.

 

I had a minor accident where I was rear ended. Only the bumper cover was damaged. However when the guy from the Ford body shop came out he said, "WOW!.... That battery is expensive. The book has it at $8500."

So that should take care of the questions. In the US the battery is $8500 with labor, at least thats what the insurance company would pay for it.

 

Hmmm.... and the actual "price" of a "Hybrid" Escape vs. an equally equipped V6 Escape is only $3000 more????

Something smells fishy..... ( or we all got one hell of a low price on our FEH's )

 

Actually I certainly appreciate FEH's merits, but was surprised with a few things missing in a car with leather seats and so on. It's quite a piece of technology . . . and this of course is why we bought it. No, of course I can live without an OFF/ON indicator (as my other 3 vehicles had) and the SPEED CONTROL ON message is fine.

Gary, it's nice you can turn off the SPEED CONTROL ON message so you can again view your efficiency data.

 

That was probably me, I added a console from a sunroof equipped Escape to my 05:

Console shown here

& an overhead DVD system with wireless headphones for my kids in the rear:

DVD SHOWN HERE

I also added the Home-link garage door opener setup you can see in the console pic.

I recently got rid of the 05 FEH & bought a newer 06 FEH that came with a moon-roof. The new one already has the overhead console, but I will shortly be adding the rear DVD setup to it.

~John

 

The console pic also shows the Gentek outside temp/compass/reading lights rear view mirror I installed.

Here is another change I made:

REPLACEMENT IN-DASH NAV/GPS unit.

The 05 did not come with the factory NAV setup, so I replaced the stock radio with this awesome AM/FM/NAV/CD/CD-R/mp3 unit. The unit is incredible, it has an internal high power stereo AMP & a backup camera also. The 6.5" full color screen is beautiful & the entire USA maps are on one DVD disc.

Now, my newer 06 FEH came with the awful outdated/obsolete factory NAV setup. I do play with the hybrid display screens occasionally, but I was so spoiled by that setup in my 05 that I am considering removing the factory NAV & replacing it with another aftermarket replacement unit.

~John