I recently drove a 2006 FEH and found everything very familiar, coming from my 13-year-old Jeep Grand Cherokee. (And that's a good thing.)

I'm looking for better mileage than my old Jeep, and the FEH would seem to deliver that. I'd be ordering a 2008. I'm a bit worried that the crash tests show a 50% (20G!) increase in driver deceleration. At the same time that all the other crash data improved in this car. Any idea what's going on there?

More to the point, what are your likes and dislikes about the FEH?

My major niggle driving the 2006 was the speedometer, which I found hard to read very precisely, and the lack of instantaneous MPG reading. (I'm not spending the money for the NAV system just to get the MPG reading.)

 

I went and looked at the NHTSA data at the safecar.gov website directly after I learned that Consumer Reports and others had based all of their FEH crash and tip-over ratings on tests conducted on a base 4cyl Escape (non-hybrid).....although the vehicles are very similar, I (and the NHTSA it seems) felt that a 100% extrapolation of the data was not valid. Hence the government data says n/a for the FEH in places where the non-hybrid Escape was tested and rated. Some of the rating publishers did not make this same technical distinction and report the same data for the FEH.......long story (somewhat) short, make sure you are reviewing the actual test data - and not someone's second-hand interpretation. (sounds like you are) Brake system design/distribution of mass/etc. are different between models and may make a difference in tip-over or deceleration performance for example........??? IMHO

 

I got the data from the government site:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/4296.html

The driver's frontal crash chest deceleration is 50% more for the 2008 than for the 2007: 62Gs!

 

I "upgraded" from an 8 year old Cherokee (not a "Grand").

Gas mileage is way, way better. Almost doubled. I went from about 17 on the Jeep, to about 31 on the hybrid.

However, the hybrid is in many, many ways a lot less "luxurious" than my old crude and rough Jeep. This ranges over a lot of things like the Jeep had a 6-way power passenger seat. Plus a lot of little things like the Jeep had a lot more interior lights ranging from front and rear map lights to under dash lights. The Jeep also had two heat levels for the front seats.

Something I really miss, is that the Jeep had some space to store emergency tools and such under the rear seat (where it also stored the jack). The hybrid has really no place; at all, to store anything inside.

 

You can cure both those problems by adding a Scanguage, that will read both instant mpg & speed digitally.

I had the factory NAV in my 06 FEH, but I removed it & put in a vastly superior DVD/NAV aftermarket unit. As a result of this, I lost the mpg on the factory NAV screen.

I have a Scangauge II which is actually more accurate for mpg than the factory NAV ever was anyway(the factory readout was always about 2 mpg too high)& is much easier to read speed on.

~John

 

You can read about why we got them here, which I think addresses your problem as a generality.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...ead.php?t=4145

 

I like my 2008 FEH, but some things could be improved!

Low speed crash absorbers could easily be added under the plastic front and rear bumpers.

The windshield needs a top tint so the NAV system is visible in bright sun.

Ditto if you have the crome bezel around the shifter. The reflection is blinding!

The temp/time/compass display needs a sun shield protrusion at the top of the display.

Voice recognition and steering wheel controls for the NAV system. Other Ford product use the same (08) NAV system. They mave steering wheel controls for the audio and a mirror with microphone, homelink, etc. While I understand Ford marketing chooses to reserve high end features for high end products, the Hybrid is a special case and needs to be available with these high end features.

Bluetooth telephone, accessory audio and computer interface.

Plug in power option for short trips. No warmup, no pollution! No ICE!

 

But without a serious battery upgrade your "short trip" is 3miles or less....so it unfortunately wouldn't be very useful.

 

Yes, a higher capacity battery would be necessary. There is a retro kit available with Lithium-Ion batteries. At over 10K I will wait for technology to be proven, and cost to come down. Ford is involved with this kit and the State of California. 3 miles is marginal for 1/3 of my trips, and not good for most.

 

The temp/time/compass display needs a sun shield protrusion at the top of the display.

Bright sunlight made this display useless about 50% of the time. I solved the problem by painting the area surrounding the display with black bumper paint.