kelsee88 -

kristian and gpsman1 are right. You can get 90% of the experience of driving an MMH/FEH by driving a V6 Escape (or a non-hybrid Mariner). I rented one for several days during business trip to LA - because I was sold on the hybrid drive train but I had never owned a US made vehicle of any type. Then, when my local dealership starting taking pre-delivery orders in the summer of '04, and wanted $8k premium on top of MSRP, I waited about 18 months and bought one off the lot (at another dealership)...didn't even drive it around the lot.

Good luck.

Oh yeah, I read a post on another forum by someone claiming to be a Ford employee charged with monitoring such websites......saying that the HVBattery is indeed the component that is causing production delays. They go on to say that they are trying to talk a battery company into investing in a battery plant in the US (in anticipation of the hybrid-Fusion model), that several jurisdictions legislated requirements that taxi fleets be a certain percent hybrid and that Ford got strapped filling the taxi fleet orders, and that they are still producing '08s as fast as they can.

 

I think it is true that batteries are a major constraint here.

However, for $30k or less, Ford must be selling these at cost.
Either that, or the regular Escape only costs them $10k to make.

So either they are making a killing on the regular Escape, or taking a loss on the FEH, since there is NO WAY there is only "$3000" in extra parts in the Hybrid model. That's why I call this car, a "best buy".

Moral: Ford has little $ incentive at the moment to ramp up production.

 

I would suspect the margins on the regular Escapes (and all the SUVs) is rather steep. How else could they have huge banners in the show room announcing $10,000 off "sticker" price on every Expedition, etc., etc.