Thinking of buying a 2010ish Escape hybrid. I owned a gas 2001 Escape years ago, liked it, but rust killed it. Hybrid version that gets around 30MPG sounds great.

Checking marketplace 5-7k with 150-200k miles seems to be the going price. I’ve worked on my own vehicles most of my life, but have zero experience with hybrids.

Honest opinions, buying 10+ year old hybrid an awful idea since I have no experience? What should I look for if I test drive one? Looks like this forum is active, and tons of good info.

 

An inexpensive mid size SUV that get's 30 is what drew me to a 2009 Mercury Mariner,
I've had it 2 years and the main issue you'll face is the hybrid battery, if it's on it's way out a shop will offer to replace it with a re-conditioned or similar battery for a couple thousand, but what you'll get is another 14 year old battery
Most of the known typical things to fix are for the most part easy, it's that battery that you'll be stuck with, I wish we all had a new option that was affordable
Others may have ideas about methods of testing the existing battery, the typical pre purchase inspection places won't help much in that regard
good luck

 

Thanks very much for reply. I am concerned about the batteries and cost to replace as well l since I’ve never owned hybrid before. Is it possible to replace just certain cells in the battery? Good to know usual repairs aren’t that bad. I’ve read about people getting extremely high prices to replace the brake system. Any experience with that? After owning yours for 2yrs, would you recommend to buy?

 

I've fixed a bunch of "little" things on my 2008 over the years. I think some of this goes with any Escape/Mariner/Tribute - but the ignition switch (I had to remove the key cylinder and grind the stops down due to too much play in the ignition switch - even after changing the switch), door latch, 2 window regulators, thermostat, blend door actuators, windshield wiper pump (2x) aren't hybrid specific. The electronic coolant pump (behind the dash on the passenger side) and fans in the battery pack are things I've done that seem to be common to others with hybrids as well.

The battery pack appears to be intended as a sealed unit not typically meant to be opened (it has lift points for hooking a hoist to). With that said, you have to crack it open to replace the battery fans, but unless you really know what you are doing, I'd avoid trying to pull, test, and replace individual cells. The pack looks like a bunch of soldered D-cell batteries when you really dig into it and the voltage is scary to most people. There are others with more experience than I on some of this, so you can consult their posts. I will say that my '08 has been in Arizona it's whole life (but not in the hottest part) and the battery is still okay.

I was talking socially with someone with an '07 hybrid and we both agreed that they were not our favorite cars, but maybe we adopted too early of models.

 

I also replaced many commonly failed items, like the front brake hoses, but I'm amazed at how reasonable many of the parts are, those brake hoses cost $20 delivered.
It's back to the battery pack, there just isn't an inexpensive replacement that'll be good as new, that I know of
I had a hybrid shop replace the battery pack with another used one, it didn't work well at all, two weeks later they swapped it out with another under warranty and it's just OK now
I you get a good price, and you notice that the ICE turns off and will stay off even if you slowly pull away from a stop those are some signs of decent battery condition
It doesn't take much to get the ICE to start up with moderate gas pedal pressure, but you should, on a flat area, be able to pull away very slowly and even get up to 40 on battery alone
There are experts on this site that would advise about running diagnostics (forscan) you'll see info about that on this forum
Good luck

 

Thanks for replies and info, learned a lot. Going to keep my eye out for one and when I find the right deal will purchase. Will look into ForScan and setup that also. Appreciate it!