Ford Escape Hybrid FWD

Ford Escape is the best-selling of all the small, affordable sport-utilities, and it's a solid choice among these so-called cute utes.The Escape offers agile handling, a smooth ride, and comfortable seating for four average Americans.It also offers brisk acceleration when equipped with the optional V6 engine.It's compact but practical.Folding down the rear seats reveals a flat, moderately sized cargo area.Best of all, its prices are relatively low, up only an average of 1 percent over 2004 prices.

For 2005, Escape has a fresh new face, new headlamps, and a brightened interior.The new base 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine is a big improvement over the old 2.0-liter, and it's available with an automatic transmission for the first time, a benefit of its increased power.The 2005 Escape offers a fully automatic four-wheel drive option that operates transparently in the background.The standard manual transmission is new, with lighter shifting efforts and shorter throws.And a revised suspension improves the ride.

But the biggest news is that the Escape Hybrid has finally arrived, using a special version of the 2.3-liter gas engine teamed with an electric motor.It's designed to deliver quick response while delivering excellent fuel economy.The Ford Escape is the best-selling compact sport utility vehicle in the United States.Now it's available in a hybrid version.And, no, you don't have to plug it in.

What is a hybrid? It's a vehicle that draws power from the combination of a traditional gasoline engine and an electric motor and special battery pack.The Escape Hybrid is the first such SUV available in the United States, and also the first hybrid with available all-wheel drive and 1000 pounds of towing capacity, and allows buyers to enjoy the benefits of a small SUV while greatly enhancing fuel economy and lowering emissions.

By combing a four-cylinder gasoline engine with the boost from the electric power pack, the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid provides acceleration much like the regular Escape equipped with an optional V6 engine, but the Hybrid returns twice the fuel economy in city driving and nearly double on the highway.

Many people are pleasantly surprised to learn that hybrid vehicles such as the Escape never have to be plugged into any sort of electrical outlet.The vehicle's battery pack is automatically recharged by the gasoline engine and by regenerative braking, technology that takes the otherwise wasted energy generated by braking and sends it to the battery pack.

There is a price premium that must be paid for equipping a car with a hybrid powertrain, but there also are federal and perhaps even state or local tax benefits available to help offset that cost.