The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 171, Ed. 1 Friday, June 20, 2008 Page: 8 of 12
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Friday, June 20,2008
2B ®bc ItajKotat ftun
Fbrd bolsters top-mileage Escape Hybrid SUV
AP photo
The 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid SUV has new standard safety equipment, an improved ride, more power and new features.
tion audio system as well as
over when a driver pressed
1
Picture for illustration purposes only.
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outside and attractive, 16-
ing. Ford officials intend to
roll this feature out to other
seats. Legroom in the back
seat is about what you’d
expect in a compact SUV:
35.6 inches. Headroom of
more than 39 inches is note-
worthy, and I liked the interi-
or upgrades — nicer plastic
trim and larger, easier to
read, mid-dashboard display
BY ANN N. JOB
For The Associated Press
3001 N. Main St, Baytown
281-422-0535
Mon - Fri
8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Saturday
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
281-427-7528
2716 N. Main • Baytown
www.daleottmotorco.com
Hours: Mon-Fri: 8:30 am - 8:00 pm • Sat: 9:00 am 7:00 pm
hybrids have in these situa-
tions.
Handling is the best ever in
the Escape Hybrid because
engineers installed a new sta-
bilizer bar in the rear and
retuned the suspension for a
more refined experience.
‘05 Ford Ranger ‘06 Ford Focus
$189/mo
i________
FARMERS
Chad Marling
Insurance « financial Setvices Agent
5523 West Road
Baytown, TX. 77521
Phone: 281-421-3699
Cell: 713-299-7365
Fax:281-421-1009
I
filled up with $4-a-gallpn
gas, he hung a sign on his
pumps: “No more credit
cards."
He may be the first in West
Virginia to ban plastic, but
gas station operators nation-
wide are reporting similar
Seats in the tester were
Make sure to see the supportive and nicely posi-
Escape’s new gas cap. It does tioned above the road for
away with screw-on caps that good views out.
drivers tend to leave behind p -■
at service stations and instead an artificial brake pedal feel
time. The continuously vari-
able transmission, with infi-
nitely variable gearing to
maximize fuel mileage, is
carried over as the only tran- included everything from
all-electric-power driving.
Acceleration is satisfying
braking smoothly difficult.
of eliminating this problem in engine is working, too,
tu--------J_l — J T —-<-> —-n
the test vehicle worked well.
I liked the size of the
Escape Hybrid. Like the
gasoline-only Escapes, it
Passengers still feel some tip-
piness, though.
There’s more standard
Escape safety equipment for
2009, with the addition of
antilock brakes and stability
control with roll stability
gyroscopic sensors on every
model.
While the federal govern-
ment hasn’t yet released
crash test ratings for the 2009
Escapes, the 2008 models on
which they are heavily based
earned five out of five stars
for side crash protection and
only four out of five for
frontal crash protection.
Though the Escape Hybrid
2009 Ford Escape
Hybrid Limited
4WD
BASE PRICE: $28,305
for base 2WD model;
$30,055 for 4WD model;
$30,635 for Hybrid
Limited 2WD; $31,690 for
Hybrid Limited 4WD.
AS TESTED: $35,425.
TYPE: Front-engine, all-
wheel drive, five-passen-
ger, compact sport utility
vehicle.
ENGINE: 2.5-liter, dou-
ble overhead cam, Duratec,
Atkinson Cycle four cylin-
der mated to an electric
motor.
MILEAGE: 29 mpg
(city), 27 mpg (highway).
TOP SPEED: NA.
LENGTH: 174.7 inches.
WHEELBASE: 103.1
inches.
CURB WEIGHT: 3,829
pounds.
BUILT AT: Claycomo,
Mo.
OPTIONS: Navigation
and audiophile system •
$2,695; side step bars
$345.
DESTINATION
CHARGE: $695.
Not every sport utility
vehicle is a gas guzzler.
Take the 2009 Ford Escape
Hybrid SUV — with new
standard safety equipment, an
improved ride, more power
and new features. It has a
higher fuel economy rating
than some cars, including
diminutive minis and non-
hybrid Toyota Camry sedans.
The newly refreshed
Escape Hybrid stays atop all
other SUVs with a federal
government rating of 34
miles per gallon in city dri-
ving and 30 mpg on the high-
way for a two-wheel drive
model. City mileage is higher
because the fuel-saving elec-
tric motor assist can be acti-
vated more often in city dri-
ving than on the highway.
Back for a fifth model
year, the gasoline-electric
hybrid version of Escape is
the top of the line, with a
starting manufacturer’s sug-
gested retail price, including
destination charge, of
$29,000 for a two-wheel
drive base model. A 2009
Escape Hybrid with four-
wheel drive starts at $30,750
and is rated at 29/27 mpg.
The gasoline-electric-motor
versions of Escape are much
pricier than the gasoline-only
Escapes, which have a start-
ing MSRP, including destina-
tion charge, of $20,410 with
manual transmission.
But with regular gasoline
selling for more than $4.05 a
gallon nationwide these days,
a $60 fill-up of the 15-gallon
tank might last for some 500
city miles in the Escape
Hybrid vs. just 300 miles in a
comparable gasoline-only
Escape.
The Escape Hybrid works
like most other hybrids —
supplementing the four-cylin-
der gasoline engine with an
electric motor for low-speed
woes as higher prices trans-
late into higher credit card
fees the managers must pay,
squeezing profits at the pump.
“The more they buy, the
more we lose,” said Randolph,
who manages Mr. Ed’s
Chevron in St. Albans. “Gas
prices go up, and our profits
go down.”
His complaints target the
so-called interchange fee — a
percentage of the sale price
paid to credit card companies
on every transaction. The per-
centage is fixed — usually at
just under 2 percent.— but
the dollar amount of the fee
rises with the price of the
goods or services.
As gas tops $4 a gallon,
that pushes fees toward 10
cents a gallon. Now stations,
which typically mark up gaso-
line by 11 to 12 cents a gal-
lon, are seeing profits shrink
or even reverse.
In a good month,
Randolph’s small operation
would yield a $60 profit on
gasoline sales. But that’s been
buried as soaring prices
forced the station to pay about
$500 a month in interchange
fees.
“At these prices, people
aren’t making any money,”
said Jeff Lenard, spokesman
for the Alexandria, Va.-based
National Association of
Convenience Stores. “It’s bru-
tal.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va.
(AP)— When gas station
manager Roger Randolph
realized it was costing him
money each time someone
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at of Crosby
Escape Hybrid feel peppier, t
there’s no loss in fuel mileage with satellite radio,
when the electric motor helps from 2008.
propel the vehicle, because
torque from electric motors
comes on instantaneously.
For 2009, the Escape’s
inline Duratec four cylinder
is larger than ever —-2.5
liters, instead of last year’s
2.3 liters. It has variable
Gas station nixes credit card payment
BY TOM BREEN
Associated Press Writer
ny for the Escape Hybrid.
Drivers operate it as they
would a regular automatic
transmission.
The improved horsepower
— 177 compared with 155 in
the 2008 Escape Hybrid — is come standard with pleasing
the highest ever for this SUV —u;~~‘ —->
hybrid. Yet, despite the power can be had with Ford’s
gain, which makes the 2009
the brake pedal and starts to
press the gas.
But the Escape Hybrid ride
Ford engineers did a good job now is quieter when the gas
of eliminating this problem in engine is working, too,
the new model, and brakes in though I could still hear some
four-cylinder buzziness in
highway travel.
Especially impressive was
„ , , , the fact the test SUV had
inch wheels and tires. It starts stretches 14.5 feet long and is smooth transitions between
neither too small nor too big electric power and gas engine
for ferrying families, hauling power, thanks to a new
luggage and fitting into curb- engine processor. I didn’t
side parking spots. experience any of the stum-
There are only two rows of bling, almost-going-to-stall x u u v
T------feejing; that. some gas-£ectric js a^SUV donTcount on‘it“
for towing. Maximum towing
capacity is a mere 1,000
pounds.
The Escape Hybrid has
twins in the Mariner Hybrid
and Mazda Tribute Hybrid,
but the Escape is the top sell-
er of the bunch.
$189/mo
4 dffRn
at more than $30,000.
All 2009 Escape Hybrids
ambient lighting inside and
— J....’*1. 17-- J
optional Sync voice-recogni-
screen.
The Escape Hybrid has
long been very quiet inside
when it’s sitting at a stoplight
or in ai schoolyard, waiting to
pick up passengers. That’s
Earlier Escape Hybrids had when the gas engine automat-
self-seals the gas filler open- as the regenerative braking
ically turns itself off to save
fuel. It automatically starts
process would seemingly take up when the driver lets up on
valve timing, too, for the first company vehicles in the com- the brake pedal. It made
ing years.
The test Escape Hybrid
was a new Limited model
with top-of-the-line trim. It
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Clements, Clifford E. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 171, Ed. 1 Friday, June 20, 2008, newspaper, June 20, 2008; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1192326/m1/8/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.