08 Pilot vs. Ford Escape Hybrid

[Airlnkr]

Hey guys, I have a 08 Pilot. I live in Minnesota and mainly bought it to get through the rough winters and I especially love the look and feel of the pilot. My job requires me to be at work even when it snows a foot on some days, so I have to have 4WD witha high clearance. The problem is I do alot of city driving and my Pilot is getting about 18 mpg on average. I've considered trading it for a newer Escape Hybrid since some of the Escapes advertise 34-38mpg in the city. I really like the look of the pilot but I went from having a camry which had excellent mileage to the pilot, I really don't need the space since I'm single and I'm not towing anything I just got a really good deal on the pilot. Curious what you guys think.

[whizmo]

I'm a big believer in "right sizing" to have no more vehicle than one needs, but I think if you do the math it will be hard to justify buying another car to save gas so soon after you've just bought one. I'd pencil out the economics - you can buy a lot of gas for the capital costs and fixed costs of flipping a car.

I'm not aware of any Escape with mileage estimates of 38 mpg and 34 mpg seems pretty optimistic. You might want to go online and get some "real world" estimates. If you're getting 18 mpg in the Pilot, I think 30 mpg would be a lot more realistic for the Escape hybrid.

As you may be aware, Ford is about to release a new and vastly improved Escape model. I suspect the value of older Escapes, both new and used, is dropping precipitously at the moment, so I'd wait this out. There is also a new CR-V and a new Mazda small SUV (the CX-5) in the pipeline. I am also considering downsizing from my 2006 Pilot and the CX-5 is going to be at the top of my list.

- Mark

[iggibar]

Originally Posted by Airlnkr

Hey guys, I have a 08 Pilot. I live in Minnesota and mainly bought it to get through the rough winters and I especially love the look and feel of the pilot. My job requires me to be at work even when it snows a foot on some days, so I have to have 4WD witha high clearance. The problem is I do alot of city driving and my Pilot is getting about 18 mpg on average. I've considered trading it for a newer Escape Hybrid since some of the Escapes advertise 34-38mpg in the city. I really like the look of the pilot but I went from having a camry which had excellent mileage to the pilot, I really don't need the space since I'm single and I'm not towing anything I just got a really good deal on the pilot. Curious what you guys think.

If you are in the need for a great AWD vehicle, but don't need the negatives associated with an SUV, I would highly recommend the 2012 Impreza 5-door. Gets incredible fuel mileage, and is way more comfortable, and better build than the Escape. The AWD system on the Escape is a complete joke. Might as well have a hamster peddling the rear wheels when you need power there.

[osudelt69]

Originally Posted by Airlnkr

Hey guys, I have a 08 Pilot. I live in Minnesota and mainly bought it to get through the rough winters and I especially love the look and feel of the pilot. My job requires me to be at work even when it snows a foot on some days, so I have to have 4WD witha high clearance. The problem is I do alot of city driving and my Pilot is getting about 18 mpg on average. I've considered trading it for a newer Escape Hybrid since some of the Escapes advertise 34-38mpg in the city. I really like the look of the pilot but I went from having a camry which had excellent mileage to the pilot, I really don't need the space since I'm single and I'm not towing anything I just got a really good deal on the pilot. Curious what you guys think.

Your mileage is way off fyi. Brother in law bought a 2011 escape with 4cyl. While an attrative vehicle it build with lighter weight materials and is very loud on highway compared to our 04 pilot. I think pilot has much better build quality. Mileage of course is better but not worth the added expense. If you need/want a new vehicle then thats understandable. Take a look at volkswagen jetta wagon tdi if you want miles per gallon and ability to haul around some stuff. 41 highway

[TheBluePearl]

We just traded in a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid AWD, for a 2012 Pilot Touring, so I might be able to help you out here...

First, on the FEH, the AWD model is rated at like 30/28 for MPG, not the 34+ you mentioned. And ours averaged closer to the 28 than the 30. It would take a lot of mileage over a lot of years to make up the mileage difference of Hybrid vs non-Hybrid to make up the price differential (which is about 4k on the Escape). When we bought in Jan of 2008, they still had tax incentives - on ours it was $2200. Plus 2008 had $4 gas. So we made it up in about 1.5 years, with my wife driving 50 miles RT to work and back. Break out a spreadsheet and do the math. If you want the Hybrid purely for gas money savings, without the tax incentives, it is a very long payback period right now. If you are OK with only making up part of the difference, maybe because you want to be environmentally friendly, then that is a different equation.

The FEH was a good car, we liked it a lot. 28 MPG on any SUV is great, it was very reliable (not a single problem the entire time we owned it), quality level was generally good... but as other said, it is a bit noisy, and some of the parts are chintzy. And remember too, the FEH will feel significantly smaller (and actually IS) than your Pilot, so keep that in mind too. We traded up in size of vehicle because we have a 3-year-old and another baby on the way, and we found the rear seat leg room in the FEH was really quite small for an SUV. That made for a lot of seat kicking, and difficulty getting one kid in and out, let alone two.