2008 Ford Kuga
The 2012 Ford Escape's design will merge with that of a redesigned Euro-market Ford Kuga. The 2008 Ford Kuga is shown here.

Consumer Guide’s Impressions of the 2012 Ford Escape

A popular compact SUV is redesigned within a new global vehicle family headed by the next-generation Focus compact car. The result should be a trimmer, fuel-thriftier Escape with international style and more premium features.

What We Know About the 2012 Ford Escape

The Ford Escape remains one of America’s most popular compact SUVs. Indeed, it was a top seller in the recent “cash-for-clunkers” program, according to U.S. Transportation Department tallies--the only SUV to make the top 10. Not bad for a basic design that’s now almost a decade old, albeit updated along the way.

Click here to read our review of the 2010 Ford Escape.
For 2012, however, the Escape will finally get a clean-sheet redesign. Details are now coming into focus--or Focus, to be more precise. That’s because the next Escape will share a new international platform that premieres with the next-generation Ford Focus compact car, due for model-year 2011. This architecture will also host the redesigned 2012 Focus C-Max people-mover, a European hit that’s now headed for North America. These plans reflect the “One Ford” product strategy decreed by company CEO Alan Mulally. It’s really the old “world-car” idea dusted off for new hard times: A basic vehicle that can sell well most anywhere with just a few low-cost variations to suit local tastes and conditions. Done properly, a world car and derivatives can save billions in development and tooling costs versus creating similar but unrelated models for different regions.

No market looms larger in global sales and earnings than the so-called C-segment--compact cars and SUVs--so the redesigned Focus and 2012 Ford Escape are bound to loom large in the automaker’s still-nascent recovery. Ford’s global C-segment sales were about a million units in 2008, but involved three different platforms. The company says its new single C-car architecture will sire up to 10 models with expected global sales of over 2 million units a year. In short, Ford is out to get a lot more bang for its buck in terms of product variety and, presumably, profits.

Though Ford and others have tried “world cars” before, most of the efforts were commercial disappointments, especially in North America. (Remember the Euro-designed Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique compact sedans?) To avoid repeating past mistakes, Ford has marshalled design and engineering teams in Asia, Europe, and North America to help ensure that its new C-car models will be sure-fire hits from Boston to Berlin to Beijing, though not all of them will be available in all countries.

Why are we setting the scene, you ask? Because we’ve now learned enough about the redesigned Focus and Focus C-Max to sketch the broad outlines of the 2012 Ford Escape and, by extension, a clean-sheet version of the sister Mercury Mariner. For starters, the American SUV will merge with a redesigned Euro-market Ford Kuga, a more-upscale crossover that went on sale in early 2008 and which also moves to the new C-car platform come 2012. The dimensions in our specifications chart take into account the current Escape and Kuga numbers--the two models are close in size already--“fudge-factored” by word from trade weekly Automotive News and other sources that the next Escape will be a bit smaller than today’s version.

The new C-family platform is said to be evolved from the current “C1” architecture used for the Kuga and many other Ford Europe models, so we’re pretty sure that the 2012 Ford Escape will be upgraded to a “blade-type” independent rear suspension and more-sophisticated front-end geometry with coil-spring and shock-absorber units and independent struts. The current Escape, designed in collaboration with Ford’s Japanese affiliate, which sells the same basic vehicle as the Mazda Tribute, uses orthodox concentric strut-and-spring units and freestanding shock absorbers. Four-wheel ABS disc brakes will certainly be standard, and we wouldn’t be surprised if all models come with an antiskid system and traction control. Front side airbags and curtain side airbags with rollover deployment should be standard too.

For more inside information on hundreds of new cars of today and tomorrow, check out:
  • 2010 Ford Escape: Read Consumer Guide's full reports, including ratings, prices, specifications, and fuel economy.
  • 2009 Consumer Guide Best Buy and Recommended Award Winners: Check out which cars won our Best Buy and Recommended awards for 2009.
  • Future Cars: Step into the automotive showroom of tomorrow with reviews, analysis, pictures, prices, and preliminary specifications on scores of vehicles that will be appearing next year and beyond.