Time to take stock

Yrs trly returns to his Escape on a jeep-trail, after snagging a train-picture. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

This is what I shot. (Photo by Bobbalew.)

A year has passed since I purchased the 2012 Ford Escape I now have.
I should take stock. It isn’t Ford’s new Escape, it’s the prior Mazda-based Escape. It had only 3,000 miles on it when I bought it.
I wondered why it had so few miles, and the salesman told me the guy who bought it new died almost immediately after he had it delivered.
The original-owner bought it from a dealer in central PA. After he died, it was sent to auction, where my local Ford dealer, Shepard Ford in Canandaigua, snagged it for resale as a used-car.
Shepard likes to sell low-mileage used-cars, and this thing was extremely low miles.
It’s a “Limited,” as opposed to “XLT.”
It has all the bells-and-whistles, most of which I don’t use. Heated leather seats, and satellite-radio, for example.
I don’t mind leather seats, but I haven’t subscribed to satellite-radio.
Why should I? I’d never play it. For me, radio is a distraction from safe driving. It’s the fact I once drove transit-bus, which required 100% concentration.
It also has Ford’s “Sync” computer-software, which includes GPS navigation and Bluetooth© to my cellphone.
The GPS navigation isn’t a display-screen, which I would like. It’s voice-prompt, and I don’t use it.
I always say the GPS is in my head. I have to know my way before starting — which I can do with GoogleMaps.
I’ll be a son-of-a-gun if I’m gonna have some disembodied broad busily recalculating, thereby getting me lost.
The Keed knows his way before he starts. We had to find a vet outside Buffalo (NY) to treat our cancerous dog. Buffalo was 70 miles away, and this vet was in a suburb.
I had to eventually put that dog to sleep, but I found that vet in an unknown area with GoogleMaps. —First try too, and without GPS.
Bluetooth to my cellphone via “Sync” is a disaster.
I can answer calls with it, but it may call someone other than intended when I make a call. It uses voice-recognition. If I command it to “call Cathy” (my cleaning-lady) it might call my railfan friend in Altoona, PA. The voice-recognition is terrible, and it’s Microsoft. Bill and his lackeys need to get their act together.
If I disable Sync, and just voice-command my phone to “call Cathy,” it will do it.
So what do I think of my car as a car?
Well, I probably didn’t need a V6 motor.
I was glad it had a V6; I would have been looking for a V6 Escape.
I usually tilt toward the stronger motor, or did in the past.
I figure my Escape weighs maybe 500 pounds more than our previous SUV, a Honda CR-V.
I was pleased it had a V6, but find it uses slightly more gas than our CR-V, 22 mpg versus 24.
This gets into how the number-of-cylinders affects fuel-economy. My salesman said a V6 would use more gas than a four.
This corroborates my own experience with lawnmowers. My first zero-turn lawnmower had a V-twin Briggs. My current zero-turn has a large Briggs single. It uses way less gas than did the V-twin.
My V6 is larger than the four, so would use more gas. But it’s like the number of cylinders affects gas-mileage.
My Escape also has a six-speed transmission, automatic of course.
It downshifts for the slightest hill. It’s always cranking 1,000-3,000 rpm on the tach.

My Escape’s independent-rear-suspension. (Photo by Bobbalew.)

The Escape also has IRS (independent-rear-suspension), illustrated at left; state-of-the-art.
IRS had been around for years, but hasn’t found much use yet. You mainly find it in racecars. It has the advantage of not having the opposite wheel affected by the bumped wheel. A solid connection between the rear wheels does this — plus the heavy differential is often part of that solid axle.
In an Escape, the differential is mounted to the chassis, so is not sprung. The wheels are driven by half-shafts — which are visible in the photograph.
The IRS on this car sold itself. Every time I saw one I’d note the IRS.
A Jeep Liberty looks even better, but it’s not IRS.
I don’t push very hard — although I probably could.
I can’t. I had a stroke, so can’t control a car at speed.
I might set the cruise at 65-70, but I get passed.
People are always shaking their fists at me, and giving me the middle-finger salute.
I guess 65-70 isn’t fast enough.
I can’t push, I’d be over-my-head.
So here I am driving a V6 when an inline four would be enough. Although I think a four would be slightly stressed dragging around 500 more pounds than our CR-V.
The main reason I bought the Escape is our CR-V was such a great train-chaser. (I’m a railfan, and have been since age-2. I am now 70.)
Our CR-V drove like a car, yet had All-Wheel-Drive. I often drive on icy farm-tracks and jeep-trails in pursuit of trains.
My Escape is the same as our CR-V, just slightly heavier.
An SUV also has a lot of ground-clearance. My railfan friend in Altoona, Phil Faudi (“FOW-deee;” as in “wow”) used his car to chase trains, and was afraid of bottoming on farm-tracks. There also were icy sections his car wouldn’t do.
I was always interested in these Mazda-based Escapes because they’re dog-friendly. The rear seats fold into a flat floor.
That floor is still three feet above the ground, a huge jump for an aging, arthritic dog.
But at least inside there’s plenty of headroom for a standing dog. Other SUVs I’ve looked at have -a) a ramped floor with not much headroom, -b) rear-seats that tumble forward and block the door entrance, and/or -c) worst of all, leave a gap behind the front seats a dog can fall into.
The Mazda’s rear seats fold into a flat floor that -a) doesn’t block the door, and -b) doesn’t leave a dog-swallowing gap.

The first-generation Ford Escape (would that my car looked as nice as this).

The first-generation Mazda Tribute.

A Ford Probe.

My car is the second-generation Escape, more a Ford, but it has Mazda underpinnings. The chassis is Mazda.
Ford affiliated with Mazda a long time. The first Ford Escape was essentially the Mazda Tribute SUV slightly rebodied.
Ford has since cut loose from Mazda, which is kind of a shame.
The new Escape is no longer Mazda-based. Some really great cars came out of that affiliation, like the Probe and the Escape. Mazda sold Ford’s Ranger pickup as a Mazda truck.
The Probe was supposed to be a Thunderbird replacement, I think, but I don’t know as it ended up like that. It stood alone, and was an excellent car, big for the Japanese market, but small for America. It was front-wheel-drive, and rather plain. I rented one in WV.
So I guess I’m pleased with my Escape. Sync can be irksome, but I use it little — mainly just for answering my cellphone hands-free while driving; and I don’t even like that.
My Escape seems as reliable as my Hondas were, and as my Chevrolet Astrovan often wasn’t — which I bought because I’m a Chevy-man.
My Escape is pleasant to drive, and I’m happy chasing trains with it.
So far I feel like it’s the only thing I’ve done since my wife’s death.
And too bad she’ll never see it. I think she would also be pleased.

• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs.
• “Bill” is Bill Gates, head-honcho of Microsoft.
• RE: “Our........” —My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• My “zero-turn” is my 48-inch riding-mower; “zero-turn” because it’s a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.