The New 2022 Ford Escape May Have Taken a Step Backward
Consumer Reports brought the 2022 Ford Escape’s grade down a few notches from the previous year. What caused the SUV’s poor score?
Written by Andrew Koole
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Ford
completely redesigned the Escape in 2020. The new body offered a more aerodynamic finish that made the compact SUV
more closely resemble some of its competitors. At the time, reviews of the new Escape were unexciting, but Ford soldiered on, offering essentially the same SUV for the 2021 and 2022 model years. Despite this, ratings for the Escape from
Consumer Reports
(CR) dropped this year.At first glance, it might seem like CR chose to punish the automaker for its lack of imagination, but a closer look from
Jerry
shows a different culprit—diminishing reliability scores.Why did Consumer Reports lower its score for the 2022 Ford Escape?
CR gives cars an overall score by combining points accrued from safety ratings, the magazine’s road test, reliability predictions, and predicted owner satisfaction.
With little change over the last three years, road test scores have stayed the same. Reliability and owner satisfaction scores, on the other hand, have not.
From info gathered from 2020 and 2021 shows a wide range of reported problems with the Escape, from its power equipment and the drive system to its paint trim. The SUV was also part of at least six recalls since the year the latest design was released.
Other issues discovered in the 2020 road test, like cabin noise and interior finish, were left unimproved, allowing the SUV’s final score in 2022 to deteriorate.
SUVs that are more reliable than the 2022 Ford Escape
2022 wasn’t a great year for compact SUVs in terms of reliability scores from CR. Even the models that rated the highest in the segment in the previous year saw their numbers drop substantially.
That said, many of them still fared better than the Escape. While the Subaru Forester, for example, went from an impressive 93 grade to a mediocre 80, the Escape’s score dropped from 85 to an embarrassing 25. Ouch.
The only similar model that saw an improvement reliability-wise was the
Honda CR-V
which managed to add eight points to its score from last year, resulting in a clean 80 out of 100 for 2022. Finding insurance for a 2022 Ford Escape
If the falling reliability scores don’t scare you off of buying a Ford Escape, don’t expect the cost of
car insurance
to scare you either. Premiums for the modest compact SUV average to about $1,400 a year.You might be able to bring that average down by shopping with Jerry. A licensed broker, Jerry does all the hard work of finding cheap quotes from the top name-brand insurance companies and buying new car insurance. Jerry will even help you cancel your old policy.
Once you download Jerry, just answer a handful of questions that will take you roughly 45 seconds to complete and you’ll immediately get top quotes from companies like Travelers, Nationwide, and Progressive for coverage similar to your current plan.
Jerry customers save an average of $887 a year.
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