We have both the GM & Ford employee discount (want to talk about family conflict?) so both the Escape and VUE were considerations. From our test drive, the Escpae handled better.

Driving the FEH through the winter our biggest gripe is that the heating controls and the radio were not intuitive. Jumping back and forth between our car (Saturn Ion) and FEH, we could always readjust to the Ion, but the we constantly grab the wrong knob in the Escape. Probably not a big deal if you only drive one car, but it is a nit.

As for big boxes, we were buying everything for the nursery when we first picked up the FEH and it swallowed lots of furniture boxes. Very useful.