In yesterday's Wall Street Journal they had this quote from Chairman William Clay Ford Jr.:

"Other companies pretend they invented everything about hybrids. But they had to invent an entirely new vehicle to house them. We decided to put our hybrids into mainstream products that were already popular," adding that Ford's hybrids "were born in the USA."

I would wholeheartedly agree - it was the looks and features of the Ford Escape that I liked over the offerings from Japan - and then to get the Escape in a hybrid completely sealed the deal for me! And as for the Toyota Highlander, no thank you.