And now I'm almost scared to drive this car with all the catastrophic engine failures (stop safely now with no warning on the highway) and catastrophic braking failures - brake pedals going to the floor.

I have a 2006 with 32K miles on it. It needs a new rear tone ring, but because of rust (apparently chassis rusting is also an issue on Ford Escapes, and there were recalls for this up to 2004, but not 2006) I'm told they probably need to replace the half axle too. So I'm looking at $600. I'm wondering though, how much its worth putting into this car given the huge repair bills that might be looming in the future.

I should say, apart from the tone ring issue, I have liked driving this car and it hasn't given me any trouble. Not that I drive it much, because I started telecommuting shortly after I got it, and then I retired.

For those that are still driving this 10 year old vehicle, what do you think? I figured I had quite a few years left to drive this vehicle. In fact last winter I just put new tires on it. But reading those NHTSA complaints is sobering. It seems to me the catastrophic engine shutdown thing should have resulted in a recall, but when I put in my VIN number, I don't get a recall indication.

I should say that the last time I had a tone ring replaced (some years ago) I did the same NHTSA read, and got scared then, but I was still paying off the car - I think it was in the first 5 years, and I got past it, hoping "it wouldn't happen to me". Now with my car older, I suppose the chances have gone up.

 

I drove my 2006 well over 200k miles and only replaced it when an accident forced me to. Replaced it with a 2009.

Rust on that generation of Escape (not just hybrid) is a very real problem, especially in the rust belt. I had to have body work done on 3 of 4 wheel wells due to rust; major corrosion on both rears and minor on the driver front. There was also non-trivial rust damage on the bottom of the rear lift gate and at the bottom of both driver-side doors. It's a design that subject to rust; add Pennsylvania road salt and it's a nasty combination.

Other than that, I did like the vehicle. I was preemptive and replaced the MECS pump and the blend door actuator before failure. Then had to do the battery fans when they failed. Would have been expensive had I not done the work myself.

But I replaced it with another Escape hybrid (albeit the next generation), so clearly I liked it.