2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

I am posting a 50,000 mile report on my 2009 FEH. While I do love my Ford Escape Hybrid (contrary to popular belief here), it is a vehicle that has much room for improvement and is laden with many annoying problems.

Ford has been helpful DURING the warranty period, but has been very stringent about ANY assistance outside of the warranty period. This is NOT Ford's responsibility, but it sure does help with customer relations and retention; both of which have been lost with me.

If you are considering purchasing a Ford Vehicle and are planning on keeping it for longer than the 3yr 36000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, I would suggest you use the information and pictures below to help you make your decision.

There will be VALID replies from folks that have owned their FEH's much longer than I, with much more mileage than ours, that have had NO problems at all.
While this SURELY is true, it was NOT the case for me. In FACT, if you will search here, you will find that it is NOT the case for many others!

Do a search ON THIS VERY SITE for the problems I am listing below and you will see that while there are a FEW exceptions, MANY have experienced the SAME problems AND the same Frustrations with Ford and the FEH product.

We've tried three different dealers... the answers (or lack thereof) are always the same.

Here is some background on our 2009 FEH.

The build date is 07/08 and we bought it in 08/08 from a dealer in Apopka Florida. (with some help from GaryG)

My wife is the real owner of the FEH and drives it 99% of the time. Her last vehicle before owning an FEH (besides an 08FEH that we owned for one year and loved) was an 02 Lincoln LS getting 17mpg.

She is NOT a hypermiler, not even CLOSE. She weighs all of 100 pounds and has the seat ALL the way forward when driving if you catch my drift. She gets in, turns the key, and drives it like any other car she has ever owned. I think this was Ford's intent with the FEH, but that's just my opinion.

So let's check out some info, movies and pictures that help explain what life has been like with the 09 FEHL.

All of my claims and information will be documented here. I have receipts to back each visit and claim that is made.

Here we are at just over 50k miles. Wifey drives 99% city/rural and we get an average of 33mpg. She drives back and forth to work TWICE a day and is all over the city doing soccer mom drop offs and pick ups.

The only other trips our FEH sees are when I drive it to Orlando one or two times a month on the highway at around 70mph. I get an average of 32mpg doing that.

Here is our FEHL

Attachment 2940


Mileage

Attachment 2941


First issue with the FEH was a complete failure of the radio on day two of ownership... covered under warranty.
The Sirius something or other burned out.

Attachment 2942




Hey! Where did my date and day go? On our 2008, the day and date always displayed when the radio was on, A very much missed feature in the 09. Dealer said "nothing we can do about it"

Attachment 2943




What is that ANNOYING clicking under the dash? Dealer removed the dash under warranty once to fix the clicking AND a heat blend door problem.

The ac would blow cold on one side and hot on the other, regardless of temp settings.

A week later the clicking came back, but the temp was working ok. Dealer said "sorry, that's a characteristic of the truck." If it's blowing the correct temp there is nothing we can do about it. FMC hotline confirmed they weren't going to help. Here's that great noise:

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...h_b6443fa0.jpg





Then there is this annoying "crunching" sound in the motor compartment when backing and going forward. It sounds like a motor mount went bad or something. "normal" says the dealer....

Listen as I pull forward and back up several times:

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...h_925769eb.jpg





The wife called one day and said she couldn't get the key in the ignition.
It just won't go in. The dealer claimed to have replaced it, yet it still doesn't go into the cylinder.... watch

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...h_3cfd2d4b.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...h_6d34e020.jpg




Here's a nice scratch one dealer denied putting in the covers after their so called repair.

Attachment 2944




At 37k miles and less than two years old, the wife called and said she was stuck. The FEH would not start.

It needed a new 12v battery! Surely this would be covered!! NOPE- sorry out of warranty (by 1k). But we will sell you a replacement FORD battery that is warrantied for 5yrs or 60k! WOW.... that must be a much better battery than the one that comes in the truck....
Call to Ford Motor Company was another waste of my time....

Attachment 2945




Here is a bad gear sound in the left rear window regulator... out of warranty.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...h_8ec99744.jpg




Faded and heat cracking factory running boards, they are almost WHITE:

Attachment 2946




New tires for the front at 45k. Which was actually very good wear in my opinion. I love the tire and bought the same ones.

Attachment 2947





If the other noises and vibrations don't drive you nuts, this back latch will.

look and listen:

Attachment 2948

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...h_a6ed78de.jpg




There is a TSB for an engine vibration at 2000 rpms. It is for an engine mount revised crossmember. Not covered out of warranty, 400 dollars to fix. Not happening... let it vibrate... no pic of that.




Funny story...

The passengers door handle started not working intermittently, so the wife took it to the dealer TWICE! problem not found they said. Door opens fine.
On her last trip there, she forgot her receipt, so the service writer ran out to her truck. Guess what happened when he tried to open the passenger's side door HA! OWNED!

They replaced or adjusted the handle.

Attachment 2949




scratches in the glass from the window regulator, out of warranty....

Attachment 2950




Third brakelight bulb failure, wear item, customer pay...


Attachment 2951





I've saved the worst for last.

Here is the stitch tearing on the drivers seat. THIS is a shame.. out of warranty.

VERY VERY upsetting... FOMOCO could care less...

Attachment 2952

Attachment 2953

That's my 50k report on the 2009 FEH.

Flaming will be ignored. Fair truck at best, quality is far from job 1 Ford. You are going to have to do much better than this to be competitive in today's marketplace.

It STARTS with customer service,, then work on product improvement. The best product in the WORLD means NOTHING without loyal customers.




Sean

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Where do you live, in a desert? Must see a lot of sun to bleach your steps. My wife's 2009 MM has steps and they're still black.

The only warranty work I've had done was:

• an airbag light when new... 4 visits to fix that and finally replaced the body wiring harness. Gave me a rental car for a week, then charged me for filling with gas they burned diagnosing/fixing it.
• creaking driver seat... happened about once every minute... fixed first visit.
• sync microphone TSB... excessive road noise

Everything else I had repaired was from reading the TSB and knowing what could be a problem:

• crossmember TSB
• unequal temps blend door TSB... caught it when it was a minor problem

I'm still under warranty for a month or two.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

LOL Florida which can sometimes feel like the desert.

Interesting point on the sync tsb. We gave up on using sync for voice recognition and phone calls within a week of taking delivery!

It works great for playing songs off the iphone, we just have to select them manually.

I never could figure out how after saying call Michael, sync would return with "calling Susan!" That got old real fast!

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

08FEH, thanks for sharing your experiences - with video! Its always good to hear honest reports of the good and bad for any consumer purchases. You've had more than a fair share of issues with your FEH. Poor dealership repairs and customer service compound aggravations.

I'm not sure the internet is the best place for unbiased information. Car websites are mostly enthusiast orientented and populated. People join car forums to revel or gripe. Passionate owners love their vehicles and defend them vigorously; frustrated owners vent and report every single issue. The silent majority's feelings are probably in the middle - somewhat unremarkable. FEH ownership is no different.

I will soon be drafting a 100,000 mile report on our '07 FEH. Our vehicle has been very reliable and low maintenance (still on original Continentals!). However, I have NEVER had a 'positive' experience with Ford dealership service (10 years of Ford vehicles). Many negative experiences, some so-so.

***Edit - less than 24 hrs after my original post, the "Stop Safely Now" message popped up twice on a road trip. Dang.

Thanks again-

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Thanks Aaron and I hope you are able to get your issue fixed quickly and reasonably.

I'm not so sure I can say my post was completely unbiased, but I did provide more than just words to back it up.


Sean

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Sean,

I noticed a good bit of discoloration in the non-leather portion of the seat in your pictures. Is there any chance that you or your wife uses some type of skin care product (lotion, sun block, spray tan)? If so this could be causing the leather to dry and I would recommend using some type of leather care product to counteract the dry/cracking that is occurring. Of course, there's no way to repair the existing cracks but it should help prevent more from happening.

I can't speak on the other issues you've experienced as I don't have an '09 FEH and my '08 FEH has been pretty much trouble free (outside of the blend door replacement under warranty).

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

I regularly use a leather cleaner/protectant on my seats and they still look good. Sean's seats look dirty.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Sean, thanks for the informative report on your FEH.

My '07 is coming up on 35k miles and four years old. Apart from the blend door repair under warranty it has been totally reliable. However, I am getting some pretty annoying squeaks and rattles, surprising in a vehicle with such low miles and little off road driving. Both of the front windows rattle if not all the way up, the liftgate squeaks, and there's a chassis squeak coming from the rear somewhere.

My real disappointment is the highway gas mileage. Although the city/commuting mileage is excellent, I'm not commuting now. Twice a year we do a roundtrip from LA to Laughlin, NV (600 miles) to go climbing. The route is a mix of interstate freeway, local highways, rolling hills, but few surface roads. Traffic moves fast and you end up in the truck lane if you can't cruise at 75mph+. Under those conditions the FEH returns about 26mpg, spending a lot of time at 4000 rpm to keep the speeds up. For the November trip we took my friends 2009 Subaru Forester XT (turbo) and I did most of the driving. I was able to average 28mpg (needs premium fuel) on that 600 mile trip by driving it conservatively (slower acceleration, anticipating stops, etc) but cruising at 85mph. The FEH feels like it has a freeway comfort range of 50 - 70 mph, while the Subaru is comfortable at triple digit speed. Passing at any speed feels safe, unlike the FEH.

Bottom line, I'm planning to get a 2011 Forester XT in the spring and sell the FEH.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

No spray tan, but absolutely yes on lotion and sun tan oil and moisturizers. I would expect the seat surface to last more than just over a year under just about any condition including people that wear shorts. Its depressing more than irritating.

The seats are used a lot ( see the mileage) but they aren't "dirty". Even if they were dirty, I still expected something a little longer lasting. Heck, I've got a 97 chevy astro van that she drives also with 250,000 miles on it and the seats are holding up better.

Chris, we had an 08 and foolishly sold it to get the 09. Every aspect of the truck was better in OUR OPINION, especially the mpg's. The seats in the 08 were leather also and were definately harder. I wonder if there was a design change and how they would have held up. It had 13k when we sold it, so we will never know.


Sean

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Sean,

Please note that I wasn't attacking you in my post. I was making an observation regarding what I was seeing in the pictures and hopefully offering a path to reduce further wear in that area.

I understand that your expectations were higher for the leather but finding a possible cause and taking steps to reduce the impact is what I think the goal should be at this point. I also think that is one of the goals of this forum, for owners and others, to get together and provide advice, observation and knowledge.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

I didn't read your post as anything other than helpful insight.

It's all good.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Sean,

I listened to your back window rattle video today. Can you tell if there is any separation between the metal base of the bracket and where it connects with the rear glass? I know there's another thread where this happened to another owner. It might be helpful if this is the case.

If there doesn't seem to be any separation there, the next thing I would try is to wrap a few rounds of electrician's tape. What I mean by that is to wrap (maybe 3x) around the part of the post that goes into (and is hugged by) the white plastic retainer clip in the rear lift gate side. Since electrician's tape is mostly rubber it acts as a good buffer between the two without causing damage to the retainer. It should help pull the glass in tighter and reduce any play in the retention mechanism. You can add more/less wraps as needed but you can get too thick.

You can also do this on the doors if any of them don't close as tight as you might want/expect. I have used this trick on the older model cars after the original spacer cracks and falls off. It's cheap, easy, and can be placed/replaced at will.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Thanks for the info Chris.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Sean, I just got a PM from a Ford representative that my 2011 Explorer will be built the week of January 17th. I placed my order 8/10/10 so it has been a long wait. This rep. also posted in the BlueOval Explorer forum something that might be a reason why you had so many problems out of your '09 FEH. As you know, we both ordered an '09 FEH early in '08, but you canceled and bought one in early Stock from Mullinax. Since I ordered a retail unit, mine was built after Quality Control tested Stock Dealer Orders. You had to get one of the first units built before all the problems were ironed out. Here is what the Rep. Posted:

"Ford does not build retails first. The first 3-4 weeks of production are going to be stock vehicles as the assembly line gets going. Once they have enough through the process, they check the quality for everything, Once everything is good to go, Ford declares the "OK to buy". At this point the stock orders that have been built will ship accross the country. No retail orders will be scheduled until the OKTB has been given.

This policy does mean there will be a couple thousand stock units on the ground before your retail order is built. It also means that your retail should not have 200 miles on it due to testing. Your car should benefit from the experience of those built before it."

Of course, I didn't know this when I recommended you get an '09 FEH at Mullinax. Sorry for all your problems but none of us knew the process back then.

I was going to buy a Mullinax Stock 2011 Explorer because my order was taking to long like your '09 FEH. Glad this Ford Rep. posted this information because now I know to wait for a vehicle till Ford declares the "OK to Buy".

GaryG

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Good information Gary, but how can a manufacturer knowingly let consumers buy ANY vehicle before the problems are ironed out. I feel like a sacrificial lamb or something.

It has cost them this customer for life, I hope it was worth it for them.

Even IF they followed this procedure, don't you agree that making sure those sacrificial customers were taken care of WHEN they did have problems.

Remember during the order process for our 09's there was a stop sale order? All deliveries were stopped for some "in process repairs." I bet some of those were for the problems I am having.

Shame on you Ford, Shame on you.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

They build for 3-4 weeks before they check for quality?? That doesn't sound correct to me. Having worked at a Ford manufacturing plant, quality checks happen at many points along the production line, bad assemblies are flagged, devirted and repaired. Manufacturing a single part of a assembly, they may spot check one part every so often. If they have a real problem, they use the term "certified" which means every piece is checked.

I'd question that Ford Rep's knowledge.

Ford's six-speed transaxle was a joint effort with GM and you can't find any of problems that Ford had and still does with it's 6F35 that's in the FEs. They seemed to have cured the axle leaks but the shifting issues that started in '09 the first year the 6F35 was used was/is still present in the '10MY.

I almost got T-boned myself in my '09 FE because of a hesitation while making a LH turn one day. Two PCM reflashes later seemed to have fixed that scary problem.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Your '09 FEH may have had all sorts of repairs before it was shipped and all those repairs most likely were quick fixes that were not complete design changes by the part suppliers. Your situation should be corrected right by Ford but one problem you have is putting to many miles on your vehicle and running out of warranty too soon. We bought at a time Ford had to tighten their belt just to stay in business.

I'm still under warranty but my '09 FEH is my first new vehicle that has not gone back to the dealer for repairs in the first 28,000 miles. I now better understand your situation and hope others here can learn from our experiences.

Bill:
"They build for 3-4 weeks before they check for quality?? That doesn't sound correct to me."

That's not what the Ford Rep. meant. All the new stock vehicles were being inspected and repaired before being shipped. After Ford determined the quality was declared "Ok to Buy" then Ford started building vehicles we ordered. In other words, Sean bought a vehicle from dealer stock that was built during the first 3 - 4 weeks of production before "Ok to Buy" was declared.

It all makes sense to me now because only dealer stock orders were being built and shipped during November. After November, I started hearing that people that had ordered the 2011 Explorers were now getting VIN numbers. I didn't get my VIN until yesterday.

GaryG

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Should he have been allowed to purchase before the "Okay to Buy" was issued? I've seen where new MY vehicles weren't even shipped because of a quality issue.

Have you caught the latest '11 Explorer TV ad yet?

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Have not seen the new ad yet but I did look over a new 2011 Explorer at my dealer today. It was a gray Limited 302A package with polished 20' rims. Looked fantastic, but my salesman confirmed what the Ford Rep. Posted.

Sean or anyone else should be allowed to purchase before the "OK to Buy" but I'll bet he would have waited if he knew about it. Even my salesman admitted he wouldn't buy the one sitting on the lot today. He wouldn't have admitted it if I didn't bring it up today either. Even if the Explorer I seen today was everything I ordered, I wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole.

When I am looking at vehicles to buy new, I read everything about it I can find. I've had google Alert on the 2011 Explorer for 6 months just like I did on the '09 FEH. Anything that google finds on that subject is sent to my email if I make it a google alert. For instance, the
Transmission: 6 Spd Auto Trans 6f55.

GaryG

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

Half of the advanced PR stuff can be pure BS. Take the UnIntelligent 4WD System that brought me do this forum. Because of the thread I started about it, many learned how it really works, including me.

Hey, you are purchasing the first year of new design just like the '09 FE, it's a coin toss. There is a noise problem on the '09 FEs that's had two TSBs on it and now Ford is calling the problem normal for the vehicle because they can't find a fix for it.

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

It's always a risk to buy a new model or re-designed vehicle.

When researching the extended warranty, I noticed squeaks and rattles were not covered. :P

Re: 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid 50,000 mile report with pictures and movies. LONG!
 

The OP is one of the most thourogh and well done I've seen in a long time.
Shame it was not happier circumstances.