Hi All,

Thanks for alll the replies.

nimhbug:
In general, the vehicles are built for the US or Canada and cannot be swapped. This is because of minor (in the eyes of the consumer, not the ministry of transport in Canada or the NTSB in the US) differences in the standards. For example, the bumber standards are 3mph in one country and 5 in the other (I don't know which is which). Also Canadian vehicles have kilometers as the primary unit of measure instead of miles in all the gauges.

All this to say that I have to look at Canadian dealers. Fortunately I live in a large'ish city (about 2 million in the greater Montreal area) I have access to some reasonable inventory.

The problem I encountered was more how Ford's marketting dept. had decided to bundle the features. For example, I would have to get the premium package to get the heated seats, but it also forced me to take a "A-clading body paint" which is the mono color paint on the car and bumpers. I personally wanted the 2-tone (body color & silver bumpers&moldings) so I was needlessly stuck choosing between heated seats and paint preferences. Also, the moon roof, while not part of the premium package, required me to select the premium package BEFORE even having the option of adding the moon roof.

Anyway, a visit to the second dealer indicated to me that either the first dealer was using old information and was out to lunch, or the second dealer is misinformed. The second dealer informed me that the premium package was recently discontinued so the bundling issue went away. I can now choose the "appearance package" with the 2 tone paint and get the moon roof as well. One thing that went missing was the heated seats. Prior to the change, it was only available in the premium package (this is NOT the case for the regular Escape, which offers a "Canadian winter package" which is not available for the hybrid). The heated seats are now not available (at least in Canada where heated seats are not needed in our tropical climate ).

So, I can get the 2 tone paint, leather (not heated) seats, moon roof and the nav system as separate items without any bundling issues. Looking at the advice here, I will take the nav system as well. I am an engineer so I will enjoy the display.

Thanks for all the comments and I'll either report my initial experience with a new Escape or more rants on Ford dealers !

Cheers,

Roch

 

Yeah, keep us updated as this thread may help another Canadian buyer!

 

Just a quick update for fun!

A couple of days after signing the contract to order the made-to-order FEH, I got a call from the sales guy... He exlained that he was not able to order the sun-roof because I needed to order the premium package first!!! If you recall the start of this thread, this was consistent with another Ford dealer and Ford's web site, however I was assured by this guy that that was old news and that I could get the configuration that I wanted.

So in a way, I am back to square one. I cannot get the 2-tone paint I really wanted without giving up the sun roof which I allso really wanted. Because it was an obvious mistake on their part, they offered to sell me the FEH with the premium package (which I was told no longer existed, but I guess that was "incorrect") at the same price, which includes the heated seats/mirrors (which I also wanted but gave up when I was told it went the way of the dodo with the premium package). So if I can live with the A-clading body paint, I can get the fully loaded FEH for $2000 less that the other quote.

So while I this is not my preferred configuration, the discount makes it more acceptable. Hopefully more people will buy hibrids in the future so they will have more flexibiity in configurations. Hopefully by the time I want to exchange this Escape, I'll have more choices (with Ford or a more savy competiitor).

Regards,

Roch Comeau