Re: Looking for an 08 or newer Escape 4WD - have questions.
 

Just received carfax on the 3rd one. It's clean as well. No accidents on any of them.

Re: Looking for an 08 or newer Escape 4WD - have questions.
 

Those prices sound close enough that if everything else checks out ok, and given that you'll have the car for a while, the differences are minor and will vanish over time.

Dealers don't laugh when you show them the other deals and say you'd really like to buy from them, but there's no sense wasting money. But they have to be convinced you're not just faking the alternate deals.

My FEH had brand new Chinese snow tires on it when I bought it. I figure they cost the dealership about $400, and I would have had to pay $500-600 for them. They're actually not bad, but not worth a fortune.

Any competent mechanic could check out all of the vehicle except the hybrid system. That's 80% or more of the car, and would include detecting damage. The hybrid system is a problem. My local AA will not inspect hybrids. I thought of getting a Ford dealer to check it, but then I bought it from the only Ford dealer in the area. You could phone a Ford dealer and ask them about it. It might cost a lot to do properly, but maybe not. The hybrid system probably is the most reliable part of the car.

It must be getting a bit exciting for you at this point.

Just out of interest, I checked the two biggest used car sources for our area. There are no MMH's, 2-2005 FEH's, 5-2008 FEH's and 2-2009's. Plus a few newer FEH's the ads say are sitting in the US waiting for someone to commit to having them imported (I'm in Canada).

Dealerships typically have a checklist for the condition of cars they sell. See if you can get a copy. This can protect you if you run into an expensive problem soon after the purchase.