i was first bitten by the hybrid bug back in 1999. i had the lucky chance of being the graphic designer (at the time) working on a magazine called electical vehicle news (EVNews). i was fascinated. i only worked on 4-5 issues before my publishing company sold it off to another company. the foolish general manager didn't think the HV/EV market was going anywhere and was having difficulty selling ad space.

i was leasing a two door explorer at the time and ford was beginning work on the hybrid explorer (later scrapped). at that point, i expected my next car would be a hybrid. when the escape was first available in 2001, my final decision was between that and the toyota prius. i insisted my parents go with me to test drive the prius to see what a great car it was, but in the end, i ordered a 2001 escape. and by 2001, ford was already buzzing about the hybrid escape, but i couldn't wait anymore and i wasn't 100% sold on the prius.

great little car, but i've always driven ford, and my family is an american car family (living in metro-detroit). it just felt strange to me...the idea of buying from a foreign manufacturer. please note, i'm not criticizing the foreign models in any way...just not for me

so...my 2001 escape had some unfortunate engine problems over the 4 years i owned it, but it thankfully lasted until i could order my hybrid. my husband insisted i wait till the second model year (2006) because i had so many problems with my previous first-model-year escape. so, in all, i feel like i've waited 6 years for my dream car!

for the most part, my politics lean pretty far to the left, but i love my little ford suv which was admittedly a bit gas-thirsty. i wanted my same car, but i also wanted to be using less gasoline immediately. and just for balance, my husband drives a 2dr saturn ion, so we have one big car and one little car in the household. and since we both play hockey, it's very helpful to have a car that can easily carry 2+ hockey bags plus passengers for games.

that's the short story anyway...

 

I need an SUV, and wanted a greener one.
The Ford Escape Hybrid was, and still is, the most fuel-efficient SUV available.
It is also more roomy and comfortable than our old RAV4.
And there wasn't any waiting list.

 

Our Ford Expediton and F250 Crew Cab carried tha same amount of people comfortably and got about the same gas mileage (the F250 is diesel so it got a bit better). The F250 is 4x4, so it goes places the Expedition couldn't, and hauled stuff the Expedition couldn't (6 tons of rocks, 28ft travel trailer, 8 kayaks at once...). So when my wife decided that we shouldn't have 2 vehicles that were so similar, when one did everything the other one did and more - I was surprised when she mentioned she'd like to trade the Expedition for a hybrid.

I had ridden in and driven the Prius and Insight when they first came out. I wasn't that impresses with the product, as what I was with the technologies. They've both gone through some major improvements - but my wife wanted another SUV to be able to carry our dogs, and to be able to handle dirt roads and such. If it we just for us to commute to work - then I'd have probably tried to convince her to wait for the Daimler Chrysler Smart cars to hit the states. I drove a ForTwo in Paris in 2000, and it was a hoot. I'm 6'3", so finding a small car that I fit like the ForTwo in is rare...

Anyway - wanting an SUV left us with the Ford Escape Hybrid, and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid to choose from. Toyota makes some great products - but they seem to make them for people smaller than I am. Having a 3rd row seat on a small vehicle seemed like a waste - because there was less space between the seats - and my Crew Cab truck would carry several people more comfortably. I was more comfortable in the Escape, The Escape was much cheaper, and in stock, and American made. Granted, the Highlander is assembled in the US - but I hate seeing jobs go overseas (mine's done it more than once). Buying American made, by American owned companies means something to me - but the product has to be competitive. For me - the Escape is better than the Highlander.

 

Well, my story starts out when my wife saw a Honda CR-V and mentioned that she would like to own something like that. She owned a Civic and was tired of getting in and out of the car when it was so low to the ground. Plus she felt safer sitting up higher in a larger vehicle, but did not want to go too large or high up. So a mini SUV would be just right.

I got on the internet and began researching mini SUVs and keeping an eye out for how different ones looked on the road. Well, I happened to see a vehicle that caught my eye and it was a Ford Escape. I got home that night and when I researched the Escape on the web, I was pleasently surprised to find it was also available in a hybrid! When my wife came home that night, she mentioned she saw an SUV she really liked the look of and wondered if I had seen one - it was an Escape, so it seemed like an omen that we both "discovered" the Escape the same day!

Well I took the next step and found a dealer in town who had two hybrids in stock with the colors/features I liked. My wife was surprised to find I had set up a test drive appointment and had researched the value of a trade-in, since she didn't really think getting a new Ford Escape would be possible for us. But we saw the dealer the next day and did the test drive and were offered a fair (even better than I had researched) deal on our trade-ins.

Funny thing is, we took a white with silver clad FEH for the testdrive and began negotiating payments when the salesman discovered the vehicle had been sold the night before, just after I had made my appointment!

So we had a choice to either go elsewhere (but the FEHs at other dealerships didn't have the features we wanted) or see if we wanted the other one they had on the showroom floor. This one was Titanium Green with silver cladding and was a 4X4, but without the upgraded Mach stereo and at a little higher price.

Living in Arizona heat made the white a better choice, but the green keeps the vehicle almost as cool and actually looks quite a bit sharper! Having the simpler stereo meant I was saving in that area so I could buy a MUCH better aftermarket upgrade (Pioneer head unit, Memphis amps, speakers and sub), and the 4X4 will come in handy when we vacation up north in the snow. It cost a little more, but the trade-in was increased to help out a little and get our payments where we could manage them (I had my set limit and will not budge on going over it).

I did find the buying experience quite pleasent (Ford dealers have always been easy to deal with whereas Honda and Nissan dealers have been a nightmare of hard negotiations to get them to accept my offer), but I was WAY more knowledgeable about the hybrid details (and I had only studied them a couple nights before), so I had an advantage over my sales man (he even appologized to me for failing to do his job properly in knowing the product he is selling!).

It cost a lot and my wife and I are now a one car family, but I like the saving in gas and one BIG thing for me is I have now learned to control my driving habits! I am no longer a lead foot - in fact I drive too slow now because I find it more fun to try and get all the MPG I can squeeze out and play my game of "beat the EPA". I told my wife I want to have a bumper sticker that reads, "If you don't like how I'm driving, then you can buy my gas."

As you can see in the Photos section, I have added a few mods to enhance an already great looking mini SUV. Fate steered me to this particular 2006 FEH 4X4 at the end of August and I have been very satisfied for 2000+ miles now!

 

I *love* that bumper sticker! We should get Jason to add that to the "greenhybrid store". I am going to PM him about it.

 

I concur, that's a neat one. I don't like bumper stickers, but that is a good slogan; I have a feeling that may work its way into a conversation sometime.

 

Or how about:
YOU MIGHT GET THERE FIRST
BUT I'LL BE ABLE TO RETURN
______________________
06 FEH 2WD "Sainte Marie"

 

My number one reason was the ’05 F150 with the 5.4-liter V8. Beautiful truck but was a real gas hog - 12-13MPG. Really didn’t need a truck but did want something that I or my XYL (ex young lady – the wife) would have something to carry small loads.

Was just sitting around one Friday night and mentioned something about trading and the XYL mentioned the FEH – I didn’t even know there was such an animal. All the hybrids I had seen looked like something from an old space movie. So did all the research I could and the next day (Saturday) searched local dealers online that had the FEH and there were only 6 (total FEHs) in the Metro Atlanta area. Was told by one dealer it would be at least 6 months to get one. At that time they were not available to the local dealers and they had to go outside the area (mine came from NY).

Test drove a FULLY loaded Silver one and ended up buying it on the spot – boy was I ever a salesman dream come true. That was early July of ’05 and have put a little over 12,500 mile on it with the some medium (600 mile) to longest – Atlanta, Williamsburg, DC, NYC and back (over 2,000 miles) and have been EXTREMLY pleased with both the performance and FE – plus I love the way it looks, drives and just the plain fun of driving it.

Sorry to say the XYL gets better FE than I do (but she does have a longer commute – mine is only 2 miles to work). The only change I made was to get the dealership to paint the lower silver cladding, bumper and grill a flat black/gray (to match the mirrors). Looks really sharp

Considering the Muscle Cars I have had in my life - (plus you can see that I have almost always been a GM man)

___1965 Pontiac GTO – 389CI Tri-Power (360 HP)
___1967 Pontiac Firebird – 400CI (325HP)
___1970 Chevy El Camino SS – 396CI (360HP)
___1970 Buick Grand Sport – 455CI (400HP)
___197? GMC Diablo – 396 (360HP)

and now in a 4 cyl hybrid – you could say I have come a long way. Now instead
of doing a ¼ mile in 11.5 sec I do that same 1/4 mile on EV at 25-30 MPH I don’t know which is more fun – doing the ¼ mile that quick or now pressing the accelerator with what just seems a thought to squeeze out that last little 10th of a MPG.

 

Reviewing the reasons people have given, it seems to demonstrate again that hybriders are greenies, cheapies, and/or techies.

 

My reasons were entirely environmental. My wife and I had already decided that our next car would be a hybrid of some description. We had purchased a Mazda Protege5 in 2003 and so didn't expect to be buying a new car for at least a decade. Well, as luck would have it :( an idiot on a cell phone slammed into my driver's side door going about 80 kph (~50 mph) in a parking lot, while I was in the car. Anyway, to make a long story short, he totalled our car and we were presented with the "opportunity" to get a hybrid many years sooner than we expected.

We have two large dogs, so the small, sedan-style hybrids were out. I did my research of course, and discovered that the FEH has far lower emissions than even efficient ICE sedans, let alone SUVs. We read this on about.com:Of course, when the ICE is off, there are no emissions at all. What really cinched it, however, was when I read this over at fordvehicles.com :Now, most people don't have their own method of producing clean electricity (though I'm working on it!), so people in fully electric cars are having an impact on the environment despite their best intentions.

Of course, the fuel economy is always nice, and it has helped me convert from a "Type A" driver to one of those people "Type A" drivers can't stand. :) Unlike others here, we have not had one comment about our vehicle from passers-by, even though we have yet to see another one on the road, and have seen only two Prii since we got our '06 FEH last December. Odd, that.

Do other people experience the strange phenomenon of other cars becoming adhered to your rear bumper? I've checked, but it doesn't seem adhesive at all. But I swear, at least a couple of times every outing some poor soul will be stuck there for a few minutes. It really perturbs them, too. You can sometimes see them swearing and gesticulating wildly. Then all of a sudden they'll become unstuck. But unfortunately this has some sort of bizarre centrifugal effect, flinging them around in front of my car with great acceleration. Very strange.