2025 Ford Escape Review, Release Date, and Specs. More than two decades back, the first-generation Ford Escape aided seal the appeal of compact crossover SUVs. The original Escape debuted for the 2001 design year, looking and driving like a typical SUV, giving good passenger and cargo area, and resting high enough off the ground to manage blizzards and light off-roading tours.
A couple of years after it went on sale, a hybrid design showed up, including efficiency to the Escape’s listing of talents. Ford asserts the 2005 Escape was the world’s first hybrid-powered SUV, and to confirm its toughness and energy to consumers, Ford placed a fleet of them to work with the mean roads of Manhattan as New York City taxis cab, where they effortlessly racked up thousands of thousands of difficult miles.
2025 FORD ESCAPE BRINGS NEW FEATURES AND PRICING
Today, the 2025 Ford Escape competes in among one of the most crowded market sections in the sector– a sector it helped define. However, the 2025 Escape is no longer one of the largest versions you can get, among one of the most qualified at battling extreme weather, or among one of the most gifted at adventuring. In addition, the 2025 Escape is no more the only video game in town if you desire a hybrid SUV. And while it provides an available plug-in hybrid powertrain, the 2025 Escape Plug-in Hybrid isn’t as engaging as opponents from Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota.
What happened? Ford claims the 2025 Ford Escape is for consumers that do not desire “a rugged and boxy-looking SUV” and describes the Escape’s inside as a “peaceful area.” While some clients most likely seek such qualities, the strategy swims versus a trend of existing overlanding fads that have actually concerned specify contemporary SUV and pickup truck designs. Yet, with the recent arrival of the similarly sized Ford Bronco Sport version, a boxy-looking and rugged SUV with an interior that is decidedly not an area to relax, the automaker had no choice but to pivot with the fourth-generation Escape.
Ford makes a couple of changes for the 2025 model year. You could initially notice the new front styling, which is more attractive to my eye than in 2014’s model. In addition, Ford has reworked the schedule, dropping the previous trim degrees for new ones. The Escape also obtains brand-new innovation for 2025, consisting of a Sync 4 infotainment system with an optimum touchscreen size of 13.2 inches and improvements to the Ford Co-Pilot360 collection of sophisticated driving-assistance systems.
Those changes imply the 2025 Ford Escape can be found in Base, Energetic, ST-Line, Platinum, and Plug-in Hybrid trim levels. Base rates range from the high $20,000 s to the reduced $40,000 s, consisting of the destination charge to ship the SUV from the Louisville, Kentucky, manufacturing facility that constructs it to your regional car dealership.
3 sub-models exist within the ST-Line trim level: ST-Line, ST-Line Select, and ST-Line Elite. The ST-Line lineup is new for 2025, including stylish designing and a choice between three of the Escape’s four powertrains. You can get it with a hybrid drivetrain, a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder, or a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder. All-wheel drive (AWD) is offered with the hybrid and turbo 3, while the turbo four includes conventional AWD. With AWD, Ford claims, the ST-Line has a sport-tuned suspension.
For this Escape review, I test-drove the ST-Line Elite in Southern The Golden State. It came with extra-cost Quick Red paint, optional black 19-inch wheels, a Costs Technology Plan, and a Panoramic View Roof covering, bringing the maker’s recommended retail price to $43,650, consisting of the $1,495 location cost. Ford gave the vehicle for this Escape review, and the adhering to information and commentary will certainly focus on the 2025 Escape ST-Line lineup.
2025 FORD ESCAPE INTERIOR DESIGN AND FITTINGS
With the 2025 Escape ST-Line, Ford better obscures the line in between an auto and a crossover by getting rid of the dark cladding discovered on the reduced border of the various other trim levels. Only substitute front and back skid plates remain, and the one in the back, enhanced with 2 rounded exhaust electrical outlets, does not look much different from what you might see on a Nissan Altima sedan.
Because the current-generation Escape’s cladding wasn’t persuading to begin with, I such as the ST-Line’s single look yet not the examination vehicle’s black multi-spoked wheels. They’re a nightmare to clean, and I’m not a fan of black wheels in the first place. If you want the fashionable “coast to shore” LED light bar that attaches the front headlights, you’ll require to get the ST-Line Elite.
You’ll locate a touch-sensing variation of the Ford SecuriCode keyless entry keypad embedded right into the Escape’s center roof covering column. The business has actually used this attribute for a very long time and remains to, so consumers need to utilize it. Thanks to SecuriCode, you can leave all your things inside the Escape, including the crucial fob, while you run, hike, or bike and then enter utilizing a code after your exercise.
Like almost all sport-themed cars, the Escape ST-Line just has a black interior. This SUV incorporates towel and ActiveX, which is Ford’s artificial leather. Real leather is an option with Elite trim. On top of that, like almost all sport-themed automobiles, the Escape ST-Line’s cabin features red stitching and accents and a flat-bottom wheel design. Ambient lighting is typical with Elite trim.
Dual-zone automatic climate control is basic on every ST-Line, and with Select and Elite trim, a heated steering wheel and heated front seats are conventional. Every ST-Line also features a power-adjustable driver’s seat, and a power-adjustable front passenger’s seat is available with Select trim and basic in the ST-Line Elite. The optional Breathtaking Panorama Roofing system lightens the mood in the all-black cabin.
Eye the Escape ST-Line Elite’s interior, and you may assume it is a glamorous little SUV. Ford makes use of soft-touch products for the top dashboard and front door panel surfaces, utilizes matte black controls and polished metal accents, and includes diamond-stitched and perforated leather on the seats.
However, that leather feels dry and stiff rather than soft and flexible, like it will begin to crack and peel within a years. Additionally, a lot of the plastic surface areas sparkle in the sunshine. While the windscreen column trim has a texture comparable to the headliner, its glossy coating draws a jarringly negative contrast with the cloth covering the roof.
The control layout makes sense with the exception of the area of the engine stop/start button. It takes the place generally scheduled for the stereo power and volume handle, which Ford transfers to a setting where a radio-tuning knob is most usual. Where is the tuning handle? There isn’t one.
Ford makes the climate manages as a strip of virtual buttons at the bottom of the Sync 4 display screen. That’s great, other than it’s better to make use of physical control knobs for readjusting cabin temperature. On a positive note, the Escape’s a/c works remarkably well.
The Escape ST has a thick, sporty, flat-bottomed wheel that looks good in your hands. Unlike the frustrating quality of natural leather, the front seat paddings feel soft however eventually verify encouraging. The rear seats is very easy to enter and exit, offering a correct seating placement with good leg assistance, leg space, and foot space. It glides forward and back almost 6 inches to include area for people or freight, as necessary.
Storage room ahead impresses, and the wireless smart device charger does not take up every one of the tray area on the facility console onward of the change handle and cupholders. Storage area in the back is limited, and the hollow-sounding plastic on the door panels reminds travelers of the Escape ST-Line Elite’s budget friendly portable crossover origin tale.
With ST-Line trim, the Escape has a typical power liftgate. Open it, and you’ll locate 37.5 cubic-feet of cargo space. That’s an affordable number for the portable crossover SUV section, and Ford shapes the area so that you can line up several full-size bags on their sides. Furthermore, the examination vehicle had a grocery-bag hook, a power outlet, and storage space wells on each side of the tons floor to hold jugs of milk or bottles of red wine. Under the tons flooring, there are a few tiny storage space areas around the spare tire.
Fold the 60/40-split back seats down, and the cargo volume broadens to 65.4 cu-ft, falling short of several competitors. Likewise, note that with the hybrid powertrain, these numbers diminish to 34.4 cu-ft and 60.8 cu-ft, specifically.
2025 FORD ESCAPE TECH OPTIONS AND DRIVER-ASSISTANCE ABILITIES
Ford gears up the 2025 Escape ST-Line with digital instrumentation. With ST-Line and ST-Line Select trim, it is an 8.0-inch screen. A 12.3-inch screen is common in the ST-Line Elite and readily available with Select trim. The larger panel features well-organized data and calming graphics (in the majority of driving modes) and is very easy to configure and readjust utilizing the steering-wheel controls.
The digital instrumentation pairs with a next-generation Sync 4 infotainment system, which is new to the Escape for 2025. The ST-Line and ST-Line Select have an 8.0-inch touchscreen display screen, while the Elite has a 13.2-inch touchscreen. You can obtain the larger display on the other variations of the Escape ST-Line.
Criterion Sync 4 features include wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, SiriusXM 360L satellite radio with a short trial registration to service, and FordPass Attach services with access to a 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot. With the 13.2-inch screen, Sync 4 includes a linked navigating system with a free three-year membership and Amazon Alexa compatibility. Wireless smart device charging is offered with Select trim and typical on the ST-Line Elite. You can option the Select and Elite with a 10-speaker costs sound system from Bang & Olufsen.
I like this 13.2-inch touchscreen variation of Sync 4 and how Ford provides the details. On the Web page, the test vehicle revealed a large navigating map to the left, smaller sized radio and phone home windows in the middle, and three tiles stacked to the appropriate offering accessibility to Setups, Features, and Apps. As I discussed, the climate-control features live at the end of the display screen.
Throughout the assessment, Sync 4 did a great work reacting to spoken voice commands, paired quickly with my apple iphone 13 Pro, wirelessly ran Apple CarPlay, and streamed Pandora internet radio efficiently. Ford also bore in mind to consist of a Home button on the Apple CarPlay screen, providing a fast and instinctive course to the indigenous Sync 4 system.
Regrettably, Sync 4 employs a narrow, fragile font style and a washed-out color design, making it tough to check out in bright sunlight. Likewise, there is some lag time between onscreen inputs and system feedback. The wireless smart device battery charger doesn’t charge a phone promptly enough and it warmed my device to an extreme temperature level.
I desire I might inform you concerning the examination vehicle’s B&O stereo; unfortunately, it was damaged. Turning the volume as much as a third of the maximum or past created the sort of hiss and sizzle that recommends a previous driver may have blown the audio speakers. Nonetheless, I can inform you that Bang & Olufsen stereo are typically excellent, and those in Ford products have excited me in the past.
My Escape test vehicle consisted of a head-up display screen. Nevertheless, it did not job information onto the windscreen. Instead, a plastic screen panel increased from the top of the dashboard, and the information showed up there rather. I intend it serves, however Ford’s excellent 12.3-inch digital instrumentation display and its rational arrangement of details make the head-up screen appearance traditional and appear redundant.
You can likewise obtain a 360-degree surround-view video camera in the Escape ST-Line. Optional with Select trim and typical with Elite trim, the surround-view cam is practical in all parking and maneuvering circumstances and includes a front camera for enhanced visibility when vehicle parking.
You can likewise add an Active Park Help 2.0 autonomous car park system to the ST-Line Elite. It takes over the guiding, transmission, velocity, and stopping to park the Escape in a parallel or vertical room as long as the driver sits behind the guiding wheel. Furthermore, it includes a Park Out Help function that can help you extract the Escape from tight parking spaces.
Ford packages extra driving assistance systems in its Co-Pilot360 bundle. Typical features consist of forward-collision warning with pedestrian detection, automated emergency braking, lane-departure caution, lane-keeping aid, blind-spot monitoring, back cross-traffic alert, automatic high-beam headlights, and a driver-monitoring system. A post-collision stopping system is also conventional, bringing the SUV to a stop asap adhering to an accident to limit additional injury to owners after the airbags have already deployed.
The Escape ST-Line Elite adds flexible cruise ship control with stop-and-go capacity, lane-centering assist, evasive-steering aid, and vehicle parking sensors. These are optional on the other ST-Line designs.
My examination vehicle likewise had actually something called Predictive Speed Help. When you’re coming near a curve, this function automatically slows down the SUV down to what it regards is a secure travel speed. However, in use, it transforms the Escape right into a moving traffic cone and exacerbates the vehicle drivers complying with behind you. Worse, after the curve, when someone complying with behind might be of the mind to take out and pass the Escape, the Ford rates back up to the previously established speed. Talk about possibly sparking road rage! I pulled over and transformed this function off.
Driving north on Pacific Shore Freeway between Malibu and Factor Mugu, the Ford Co-Pilot360 modern technology was irregular. In certain curves, the Escape seemed to intend to hug the internal repainted line instead of center the SUV in the lane. Where the road widened from one lane to two, the lane-centering aid fluctuated a little bit, temporarily perplexed. Where 2 lanes merged into one, it surrendered and shut off. At one more factor throughout the drive, an urgent audible and visual sharp instructed me to take control because the adaptive cruise and lane-centering were no more operational, though the reason remained an enigma.
The tech acted much better, neglecting exit and entryway ramps and smoothly preserving a secure following range to vehicles ahead. In thicker traffic, it acted in a refined and all-natural means, managing range when other vehicle drivers cut into the gap ahead and braking the SUV to a stop before speeding up once more.
Based on collision examinations carried out by the National Freeway Traffic Safety Administration, the 2025 Escape ST-Line is a safe SUV. Similarly, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offers the SUV its highest ranking in a lot of crash-protection analyses. Nevertheless, it gains a Low rating in a new, upgraded side-impact security test.
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO DRIVE THE 2025 FORD ESCAPE
Ford uses the Escape ST-Line with a selection in between a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine (180 horsepower, 199 pound-feet of torque), a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine (250 horsepower, 280 lb-ft), and a hybrid powertrain based on a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine (192 complete horse power).
My test vehicle had the turbo four, coupled with an eight-speed transmission and a conventional AWD system with a driveline disconnect feature that aids to conserve fuel. I could pick in between Eco, Typical, Sporting Activity, and Slippery driving settings. You’ll observe there isn’t an Off-Road mode– and forever reason. The Escape just isn’t that sort of SUV. Nonetheless, it can tow up to 3,500 pounds with the examination vehicle’s powertrain.
The EPA’s main fuel-economy estimates for the ST-Line Elite are 23/31/26 mpg city/highway/combined. That 26 mpg in consolidated driving can be found in at 4 mpg less than a conventional ST-Line’s combined-driving mpg statistics (with the turbo three-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive). Put the hybrid powertrain right into your ST-Line and the SUV ought to get 39 mpg in consolidated city and freeway driving. I balanced 24.1 mpg on the evaluation route, utilizing the Normal driving setting except when altering to Sporting activity setting for the mountain part of the loophole.
Read: 2025 Lincoln Navigator Review, Release Date, and Specs
Driving the Ford Escape isn’t nearly as complicated as its trim and powertrain menu. You enter, press the engine beginning button, twist the rotating transmission handle, and take place your means. The 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder (EcoBoost is Ford-speak for turbocharging) products zippy acceleration, and the eight-speed automatic transmission draws no unwanted interest to itself. Switch over the SUV right into Sporting activity mode, and it promptly really feels more receptive and to life, however not to the point of motivating any kind of antics.
Additionally, the Escape is active around, impressively isolated when driving over incomplete pavement, and relatively peaceful on the highway. The brakes really feel good underfoot and can withstand some misuse while driving in the mountains, and the SUV’s handling is predictable with relatively moderate limitations. Still, cornering grip and handling capability will likely surpass your expectations.
Nevertheless, Ford needs to include a 4th ST-Line version to the roster: ST-Line Sport. That’s due to the fact that the guiding is too sluggish and drab, and even though my ST-Line Select had what Ford calls a sport-tuned suspension, it still felt too soft and mushy.
While the suspension does a superb task of separating occupants from many road roughness, every now and then, it responds to a bump, crack, or surge too firmly. Additionally, though it generally permits a tip of side and upright body language on all kinds of roadways and surface areas, it can occasionally and suddenly securely undermine adventure movements. There is an unforeseeable duality in how the ST-Line with AWD experiences and manages, making it somewhat dissatisfying.
IS THE 2025 FORD ESCAPE A GOOD SUV?
When a leader and innovator in its sector, the 2025 Ford Escape is currently a fan. However that does not indicate it isn’t worth factor to consider– it offers plenty.
The 2025 Escape is blandly enticing, comfy, secure, and technically advanced. On top of that, you can obtain power and performance, impressive fuel economy, or short-range electrical driving, relying on your drivetrain option. Nonetheless, the Escape is smaller sized inside than a lot of its rivals, does not have off-roading capacity, and can’t match the top quality or worth demonstrated by some rivals.
The changes for 2025 make the Escape better, however whether that suffices to cross other portable crossover SUVs off your wish list is a choice just you can make. Twenty years back, the Escape was one of the only models in the segment. Today, every mainstream brand provides one, and lots of are a lot more compelling than the current variation of Ford’s escape case.
