Misunderstood SUV worth a look
We discuss what Ford needs to do to Escape from a middling sales performance in the medium SUV market. By Rob Maetzig.
Ford’s medium-sized SUV offering, the Escape, doesn’t sell in especially big numbers in what is New Zealand’s fastest-growing new vehicle market sector.
It should do. After all, this Spanish-built SUV is a really nice vehicle, with qualities right up there with the likes of the volumeselling Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson.
But it doesn’t. Whereas last year 3612 of the Toyotas, 3061 of the Kias, 2841 of the Mazdas and 2650 of the Hyundais were sold, the Escape achieved just 1236 sales. Not very good for an SUV offered by one of the country’s most dominant vehicle marques, with a dealership in just about every town.
So what’s the reason? Let’s hark back to the lyrics of a mid1960s song, made famous by British band The Animals:
But I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood
Could it be that the Escape’s mediocre sales go back to the few years when Ford misunderstood market forces in this part of the world and allowed it to be sold under the unfortunate name of Kuga? While that name might have been acceptable in Europe, in New Zealand it disenfranchised half of its potential market – women – who for obvious reasons would have shied away from owning a vehicle with that name.
Or could it be that up until the arrival of this latest Escape, Ford misunderstood what many SUV buyers actually want and didn’t offer the vehicle with an adequate selection of front-wheel drive models in the Kuga lineup? There was only one such model, which was an entry Ambiente version, and it made up just 5 per cent of Kuga sales while other marques were doing much better with their 2WD models. Now, with the Escape, there’s also a higherspecification FWD Trend model in the range and the good news is that the 2WD sales have jumped to 18 per cent of the mix.
Or, could it be that Ford New Zealand’s sales of a medium-sized SUV simply lost momentum because the company misunderstood rapidly growing demand for a vehicle of that size?
In the early 2000s the company did very well with its first Escape, which was a co-production with Mazda which called its version the Tribute. But by the time that model had finished Ford NZ had the larger Aussie-built SUV the Territory in its fleet, and for some time it failed to decide to import the European-built firstgeneration Kuga which would have been the obvious Escape replacement.
This hiatus so frustrated some Ford dealers that they imported their own supplies until Ford NZ finally decided to import the vehicle – and even then it was just a few of them, to test the marketing waters before a secondgeneration model arrived in 2013.
There’s a certain amount of irony that now that the Territory is no more – Ford Australia stopped building vehicles late last year – it is the Escape that is holding the fort for Ford in the medium-large SUV competition. It’ll carry on doing that until an SUV known overseas as the Edge is launched next year.
When that model does arrive, Ford will have one of the most complete SUV lineups in New Zealand. Down at the bottom there will be the Ecosport which is due for a facelift about now, then there will be the Escape, a bit further up there will be the Edge (or whatever its name will be – Toyota has dibs on the Edge title in this part of the world), and at the top there will be the Rangerbased Everest.
That will be a fine selection. And it could be the very good Escape that will lead a charge up the SUV sales ladder for Ford.
There’s now a full selection of models in the Escape fleet. It begins with the $37,990 2WD Ambiente which is powered by a 1.5-litre Ecoboost petrol, and it moves through a range of other Ambiente, Trend and Titanium models to top out with the model we’ve just been driving, a $54,990 AWD Titanium with a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel under its bonnet.
At the Titanium level the Escape is highly specified, with standard equipment including leather accented seats, with the driver’s seat heated and power adjustable, a panoramic sunroof, a hands-free power tailgate that can be opened by waving your foot under the rear bumper, tray tables on the backs of the front seats, and a premium Sony audio system with nine speakers.
From the safety perspective the SUV offers such equipment as adaptive cruise control, automatic high beam, front parking sensors, lane-keeping aid, forward collision alert, and autonomous emergency braking. It also has active parking assist which takes over the steering during parallel and perpendicular parking.
The engine is one of Ford’s Duratorq TDCI units, and it is one of the most powerful on the medium SUV market, offering 132kw of power, and 400Nm of torque from just 2000rpm. The engine is mated to a six-speed dual clutch auto, and it combines to offer an SUV that gives quiet performance and good fuel economy – average consumption is rated at 5.5L/100km.
And then of course there is the Escape’s intelligent all-wheel drive that adjusts the torque delivery to each wheel every 16 milliseconds.
It all adds up to a vehicle that has all the goods to perform better in the sales race than its current 6th position in the medium SUV market segment. Ford NZ says its goal for this year is to move up to at least 5th.
To achieve that, the Escape simply needs to progress from its period of being just a bit misunderstood, and move on to every SUV consideration list.