2013 Ford Escape

[ZeeOSix]

A friend is looking at a 2013 Ford Escape (Titanium model) with the 2.0L Ecoboost 4-cly engine. It has about 45,000 miles and looks nice and is pretty loaded with options. It's a certified used car at a Ford dealership.

I searched for reliability and recall info on the 'net and seems the Escapes with the 1.6L Ecoboost had some engine related recalls, but I found nothing bad about the 2.0L Ecoboost, no engine related recalls found.

Anyone here own (or once owned) a 2013 to 2015 Escape with the 2.0L Ecoboost? If so, any opinions are welcome, good or bad about the vehicle.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

My parents had a 2013 -- 2.0EB AWD Escape -- and ran it up to 80 or 90K miles, I believe. They traded it for a 2018 1.6 Escape.

The only issues they had with it were:
- Rear brakes every 15K miles (I don't think parents drove it hard enough to ever heat the brakes up to burn the crud off the rotors). They managed to get one or two sets warrantied.
- I yanked the parking brake a bit too hard while swapping winter tires and the parking brake cable snapped off at the end of the handle
- My mom shut something in the hatch and the interior handle fell off, the dealer just ended up bolting it back on.

It also had the "buggy" version of sync which never gave them a single issue. My 75+ year old father was able to figure it out and operate it.

It definitely got better gas mileage running 91 octane gas, and it was minutely cheaper to run premium. On trips, it would get 30-33 MPG. Not bad for being an AWD crossover. In hilly areas, it gets better gas mileage in S rather than D. It likes to lug the engine; high boost and low RPM hurt gas mileage.

Their 1.6 feels quicker but doesn't get near the gas mileage. I have no doubt the 2.0 was actually faster.

 

[krismoriah72]

I personally am avoiding Direct Injection and Turbocharging, 2.5 Duratec has neither of those and is a very good engine.

 

[bdcardinal]

The 2.0EB is a much better engine than the 1.5/1.6EB. My mom has a Fusion with the 2.0EB and it has been great. In working back counter parts we see much more issues with the 1.5/1.6EB.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by krismoriah72
I personally am avoiding Direct Injection and Turbocharging, 2.5 Duratec has neither of those and is a very good engine.


Yeah. IMO a turbo isn't bad, but seems DI is hard to get away from these days. I'd rather have good old port fuel injection too.

Ford's big move to turbos & DI is to obtain better fleet CAFE numbers.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by Miller88
My parents had a 2013 -- 2.0EB AWD Escape -- and ran it up to 80 or 90K miles, I believe. They traded it for a 2018 1.6 Escape.

Their 1.6 feels quicker but doesn't get near the gas mileage. I have no doubt the 2.0 was actually faster.


Thanks for the feedback. Looking on-line the 2013 Escape with the 2.0L didn't seem to have any engine issues. There were a few minor recalls otherwise. I'm assuming all recalls need to be verified by the Ford dealer before they can sell it. I'll ask them to pull up the VIN to see if all recalls were done and any maintenance history. From what I saw searching around, the auto transmission might be the least reliable part of the Escape.

Specs said the 2.0L turbo puts out 270 HP which is pretty potent. The Escspe is pretty heavy though, pushing near 4000 lbs I think.

 

[WylieCoyote]

You meant to type 240 HP, correct?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by WylieCoyote
You meant to type 240 HP, correct?


Think you're right, I was going by memory. 240 HP is still pretty good for a 2.0L.

 

[BikeWhisperer]

Wife owned a 2016 Escape SE with the 2.0 (Gen 1) Ecoboost. She drove it 40k miles before trading it in last month for a Edge with the 2nd generation 2.0 Ecoboost (more room for growing kids). I drove it a few times as well and was very impressed with how it handled and the power the 2.0 provided (in contrast we test drove the 1.6 which is now a 1.5 and it felt severely under-powered). She had zero issues with the engine and transmission, only issue was suspension bushings on the rear that needed replacement. That was done under warranty. Like any of the ecoboost engines, I'd recommend a high quality synthetic oil. After two 5k OCI's during the initial break in, it seemed to do fine with 10k OCI's (as per the OLM) on Extended Performance Castrol Edge and Fram Ultra Synthetic filters. My Wife's driving consisted about 75% country road and highway driving with about 25% driving in the 'burbs (no real inner city stop and go driving).

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Whoops! Their 2018 is a 1.5.

Is it actually a different displacement or do they only label it slightly smaller?