What a positive friend you have!! Well, I too, actually love my Escape. It is our vacation mobile, we picked it out exactly for our needs.
But...yes, I think, may be, the dealer we go to may not be so great. Dang, I am trying to remember how close it was to the servicing when the hose broke {but yes, hoses do break but they were supposed to check and if this was a big hose shouldn't they have noticed something?}.
It has 33,111 miles on it. Every complaint we've ever had they've swept away. This thing, with the emission, it was acting like it was low on power and then after about, I don't know, ten miles? it started to make a sound almost like it was missing, or that, yes, something was clogged somewhere.
Ya know, something they never could explain to us: {ours is a 4wd all of the time} one time, on a trip, we had driven from San Diego to just over the Grapevine. We stopped at a rest area and as we pulled in, slowing down, we heard a very loud noise like we were running over cobblestone. Even a man walking seemed to turn and see what was up {it was about 2 o'clock in the morning}. It was loud. So, the next morning we get up and check the road, no cobblestone.
The dealer said they couldn't find anything out, I talked with the service manager {or the dealer manager, someone high up} and explained it all and he said they checked it by computer. I think they thought we said it made a funny noise when we drove over cobblestone {yeah, I am going to the dealer every time I drive over a new surface....
}.
Anyway, what do you think about that? Oh, and after your response, I'll forget you are a mechanic.
Oh, and the service department is closed as well as the car rental place.
KevyBaby, thanks for that tip. I will check into it. A friends' husband left the Ford dealer to work there because he was not happy with their business tactics. {not sure which dealer, though}.