Ford Escape - Safety Concerns

Brought 2009 Ford Escape back to Dealership, have defective passenger seat belt replaced. Repairs never fixed problem of seat belt arbitrarily locking and remaining locked. Only removing seat belt and allowing to retract all the way reset seat belt function.

Took vehicle to non-dealer third-party and had seat belt replaced at my cost. The vehicle is still under factory warranty. Factory is aware of problem and fails to find a solution. Ford has refused any future liability in the matter because a third-party replaced the seat belt. I have not been able to recover the out of pocket expense.

I was driving a 2005 Ford Escape and last week I hit a deer driving 55mph. It was a really hard impact and my airbags never deployed but my airbag sensor light came on. The officer had to tow the vehicle because off my airbag sensor light was and is still on. I haven't heard if my vehicle is totaled or not, should find out this week. With my airbag not deploying I punched myself in the eye. I'm not sure if the airbag did deploy if it could be worse but it would be nice to know that if it is a life or death situation you are protected. If the sensor light is on and the airbag never deploys I would think the impact was hard enough to deploy the air bag. Defected air bag officer said.

I have a 2005 Ford Escape. I am having serious problems with it. It has lost all power driving on the freeway. It has foul smelling exhaust,engine is mis-firing around 50 mph, & rough idle. We have taken it to be repaired 3 times. We have replaced the spark plugs, coil, fuel filter, & the fuel line has been flushed. I called Ford to file a complaint & they were no help. We still owe on this car & feel that it is very unsafe to drive.

March 5, 2009 at 11:30 p.m. we were awaken with our home on fire. We barely escaped with our lives. During the confusion we left our 2 year old in the house, but I went back and got her. It was later determined that the fire started in the garage. Investigators from Ford and my insurance company stated it was from the cruise control switch in my 2000 Ford Expedition. For some reason no one notified me that my vehicle could auto ignite and destroy my home and almost kill me and my family.

My kids refuse to sleep alone because they are afraid that the apartment we stay in will catch fire. We lost our home , belongins, and both vehicles in the fire. But worst of all we lost confidence in Ford, our auto insurance company and homeowners insurance company. This fire has put a strain on our life and marriage. It has destroyed a lifetime of memories we will never get back.

Well on Friday morning October 9th, 2009 my girlfriend was going to work at 7:30am in the morning like usual. When a driver of a truck hydro-planed on the highway sending him into the cement median then his truck came back into the middle lane causing my girlfriend to hit him at around 60 mph. She slammed on the brakes and was hit from behind by another automobile with either collisions the side or driver airbags did not deploy. She had her seatbelt on but she now is getting dizzy and blacking out she was then rushed to the hospital. After the insurance from the guilty party assessed the damaged to our 2008 Ford Escape they said it is a total loss and is going to be totalled out. Why did this supposely safe suv's airbags not deploy. We bought this auto because I have 3 daughters and wanted a safe auto for them to travel in.

We have had our'e 2002 Ford Escape in this dealership for a recall notice approximately 2 years ago for the accelerator cable and lift gate problems. They took care of it. Being a licensed auto technichian i had known about another recall causing the ford escape to catch on fire. This dealership had ran the vin for this certain recall and said it was clear with no problems. So two years went by and the ABS light comes on! On October third at about 3 P.M the ABS module catches on fire. Thankfully i was trained how to handle this situation. I ran into a near by business and asked for the fire extinguisher. I used all that was in the extinguisher. Because the battery cables were still in place the short causing the fire had still existed and had the business call 911. The fire department had cut the battery cables and assured me the fire was out. On top of this our'e insurance company would not send roadside service saying that fire was not covered on our'e policy. Four hours later after we get the car towed home we find out the policy does cover car fires. The excuse they had given me was there was nobody on duty to otherize and in there words they weren't sure what decision to make.They told us we had to wait untill Monday.

After reading the Ford air bag horror stories on this page, I feel a bit silly writing, but want to voice my concern. I have a 2002 Ford Escape that has already presented with several problems. Most recently, the keyless entry/alarm system are not working properly, and Ford has worked on my car for a total of 8+ days (overall), with no results (aside from mauling the electrical system).

The scariest problem I am experiencing is a problem with the air bag light. It continually flashes or remains lit, and the service department at the dealer says "Oh those sensors are sensitive...could be the snow or the salt on the road..." The majority of my past cars had air bags, and not once have I ever experienced the air bag warning light going off. After reading the other posts on this page, about Ford air bags, I am becoming uncomfortable about my situation.