RoadTrip #2: A Great Escape

My Ford Escape Hybrid evaluation unit was delivered a little while ago by Page One Automotive, the service that Ford Motors uses with professional auto reviewers. You may have noticed that I am not an auto reviewer. In fact, many former passengers will attest that I am not the best driver in the world.

This whole story goes back to Cordell Koland, who was the No. 2 guy at SIPR during most of the time that I owned the agency. He would eventually buy it from me. But when Cord first started working for me, I paid him enough salary to put him behind the wheel of a ten-year-old Honda.

So when I saw him drive out of our parking lot on his first day, I found it curious to see him in a new high-end BMW. Two weeks later, I saw the same guy leaving in an $80 K Mercedes. A little ;ater, after I saw his new red Jaguar, I pulled him into the office and asked him what was going on with the cars. I suspected drug dealing had had no desire for SIPR to serve as the front.

He explained that he reviewed cars from the San Jose Business Journal, where he worked until I hired him away. By reviewing cars, he was in a new high end vehicle every few weeks and he didn’t have to own one.

I envied this. From Cord’s starting point until today is more than 20 years.  But I always remembered Cord as having the coolest of scams with the car reviews.

A few years ago I met Scott Monty, who went on to become head of social media at Ford Motors. When I started planning this road trip I remembered both Scott and Cordell and connected some dots. I pitched him for an evaluation unit for this road trip I announced yesterday.

Too my amazement, Scott put me into the reviewer’s evaluation system. I was contacted by Ford’s Gwen Peake who asked me for details on how I would use the vehicle. I had originally requested a Ford Fusion Hybrid. I had rented a Fusion a few times on other trips and had been impressed. I had even tried to convince Paula to buy one when she needed a new car. Now that there was a hybrid, I was even more interested.

Gwen steered me to the Escape Hybrid instead. It is larger and more powerful than the Fusion and as an SUV the sight line will be much better when driving through the scenic wonders of Crater Lake, Sunriver, Or, Jackson,Yellowstone, Rushmore, the Dakota Badlands and other wonders of the US northwest.

So far, I have not yet even driven around the block. I have examined it closely and am currently trying to determine how to plug my iPod into the Microsoft-powered dashboard. [Hints will be gratefully accepted.]

I have to admit that I love this vehicle at curbside. It is compactly built yet roomy. Like other hybrids, it is silent. The engine cuts off when you idle too long, but lets the air conditioning keep running.

My deal with Ford is not to be a company mouthpiece, but to tell you readers what I think of Escape Hybrid. I am a reviewer–not a shill. But I have to tell you, this car has made a most favorable first impression.