jpark said:
Just a thought...have you found another Limited elsewhere in your area? IMHO, this one looks like it may have been treated pretty badly by its previous "owner."
My fairly good guess (as that is all it can really be) is that it was used to pull maybe a horse trailer or some other kind of trailer for work purposes. For one, there is brake light power connectors hanging down at the back of the escape for hooking up to trailers. Second, there is scratches all over the drivers door inside panel in the auction pics which might say that a lot of getting in and out occured without any care at all - which is something a working (wo)man does when (s)he uses it for work. In the dealer pics and when i saw it last saturday, it looked like both the drivers and the passengers inside door panels were brand new replaced. I never saw the tear in the drivers seat (i'll make sure i double check), the insulation in the drivers door was chewed up but the dealer said they'll replace it as if they missed it before.... the whole interior panels and everything looks either brand new or maybe a couple minor scuff marks that are understandable in a used vehicle or maybe they didn't do a good enough job cleaning. I did notice the driver's seat, at least, didn't have a belt stopper button thingy on it, that stops the buckle part from falling to the floor and then you have to dig it out everytime - although i'm not sure if it's supposed to have one. Other than that, I'm not as concerned about the interior than i am about the mechanical aspect of the vehicle.
The exterior i'll take a closer look at tommorow for scratches and dents; especially the scrape that is in that auction picture, otherwise it looked great.
My main concern is the engine and all the mechanical of course. Maybe i'll be able to get a 3 month warranty, or things might get caught in the pre-inspection check. I've got my dad coming along tommorow to my 10:00 AM appointment and he has more experience with this stuff. He's also an accountant which is a plus for keeping me from making a bad deal and explaining money things i don't fully understand, etc.
jpark said:
I did a quick search on Autotrader.ca. Go to British Columbia, then click the
Advanced Search tab. Look for
Light Trucks and SUVs, Ford, Escape, add the keyword
Limited, enter your postal code (I used
V6Z 1R5), and click
Search This Radius.
http://www.canadatrader.com/search/advancedSearch.aspx
I got dozens of pages of 2005-2007 Limiteds, and most had lower kms. Quite a few of them were black, too.
HTH!
In my searches (I do the same search everyday to see if there is something new) i do the same as you did except i don't put a postal code in or radius searching and i include 2006-2007 year restrictions because those are the years i will consider. the 13k one is actually sold and i don't know why it hasn't been removed (leather seats were torn out of it that's why price is low), and other than that there are two up in Kelowna for like 21k which is too much, 2 in Vancouver with 1 being 23k and the other is 19k. The one i'm looking at is about 17.5k. The other 6 (10 results in total) are not black.
Scooter Scott said:
Sorry Blue Bird! I didn't look at the site you posted so that's why I didn't decrypt anything further...Like JP said tho...are you set on that Escape or are you open for others?
No hard feelings

. I'm quite set on this Escape now that i saw a clean CarProof report and the fact that the interior damage and a few dings and dents were probably a significant factor in driving the auction price down that they really could sell this for 17.5k or negotiated slightly less. Also, I think it has sat on the lot for it's first month there, maybe test drove once before me, but otherwise I don't think people are interested or they just aren't advertising at all. But mainly the Carproof report is what makes me intent on buying it now.
marste said:
Is this the first Escape you test drove, ...
Technically yes. But I did drive my boss' wife's 06 Ford Escape Limited for like a month for work so it was like i owned it and drove it home every night. I think that qualifies me to know how a Ford Escape drives. Forgive me if i sound harsh.
marste said:
Did you ask the dealer why they didn't fix the Torn rubber on the isolation, was it an oversight on their part? Or they don't want to repair it because of the high cost?
Answered above.
stone said:
Hello Bluebird. I agree with marste that it would be practical to look around..
Just so you know, I have been looking at 4 or 5 different websites (AutoTrader, BuySell, Craigslist, a couple other smaller sites) for about a month now and this Escape i'm looking at right now looks promising just by looking at it all. Interior stuff is either new or been cleaned; exterior has no immediately visible dents or scratches (again, i will look closer when i go in tommorow); even though the dealer kept blabbing the whole test drive (nice guy though), it felt like it was driving at least close, if not the same, to what i can remember from driving my boss' Escape. Sorry if that sounded offensive, it wasn't my intention

eace:.
stone said:
Can respect that it is other peoples business, on what they do with their cars. My wages are nothing sensational, so henceforth this is why i need to be fussy with personal items. The same attitude is used on my job. The workstation is allways organised for safety and comfort. I have a thing about being particular and organised. Can not tolerate sloppiness and neglect.
I'm similar too

. I keep a tidy work van with things organized so that i don't have to dig boxes out to get to something or move things around till i find a certain tool or part.
But in general, I'm thankful for everyones replys and it has got me thinking a bit more cautiously and this has been helpful. And again, my thoughts are the interior looks good as it is now. Scratched panels that have been replaced means the old is gone for good, unlike fixing something with the engine where Part A is broken because of Part B and Part A gets fixed but after a while Part B breaks Part A again. So it could still haunt you in the future if you know what i mean. Anyway, the exterior looks good as it is now, and the mechanical seems fine too, even though that's my big question mark as to whether everything will still work in a month from now as it is supposed to.
Hopefully I replied to everybodys message and questions and hopefully i didn't repeat myself too much :lol:.
I might check this topic again tommorow morning before i leave (9:30AM PDT) just to see if any more insightful knowledge has flown from somebody

.
Thanks everyone!