The Middle

Escape Hybrid: Base price (or it could have been the price of the one we looked at, I was never able to make that clarification) $26,500, Approximate MPG of 34 in the city and 31 on the highway. Remember it is a Hybrid they are better for city driving under 30mph. The car is made from 80% green materials, which I assume means melted down metals for the body and such, and recycled plastic bottles for the cloth. I did not drive nor ride in this car as this is the one that will be delivered Friday for me to take up to Oakland, so you will get my true perspective next week. I did however glance into the back seat, knowing Adam's friend would be back there for a long time and am a bit concerned about the lack of leg room. Ford is notorious for having poor leg and head room in their cars.

Focus Coupe: Mom had the Focus Sedan and I hated it with a passion, I drive a Focus Wagon and I love it. The main thing I despised in mom's sedan was the stupid big ass hump in the ceiling of the front seat. Guess what was the first thing I saw when I opened the driver's door of the coupe? Yep right there in the middle. Since I am not the strong silent type, as soon as questions were called for I spoke up to Freeman and said “Why does Ford hate tall people?”. I explained the number of times I had hit my head on that damn thing in mom's car and I asked if anyone in the design staff was over 6 feet tall. He made some excuse about needing a place for the wires for the lights and moved on. Sorry guys but I have to call Bullshit on this. Every other car on that lot (and millions more around the world) have in cab lights and they do not have as big of a hump in the front seat like that. It is only apparent on the Focus coupe and Sedan, I don't have it in the Wagon. So please for the sake of tall people everywhere DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Edge: Base price (I did find out this is the base on this one) $24,900. Again the first thing I did while they were giving the sphiel was look into the back seat for leg and head room. I was more than pleasantly surprised. It was not only adequate but when I later rode in the backseat during the drive arounds I was very comfortable (for those that are not aware of my body image, I am 5' 10.5” and over 300 lbs. I am not a smallish type woman). Also it has a “back back” that was VERY VERY spacious. I could have easily fit the entire team's equipment in their from Adam's baseball days. The ride was smooth (I choose to be a passenger in all of my drives because I did want to find out about the backseats most of all) except for the nitwit driving. Thank goodness for the OS handle in the back (although there was not one for the front passenger much to the dismay of that participant). Now before you think about rushing out and buying one of these let me let you in on a bad part of the Edge. Cup holders, or actually the lack thereof. I was sitting behind the driver. After assessing the leg room, the head room and the capability of having a car seat and two comfortable passengers, I looked for cup holders. We had a PR person in each car and I asked “where the hell are the cup holders”? Yep, just like that. He insisted there were some and said maybe in the doors, nope there are pockets molded into the hard plastic but they are straight not sufficient for inserting my super big gulp. I noticed a notch in the middle seat and yep sure enough you had to pull down the “tray” in the middle in order to have access to two cup holders. That is insane. What do you do when the car seat is in the middle and the two kids on either side have a drink? What about when you have two adults of my stature in there and you have to pull that thing down? Uh no. Again something for Ford (and Freeman) to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Lincoln MKS: Base price (I think) $37,600. Beautiful car. Has that Lincoln look and feel. Lincoln has always been the rich Uncle of Ford cars. And it still is. This car had rain sensitive wipers, adaptive headlights and even keyless usage. Notice I didn't say keyless entry? Because it is more than that. With the key in your pocket, you simply touch the side of the door and it will wirelessly transmit the ability to unlock your car and then when you get in there is no need to take your key out and put out the effort of inserting and turning said key, just touch the starter button and again that wireless technology starts and runs your car. HOLY COW! I can think of so many negatives to this supposed positive that I won't even bore you with the details. I did not ride in this car, when I heard the seats were made to resemble Luis Vuitton I knew it did not need me in there to mess something up.

Flex: My new love. Base price $28,295. I fell in love from the moment I saw it, before I even got into the meeting, when I walked passed it to go into the Ford building, I contemplated running away with it and eloping. It's boxy, not smooth, it's big and strong, not thin and weak. It reminds me of an old Woody, it is beautiful. Again, although I would have liked to drive this one but there was a long line of drivers, I chose to check out the back seat. This is a three row 7 passenger vehicle. (ok downer part, third row is a joke, more on that later) You can opt for 6 passengers with captains chairs in the middle row instead of a bench seat and even through in a refridgerator in the center console of the captains chairs. The only way I see the third row being a viable option (for very very small people mind you) is too have the captains chairs sans the fridge.

*All photos are stock photos from media.ford.com I told you I forgot my camera

** The color of the Escape in the picture above is the same color of the one that was just dropped off at my house. I will have pics of that later this week.