2025 Ford Escape Active Test Drive — How Does the Base Model Drive? 🚗

What's going on everybody? It's Gabe back here at CMA's Williamsburg Ford again. Today we're going to be taking out the 2025 Ford Escape Active for a quick test drive just to get a feel for how it drives and what the ride is like overall. Let's hop in. Up behind the wheel of this thing is super smooth. Already I can kind of tell it doesn't feel like a three-cylinder. Those turbos really provide power when you need it, but it's not like you're going to be flooring it all the time, so it's perfect for kind of, you know, at least where we live here in Virginia. I like that the windshield is as big as it is and that it's at the angle of some of the other vehicles you'll see have almost like a straight up and down windshield, which I don't really like. It's nice having this bit of an angle because it kind of opens up some of your view. Shifting feels really nice. It's not like, it's not jerking you around or anything. It's super smooth when shifting. Now I did try it in sports mode. Sports mode was still super quick with the shifting, but it is a little less gentle. You can really feel it shift more than you can in, you know, normal or eco mode. Oh, there's the auto start stop. That's not bad. That was a pretty quick to it. We'll see how it feels when we get up. Other than that, I mean, it feels like a super smooth drive as of now, you know, I'm not noticing anything out of the ordinary. Still super comfortable. Yeah. There goes the auto start stop again. It starts up pretty clean. I mean, I barely took my foot off the brake, taking a bit of a sharper corner here. I mean, this feels really planted, you know, it feels based, you could say, you know, nothing crazy though. Feel that turbo kick in when you give it some, I don't want to go too fast here, I'm already giving it a little too much. I don't think I ever would have guessed that this is a three cylinder. Again, it gives you as much power as you need when you need it. And again, it's not like you're going to be constantly, you know, pedal to the metal flooring it. So it's still super, super controlled in its power. But it's got it. It's there. Now we did touch on this in the other video that we made regarding this vehicle in particular, but some of the safety features here are really nice. And the brakes feel super smooth too, you know, I'm coming to a little bit of a harder stop on a downslope and it still feels insanely clean. But some of the safety features like the lane keeping and all that are really nice. It buzzes your steering wheel whenever you do leave the lane, which is a nice reminder to just kind of keep, you know, your eyes on the road and make sure that you're staying where you need to be staying, especially over here. We got some slimmer roads over here, so it's nice to kind of know when you are and are not on the line. I'm going to go ahead and get a little closer to the right line and just show you on the dash here. And it will pull you back too. It's got the assist. So it'll make sure it does it quick and it's not going to overcorrect. That's one thing I know I've heard a lot of people kind of worried about is that it might overcorrect. No worries. The interior is really nice. These seats are really comfortable for being cloth. I still get a fair amount of lumbar support. Still feels super smooth just in the acceleration. I'm not shot back in my seat sliding all around. I'm going. Again, handles really well in that corner. This is front wheel drive as well. Now, even though we're in Virginia, sometimes you can hit, you know, maybe an ice patch or something in the winter or maybe it just rained and there's some puddles on the side. You can switch it into slippery like that and it will control a lot better based on those conditions. I also noticed the road noise isn't very loud at all. Super comfortable drive, but if you're going to be playing music or anything, you will not ever hear it. It also still, like I said earlier, has that three-cylinder engine, so it's not like it's the V8 roaring in your ear or anything. Super peaceful. Even on the uphill, that three-cylinder is kicking, but if I need to get on the brakes, it's not super grabby. It's pretty responsive, but it's not immediately stopping me as soon as I even touch the brakes as some vehicles do. The acceleration is pretty solid. I can put my foot down and get the power I need. Again, it's not going to be anything crazy, but you still do get the power from the EcoBoost and the fuel efficiency of the three-cylinder. I personally really like the EcoBoost. I like the fuel efficiency aspect of it, but with those twin turbos, you get more than enough power, so even if you're on a long road trip or something, just trying to pass another vehicle, super smooth to get up and give you the power you need, and they go right back to just giving you the fuel efficiency that you like. Again, coming up on another curve, nothing crazy. The body roll, it's there, but it's not like you're sliding in your seat, just as any other vehicle would. It's not handling, of course, like some of those larger trucks would, but I'm just comparing it to other Ford vehicles more than anything. The size is also kind of perfect. It's a midsize SUV, so you're not like hugging the lines on either side at any time, really. You still have more than enough space with it being kind of a smaller, I guess you could say, SUV, almost compact to kind of maneuver if you need, but nothing insane. Now, we're coming up on our destination, guys. This is our first time doing one of these test drive videos. It's pretty fun, but of course, I know I could have missed a few things, so if you want us to touch on anything in specific, please just leave it down in the comments. I'd be more than happy to take some constructive criticism here. All right, guys, time to test the rollover. Almost left the lane there. My lane keeping's helping me. Let's see what happens. Oh, that's wild. So I can fully take my hand off the wheel and start dragging towards. That is wild. It's just pulling me back. Oh, yeah, and then it's warning me to keep my hands on the steering wheel. It's wild that it can sense that.