“Ford is a leader in safety and fuel economy – not even Toyota or Honda can match the new Escape’s safety and fuel efficiency ratings.”

The 2009 Ford Escape and Escape Hybrid are now ranking above the small SUVs offered by Toyota and Honda in Safety and Fuel Efficiency ratings respectively.

“We’ve devoted many hours to analyzing and developing the body structure, safety belts and air bags of Escape for better performance in front and side impact crashes,” said Steve Kozak, chief engineer for safety systems, Ford Motor Company. “We’ve taken our compact SUVs to the next level of safety and have achieved better ratings than fierce competitors such as Toyota.”

Key Ford safety technologies include:

• The Safety Canopy® side-curtain air bag rollover protection system is a Ford exclusive feature that helps protect front and rear outboard passengers in both rollovers and side-impact crashes. It is designed to stay inflated for several seconds, as rollover crashes often last much longer than side-impact crashes.
• AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control is the industry’s only electronic stability control system that uses a unique gyroscopic sensor to monitor and help the driver prevent both side-to-side “yaw” and roll motions that may lead to rollovers.
• Personal Safety System®, a suite of seven safety technologies, including dual-stage front air bags for the driver and front-seat passenger, and a front-passenger sensing system. Together, the system helps customize front air-bag deployment levels based on driver seating location, passenger weight and safety belt usage.
• Tire Pressure Monitoring System alerts drivers when tire pressure is low. Properly inflated tires are not only important for safety — they can also help save gas.
• LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system for installation of child safety seats in vehicles consists of built-in straps and hooks on the safety seat and mating anchor hardware in rear seating positions.

“Safety is a top purchase consideration, second only to fuel efficiency, so Escape’s five-star crash safety ratings and best-in-class highway fuel economy (I-4 manual) are a winning combination,” said Tedros Mengiste, Escape marketing manager, Ford Motor Company.