Two friends of mine in Juneau, Alaska, each bought a Ford Escape.

One of them was thoroughly disgruntled when he discovered that he was actually getting worse mileage than he had gotten from his old 'standard' pickup truck- about 16 miles to the gallon.

After frequent visits to the dealer, the dealer finally confessed that the Escape was not designed for Juneau's driving conditions where virtually no one racks up the miles; few people live even 10 miles from where they work. The dealer said that if one drives 30 miles at one time every day it is cost effective. My friend, however, owns a pawnshop and rarely drives longer than 10 minutes at a time.

They finally took it back in a trade for a regular truck that he is very happy with.

The other friend - a musician - tried to get rid of his Escape on the basis of his experience with it early on. He was in Canada on tour when he had a flat tire and had to replace all four tires (I believe that's what happened). Also he had to replace all the batteries for some kind of reason.

He did get good mileage out of it on tour though.

When he got back home, his wife fell in love with the car and it is hers now. He would not buy another though, he says.

One thing I frequently noticed last winter- this friend would pick me up to go to music; the car - without 4-wheel drive - sailed silently up the steepest snowy and icy hilly streets.