The 2011 Ford Escape’s cabin looks decent but lags compared to the competition. The quality of the cabin is defined by the extensive use of hard plastics and feels lackluster. The dashboard looks minimalistic with a chunky appearance and has a small infotainment display at the center reserved for the higher trims. There's a typical Ford-styled steering wheel with embedded media and cruise control buttons. The seats come cloth-covered as standard but the quality increases as you climb up the trims.
The cabin can hold up to 5 people and is decently spacious with an adequate amount of head, shoulder, and legroom. Both the front and rear rows are comfortable to some extent as the spaciousness is decent but the choppy ride quality and poor cabin insulation make things particularly worse. However, the Escape can carry a good amount of luggage behind the second row with up to 31.4 cubic feet of cargo capacity. This makes the Escape more practical in the budget mid-size SUV.
Models
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2011 Ford Escape
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2011 Nissan Rogue
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2011 Honda CR-V
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2011 Mazda CX-7
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Seating Capacity
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5
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5
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5
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5
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Front Row (Headroom/Shoulder Room/Leg Room, in inches)
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40.4/56.6/ 41.6
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40.1/55.9/ 42.5
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40.9/56.9/ 41.3
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39.7/58.0/ 41.7
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Second Row (Headroom/Shoulder Room/Leg Room, in inches)
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39.2/55.9/ 35.6
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38.3/53.6/ 35.3
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38.6/56.0/ 38.5
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39.3/55.8/ 36.4
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Cargo Capacity (cubic feet)
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31.4
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28.9
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35.7
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29.9
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The CR-V has the most spacious cabin and is more refined. It has class-leading rear legroom and is followed by the CX-7, which promises abundant space. The Rogue and Escape are very similar in overall spaciousness but the Nissan has a slightly lower cargo capacity of 28.9 cubic feet. Like all other aspects, the competitive spirit of the segment is evident in the way in which each SUV aims at providing an ergonomic aura to the cabin.
A few of the standout interior features are:
- Cruise control
- Leather steering wheel
- Single zone front air conditioning
- Front reading lights
- Electrochromatic inside rearview mirror
- 6-way power-adjustable driver seats
How intuitive is the 2011 Ford Escape’s infotainment unit?
The Escape comes equipped with a lot of features for infotainment but not as standard. The base trim gets a very limited amount of features, while the higher trims get Satellite radio, USB connectivity, a 6-speaker audio set up, and an LCD screen for navigation. The SYNC system with Bluetooth connectivity helps with voice commands and does a good job in controlling the audio volumes, climate control, and even the navigation.
With the 2011 model year, there is an additional feature called MyKey which lets you set some limitations for teenage drivers.
A few of the important infotainment features are:
- LCD screen for navigation
- SYNC with Bluetooth connectivity
- Satellite radio
- CD player
- 4-speaker audio system
- USB connection
- Auxiliary audio input