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Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil Congratulations on the new acquisition! What is the total $ damage? How did you choose the Escape? What else did you compare against? |
It is a 3 yr lease. Final price was 29k on which lease was calculated. Comes to 340 per month after 1500 down. MSRP for this spec is 32085.
My criteria was relatively simple. I don't want a Honda or Toyota. Both had terrible looks and omnipresent. So what else? Looking at magazines and ratings, I tried most of the options in compact SUV category.
Nissan Rogue is another terrible looking low performance car, rejected after first TD, even though there was a major markdown by dealers to liquidate their 2016 stock. In some case discounts were close to 25℅ off MSRP. ! Interestingly Altima was a pretty decent car.
Hyundai Tucson was good with the usual Hyundai features, but the model with the specs I wanted was priced too high for a 1.6 turbo and the dealer was not showing any interest in negotiation or even in selling.
We also tried Kia Sportage and Subaru Forester. My family did not like them either. Kia was funny looking and Forester looked too basic inside. Forester did have a powerful turbo option, by the pricing was coming too high for my liking and the dealer was in "take it or leave it" mode.
Next in line was Mazda CX5. This is the car which my family liked the most. Good looking car, with decent level of equipments, perky engine, excellent dynamics etc. However dealer was very stiff with pricing and never even agreed to reduce even a dollar from his quote even when this is a 2016 model which was probably going to be replaced in a couple of months. Another issues was the availability of colors we like. Lack of some basic features like power lift gate, remote start (only if I pay extra 600) etc was other factors against it.
Then we tried Ford Escape. This was probably the only 2017 model that was in market, except Kia. And with the pace of changes happening in automobile technology, Ford seems to have made best use of this advantage in Escape, filling it up with whatever they can. It also looked good for my family, of course after CX5. In addition to these factors, the big winner for me was the option of 2L turbo, which was a big difference from competition, and still keep the price below 30k. Ride, handling and NVH were another key factors. Mazda was good in the first two, but NVH control was not it's strength. Build quality (reported and perceived) was excellent. Doors are quite heavy and makes you feel secure.
On top of it, the dealer was extremely helpful, courteous and willing to negotiate over emails and SMS as it was not possible for me to talk over phone or meet them due to my work schedule. Lease conditions were good with 1℅ APR and other incentives. All of this tilted us towards this car.
The overall process took a little above 3 months.