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I bought a 2013 Ford Edge SEL in the US: Ownership experience so far

15th June 2024, 11:31 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

My mom seemed very impressed with the sheer size and road presence of the SUV and my younger sister joked that it just resembled me in every way possible!

BHPian saitvsk23 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome back to another friendly neighborhood tale of how I found the one - the only car which instantly connected with me. And just blew me away.

I can now say that I am a qualified automotive engineer, and love to share the small tidbits of knowledge I have gained along the way with my fellow peers. But when I want to share my experience with others, I always do it in a fashion that is not too much engineering involved, but at the same time telling you how it works. Try reading this thread as if you were hearing about this from a very close friend of yours, maybe whom you've known for years and whom you've studied together. And have done all the silly fun things you can do together.

Now, let's start the show!

Chapter 1 : Why did I want a car?

I love motorcycles. I own a couple of them, love them both extensively and know how they work inside out. The pros of being an automotive engineer are that you tend to understand how machines work and quickly learn how to use them in the most optimal way. I learnt how to shift a motorcycle's gear by ear, not by what the tach says. And I basically learnt the theory of driving a car by observing cab drivers and their footwork in peak traffic, when I had to use Uber a lot back home in India.

Fast forward to 2018, I learnt how to drive my family's car just in a couple of days, a very humble MS WagonR VXi, which came equipped with the K10B engine and a 5-speed manual gearbox. My car's unit was notorious for just gulping down petrol, which somewhat resembled a heartbroken alcoholic's habit. It always gave a constant mileage figure of 13kmpl in the city and 18kmpl on the highways.

Me and my friends had an amazing time driving around in it, I always became the designated driver and my car was the default option when we had to travel around in the city with more than 4 people together. The car usually had an audience of 5, including myself in the driver seat. The audio system was absolutely nothing home to write about, it just did its job. I love how barebones and to the point the car felt, absolutely no bloat, just talks directly to you and does the job well.

Here's the last time I had a good pic with it:

And then, the month of August came in 2023, and the time for me to leave home had come. I had to leave for the United States of America (yes, I love putting the full form out as much as I love referring to India as the Republic of India) to pursue my master's in Automotive and Mobility Systems Engineering. I had to bid farewell to my dearest Pheonix (my CBR 250R, which is sorely missed), my family's car, my parents and my friends and board the flight to a very important dream of mine. 20 odd something hours later, I reached the DTW Airport, Michigan to head to the apartment unit me and my roommates were supposed to stay at.

I was lucky I got to witness Michigan's fall at its full glory the moment I had started staying. College had started, coursework felt slightly challenging and exciting at the same time, threw all the toxic things in my life out of the window, had scored really good results and was really happy with the way my life was going on.

In a flash, 2 semesters of the master's course had ended. For any international student who's been in the USA, this often means that the time to start applying for internships has come. And so did me and my friends started applying for all the available intern roles that we had come across on various sites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. After lots of weeks waking up to rejection emails, by God's grace and my luck, I was able to land an internship in the very sector my coursework was specialized in. I was ecstatic that I got the position I dreamt of, and this would add great value to my entire portfolio. My parents, my friends and everyone dear were very happy with this incident of mine. Let's just say that I assist engineers in testing engines before production. Finally, I get to be one of those engineers who work on the backgrounds you see in all those R&D videos during the launch events of vehicles.

Now the million-dollar question. How was I supposed to commute 30-something miles to and fro from my house to the workplace? The very first idea was having a rental. But after enough asking around, rentals approximately cost 1000$ per month. And either way, the plan was to buy a car with the money I had earned in this internship during the second month there. Going by logic, either by rental or your own car, you're just commuting from point A to B at the end of the day. Spending another 1000$ for the sake of convenience for the first month felt odd to me. So that plan was chucked in the trashcan.

Second idea was to use Uber. One way ended up costing approx 50$. I am, no way in good sanity, was going to spend 100$ a day just to come and go.

Third idea was to buy the car outright with the money I had and manage the rest along the way. This made sense to me the most and worked outright with the situation I was in.

The next chapter deals with how I found the one.

Chapter 2: Instant Crush

And so, me and my friends started scouting for a suitable car. Let's make one fact clear : I am a bulky person. I do love sedans but god, it's a wrestle for me to get in and out of one! My roommate had bought a used 2012 Ford Focus SE for his usage, and he's pretty happy with it. For his car, we had a budget cap and just visited various car dealers who had cars in our desired price range. We had come across this used Focus and test-drove it. He was pretty happy with the way he drove it. And I practiced driving around in it. The steering wheel felt great, it had that contoured space for your thumbs to rest when you hold it in the 10-2 position. The steering feedback felt pinpoint, and the 2L inline-4 motor seemed very responsive to throttle input, giving a very hearty mileage of 30mpg. It became our primary mode of transport and grocery hauler in our happy bachelor pad.

Here's him with the car:

This last month, I received my internship offer and we started to look for cars for me to drive to the workplace. I had a few conditions. First off, it had to be an SUV. Sedans are agreeably more aerodynamic in design and offer better fuel economy due to this very fact. And they handle well too. But as stated earlier, it should be easy for me to get in and out of it. And also because I was used to the WagonR's tallboy visibility and it felt just right to me. SUVs comparatively would offer more knee room in the driver's footwell and comparatively more upright seating position, better front-end visibility and more roominess. Mileage was not a primary concern. And another important fact was that the car should have a decent audio system. I love driving with music. I just hate driving in absolute silence. Feels like I'm on the way to someone's funeral with all that silence around me. And it had to be a Ford. After years of growing up with the Ikon, Fusion, Fiesta 1.6L, Endeavor, drooling on the big and burly F-150 and finally the much-spirited EcoSport, I was dead set that I should own a Ford on my own accord (pun intended). Japanese makes were way out of my budget. Being an automotive engineer, you are cultured to stay away from used German cars, unless it's up for sale from someone you know and know the car well enough. I didn't have gems strong enough to gamble on a used German car.

With these criteria set in mind, I started my hunt for the perfect car. One of the most popular SUVs that's seen quite often on Detroit's roads is the 2nd gen Ford Escape, whose platform is shared by the more upmarket sibling, the Mercury Mariner and its Oriental cousin, the Mazda Tribute. The base platform was developed jointly by Ford and Mazda, with the engine having inputs from Porsche, who are known to make pretty reliable modern tech engines for other companies. It had the big boxy looks I desired, a tempting 3L V6 engine, and Ford's basic SYNC system.

I started scouring the Facebook Marketplace for these models. XLT was the most preferred trim, and that was fine by me. The XLT missed out on leatherette seats and sunroof as compared to the Limited variant. Few models had 4WD, few didn't. But what most of the cars had was rust. A car's greatest enemy. That too at the same spots. Inside the rear wheel fenders, and right on the bottom of the tailgate (trunk hatch door). They looked like absolute eyesores, and a few examples managed to disgust me and send a shiver down my spine. Many had high mileage, which was okay to me because, in my desired price range, that's all you could get. Anywhere from 120,000 to 150,000 miles was deemed acceptable by me and my friends.

After a lot of scouting, I came across this absolutely clean-looking 2010 Ford Escape XLT. I was happy enough and went to the dealership to look at it. I inquired about it and was happy with the price, but skeptical. Because the price was absolutely low, compared to the market standards. So we took all the pics of the car, its VIN and came home. We got a CARFAX report generated on the car, which helped us by a truckload. The CARFAX report indicated that the car had its odometer tampered with at some point of time in its life. Inconsistent mileage readings contributed to this fact, and we steered clear of this example after going through all the fiasco that happened with my CBR. And so we resumed our search.

Here's a few pics of that car that I would like to put out here:

After this car, we started looking at other cars too and came across a clean example of a 2013 Ford Fusion. It was coloured white, but had a couple of mismatched panels where the white of repainted panels was not matched properly with the original factory-painted body panels. It had a crooked steering wheel, and did not inspire confidence in me. It was seated low, and felt weird to me. Even the dealership's worker stopped showing interest in my questions the moment I told him that I wouldn't be taking this car and needed some time to gather the money for it.

Disappointed with this outcome, I just walked over to the next dealer lot, which was the same as the one with the faulty Ford Escape. I walked over there and showed the seller guy the CARFAX report, and he was quite pissed with the auction house he had bought the car from. He said that he would promptly send it back to them. So I asked him if he had any fresh stock with him since the time I last visited him. I was just walking around and found a glistening white Ford Edge, parked in the corner of the lot. I walked to it, took a peek inside from the window and god, it looked luxurious inside! I asked the seller about this and had told me that it was just a day old at his lot, and was just gearing up to post its ad online on FB Marketplace. So I asked him if I could take a test drive and he said yes, and handed the key over to me. I asked him if he would be coming along with me and he said, "You're all good brother. Take it! Drive it and bring it back to me." So I asked him if I could take it home for 20 min to show it to my friends and he said yes.

So, I got into the driver's seat and my first impression was: the car felt European. That's quite a unique thing for an American car to pull off! Everything felt just great and well executed, the interior, and airiness of the cabin, and the opened panoramic sunroof just added to this. I slot in the key, turn the car on and put it in reverse to slowly back out of the lot. The throttle response was sharp and I just had to slightly dab the pedal to make controlled movements. And once I backed out of the lot, I drove forward onto open roads. And despite its size, I was able to handle it as if I was driving the car for years on, even though I was just introduced to it just mere minutes ago! The controls felt intuitive, everything was well laid out and it was my first time experiencing a V6 engine in all its might.

I excitedly drove the car home and showed it to my roommates and what they thought of it. As we had to drop off the car back at the dealer, I drove my roommate's Focus and he drove the Edge back to the lot to see how it handles. He was very impressed with the way the engine was pulling. My other roommate was busy testing the SYNC Audio system and was absolutely blown with it! It was an absolutely resounding YES from all of us and I bought her home the very next day! Finally, a Ford fully owned in my name. My mom seemed very very impressed with the sheer size and road presence of it, and my younger sister joked that the car just resembled me in every way possible, which I found to be mostly true!

SPECS : 3.5L Ti-VCT (FWD) Gasoline V6 Engine ; 6-speed SelectShift Automatic; Horsepower: 285 HP @ 6,500 rpm; Torque (lb.-ft.): 253 @ 4,000 rpm. Disc Brakes on all 4 sides, 18 inch alloy wheels, SecuriLock numeric lock system with remote locking.

Here's one of the first pics I ever took with the car: