As a big speed demon, SUVs don't really appeal to me. They often make poor use of their interior space, handle poorly, and get awful fuel economy. But then, there are the Cute-Utes; the compact-car-based crossovers like the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Ford Escape. I think of them more like the American version of the Volkswagen Golf, one of my favorite cars. Except they're scaled up for our supersized derrieres and offer all-wheel drive for our miserable roads and weather.
Last year, Ford restyled its smallest SUV, giving it what amounted to a comprehensive facelift. Not much changed underneath, as the new trucklet shared much of the original's chassis and driveline. Luckily for it, that chassis, which dates back to 2001, was pretty good to begin with. But the engines and transmissions? That's a different story.
The V-6 offering, which was chosen by more than half of buyers, sounded coarse and was mated to an ancient four-speed automatic transmission. In an attempt to provide decent EPA fuel economy numbers (which no one seemed to care about - my, how times have changed), Ford geared the transmission comically high.... Read full article