I found a questionable professional review of the 2002 Escape describing it to have slight understeer handling characteristics at
Which Ford sedans have slight understeeer?
??? Most every factory vehicale has some understeer. It's much safer than oversteer, as it's easier to control and correct. Words like slight, normal, extereme, etc.. are just subjective opinions and will vary from person to person.
Wow. I guess I've been in the dark for too long. I'm currently driving a '78 Chevy 3/4 ton truck and a '91 Ford Explorer. From '84 thru '90 I drove Firebirds before getting the Explorer.
Many, many years ago the early front wheel drive (FWD) cars (like the Mini Cooper) suffered from *sudden* (excessive) oversteer, whereas the later rear wheel drive (RWD) cars (like the 1987 Firebird) experienced slight oversteer. Only good sports cars posessed slight understeer... way back when.
I don't know when the handling of most factory vehicles attained slight understeer, but if true then that's arguably the greatest improvement made in vehicle design over the past 20 years.
Most likely because for the first part of the turn the car was understeering, the sudden oversteer came about because of overcorrecting for the understeer causing the rear of the vehicle to snap around. Very common, especially on limited traction surfaces with a FWD vehicle.
With more and more computer design, it's amazing what can be designed in. More than ever, even the tires are designed to work with the suspension. Even a cheap, basic car today has better handling than many sports cars in the 60's and 70's.
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