Ford Hybrid brakes

Very interesting

There was a blog about a guy who had one of the early ESCAPE Hybrids and had brake issues. There is a control box called a HCU or such that controls the whole deal. The guy did not have hardly ANy brakes and was afraid to drive the vehicle. Unfortunately, it was just out of warranty.

Turns out ford had some issues with the earlier HCU units, but did not recall them. This part costs close to $5000! If the blog is to be believed, it cost him close to 6K+ to get his brakes fixed! and ford refused any after warranty help even though it was a known issue.

This like this don't bode well for buying used hybrid cars.

bob

When you can get non-hybrids that get in the high 30's I can't see the point in paying more for a complicated hybrid that gets in the low

40's. One of my former coworkers has a stick shift Honda civic and he claims he gets 40 mpg with it in his commute. Several people with things like Malibu's and Altima's with automatics say they get around 30 in mixed driving.

My wife's 2005 honda civic coupe ex 5 speed gets 27 mpg in the city and 35 mpg on the highway. But the EX model has extra valves and HP so it may get less mpg than the DX model. But she loves it and it is the smoothest 5 speed that I have ever driven.

I would not purchase a hybrid without a very long manufacturer warranty and/or a well proven design. Only the Toyota prius qualifies at this time for me.

Lynn

With all the problems and bad press that the Prius has gotten, I believe I'd pass on it for a while.

The only time I'll ever consider a hybrid is when the price of the car and battery replacement more than offsets the price of fuel in a regular vehicle. At this time, that's not happening. Or at least, not in my locale.

Maybe just in time. My 2005 Escape Hybrid has 120,000 miles on it, and might need brakes some time in the next year or so.