We have a Ford Escape thats been a pretty good vehicle. Recently it started vibrating like crazy when stopped but in gear. I tracked it down to bad motor mounts, a problem others have run into as well post 60k miles.
Anyway I ordered up some new mounts and R&R'd them this weekend (ugh, whoever designed the placement of those needs to be slapped). Anyway I did some researching on how to get at the rear transmission mount bolts (which btw simply requires 3ft of extensions and 2 universal joints hooked to a breaker bar). During that research I discovered this model is prone to some pretty serious rust issues. It seems the passenger rear wheel well simply disolves and the entire area can come loose including the shock mounts. Here's a pretty common picture that I ran across:
I took a look in my wheel well area and sure enough, I'm seeing significant rust. Its not perforated or anything but its definitely going to be a problem. I'm glad I caught this now, I'm going to try and trade it off for something else pronto before it becomes a huge money sink to my wallet.
I see tons of posts and people venting about this issue, its definitely an issue and design flaw with the escapes and I'm pretty disappointed that Ford hasnt addressed it yet. I'd imagine having the rear shock break loose at the wrong time could cause a pretty bad accident.
-DallanC