OK, I'll start at the beginning. Bought my 08 XLT Escape with 13,000 miles on it. Saved thousands off sticker. The vehicle is everything my active family needs. V6, 4 doors, 4X4, great gas mileage. It had some faint stains in the tan cloth seats when I got it, but nothing major. Since I bought it less then a year ago, There are horrible stains developing on every seat. I have never seen a worse fabric in my life. Some of the stains are from water drops, and wet shorts coming home from the lake. I have other HUGE dark brown stains that have come out of the seats themselves. I have had 1 spill in it period. I took it back to the dealer which happens to be 50 miles away, and they claimed they had never seen the problem. Said they would try to clean them, but need the vehicle for a whole day, and they dont have loaner vehicles. Well by the time I take a day off from work, and get someone to pick me up, I might as well pay someone up my way out of my pocket to TRY to clean them. The Ford dealer near me, could not even get Ford to authorize a shampoo job on them. I called Ford directly, and told them of the problem, and they replied that they have not received enough reports on the problem to issue a re-call. I have found another thread on Edmunds.com Ford Escape forum, Where people are having the EXACT same issues. How long does Ford need to let this go before they act???
I am embarrassed to have anyone get in the car, because it looks so horrible. Have even thought of trading it, never to buy another ford, but I would lose too much money. I have heard people talking about seat covers, Why cover up the problem? Some of these stains are coming out of Ford's new Soy based seat cushens, and I dont know how they can keep denying it. What about when you go to trade and they take the covers off to check out the seats? It will cost me nearly 1000 dollars to buy leather seats out of a wreck and put them in my vehicle. Mind you this vehicle is less then a yr. old, and still under 3 yr. 36000 warrenty. If there is a Ford rep. monitering this forum, I would love to hear from them. I would post pics of the seats on here but dont know if I can. I felt I had to join this site, and add my complete displeasure with the way Ford is denying this problem. I am so pissed about this, I thought of listing the car on E-Bay, with a $40,000 opening bid, so everybody thats on there shopping for an 08 Escape opens my auction to see why its 40 grand to open, and have all the pics. be of the seat stains. And say in the description, Here's what your seats will look like, in less then a year if you buy this SUV with the tan cloth. In this day and age of uncertianty in the American Automotive industry, Ford should be more careful of wanting to keep what owners they have, satisfied. I hope people thinking of purchasing an Escape find their way to this thread BEFORE they buy. I wish I had. Thanks for reading this, hope it helps in your choice of vehicles.
