Ford Escape to be replaced by the Kuga?

[EvadeBLUE]

Greetings all,
I wish I could have found this forum sooner, it would've saved me alot of trouble and seems to be a more active place than others, so i'll just jump in on all of the chatter here and make myself at home.

As we all knows the Ford Kuga is pretty well coming over to North America for the 2011 year(Or is it 2010? I forgot!) anyways, whats your opinions on this? I for one, think the Kuga will do rather well here, it has some catchy features and should be great on gas for an SUV as well.

What do you think will happen to the Escape nameplate? As silly as it sounds, name plays a small(and I stress small) role when I decide on a certain vehicles to buy. So is Ford going to replace the Escape nameplate with the Kuga? Or just re-badge the Kuga to an Escape here in America?

I'm hoping they'll just re-badge Kuga to an Escape and import it on in. I don't really see a SUV called "Kuga" doing well here in North America, but I could be wrong. Not to mention they already have a solid foundation in the Escape and it suits Fords SUV line perfectly between Escape,Explorer and Expedition. I don't really see much sounding quite as good as Escape, and I hope it sticks around as long as what the Explorer has.

I forgot what type of engines the Euro Kuga has, which obviously wouldn't work in America to the high price of them. I personally think if they import the Kuga as an Escape, same styling except for a few minor changes to set it apart from the Euro version, and toss an Eco boost engine in it Ford has an instant winner, and it is safe for me to say, I'd purchase one.

Another big feature for me with the Kuga is the interior, I have saw some that looks something like it, but its by far one of the best(to me anyways) Ive saw in quite awhile. Not to mention a manual tranny.

I'll end this here to keep from blabbering about everything. So in short answer these questions if you don't mind:
1) Will the Escape name stay and just be a re-badged Kuga?
2) Do you think it'll be a hit in North America? - And state why.
3) Whats your personal opinion on the vehicle it's self?

All opinions and comments welcome.
Good day,
-EvadeBLUE