20/09/2008 00:00. One of the more ubiquitous sights on the American Road is the Ford Ranger pickup. It is handsome, in a hard-working, rectilinear way, and you dont see many that appear to have suffered neglect or abuse. Now the Ford Escape (and Mercury Mariner) SUVs join the Ranger pickup in its ubiquity. Not only do you see a lot of them, and not only do they look good, they are good. They may be the class-leader of the compact SUV category.

We drove a 2009 Ford Escape 4x4 to New Albany, Indiana the other day. It was sitting in my parking place at eight in the morning, and I threw my stuff into the back, adjusted the seat, and set out for New Albany, by way of Cincinnati and Louisville. The gauge indicated just less than three-quarters of a tank, and not a huge tank, at that. We cruised at seventy-five... // NextAutos.com