It’s the Mileage That Moves You

TESTED 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid

WHAT IS IT? Car-based crossover S.U.V. with a hybrid powertrain for better fuel economy.

HOW MUCH? $27,170 with front-wheel drive, including destination charge. As tested, $31,060 including $2,695 for navigation system and $1,195 for a package with heated front seats and leather upholstery. (All-wheel-drive version starts at $28,920.) A $3,000 federal tax credit is available.

WHAT MAKES IT RUN? A 2.3-liter 155-horsepower 4-cylinder engine assisted or temporarily replaced by an electric motor. Batteries are recharged as the Escape is driven. Transmission is a continuously variable automatic.

HOW MUCH CAN IT HOLD? Five people in theory, but disharmony is likely unless three are children.

HOW THIRSTY IS IT? For a small S.U.V., not very. The E.P.A. estimate is 34 m.p.g. city and 30 m.p.g. highway, which compares with 20/26 for a conventional front-drive Escape with a 4-cylinder engine and a 4-speed automatic transmission. In one 608-mile stretch of generally flat Interstate I cruised between 55 and 65 m.p.h. and averaged 29 m.p.g.

ALTERNATIVES Saturn Vue Green Line ($25,995) or the Escape Hybrid’s close relatives: the Mercury Mariner Hybrid ($27,860) and Mazda Tribute Hybrid ($25,945; sold only in California).

FORD introduced the Escape Hybrid as a 2005 model and it was a landmark, the first hybrid S.U.V. In addition, it was (and is) a full hybrid, meaning that the electric motor was powerful enough to move the vehicle on its own — at least for a while.

For 2008 Ford has given the Escape a new look, redone the interior and retuned the suspension.

The interior has a lot of hard plastic, so it feels like a project undertaken by a company desperately trying to save money. That is, of course, exactly the case. In addition to the powertrain, another environmentally friendly feature is what Ford says is standard seat upholstery made of recycled materials.

As with most hybrids, the key to good fuel economy is a small engine that gets a boost from an electric motor when more power is needed. For 2008 Ford says it tried to make the interaction more seamless, and indeed the electric motor’s comings and goings are unobtrusive.

At times, however, the 4-cylinder works hard despite its little electric buddy. Traveling at 65 m.p.h. through the hills of northern Pennsylvania, I found the gas engine often churning away at 4,300 revolutions a minute, too high for good fuel economy.

Over the last decade, Ford has generally turned out vehicles that are responsive and fun to drive. But that Blue Oval magic eluded the ’08 Escape Hybrid. It comes across as amenable and competent — but not dynamically charming.

Ford boasts that the Escape Hybrid has so much standard safety equipment that “it bolsters its safety leadership.” Yet the Escape is one of the few S.U.V.’s that lack — even as an option — an important life-saving feature, electronic stability control. Still, it has valuable items like side-impact air bags and air curtains that cover the side windows to provide head protection.

The navigation system was easy to use and did a fine job of giving directions not just across Pennsylvania to Michigan, but back to New Hampshire through Canada, which is almost like a foreign country.

But I found an important feature of the nav system to be a joke. Well, it wouldn’t have been a joke had I actually paid almost $2,700. While crossing Pennsylvania, I asked the system to search for hotels. Several times it told me nothing was available within a 40-mile range. Then, two or three minutes later, the little prankster would announce that a hotel was within a mile or two.

I finally stayed at a one-year-old hotel that the navigation system didn’t know about. I am not ruling out the possibility that I was deluded, but it seems more likely that the system’s information was already outdated.

Of course, it costs money to buy the newest data, and Ford appears not to have done so.

When Ford introduced the 2005 Escape Hybrid it broke new ground. Unfortunately, the automaker didn’t continue that tradition with the 2008 update, which comes across not as hot stuff, but as barely warmed-up leftovers.

Still, there’s no denying that for a small S.U.V. the fuel economy is great, which is actually the point.