Has anyone had issues with their 2018 Escape needing major repairs?

Hi folks, just looking for some opinions here. My mom’s 2018 Escape has 83k miles on it, and back in July 2023, it needed a full engine rebuild. Now, we just found out that the transmission is completely gone and needs to be replaced. Luckily, it broke down just in time before her powertrain warranty runs out on January 27th! Anyone else experienced something like this?

She does regular maintenance and takes good care of the car. The car’s in great condition, except for a few small scratches. I also have a 2012 Escape that had its engine block replaced at 100k miles, and it’s still going strong at 237k miles with only a spark plug/boot replacement. Do the older models hold up better or did she just get a poorly made one?

Just to add, she has the 1.5L engine EcoSport, in case that helps. She bought it from Enterprise in August 2019.

Ford really shouldn’t be using small engines like that in their cars.

Yeah, the 1.5L engine is known for having issues like coolant leaks and the transmission failing before 100k miles. It’s a real problem.

Esther said:
Yeah, the 1.5L engine is known for having issues like coolant leaks and the transmission failing before 100k miles. It’s a real problem.

Exactly! My wife’s turbo went out at 75k miles on her 2018 Escape with the 1.5T. Now I’m worried the transfer case will fail in the next 20-30k miles (it’s at 85k now).

Get it fixed and then sell it.

AndrewCarFan said:
Get it fixed and then sell it.

That’s the plan!

I own a 2006 model, and all of them are just bad. Had to replace the transmission, etc. Never again.