For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Ford Escape have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Honda CR-V doesn’t offer pretensioners for the rear seat belts.
The Escape has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The CR-V doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Escape offers an optional backup collision prevention system that uses rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The CR-V doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
Both the Escape and the CR-V have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, driver alert monitors, available all wheel drive and rear parking sensors.
There are almost 3 times as many Ford dealers as there are Honda dealers, which makes it much easier should you ever need service under the Escape’s warranty.
The Escape has a standard “limp home system” to keep drivers from being stranded if most or all of the engine’s coolant is lost. The engine will run on only half of its cylinders at a time, reduce its power and light a warning lamp on the dashboard so the driver can get to a service station for repairs. The CR-V doesn’t offer a lost coolant limp home mode, so a coolant leak could strand you or seriously damage the truck’s engine.
J.D. Power and Associates’ 2019 Initial Quality Study of new car owners surveyed provide the statistics that show that Ford vehicles are better in initial quality than Honda vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Ford fourth in initial quality, above the industry average. With 15 more problems per 100 vehicles, Honda is ranked 16th, below the industry average.
The Escape’s standard 1.5 turbo 3-cylinder produces 11 lbs.-ft. more torque (190 vs. 179) than the CR-V’s 1.5 turbo 4-cylinder. The Escape’s optional 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder produces 60 more horsepower (250 vs. 190) and 101 lbs.-ft. more torque (280 vs. 179) than the CR-V’s 1.5 turbo 4-cylinder.
As tested in Motor Trend the Ford Escape is faster than the Honda CR-V:
An engine control system that can shut down some of the engine’s cylinders helps improve the Escape 1.5 Turbo’s fuel efficiency. The CR-V doesn’t offer a system that can shut down part of the engine.
The Escape AWD’s standard fuel tank has 1.7 gallons more fuel capacity than the CR-V (15.7 vs. 14 gallons).
The Escape has standard front and rear gas-charged shocks for better control over choppy roads. The CR-V’s suspension doesn’t offer gas-charged shocks.
The Escape has variable-assist power steering, for low-effort parking, better control at highway speeds and during hard cornering, and a better feel of the road. The CR-V doesn’t offer variable-assist power steering.
For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the Escape’s wheelbase is 2 inches longer than on the CR-V (106.7 inches vs. 104.7 inches).
The Escape SE AWD handles at .84 G’s, while the CR-V Touring AWD pulls only .82 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.
The Escape Titanium AWD executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver quicker than the CR-V Touring AWD (27.7 seconds @ .64 average G’s vs. 28.3 seconds @ .6 average G’s).
The Escape has 1.1 inches more front legroom, .1 inches more front hip room, .1 inches more rear headroom, .3 inches more rear legroom, 3.8 inches more rear hip room and .4 inches more rear shoulder room than the CR-V.
The Escape Titanium offers an optional heads-up display that projects speed and navigation instruction readouts in front of the driver’s line of sight, allowing drivers to view information without diverting their eyes from the road. The CR-V doesn’t offer a heads-up display.
The power windows standard on both the Escape and the CR-V have locks to prevent small children from operating them. When the lock on the Escape is engaged the driver can still operate all of the windows, for instance to close one opened by a child. The CR-V prevents the driver from operating the other windows just as it does the other passengers.
The Escape SEL/Titanium’s front and rear power windows all open or close fully with one touch of the switches, making it more convenient at drive-up windows and toll booths, or when talking with someone outside the car. The CR-V EX/EX-L/Touring’s rear power window switches have to be held the entire time to open or close them fully.
In case you lock your keys in your vehicle, or don’t have them with you, you can let yourself in using the Escape SE/SEL/Titanium’s exterior PIN entry system. The CR-V doesn’t offer an exterior PIN entry system.
In case you lock your keys in your vehicle, or don’t have them with you, you can let yourself in using the Escape SE/SEL/Titanium’s exterior PIN entry system. The CR-V doesn’t offer an exterior PIN entry system.
The Escape’s standard speed-sensitive wipers speed up when the vehicle does, so that the driver doesn’t have to continually adjust the speed of the wipers. The CR-V LX’s standard fixed intermittent wipers only have one fixed delay setting, so the driver will have to manually switch them between slow and intermittent.
The Escape Titanium has a 115-volt a/c outlet on the center console, allowing you to recharge a laptop or run small household appliances without special adapters that can break or get misplaced. The CR-V doesn’t offer a house-current electrical outlet.
The Escape Titanium’s Active Park Assist 2.0 can parallel park or back into a parking spot by itself, starting, stopping and changing direction automatically. The CR-V doesn’t offer an automated parking system.
Insurance will cost less for the Escape owner. The Car Book by Jack Gillis rates the Escape with a number “5” insurance rate while the CR-V is rated higher at a number “10” rate.
According to The Car Book by Jack Gillis, the Escape is less expensive to operate than the CR-V because typical repairs cost much less on the Escape than the CR-V, including $204 less for a starter, $159 less for fuel injection, $116 less for a fuel pump and $15 less for front struts.
