2005 Ford Escape from North America - Comments

Defective hood latch.

The defective hood latch caused the hood to fly up and smash into the windshield at a speed of 60 mph. My view was obstructed and I was just barely able to see enough to pull off the freeway. The glass shattered and I was hit in the eyes with glass particles. I could have been killed.

Since 1970 all the windshields have plastic in the middle, so no glass could get in your eyes.

That last comment is not true. Windshields, when broken, do let small pieces of glass fly into the interior of the vehicle. As a manager of a truck rental company, I have seen my share of broken windshields, be it by accident, vandalism or road debris. All of those vehicles have small chunks of glass throughout the front of the vehicle, small chunks, and fine glass particles.

The posters are really talking about two separate issues.

Cars and trucks have safety glass which will not shatter if a stone hits it or something similar. But if you actually smash the window the glass will shatter (although in a more controlled manner) causing small fragments to enter the cabin. But these fragments are not similar to those found if you dropped a glass in the kitchen. The safety glass keeps the fragments "large" and therefore safer.

2005 Ford Escape:

I have 26,000 miles on the Escape. I have taken in 4 times about my Transmission, Ford tells me all 4 times that there is nothing wrong with the car and I already had to replace my Rotors, now my Escape sounds like a 4 wheel drive going down the road, and every bump in the road it sounds like the whole car is falling apart and the other day I put my key in to crank it and the key would not turn over, it was like I had the wrong car keys after 10 min, it finally turned. I'm glad I wasn't being car jack or anything. The Florida Lemon Law say you have to file within the first 2yrs of having the car. March 2008 will be 3. Any one have any suggestions for me?

True, glass will enter the cabin. A rock hit my windshield at high speed two weeks ago (1998 Ford Escort) and although it did not come through, it did break the inner glass surface and leave sharp shards of glass on the dash above the instrument cluster.