If you want an SUV with hair on its chest, then go no further than the Ford showroom.  Despite that anemic and rather ancient 130-bhp 2.0-liter Zetec engine, the Escape feels the most butch of all the compact SUVs available in the market to date.

Though the Nissan X-TRAIL has successfully overtaken the Escape in terms of driving experience, nothing beats the Ford when it comes to solidity.  From the inside, the Escape feels like it’s carved from one single piece of solid granite.  Even at an odd 9,000 kilometers or so old, our test unit didn’t even have a single squeak or rattle.  Of course, the interior now feels very plasticky, but at least they all stay in one piece.  Park the Escape in midday Manila heat and you’ll be assured that everything will stay in once piece.

Before, we said that the Escape rides the handsomest among the compact SUVs—that’s not the case any longer.  Rest assured though that cross-terrain ability remains high on its list of abilities.  One scary thought though is now the all-wheel drive system can easily be fooled.  During one of our tests, which involved hard acceleration, we managed to cause the Escape to spin, threatening to tip over on us.  Though we didn’t get to the bottom of that phenomenon, we gather that a long bend coupled with high-speed will cause most of the Escape’s torque to be dumped on the rear wheels, causing a temporary imbalance in the driving characteristics.  It’s scary—believe us.