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Ford is preparing a refresh for the 2023 Escape, and the updated crossover was spied sans camouflage near its production facility in Louisville, Kentucky.The front end is heavily revised, with pointier headlights, a boxier grille, and an LED light bar.The taillights have also been redesigned, and the Escape facelift is expected to debut this fall.Just five years ago, Ford was selling more than 300,000 units of its Escape compact crossover. But the fourth-generation model, which went on sale starting with the 2020 model year, hasn’t proved as popular, with around 178,000 sold in 2020. Sales dipped by a further 33,000 units last year as the rugged Bronco Sport arrived as internal competition. In an attempt to halt the Escape’s downward spiral, Ford is preparing a facelift, and the updated crossover has now been spotted completely undisguised near its production facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

Brian Williams

The most noticeable change for the 2023 Ford Escape is the trendy light bar running across the top of the grille and linking the headlights. The headlights themselves are revised, with a less rounded shape that is reminiscent of the headlights on the Jaguar I-Pace. The grille has also been redesigned, sitting higher in the front fascia and with a boxier outline, and the Ford logo has migrated into the middle of the grille. While it’s not as chunky-looking as the Bronco Sport, the Escape’s facelift definitely adds a degree of toughness with a faux skid plate in the front bumper.

The changes to the rear of the Escape are more subtle, with the taillights sporting a new upside-down-U LED lighting signature. The rear bumper is unchanged, and this example eschews black plastic cladding along the side of the vehicle for body-colored trim. The facelifted Escape is expected to continue to offer gas, hybrid, and plug-in variants, and it should be revealed in the fall before starting production late this year.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a report listing hundreds of vehicle crashes in cars equipped with Level 2 driver-assistance tech, the agency announced today.NHTSA started requiring automakers to submit the information in June of last year, and its initial findings are based on about 10 months of data.Its first report says there have been 392 vehicle crashes in the U.S. involving a Level 2 driver-assist system, six of which had fatalities. However, it’s not possible to draw many conclusions from this data, even whether the driver-assist systems are making things worse or better.Over the past 10 months, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has collected data reported by automakers on crashes involving vehicles equipped with driver-assist features. The U.S. agency today published the initial results of that data collection, which reveals hundreds of crashes with vehicles using Level 2 driver-assistance technology.Based on a new requirement called a “Standing General Order on Crash Reporting for Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems,” NHTSA has required automakers to report an accident if “Level 2 ADAS was in use at any time within 30 seconds of the crash and the crash involved a vulnerable road user or resulted in a fatality, a vehicle tow-away, an airbag deployment, or any individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment.” Of course, these reports are likely imperfect because there may be issues such as access to the crash data or incomplete data from the incident report, among other issues.Of crashes reported by manufacturers, Tesla had the most with 272 reports. Honda (90 incidents) and Subaru (10 incidents) reported the second and third most crashes involving a Level 2 system. NHTSA also revealed that among the 98 crashes where an injury was reported, five were serious and six involved fatalities.

NHTSA

NHTSA said that prior to issuing its order in June 2021, it had relied on vehicle owner questionnaires, media reports, and direct outreach from automakers to get this kind of data and called that process “generally inconsistent.” Now that the agency has better standards in place to collect the data, it can better respond and raise awareness regarding accidents that involve driver-assistance technology.Still, as NHTSA administrator Steven Cliff told the New York Times before today’s announcement, it’s too early to draw conclusions from these initial findings. Cliff said that NHTSA will continue collecting data on driver-assistance-related crashes to help guide requirements around how the technology is designed and functions, according to the article in the New York Times.
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• The RS2 Avant was a limited-production, high-performance station wagon. • With a turbocharged five-cylinder engine making 311 horsepower, it had a top speed of 163 mph.• The auction for this car ends on June 18.If you’re an Audi fan, the RS2 Avant is enshrined in the pantheon of Audi greats. If you’re not, it’s merely one of the most intriguing and unusual performance machines of the 1990s. As the mid-size Audi 80 neared the end of its production run, a special version of the 80 Avant was co-developed with Porsche (and was assembled at Porsche’s Zuffenhausen factory). Its turbocharged 2.2-liter inline-five engine made 311 horsepower and was paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, sending power to all four corners via a Quattro all-wheel-drive system with a Torsen center differential.

Bring a Trailer

Although fewer than 3000 were built, the RS2 (RS for Rennsport or “racing sport”) presaged a whole line of special RS models that continues to this day. This example, up for auction on Bring a Trailer, which like Car and Driver is part of Hearst Autos, is finished in the model’s signature color of Nogaro Blue. The black interior features Recaro bucket seats, carbon-fiber trim, and white gauges.

Bring a Trailer

Bring a Trailer

With approximately 115,000 km (71,000 miles) on the clock, this car has had a bunch of recent mechanical work, including replacement of the timing belt, water pump, alternator, valve cover gasket, front outer CV boots, front anti-roll-bar links, and brake fluid. The A/C, however, is inoperable.

Bring a Trailer

Although never sold in the United States, the RS2 is now legal to import under the 25-year exemption rule. They remain thin on the ground in North America, however. This car, which is in Canada, was purchased on BaT by the seller last year. Commenters on that auction thought the selling price, $61,000, was a bargain. That appears to be the case, as the bidding as this writing is just shy of $70,000 with five days still to go.

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