Worst car ever. We just moved halfway across Canada and we just moved into a rental and one day the rear door just decided not to unlock. we hit the lock unlock a thousand times trying to get it unlocked. Fortunately we got lucky and it decided to unlock one last time so we took the rear cover off so we could replace the actuator as the rear cover has screws along the bottom of the door which is not accessible without the door open. We bought it and put $12000 into it and that was just parts as we did everything but the tranny ourselves. So I was fed up and just got an actuator from the wreckers as everything before was brand new hence the $10 for the actuator but I took over 3 hours looking at Escapes in the yard and only found one. It was an extreme pain to replace the actuator but it is a Ford.

This problem actually started when I first bought the vehicle in 2009. When it got really warm out, the back hatch and/or window would not open. When it cooled down, the problem went away. It progressively got worse doing it occasionally, to doing it every other time I wanted to open the trunk hatch. Now it will not open at all. I did some online research and found that there was a problem with trunk latch mechanisms for other year models, but no recalls for the '02 model.

I have a mechanic buddy that told me the problem can be fixed, but he would have to crawl into my trunk from the back seat, take apart my hatch from inside the car to get it open, and then replace parts in there. If you have a friend who is good with cars and can help you with this, it is fairly inexpensive, just the price of parts (if you can find the parts too.). If you have a mechanic shop work on this, the price adds up very quickly in labor since you will essentially have someone trapped in the trunk of your car until they can get everything apart. Think anywhere from $300-$500.