I have owned many vehicles much older and longer than this one and have never seen this kind of rust. Even my old Jeep which were notorious for rusting out on the tailgate never had the kind of rust this vehicle has. My daughter was driving the vehicle and called to tell me something was wrong (one of the many issues this vehicle has had) so I told her to try to get it home and I'd take a look. To my surprise the entire rear passenger wheel well was rusted out and the shock had broke free from the mount. All the other wheel wells are fine. Why so much rust in one wheel well? Was told it will be about $2,000 to fix. That is unacceptable. My 05 F-150 has 0 rust and spent it's entire life in Michigan winters!

I am so disappointed in Ford. I bought my 06 Ford Escape Hybrid used with very low mileage.. it by far has been my favorite SUV. I haven't had any problems with it until the rear shock mount rusted out. When putting new brakes on over the years our mechanic kept telling us there was an excess amount of rust in the right rear shock mount. He said it would eventually rust out and break. It did. Now our Escape is dangerous to drive. I don't understand why Ford hasn't had a recall or a huge lawsuit from this problem. I called customer service which is located in the Phillipines. (Such a disgrace) built in America and giving jobs away overseas. Customer service took my info and said there wasn't a recall and they would contact me if there was a recall. As much as I paid for my Escape it shouldn't be sitting in the driveway to dangerous to drive. What if it had caused me to have an accident when it broke? What if a member of my family or another person had been killed in an accident when this happened? I've seen so many complaints about this exact same problem online. Ford needs to step up and take responsibility for their problem.

I heard a strange "clonk" noise a couple times when going over potholes and when I went to take a look I found that the back right (passenger side) rear wheel well had MASSIVE rust problems, rusting all the way through to the acoustic padding inside the vehicle. There was literally a hole in the vehicle-- totally rusted through (see photos). It appears to be rusting all around the shock mount of the vehicle, making me worried that it is structurally un-sound. Indeed, after looking online I found a USA Today article ("Ford recalls another 386K for chassis corrosion" - http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/04/07/ford-recall-fusion-escape/7427299/) that appears to show that this is a known issue and that Ford Escape vehicles from 2001 to 2004 were recalled for corrosion, particularly relating to where the suspension holds the wheel in place.

I called Ford's customer service number and was told that there was no recall issued for my 2006 vehicle and that there was nothing that they could do at this time. So I had the rep forward me to the NHTSA complaint line where I submitted a formal complaint. During that call, I asked the NHTSA rep to estimate how many complaints he had received for this same issue, and he estimated that a "good number" of the total complaints were about this issue, particularly when including both Hybrid and non-Hybrid 2006 Ford Escape vehicles.

Considering that the 2001-2004 Escapes were recalled and that the problem clearly isn't fixed yet, I called Ford back to ask them once again whether there was any remedy that they could offer and once again, they refused to address my concern with anything beyond essentially stating that "we don't have anything we can do." I personally believe that there is much that they can do, particularly including a recall of all affected vehicles including the 2006 year. It appears to affect 2005 Ford Escape vehicles as well. Why wait for a potentially fatal accident before doing something about this? Ford KNOWS about the issue and they KNOW that it may cause structural failure while driving and yet they REFUSE to take action. The vehicle is old enough that it isn't worth towing even for an estimate, let alone a repair. I suddenly have no car and no remedy. This is totally unacceptable and Ford has lost my trust completely.

Just this morning heard a rattling sound coming from the right rear wheel well area of our 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid when dropping off our daughter at the local veterinary hospital. Looked in the cargo area first - nothing there - then took a look in the wheel well area/inner fender and saw a piece of the factory undercoating material hanging off. Reached up into the well to see why it was hanging there and felt cold A/C flow on my hand. Pulled off the factory undercoating and - WOW - extreme corrosion all around the upper shock mount, just extreme, totally hidden by the undercoating material. Can't really see in from above due the hybrid battery in its tray, but it is clearly a lot of perforation all around the shock mounting, and I was just stunned. Parked it, and now I'm waiting for a response from Ford. Reading here about the other 2004-2006 Escapes with the same issue, I'm guessing I'm not going to get a call. Now I'm worried about the same corrosion on the right side, and even more worried about the hybrid system, as a 400++ pound hybrid battery sits in a tray located directly between those two upper shock mounts. Has anyone had Ford step up to the issue? If so, how? I'm floored....we've never had a car do anything like this, ever, and we keep our cars and trucks an average of 10+ years and 200,000 plus miles each.