Bought this car in 2011. Found the rust in the rear wheel well in the year of 2014, within the standard warranty. So took it to dealer. Dealer maybe sanded the rust and painted the portions. After two years the rust came back, it's from the inside of meta panel. Called the dealer was told it's out of warranty.

Now this is 7 year old car, the rust and paint bubble under the rear wheel wells are getting worse, it's ugly.

The material that was used to make the car body is bad, which result in the quick rust starting in the 3rd year.

My friend bought a same car almost in the same time, also experiencing the same rust problem from his Ford Escape. I believe whole batch could have the same problem.

rust: bottom tailgate,around wheels,front panel I never had a rusted vehicle in my whole life and that was very hard for me. I went to a dealership(Ford) to be told that since there were no holes, that this matter was NOT COVERED UNDER THE WARRANTY. I was further told that if there are holes appearing As far as I am concerned, the Ford warranty is not worth very much and this company tries to get away from it every time something happens ! Having been a customer of Ford for many years, I do know that they had problems with rust quite a few years ago but we are now in 2016 and this problem should have been settled many years ago. At the time Ford had their problems with rusting vehicles, I was using their Lincoln products of which I only have positive comments and I never had any rusting problems.

To come back to my Ford escape 2011, it looked like a very old and not maintained car. I was ashamed to go at my friends' place as rust and peeled off paint was very apparent and in places also very obvious. With all problems encountered with this car, I became to hate this vehicle !! Shame on you Ford !

I’ve been a Ford customer for 40 years. Other than normal wear and tear, service and replacements parts, there has never been any problems with any vehicle-until now. I purchased a new 2011 Ford Escape XLT-car washed/hand washed & waxed at least twice or more each month. Recently, I noticed paint bubbles on both sides of the outer rear wheel well. Further inspection revealed rust under the lips of the wheel well. I took a picture on the inside of the wheel well which shows the metal separated from the wheel well liner. This is probably the cause of water and contaminates seeping in between the metal & paint causing the paint bubbles. This is NOT normal. Following Ford’s warranty protocol, I contacted the service department where I purchased the Escape in an attempt to have the damage repaired. To no avail, there was nothing they can do with an explanation that the Escape was out of the warranty period and that the rust did not have a perforation/hole (yet!) Next was the sales representative. No response yet. I’ve read I am not the only complaint regarding this widespread problem. Maybe it was another company that states their customers are their #1 priority.

Update from Jul 19, 2017: Met with the Service Department Manager at my local Ford Dealership. Since I was a loyal customer and they had some "loyalty money" left in their budget to repair the wheel wells-THE CAR WAS FINALLY REPAIRED.