Ford Escape vs GMC Terrain

GMC updated the Terrain’s front styling, wheel designs, taillights, and interior trim for the 2022 model year. The new AT4 trim level featured a bolder grille design, black 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped in sport-terrain tires, and AT4 badges. The automaker bolted a steel skid plate under the front end to protect vital mechanical components, expecting some owners to test its “small off-road SUV” claim. Our test vehicle arrived with extra-cost Ebony Twilight metallic paint, the blacked-out AT4 treatment, and a black leather interior. It was loaded with the Tech Package, Infotainment Package II, GMC Pro Safety Plus Package, a Skyscape panoramic sunroof, and a three-year subscription to OnStar services, bringing the MSRP to $41,810, including the $1,395 destination charge.

The 2023 Ford Escape diverged from the old Escape’s blocky exterior and adopted a more European design language. A 2023 refresh replaced the previously cartoonish grille with a more traditional front end, complete with the Ford blue oval logo mounted in the center of the grille, below a stylish LED light bar. Shoppers could choose from an array of trim levels, including Active, ST-Line, ST-Line Select, Platinum, and ST-Line Elite. Our top-trim test vehicle wore 19-inch wheels and sported body-color mirror caps and wheel-arch cladding, giving it a sleek design. Inside, the ST-Line Elite flaunted beautiful diamond-stitched leather upholstery that looked good but felt hard and plasticky. The seats were very comfortable and softly padded, making the Escape a good car to drive for long periods.

Every 2022 GMC Terrain had a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine making 170 horsepower and 203 pound-feet of torque. The previously available turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, which gave the Terrain great acceleration and a towing capacity of 3,500 pounds, did not return to the lineup. The 1.5-liter could handle a trailer weighing up to 1,500 pounds. The nine-speed automatic transmission did a decent job of keeping the Terrain in the thick of the torque band once the SUV was rolling. The Terrain AT4 offered 7.9 inches of ground clearance, which was nearly an inch less than a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, Subaru Forester, or Subaru Outback. The official EPA rating was 26 mpg, and we saw 26.2 mpg on the evaluation loop, with a mix of driving in FWD and AWD.

The 2023 Ford Escape differentiated itself with multiple powertrain options. The first, a 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder, delivered 180 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque via an eight-speed automatic transmission. The ST-Line Select, Platinum, and ST-Line Elite trim levels carried a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder good for 250 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. This iteration of the Escape was much more comfortable accelerating and in higher-speed passing and merging situations. The Escape’s brakes offered very predictable and linear stopping power, and the soft suspension was a blessing on New England’s pothole-riddled streets. The Escape’s steering inputs were well-weighted, avoiding the twitchy steering inputs that plague many competitors in the compact-crossover segment.

The 2022 GMC Terrain’s interior was roomy for a compact crossover, offering numerous comfort-enhancing features and storage solutions combined with good cargo-carrying capability. Our Terrain AT4 included power-adjustable front seats, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and dual-zone automatic climate control with rear air-conditioning vents. The Terrain’s back seat was downright roomy, offering proper support, plenty of legroom and foot room, and softly padded front seatbacks. Cargo space measured 29.6 cubic feet behind the back seat, and there was a large storage bin underneath the Terrain’s trunk floor. Folding the rear seat down created 63.3 cubic feet of cargo space.

The 2023 Ford Escape was very comfortable, with soft and supportive seats and excellent ergonomics. The front-door armrests were well-positioned and sat at the same height as the center console's armrest, and the front-seat cupholders were conveniently arranged in tandem. The Escape came up short of its segment leaders in cargo space, with up to 37.5 cubic feet of storage behind the second row and 65.4 cubic feet with the second row folded. Passenger space was a similar story, with the Escape offering slightly less rear-seat legroom than many of its competitors. However, the back seat’s headroom was impressive, and the Escape’s front-seat backs were softly padded and deeply scalloped, helping maximize space for tall passengers.

GMC offered Terrain buyers two different infotainment systems. With SLE trim, a 7-inch touchscreen display was standard, while the SLT, AT4, and Denali came with a high-definition 8-inch touchscreen. Both systems offered Bluetooth smartphone connectivity, newly wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, SiriusXM satellite radio, and GMC Connected Services through OnStar, including access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Our test vehicle had the larger screen and the Infotainment Package II upgrade, which installed connected navigation, improved voice recognition, and the Bose audio system. The voice recognition system was excellent, responding quickly and accurately to most prompts. The head-up display was part of a new-for-2022 Tech Package option that also installed front and rear park assist sensors and a surround-view camera system.

The 2023 Ford Escape impressed with its Sync 4 technology. Lower-trim models came equipped with an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment display, but all trims could be equipped with a larger 13.2-inch screen. Sync 4 was well organized, with individual tiles for navigation, music, and Bluetooth pairing. The system was easy to navigate, and the native navigation system looked good enough to be mistaken for Google Maps. However, Sync 4 was a bit slow to respond to inputs, and the volume knob was inconveniently placed on the far-right side of the stack. Despite these minor annoyances, the feature set, layout, and ease of use of Sync 4 were impressive.

Every 2022 GMC Terrain had a GMC Pro Safety Package as standard equipment. This collection of driver-assist and collision-avoidance systems included forward-collision warning, pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, automatic high-beam headlights, and a following distance indicator. The GMC Pro Safety Plus Package added adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, a lane-change assist function, rear parking sensors, and a Safety Alert Seat. The IIHS awarded the 2022 Terrain mostly “Good” crash-test scores, but it earned a “Marginal” rating in a new side-impact test. The NHTSA had not evaluated the 2022 Terrain’s crashworthiness at the time of the review.

The 2023 Ford Escape received a five-star overall rating from the NHTSA, with five stars in frontal- and side-crash tests and four stars in the rollover test. The IIHS did not grant the Escape a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ designation, noting that it received a score of Marginal in its updated side-impact test. Ford shipped every 2023 Escape with its Co-Pilot360 suite of advanced driver assistance systems, which included forward-collision warning with pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and automatic high beams. Co-Pilot360 2.0 added adaptive cruise control, road sign recognition, and lane-centering technology, as well as a helpful surround-view camera view.