2nd gen Ford Escape. I've owned my 2010 since new and it has been one of the most reliable vehicles I've ever owned. 2wd, 4 cylinder model. 130k on the clock. Very easy to reach everything under the hood since it was sized to accommodate a v6 and it sits high enough to get under it without have to drag out the jack and stands. All it has needed was a blower resister and a throttle body ($50 on Amazon).
That's a good choice around the Cleveland, Ohio area with several Ford plants and plenty of A and Z plan (as they used to be called?) employee pricing. Lots of them and not too many miles on a nice used one. Almost be worth doing a search in this area, take a bus trip and drive one home. The other is to do a search around other brand manufacturing plants for similar high turn in/over employee pricing vehicles and the bus trip
I know that in the Toledo area if you're looking for a nice used Jeep product that's the place to look. Lot's of claims of "employee pricing for EVERYONE" at least on new models, so there's lots of traded in Jeeps there too.
(Syracuse used to have a Chrysler plant in the area, don't know if that's still the case?)
