Zero to Sixty, Chapter 2. The Shape of Aging

We can all do the math—when you’re born you’re age zero and when you turn 60, six decades have passed. But how do we conceive of it? There are many ways to represent this passage of time. Here are a few I thought up.

 

The Speedometer (and the Odometer)

Just like a sprint with a race car – the speedometer shows my current velocity. It’s a commonly quoted performance figure for a race car. What’s your 0-60 time? If it’s under five seconds, that’s pretty fast. Over ten seconds and it’s a family sedan. 

But maybe a speedometer isn’t a very good gauge for age. My speed changes the minute I take my foot off the gas or hit the brake—or stomp on it harder. Perhaps an odometer is a better concept, showing my accumulated mileage. For people, maybe each year could be, say, 2,000 miles. A car with 120,000 miles on it should have plenty of useful life left in it, don’t you think?

 

The Timeline

Draw a straight line between two dots—birth and 60 (or whatever your age). That’s about as simple as it could get, right? The problem is, there is no quality to a line. It just connects the dots. You could add milestones, of course, such as starting school, high school graduation, first job, marriage, first kid, retirement. Or how about first kiss? First live gig with your band? First published story? First prize in an art show? The timeline is one way of looking at it, but it is moving only from left to right. And, it feels like time is accelerating, but a line can’t indicate speed. It just lines up events—the ones you choose to think about—in chronological order.

Another kind of timeline is the bar on an iPod, which fills in until the song is over, when another new bar begins. 3:27 of your life has passed. I hope you enjoyed it.

 

The Expanding Circle (or Blob)

Considering what we gain by living over time, maybe an expanding circle is a good image to represent our life unfolding. From a helpless baby we learn about our world, meet people, experience many activities and events, and grow. The circle doesn’t have to be a perfect circle—maybe a blob would be better. Some areas flourish, some don’t. My musical side is the former while my athletic side is the latter. For each person it would be a different shape. 

How far does the shape expand? Does it reach its maximum capacity, like a balloon? Can it burst? How quickly does it grow? Are there periods of greater and lesser growth (image of  tree rings)? Some may think that life expands more quickly when you’re young and slows down when you age, but that may not be true—certainly not for everyone. And maybe it’s an illusion, since adding to a larger circle is less obvious.

 

The Focusing Circle

This is a somewhat like the opposite of the Expanding Circle. In this case, there is probably expansion for a while, but later, the less important areas fade from lack of interest or attention, and you concentrate your attention on the most important things. This could mean dropping a few hobbies to concentrate on one or two. You could end some unproductive relationships. You could clean out your garage. For a very elderly person, it could mean getting one good visit to the bathroom, or having one stimulating conversation.

Certainly, over time I’ve become aware of my splintered attention. What if I could cut out the distractions? Could I make more progress in the areas I kept “lit”?

 

The Unrolling Film

The file image works for people who remember watching Super8 home movies, before the age of the DVD. This image presumes a finite (but unknown) amount of life, that at one point, possibly  to the complete surprise of the individual, suddenly runs out. You see the take-up reel, full of film, rotating quickly, free of tension, as the tail flaps against the projector. The show’s over.

This concept takes for granted that there is an already-shot movie that’s simply playing out over time. But I think that life is constantly changing, and isn’t predetermined. If you stop smoking you can make the movie ten years longer.  I’d rather believe that we renew our lives every day, and that our actions today make a difference in the quality and quantity of the journey.

 

The Graph

Statistics can illuminate or obfuscate—or even titillate. We are used to seeing graphs that show the human life as an ascending line, peaking in the early 20’s and then declining, even precipitously, after some advanced age. Does that mean that I’m running at reduced capacity at 60? Well, sure, I do have less hair, less bone density, less muscle mass, and on and on. But what about my emotional life? What about my experience? Am I worn out or am I filled with experience? Where’s the other graph with the ascending line for wisdom?

We could also display a bar chart. This method works well for comparing now and then, or me versus the statistical average. These comparisons, for whatever they may be worth, are probably going to be depressing if they are indicating the body’s functionality, but could be very encouraging if they portray relative wisdom of a teenager and a sexagenarian (I like the sound of that!).

 

The Meandering Line

What if life is a journey—sequential and not linear? This makes sense, doesn’t it? I start out in Buffalo, New York but end up in San Francisco. I begin in the Music Department and graduate in English. I work in the book business but wind my way through sales, sports marketing, technical writing, and then what? I get married, go through a divorce and remarry.

The meandering line can indicate change well, but doesn’t show growth or accumulation of anything. If it meanders too randomly, it shows a lack of direction.  It also doesn’t indicate the quality of the trip or what method you used to get from place to place, or how long you spent there. It doesn’t indicate your companions either.

But for tracking the stops along the way, sure, it’s worth a look.

 

The Rising Spiral

It’s great to be a positive thinker, and truly believe that every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better. This could even help counteract the pain of consulting a graph that shows your declining vigor or viewing a life odometer that’s collected more than 100,000 miles on it. 

Are we truly getting better? And if so, why? What is each of us doing that makes us a better person today? Are we working out? Are we helping other people? Are we improving the world or ourselves in some way? Are we driving a Nissan Leaf electric car to work? What is the spiral measuring—simply “betterness?” I’d like to imagine I’m on a spiral, but I’m not sure.

I’d hate to see it as a descending spiral. That would be like a dead leaf falling from a tree—or water going down the drain. No thanks.

 

Interconnected Circles

I’ve drawn one of these charts before. It starts with me in the center and I draw all the attachments I have to things—people, jobs, activities. It shows my connections to the outside world. This kind of chart is a fascinating exercise, and is a great ways to appreciate how much you have going for you as you get older. Your Facebook friend list is long. Your list of job references is, too. You’re a member of this, a participant in that. You’ve got kids—and grandkids. This grid of interconnectivity helps prevent loneliness and a feeling of being out of the loop. The challenge is to figure out where you are amidst all that activity. You can make the circles bigger or smaller to indicate importance. Color-code them to show relationships. Go crazy.

 

A Dot in the Center of a Circle

This image is ideal for the Zen practitioner—or the front of a Target store. We are individual but part of a larger whole. We are in the center of our own life, with everything in it around us. We are all we’ll ever be all the time, part of the great oneness of place and time. It’s a great thing to consider. It may or may not require any religious belief, having no hierarchy built in. We just are.

 

The Flying Calendar Pages

This is the perfect black-and-white movie image to show the years flying by. Preferably, there’s dramatic music playing. It portrays time as passing day by day, month by month, and year by year. And, in that, it’s accurate. We live one day at a time and one year at a time. We celebrate (or mark in some way) our birthdays. If we think of life as a series of days, maybe we can experience it in small enough pieces to think that we can actually do something that matters right now. 

Conversely, if we think only of one day at a time we may not make plans. We need to manage that calendar by looking at today’s page—but making appointments on other pages, too. You can do this on your smart phone today—and it’ll even remind you, if you want.

Zero to Sixty, Chapter 1. How Did I Get Here So Fast?

In just over a week, I‘ll be 60. For the next nine days, I am publishing the nine chapters of Zero to Sixty--my reflections on reaching this milestone. Stay tuned.

I still feel like a teenager sometimes. I watch my mind hungrily grabbing impressions of cars, pretty ladies, cloud formations, buildings, signs, and other passing items of interest. I still cycle through a round of worry about things that come and go. I detect the familiar taste of regrets of things that happened that I wish didn’t and things that didn’t happen that I wish did. I hear the same favorite songs, plucked at apparent but often suspect random from the more than three thousand songs in my iPod.

Sometimes I experience a moment of what feels like greater awareness. I realize that my mind is churning—and even watch it—feeling separate and wise—but moments later, I’m immersed in the watching and am lost once again. I am not my thoughts, but I seem to be building and maintaining a personality as fast as I can.

I may admire and even envy youth, but I’ve accumulated one of the most interesting lives of anyone I know. If someone says they work and then go home, eat dinner, watch TV and go to bed I’m perplexed. When do they do what they like and want to do? I hope those people enjoy their jobs, because there doesn’t seem to be much else happening.

I’ve produced  21 years of weekly automotive columns. I enjoy being that car writing guy, but it has definitely become a routine. Sometimes, a standout car comes along, like a recent yellow Beetle TDI with the manual transmission, but often it’s just another test car. I’ll probably keep doing it for as long as they keep giving me the cars.

Music is my other passion. From this point in life I see the early influences—my mother’s cello practicing and the records she played. The plastic recorder I was assigned in the first grade, singing solos in sixth grade, the clarinet in the band into high school. I picking up the guitar at 14 and dreamed of stardom; I was so easily derailed by the difficulty. I had a quick, amusing year of mandolin picking in 1980. Then, at my last milestone birthday, a decision and a new bass guitar. I had no idea then how my bass playing adventure would turn out, but now I’m literally wearing it on my sleeve.

How much am I the same person as I was in the 1960s? 1980s? Ten years ago? Having a name and a face tends to give a person  a feeling of continuity. Habits form from convenience on top of interest and enjoyment. But the world changes, and my needs and expectations have changed, too. I wanted to be an artist before, but now I appreciate the comforts of regular day-to-day living. 

I had a vision of happy, joyous creativity, of being connected to my music with passion, writing about what I felt, making it beautiful, and attracting a set of fans. Then, I’d record albums, touring, and acquire fame and fortune. But it was always supposed to be about my experience—not others’ experience of me—or about the trappings of wealth.

I didn’t see my art as my “job” even though I didn’t want to be some “straight” guy in a suit and tie in an office. Well, today I don’t wear a suit or a tie and don’t have an office. Working in Silicon Valley, I have a cube and wear jeans to work.

My worst problem, impatience, hasn’t changed. I hate slow computers and computing. I hate sitting in traffic. But I like the fast stuff, the multi-tasking, the instant access of today’s wireless existence (really love my iPhone).

There are so many benefits to being older, and a few drawbacks. I know more about who I am and what I want, but I have so much less time (always unknown) to go after it. Now, there’s greater urgency, and I understand better the challenges I face as the person I’ve become.

Mazda CX-5 - Part Crossover, Part Sports Car

The CX-5 on a racetrack--nice.

Mazda may be best known for its now iconic Miata two-seater sports car. Fashioned like a highly efficient and reliable version of the British sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s, it has sold almost a  million units since its debut nearly 25 years ago.

What Mazda hasn't done effectively is sell lots of its other cars, despite a good showing from its compact Mazda3. The company now is planning to increase sales in the U.S. through a thorough upgrade of its model line, and the CX-5, along with the all-new midsize Mazda6 sedan, are showing the way.

Why not use the Miata/MX-5 as at least a style inspiration for all your cars? The CX-5, as a compact crossover (SUV), could have gone the way of vehicles such as the popular Ford Escape, Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4. All of these models are new in the last couple of years, as well, and boast up-to-the-minute looks with lots of curves and angles inside and out.

The CX-5, though, goes a more subtle way, using something called Kodo design. Mazda likes to create a theme and spread it over its cars,and Kodo, which is said to mean "Soul in Motion," uses gently rounded surfaces from which edges extend gradually. A sharp line on, say, the hood or the dashboard may resolve into a flat surface. This means that overall the shapes are relaxing and substantial, but have surface interest to keep them from being plain vanilla.

The CX-5 exists at all because Mazda is no longer part of Ford, for whom it contributed its Tribute small crossover, with a slight restyle, as Ford's Escape for years. The current Excape now is based on one of Ford of Europe's models, the Kuga, and is very different from the Mazda design. The CX-5 is, unlike many Japanese brand vehicles sold in the U.S., actually built in Japan.

In any case, this new CX-5 is a crossover with true sport and utility. Based on car, not a truck platform, it sits high, seats five, and will carry nearly 65 cubic feet of cargo with the second seat folded. It's long enough back there to fit an upright bass--without placing the long fingerboard between the front seats. The seats drop with the pull of a handy lever at the tailgate, so you don't have to go around to the side of the car when loading.

The sport part of the proposition is in how the car borrows Miata features such as the three-gauge instrument panel tucked behind the three-spoke steering wheel, the center stack and console, and the handsome, deeply bolstered seats.

You can order up two engines in the CX-5, depending on which level you order. The base car, called the Sport, has the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that the car debuted with for 2013. It puts out 155 horsepower and 150 lb-ft. of torque, which is OK but hardly exciting.

With the early 2014 models such as my tester, you can step up to Touring or Grand Touring level and get the 2.5-liter four that also lives under the hood of the brand new Mazda6 sedan. This new engine offers 184 horsepower and 185 lb.-ft. of torque--a big boost--and makes the car feel much more responsive on the road. EPA ratings are 25 City, 32 Highway, 27 Combined. I got 26.2 mpg. Amazingly, the smaller 2.0-liter engine's numbers are nearly identical. The EPA Green Vehicle numbers are 7 for Greenhouse Gas and a mid-range 5 for Smog.

You can't choose your transmission with the upper models--a six-speed automatic is it--but the Sport offers a manual as well, more in the spirit of the Miata/MX-5. You can add all-wheel drive to any CX-5.

I would welcome the chance to sample the Sport with the manual sometime, as it would most approximate the driving experience of the much smaller Miata, which has a slightly more powerful 2.0-liter four under its rakish hood.

My Soul Red Grand Touring tester had the full boat treatment, which included dramatic 19-inch wheels on the outside and perforated leather seats inside, along with a full complement of entertainment and performance features. The audio system had the first Pandora tab I've seen. If my iPhone was set up with it, I would be able to use it in the car.

Mazda is proud if its SkyActiv technology. In brief, the name implies that the company took many steps to make its current engines, transmissions, bodies and chassis as efficient as possible while developing future technologies. This means everything from using more high-tensile steel in the body to a control module to make the automatic transmission more efficient. The CX-5 is the first Mazda to feature the full menu of SkyActive features. See mazdausa.com for more details.

You can add the Tech Package to your CX-5 and get "necessities" such as a navigation system, HID headlamps, and the Smart City Brake Support system, which can stop the car for you in a low-speed emergency faster than you can yourself.

The crossover segment is highly competitive, so Mazda offers the three levels and a range of prices. You can opt for the Sport with front-wheel drive and a manual transmission for $21,990. My Grand Touring tester, with two-wheel drive and the Tech package, came to $30,640. Both prices include shipping.

The compact crossover is today's station wagon for small families, and Mazda is doing its utmost to field a very attractive player. If you like the beauty and refinement of the Kodo design, it could be ideal--and fun.

The Back Pages Bring the 1960s to Life

The Back Pages at Maltby's on March 22, 2013, blue-lit

I grew up listening to the radio in the 1960s. It was AM on a tinny little receiver until the last couple of years of the decade, but I ate it up. I listened in the morning and after school and especially at night in my room.

I remember hearing the first Beatle songs on the radio--songs like I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. I also had records, including Meet the Beatles as an 11th birthday present and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band when my mother brought it home in mid 1967.

But the most important thing was the variety and the familiarity, yet surprise when new songs appeared. That's what you get when you go listen to The Back Pages. This long established San Francisco Bay Area band can knock out a series of Beatles, Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Yardbards, Van Morrison, and more. And they do a great job of keeping the sound pretty close to the original.

Just tonight I heard them for the second time. Slightly different from the last show, they were lacking their keyboard player and featured a substitute guitarist. Lucky for them, and the audience, it was the highly skilled Bill Zupko filling in. Bill, who plays Beatles and other favorites with Ticket to Ride, knows how to break down a song and learn the parts perfectly, so I heard George Harrison leads played the way George played them.

Getting to hear a variety of this "classical" music is a treat for me, but also means that younger people can get a sense of the excitement of the sound. I never heard these songs done live myself, but with the energy and careful reproduction the band obviously has worked to create, it's a worthwhile experience.

It was made all the better by taking place in Maltby's, a nice restaurant and tavern in Los Altos, California. My lamb sandwich went well with the brown ales available on tap from the friendly bartender. During the evening, small groups jumped onto the small dance floor and shook themselves about to the beat.

There are lots of tribute bands out there, but when you have to reproduce a reasonably close version of songs by a variety of artists, it takes special skill. I've seen several good local groups, but The Back Pages may be the best of the bunch--and they're great guys, too.

The Back Pages play Maltby's again tomorrow night--and are regulars, so you can catch them again soon--if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hyundai Elantra GT - The Right Recipe

The Elantra GT is another example of Hyundai's successful approach to marketing cars in the United States (and presumably, elsewhere). Each time they introduce the next generation of a model, it's notably better than the previous one.

The GT is the third model of Hyundai's compact Elantra lineup. The Elantra now comes as not only a four-door sedan but a two-door coupe, and the GT takes the place of the previous Touring model, which was more a station wagon design.

The GT, like other Elantras, now flaunts the swoopy lines that are part of the company's "Fluidic Sculpture" design motif. This dramatic look has helped make the midsize Sonata a huge success, and has given more charm to the modest Accent and other new Hyundais, including the Tucson and Santa Fe crossovers.

The car is very much in the thick of the marketplace, with plenty of competition. And Hyundai's information packet is eager to compare its new five-door hatch to others. These include the Toyota Matrix, Mazda3, Ford Focus, Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Golf. Interestingly, in pretty much every category, the car is equal or better than the others. And that's really the point--this Korean brand wants to be seen as a direct competitor to the mainstream companies--not a bargain version. I think we've seen Hyundai and it's sister brand, Kia, achieve parity in the latest generation of its products.

The GT, despite a name that sounds like it could be on a Ford Mustang V8 or even an Italian exotic sports car, is a five-door hatchback. But that's just fine. It offers more interior space than most of its competitors (at least last year's versions) and is lighter than the others, at 2,784 pounds. That means that its 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, one of the smaller ones of the aforementioned comparative vehicles, gets the most power per liter of displacement (82.2). The GT is at least 100 pounds lighter than the other cars, thanks to greater use of high tensile steel among other things.

The 1.8 liter engine puts out 148 horsepower and 131 lb.-ft. of torque--at the smaller end of the field, but still enough to permit some spirited driving. My Black Noir Pearl tester had the six-speed automatic, but a six-speed manual is also available, and I expect would be even more fun.

Fuel economy figures are class-competitive, at 27 City, 37 Highway (30 Combined) for the automatic version. The EPA numbers are very good--Elantras have been near the top of the list for a while now. For cars sold in California, the Smog score is 6 and the Greenhouse Gas number is 8. There's a PZEV version of the automatic version that gets a 9 for its smog score. Those are hybrid level numbers. All Elantras get SmartWay designation from the EPA.

Like most cars of its category, the Elantra GT employs MacPherson struts up front with coil springs and gas shock absorbers, and torsion beam and monotube struts in back. Compared to the sedan version, the GT's higher spring rates and other tuning give it a more athletic performance. The GT's optional 17-inch wheels impart a sportier look and receive special sport tuning to dial in even more of the fun factor.

Like all the new Hyundais, the high-energy personality isn't reserved for just the body styling. The interior is lively, with exuberant swirls along the dash and doors. The door-mounted window controls are at a 45-degree angle, for example, not on the straight horizontal. Shiny trim and handsome double gauges give a surprisingly upscale appearance. I was impressed that the fully featured audio system displayed the entire artist name and song title. Some more expensive cars I've tested don't.

The Elantra is not an expensive car, but you can boost its price by about 25 percent by adding the Style and Tech packages. My tester had them. The Style package adds the 17-inch wheels and sport suspension, as well as a panoramic sunroof and leather seats, steering wheel and shift knob. The driver's seat has power adjustments, including lumbar. You get racy looking aluminum pedals, too, and the convenience of an automatic-up driver's side window (handy for sprinting away from toll booths).

The Tech package adds a navigation system, something that's nearly as common today as a radio was a generation ago. You also get dual automatic temperature control, keyless entry and a neat hidden rearview camera.

The car's versatility, with folding seats and handy rear hatch, make it a good choice for active lifestyles and small families looking for economy without boredom.

Prices start at $19,160 for the manual-equipped model. Add in the automatic transmission, the Style package ($2,750) and Tech package $2,350) and you get my tester, at $25,365 (including floormats). All prices shown include shipping.

The Elantra GT blows away the old Touring wagon, which was a nice little car but didn't have much pizazz. With the looks and youthful driving personality, it should continue to boost the brand. You can get one for barely more than a commute mobile or spice it up and have a real hot hatch.

Acura MDX - Luxuriously Above it All

Acura was the first Japanese car company to offer a luxury line in the U.S. That's right--Honda's upscale division arrived before Toyota's Lexus and Nissan's Infiniti. However, they haven't tended to be the sales leader in the segment. The Acura MDX, now in its 2nd generation, is an attempt to remedy that, by competing feature-for-feature with its Japanese and German rivals for the upscale family SUV market.

Maybe it is a little nervy to declare your intentions versus, say, BMW or Mercedes-Benz, but that's what the MDX does. Although it shares some structural elements with the more plebeian Honda Pilot, it boasts potent V6 power--300 horsepower from 3.7 liters. Power flows through a sequential-shift automatic six-speed. It comes standard with numerous high tech and pampering features, too.

Being a high-tech Honda at heart, the MDX offers variable valve timing and electronic lift control (VTEC), computerized fuel injection and a high-flow, sports tuned exhaust system to get V8 power from six cylinders. Fuel economy, for the 4,627-pound unit, is rated at 16 City, 21 Highway (18 average), but I only got 16.0 mpg during my test.

Standing 5'10" tall, even with me, the MDX welcomes driver and passengers with a broad, spacious interior for five (and room for two more with the disappearing third-row seat). The Acura interior design template calls for a bold expression of motion flowing up the center console onto the dash and extending strong like a giant Aries symbol into the doors. The wood trim looks like it's a solid two inches thick. The three-dimensional contouring makes the car feel energized yet as secure as a bank vault. A neat, silvery rolltop cover conceals the cupholders when you're not using them.

I was surprised that this luxury vehicle still used a regular key. Although it did flip out from its case, switchblade style, it still needed to be inserted into a lock, unlike most medium to high level cars, which all use keyless entry. Also, the audio system doesn't display the entire name of the artist and song, unless it's short--an old looking technology. But the steering wheel does electrically contract towards the dash for easy entry and exit, and the dash bristles with features.

The MDX is essentially one model with one engine and transmission combination. Where you can go to town is in adding packages. The Tech Package brings in fancier leather--perhaps it takes high technology to process it. The real attraction is the upgraded audio system and navigation, which uses an eight-inch,  high-resolution full VGA color display. The car's rear-view camera provides three different views. The three-zone automatic climate control uses solar sensing and has air filtration and humidity control.

The Advance Package brings even more high-quality leather--perforated this time, with ventilation as well as the standard heating. There's a blind spot information system that illuminates if someone's occupying the area next to the car that's outside your mirror view. Put on your turn signal and it'll warn you visually and noisily not to turn.

Even better, the Collision Mitigating Brake System will try to keep you from smashing into anyone. One day, while driving along, I was passing someone who was waiting to turn, and because the road curved, the system attempted to stop me, thinking a crash was imminent. It not only threw on the binders but flashed "BRAKE" in red letters at the top of the dash. I drove meek as a lamb after that.

With either package, you can order up the Entertainment Package, which supplies a drop-down video screen for rear-seat passengers, along with two sets of headphones, which tuck neatly into pockets on the backs of the front seats. The headsets felt uncomfortable when I tried one on, with hard pads against my ears.The package also gives you a 115-volt power outlet on the dash and heats the outward-facing rear seats.

All this adds up to a pretty enjoyable driving and riding environment. The V6 pulls along nicely, but the only downside was the 16-miles-per-gallon fuel economy. The EPA's Air Pollution score is a decent 6 but the Greenhouse Gas number is a more modest 4. But this is not the car for environmentalists. Acura and Honda sell many smaller, lighter, and more efficient models. This is about a grand driving experience.

Prices start at $44,175 for the MDX. Add packages, and you will end up where my Palladium Mettallic top-of-the-line tester did, at $55,700.

The MDX, assembled in Alliston, Ontario, contains 25 percent Japanese materials, including the transmission. But it is quintessentially American, stressing size, comfort and choice. While not the darling of the Sierra Club, it provides, in the second decade of the 21st century, a level of pampering that makes luxury wagons of a generation ago seem, well, like cars.

Ford Escape - A New European Adventure

The Escape - In San Francisco!

The new Ford Escape is a great departure from the original model. There are very good reasons for this, and it's good news for American car buyers.

The original Escape was a junior version of Ford's Explorer, which was hugely popular at the time--and seemed to need a companion for folks who wanted a smaller SUV. The Escape, since it arrived, has competed with models such as Honda's CR-V and Toyota's RAV4.

The original car, though was based on a Mazda platform; Ford sold off its interests in the Japanese brand years ago, so the new Escape is based on the European Ford Kuga, a car that we never had in the U.S. before. Much like the Focus, Fiesta and Fusion, the Escape is now a world car, although the Escapes we get are assembled in Louisville, Kentucky.

The new model couldn't be more different. While the original Escape followed the "two-box" model, with an upright windshield, flat hood, blunt nose, and squared-off cargo hold in back, the new one is much more edgy. It's really the ultimate crossover, with the carlike feel that's popular with buyers today. That means a larger, longer windshield (the new Escape's is like a minivan's), and any hint of truck is banished. The "utility" part remains, with folding rear seats and a rear liftback.

The new Escape is touting its special foot-activated liftback. Although my Deep Impact Blue Metallic tester did not, for some reason, have this feature, it's great for those times when you arrive at your car with your arms full and just want to open the rear hatch.

The inside of the new crossover carries over the European design theme. No surface is plan or simple. The dash and doors are built of angles and interactions, so your eye doesn't settle anywhere easily. The look is interesting, and even exciting. Ford's interiors in recent memory were more likely to be plain and subtle.

As usual, there is a hierarchy of models, from S to SE to SEL to Titanium. The differences are too many to lay out here, but you can get a fairly straightforward family hauler or load it up as a Titanium with pretty much every option imaginable. Ford's website lets you configure the one you want and price it out before visiting a dealership.

My test car was an SE. That meant 17-inch alloy wheels outside, cloth seats inside, and the equipment most crossover buyers would want, including air conditioning with climate control, a sound system that includes satellite radio, remote keyless entry, and all the airbags you could imagine. A couple of modest packages added things like black roof rails with crossbars, and the MyFordTouch system.

MyFordTouch lets you configure what you're looking at on the dash and access your phone and car controls with voice commands. As computer and smart phone users, we expect to be able to customize these items, and you can. You can make hands-free phone calls, change audio programming and adjust the climate control with a flick of a switch on the steering wheel and some clearly enunciated words. With practice, I've gotten the system to work fairly well, but there is a learning curve.

Ford wants the new Escape to be fuel efficient, and offers three four-cylinder engines. The standard one is a carryover 2.5-liter unit that puts out 168 horsepower and 170 lb.-ft. of torque. But the excitement is  around the two EcoBoost powerplants, including a 1.6-liter and a 2.0-liter. The smaller of the two, despite its compactness, beats the 2.5-liter, with 178 horsepower and 184 lb.-ft. of torque. The 2.0-liter unit is the sporty one, with 240 horsepower and 270 lb.-ft. of torque.

My tester had the 1.6-liter under the hood, and it did a decent job or moving the 3,500-lb. car down the road. It was not a rocket going uphill, however. I'd like to see how the 2.0-liter unit would pull. In any case, I averaged 22 miles per gallon, which is not the 26 average that the sticker claims (23 City, 33 Highway). I may have skewed it with too much bumper-to-bumper commuting, but I'd like to do better with such a small engine. Both EcoBoost engines require premium fuel, which adds at least a dime to every gallon you buy.

All Escapes use a six-speed automatic transmission, and all-wheel drive is available. In this application, four-wheel traction is intented as a safety feature and is not really intended for any serious off-roading. Ford makes other vehicles to help you with that.

Like other new Fords, this car drives well, with taut handling, a firm suspension, comfortable, supportive seats, and some feedback to your hands through the wheel of what's going on below. This really is the family wagon of the 21st century, and Ford is surely hoping that this radically different Escape will continue to be a bestseller.

Prices start at $23,295 for an S and move up to $31,195 for the Titanium. My SE, with options and delivery, came to $28,335. All prices include shipping.

Ford, the company that made a fortune on SUVs in the 1990s and early 2000s, has been adapting to a changing marketplace. Expect to see more crossover vehicles like this new Escape and the hybrid C-Max in showrooms and on the road. The EcoBoost engines, which deliver "next-size-up" power with more efficiency, will proliferate. And sharing a platform worldwide will keep costs down. And Fords will not be boring, you can count on that.