I'll put in my $0.02.
If you are doing lots of stop and go driving, neither the escape nor renegade do well. I had a discussion with a lady at a party who wanted to know about mine because she was thinking of moving away from her escape when the lease was up. I was shocked to hear that she was getting worse mileage than me. This is the peril of a turbo engine, you can get REALLY bad fuel economy if you put your foot into it all the time. Also, before I got my renegade, I got to test out an escape bought by a friend of the family. Two things really stood out. First, unless you get the bigger infotainment unit, the dash is really kind of awkward. Doubly so when you consider the sightlines on the vehicle and the size of the blind spots. Second was that the upholstery stitching in the escape was just awful. It looked cheap, and seemed like it would not wear well. That doesn't mean it won't wear fine, but it was way below the standard of both the vehicle segment and price point of the vehicle.
Based on everything I test drove, if I was prepared to buy an escape, I would go test a nissan rogue, mazda CX-5 and subaru forrester. The subaru's dash isn't much better than the escape's for visual usefulness, but it is more reachable. THe greenhouse on the forester is very good with minimal blind spots, and the 2.5l engine gets better mileage than the escape or renegade. The rogue has a nice interior, and the CX-5 does everything the escape does better for essentially the same price IMO.
As for the renegade, it isn't the best AWD lifted hatchback out there, but it has tons of personality and fit and finish on the interior is nice (although I personally don't like the speedo and tach with the evic, I prefer them with the DID.) If you need economy and range, that is pretty much the renegade's worst area with only a 12.7 gallon tank and less than stellar EPA numbers, and in most cases even worse real world performance. Much like my last car, for me, the renegade has approximately 250 miles of range for a long cruise. I've driven in parts of the country where the assumption is you will have about 350 miles of range, and anything less is sketchy as heck at best. If that is your situation, buy something else. Period. Probably one of the less obvious things in the renegade's favor are the variable frequency dampening shocks and the fact that it has more sidewall height than most of the competition. If you live in the land of decaying infrastructure and worsening potholes, the renegade (and especialy trailhawk) excel in dealing with them. My last car, in 10 years, I trashed 5 wheels and 7 tires due to worsening roads and having low profile tires. Since it was AWD, that resulted in having to buy 7 wheels, get 2 wheels repaired, and replacing over a dozen tires before wearing them out. My office mate who lives about a mile from me and bought a forester about a month before I got my renegade is already on his second set of tires due to road hazard (although it's now wearing cooper general AT3 tires which should fare better and have more sidewall). We drive the same crap roads, and the renegade is easier on my back and sucks up the potholes better.
and it still hasn't happened. Just prior to my divorce I was getting one but it felt wrong to get a new vehicle when the marriage was dissolving so....no wrangler. It remains my dream vehicle as it fits my personality perfectly, however, I can't justify it now that I'm in the market due to the low fuel economy and the miles I travel.
