Daily adventures of the Average Joe Driver road warrior

“is that Gasoline I smell?” a quote from one of my all time favorite movies, the Crow. Eric Draven, The Crow, pours gasoline all over inside the pawnshop that his fiance’s wedding ring was pawned at. He fills the barrel of his shotgun with the other rings, walks out, and as the owner tells him “…they’re gonna erase your sorry a$$..” The Crow turns around and asks “….is that gasoline I smell?” as he shoots a fiery blast of broken dreams into the shop setting it ablaze.
I found myself asking the very same question while driving the Escape. For my fellow Houstonians, you know its been pretty cold here every other day. So on the few occasions the temperature merits it, I use the heater on defrost. (I cant stand to have hot air blasting in my face, no matter how cold it is. It makes my nose get stuffy.) As I was driving the other day I thought I smelled fuel. I deduced it had to be an outside smell as it eventually went away. My wife and mother-in-law drove the Escape and they too smelled the fuel smell, but blamed it on my awesome Steering wheel cover. I decided to GOOGLE Ford Escape Gas Smell and it appears there have been reports of Ford Escapes having the smell of fuel entering the cabin going as far back as year 2000 models. Mine is a 2010!!! I am hoping this isn’t some sort of design flaw that I just have to accept….to hell with THAT! I have been more observant as of late and noticed I only get the smell of fuel when it is set at least midway on warm and to the Windshield Defrost setting. As soon as I switch to air vents the scent dissipates. I am going to have to call my Champion Ford of Katy representative and tell him I am going to need to get it looked at.

On a side note, I also used to believe it had something to do with the new fancy “NASCAR inspired” capless fuel nozzle.

Some people have had concerns, as I have as well, as to whats to deter fuel theft or contamination without a gas cap or locking gas cap? The sales pitch was with no gas cap to handle at the pump, you can keep the fuel smell off of your hands. Well, alot of good that does when the fuel smell is coming in through your vents!! So the answer to Ford’s poor plannning? An accessory add-on locking gas cap that you can buy and add to your vehicle that was missing it in the first place.

AJD