Inevitably, these travails have put a crimp in product development, and nowhere is that clearer than in the Ford Escape Hybrid. Three years ago when the gas-sipping variant debuted, I was assured by the powertrain engineers that -- though the first generation shared patents and similar architecture with Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive (Prius) -- the next generation would be more aggressively efficient and more distinctively Ford's own. That didn't happen, and I can only attribute that to an R&D dollar deficit.