Congrats on your new toy! The Escape is a terrific little ute and the V6 gives it surprising acceleration. In my past two SUV's, I've augmented both factory stereos with this Infinity Basslink, a powered sub that hits hard and sounds waaaay better than Bazooka Subs. They have a new Basslink II which has a square 10" driver and passive radiator, but I don't know if it actually sounds better. Look around on the web and you can usually find them for around $200 or less. They have built-in crossovers and eq's along with a wired gain module so you can really tune them to blend in pretty well. You won't win any spl contests of course, but it does add a lot to the lower octaves and will surprise you with its sound quality.

E-stat's TL has the best OEM stereo I've ever heard. Designed by grammy winner Elliot Scheiner, this thing w/ DVD-A's is very, very good...unless you're in the back seat and then you're screwed. My car came with a truly pathetic stereo from HK. Seriously, when you pay a fair sum for a car, a good stereo should be mandatory. Because I enjoy the steering wheel controls and the incorporated BlueTooth, I've left the HU alone and just added a JL Audio sub driven by a Precision Power amp. It fills in the bottom end (because there simply wasn't one before) and only takes up .75cf of my admittedly tiny trunk. Far from audiophile but it keeps me happy.

BTW, because you lease your cars, if you do decide to upgrade I'd suggest using Circuit City. They will tear out anything they install for free. Therefore, about a month before you turn your car in, just take it in and have the stock equipment put back in. I've moved systems through three cars using this service.

Again, congrats on your new ride (or "whip" if you're down wit dat). Post some pics!

Hope this helps.