About to buy 02 XLT

[Emberkali]

I am considering buying an '02 XLT 4x4. My Saturn is past being on its last leg- I'll be lucky to make it to Friday. One of the vehicles that I liked at the dealer was the Escape. A friend drives the exact same model, and she told me that she had tranny problems within the first two or so years, but other than that its been ok.

So, when I took it for a test drive I noticed a few things. The one that concerned me most:
I was turning onto the road from a complete stop near the bottom of a steep-ish hill. I kicked up the rpm's most of the way up the hill (to about 3.5-3.7) When I was about to crest the hill I let off the gas and the rpm's dropped to around 1.6. Its flat on the top of hill, and I was getting ready to accelerate again and the rpm's jumped to 2.2ish all on their own. I wasn't hitting the gas at all.

When I started from another complete stop, this time on a level surface, and kicked up the accelerator so the rpms got up to around 3.4, 3.5 again, then let off the gas it did the same little thing... went down to around 2 then jumped up again.
Any thoughts as to what this could be, or if I should steer clear of this one???? Thanks
-Amber