ECOSPORT NEW TO CANADA, BUT ALREADY FEELS DATED GRAEME FLETCHER
Ford entry in compact crossover market does the job, but it pays to shop around
With Ford all but abandoning the car side of its portfolio, the focus has shifted to crossovers. This is highlighted by the barrage of new product due by 2020; the reworked Edge and Expedition will be followed by a new Escape and Explorer, along with two new SUVs, including the reborn Bronco and a yet-to-be-named model.
The EcoSport, a subcompact crossover imported from India, anchors the bottom end of the crossover lineup. Its purpose is to tackle the growing band of compact competitors such as the Chevy Trax, Honda HR-V, Hyundai Kona, Mazda CX-3 and Nissan Kicks, to list a few.
The EcoSport is offered with two engines: the turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder with front-wheel drive, as in this tester, and a 166-hp, 2.0-L fourcylinder with all-wheel drive. The three-cylinder EcoBoost engine pushes 123 hp and 125 pound-feet of torque at 1,500 rpm through a six-speed automatic transmission.
Unlike many three-cylinder engines, the EcoSport’s does not sound like there’s a bag of hammers rattling around under the hood. It does, however, lack the refinement of a four-cylinder engine.
The tester ambled its way from zero to 100 km/ h in 11.2 seconds, and took 8.8 seconds to run the 80 to 120 km/ h passing move, so the performance is not going to make your pulse quicken. It will, however, make your blood boil, thanks to a posted highway consumption rating of 8.1 L/100 km, because all of the three-cylinder EcoSport’s key front-drive competitors have larger engines and better highway fuel economy. Even the Ford Escape, with its 179 hp, 1.5-L EcoBoost turbofour has a fuel efficiency rating of 7.8 L/100 km.
To get the best out of the threecylinder engine requires moving the shifter from Drive to Sport, which opens up the manual mode, although the awkward toggle switch on the side of the shifter will render it redundant. Engaging Sport does sharpen throttle response and give the EcoSport more driving presence, but at the cost of fuel economy. A test average of 8.8 L/100 km highlights this fact.
The EcoSport’s suspension, while pretty basic, does a good job of isolating the riders from the rigours of a rough road, so it has decent ride comfort. When pushed through a fast on-ramp, though, the body does roll. In fairness, much of the lean is perceived because of the tall seating position. The good news is the steering is quick and offers decent feedback, and it has brake-based torque vectoring, so the EcoSport finds its way through a corner nicely.
Slip behind the wheel and the cabin is a mix of good and bad. The up-level Sync 3 infotainment system — part of the SE Convenience package — falls under the good banner with the large, eight-inch screen obeying commands quickly. It functions well with but one anomaly: the driver cannot use the built-in navigation system when an iPhone is connected to the system and using Apple CarPlay, it is a choice of one or the other. This means delving into a menu to disable CarPlay, or unplugging the phone to prevent using your data plan for navigation. Either solution ultimately deprives the user of all other CarPlay functions.
The bad is found in the majority of the plastics, especially those on the door panels. They are hard and really not up to much. The EcoSport also arrives with limited safety equipment, which includes only blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and a rear-view camera with rear parking sensors.
The back half of the EcoSport is a mixed bag. There is enough rear-seat room for a pair of adults, and with split/folding rear seats up, 592 L of cargo space. That is less than the Focus hatchback and its 660 L. Folding the rear seats down sees it surpass the Focus, with 1,415 L, and it has a reasonably flat floor. The real hitch is the swing gate. It is heavy and if someone parks too close to the rear bumper, accessing anything stored inside is difficult because it requires about 1.5 metres of room to swing the gate open fully. The EcoSport begs for a conventional liftgate.
While the Ford EcoSport is new to Canada, it has been sold in other parts of the world for 15 years, and the current model was launched overseas in 2012. This, perhaps, explains why it feels dated when compared to many of its peers. It can also get expensive, with a fully dressed all-wheel-drive EcoSport SES pushing $30,000. As the saying goes, it pays to shop around. In this case, that’s sage advice.