Roomy compact SUV has split personality
ST. JOHN’S, N.L.— I don’t come to the Rock just for the Targa Newfoundland performance car rally.
That of course is an excellent reason to come here. But this time it was to test the newest Ford, on some of the very same roads the rally covers. Amazing how much more scenery you notice when you’re not blasting along at three times the speed limit, all the while trying not to become part of that scenery.
Ford’s decision to walk away from 20 to 50 per cent of the market by dumping all sedans and going with SUVs, pickups and the Mustang means it has to find vehicles to fill every keyhole, never mind niche or segment, in that SUV market.
It has already got small, medium, large and Brobdingnag covered with Escape, Flex, Edge, Explorer and Expedition. Now comes Lilliputian, with the EcoSport.
And apparently, that’s pronounced Eck-o-sport, not Eeko-sport. Good luck with that; even Ford employees got it wrong most of the time.
This is the second generation to bear this nameplate, but the first we get. It is based on the 2011 Ford Fiesta platform, so it’s hardly all that new. It is produced in various countries around the world; ours will come from India making it, to my knowledge, the first Indianbuilt vehicle for sale in Canada.
A mild refresh last year has added a bunch of technology, designed to make it competitive with the likes of Mazda CX-3, Honda HR-V, Nissan Qashqai and a baker’s dozen of similar sport-cutes.
The starting price of $19,599 gets you a very-limited-production model, badged S. The SE, expected to be the bestseller, starts at $22,599, while the Titanium begins at $26,099. There’s also an SES model, which lists at $26,899.
That model lineup suggests you have a wide variety of choice, and you do. Except when it comes to powertrains — you have a choice of just two.
The base is a three-cylinder 1.0-litre turbo producing 123 horsepower and 125 lb.-ft. of torque, with front-wheel drive.
The alternative is a 2.0-litre non-turbo four (167 hp and 149 lb.-ft.), essentially the Focus engine, with all-wheel drive.
That latter choice is available on all trim levels for a $2,500 hit to the bottom line, except for the aforementioned SES, which is only offered with the 2.0 litre AWD package and firmer, allegedly sportier, suspension.
Both engines come with stop/ start technology to save you a few pennies in city traffic. Unlike some competitors, you can switch this off it you just hate saving money.
Any vehicle structure that was engineered over six years ago and built essentially for developing nations isn’t likely to have all the latest and greatest when it comes to chassis hardware.
And given that the Mazda2, upon which EcoSport is based, was a pretty neat little car to drive suggests that adding height and weight to turn it into an SUV has done nothing for the vehicle’s dynamics.
It does have fairly impressivesounding specs — MacStrut front end, twist-beam rear axle on the front-drivers, fully independent rear on the 4-by-4s, twin-tube hydraulic gas-pressurized shocks at the front, mono-tubes at the rear.
And it does get down the road in OK fashion, but is nowhere near as nimble or secure feeling as, say, the Mazda CX-3, generally acknowledged as the dynamic champ in this segment.
Ford has papered over some of these cracks by adding a bunch of technology to EcoSport. Even the base car gets a touchscreen, albeit just 4.2 inches wide and with limited functionality.
Move up to SE and that screen grows to 6.5 inches, while Titanium maxes out with a full-zoot 8-incher. Those latter two have pinch-to-zoom capability and Apply CarPlay and Android Auto capability. Navigation is available on SE and included on Titanium and SES.
Ford is also the first carmaker to integrate their SatNav systems with the WAZE app, which brings you crowdsourced real-time traffic information. If you have never used this, trust me, it is pretty cool.
Still on the technology front, in-car Wi-Fi is available and you get three months or three gigs free (whichever comes first), after which you may enter into a subscription program.
Titanium also brings a 675watt, nine-speaker-plus-subwoofer B&O Play stereo system. Once you choose your trim level there are few options, but one you will probably want is a $350 cold-weather package that brings heated wipers, heated mirrors, heavy-duty floor mats and a heated steering wheel. This is not available on the S trim and is standard on Titanium.
Some clever touches on the up-level trim add a bit of colour to the decor. But when you can grab the arm rest, for example, and find you can wobble it back and forth about three centimetres, you can’t help but wonder if this is just lipstick, rather than true inner beauty.
There’s surprisingly good room for two in the EcoSport. That’s one plus of the vehicle’s added height — it gets you added leg and head room. But it’s probably kiddies-only in the back.
The rear seat has a one-third/ two-thirds split folding back, and while it doesn’t seem to fold completely flat, it does give you reasonable storage options.
One very unusual feature is a side-hinged rear door in place of the usual upwards-lifting tailgate. This is probably a love/ hate thing. Some will find it easier to load stuff when you don’t have to stretch to close the thing; others, notably city dwellers, may find it awkward to find enough room in tight parking spaces to swing the thing open.
One clever feature is a false floor in the cargo area. Leave it down for maximum capacity; pull it out and reposition it in special brackets and you get a two-level space allowing you to hide valuables out of sight, or maybe protect that birthday cake from getting smushed on your way to your mom’s party.
I drove both powertrains. I wasn’t quite as surprised as most of my colleagues about how peppy the little 1.0-litre engine felt, because I have driven a variant of it in a couple of European Fords.
Sure, with only123 horses, you aren’t likely to be a winner in the stoplight Grand Prix, and highway passing has to be planned well in advance. But it does get out of its own way, and you won’t feel completely outgunned in the cut and thrust of city traffic.
It is remarkably smooth and quiet, with virtually none of the thrum you usually experience with three-bangers, this largely thanks to a deliberately unbalanced flywheel, which counters the vibrations an inline triple invariably creates.
The 2.0-litre is predictably quicker, although not by as much as you might expect, probably at least partially due to the fact it feels as rough as an old boot, so there’s little incentive to rev it very high.
You’re also hauling around the extra weight of the four-wheeldrive mechanism. In my view, this really limits the car’s potential, especially for the Canadian market.
So it seems to me that EcoSport has kind of a split personality. Its driving dynamics rank pretty much at the bottom of this field. Yet it has a lot of hightech features that might just appeal to the younger urban dwellers at whom this vehicle is aimed.
That said, most of our test cars had stickers within spitting distance of $30,000. Ouch!
Personally I think Ford’s plan to give up on cars is ill-advised. Time will tell.
If Ford has guessed its customer base correctly, EcoSport might do all right. Those of you who put more emphasis on how a vehicle drives will be better off shopping elsewhere.