‘One Ford’ strategy is future of cars

HUMANS are hard-wired to see a face before they see anything else.

It could be a cloud, a shadow or a piece of stone but if there’s something that looks like a face, we’ll see it.

Weird, innit?

It must be a self-protecting caveman instinct.

Those Neanderthals who weren’t good at spotting faces – either human or animal – were swiftly and effectively removed from the gene pool.

Being pretty close to a caveman myself, I can never help myself clocking a car’s face on first introduction.

And so, to the new Ford EcoSport (confusingly pronounced EckoSport). Now that’s a face only a mum could love, isn’t it?

First visual impressions can be wrong though. And it’s a car, not a person, no?

The EcoSport is designed by a global team of engineers as part of the One Ford strategy. It’s built at a new plant in Romania and is designed to be shipped all over the world.

It’s not quite that simple, though. It turns out that interiors for say, India, have to be durable and wipe-clean and capable of fitting seven adults inside. In truth this One Ford will actually be six or seven but, hey, you get the idea.

So this new EcoSport is based on the usually rather good Fiesta B platform. It also gets a much more Fiesta-like interior, which is a big improvement on the old and widely panned EcoSport cabin. Front suspension is MacPherson strut, the rear is a torsion bar.

Front brakes are disc and the rears are drums. The terrible (idea) sidehinged rear door stays, though. If someone parks too close behind you can’t open it. The brakes are the second thing I noticed after the face. The firsttouch application is really savage, guaranteed to get all your passengers looking like they’re headbanging to Slayer.

You get used to it, but it takes time. The brakes, that is, not Slayer.

It’s the same with the clutch. The bite point happens within a pedal movement of about 200 microns. Like the brakes, you soon get used to it, but it’s definitely not going to be a car for driving schools, that’s for sure.

There’s now an option of four-wheel drive, which makes sense as the car’s short front and rear overhangs means it’s going to be capable of very steep drops and climbs.

Engines include the really sweet 1.0 EcoBoost (pronounced as you see it) in two power outputs, a slightly less sweet 1.5 petrol and a definitely less sweet 1.5 “diseasel”. I found it behaved better with the smaller, lighter 1.0 engine up front – quieter on the move, too.

Handling is like all the cars in this class – uninspiring. Well they’re all just small hatchbacks on stilts, after all. Expect more body-roll because of the added top-heaviness, and compromised suspension behavior because engineers have tried to dial out some of those roll issues.

The EcoSport should probably not be singled out in a market crowded with compromised products simply because the customer wants something that looks like a rugged 4x4 (even if most of them aren’t).

That extra height does give the driver better forward visibility but this is marred by the fattest A-pillars known to mankind. They obscure your view, especially at junctions and in tight bends. On a plus side the height adds front and rear headroom.

The EcoSport is available in three trim levels – Trend, Titanium and STLine. Prices start at a nudge over

£17,000.

Ford think it’s going to be bought by

18 to 34-year-olds. I reckon they can add at least 30 years to that. Possibly more.

Old people tend to more trusting of faces, don’t they?