Rob Maetzig

Tries out the Ford EcoSport in the less strenuous streets of New Zealand.

Two of the hairiest motoring assignments we’ve experienced have involved the same car – the Ford EcoSport.

It hasn’t been the Ford’s fault, but more the locations.

The first occasion was in 2013 in the Indian province of Goa, venue of the Asia-Pacific media launch of the EcoSport. The event was held in Goa because the vehicle is built in India.

During that launch journalists were required to head out on a 140km drive through a series of towns and villages – a mass of cars, motorcycles, roadside vendors, pedestrians, dogs and cattle.

The roads were awful, local driving standards even worse, and it was with our collective hearts in our mouths that we picked our way along the drive route in our diminutive little EcoSport SUVs.

The second occasion was in late 2016 in the Philippine province of Pampanga, venue of an AsiaPacific media drive of various Ford SUVs, including the EcoSport.

During that event journalists were required to take the EcoSport out on a drive that included the city of Angeles. Once again it was heart-in-the-mouth stuff as we negotiated our way along urban streets jam-packed with cars, motorcycles with their sidecars, pedestrians, and the notorious public transport vehicles called Jeepneys that – we were warned – do not stop if you get in their way.

The fact we were required to drive this little Ford in those traffic environments was the bad news. The good news is that both times, we made it – even though we did hear that the day after our 2013 assignment in Goa, the car we were driving got wrecked in a crash involving some other journalists.

But following the Philippines assignment, we did get to thinking: How about getting our hands on an EcoSport for a few days driving in some more gentle environments? How about New Zealand cities and urban areas, the space of our rural regions, maybe even some of our almost-deserted beaches?

So we did. And the assignment proved a success too, because we were able to concentrate less on simply keeping ourselves secure from a mass of traffic around us, and more on the vehicle itself.

But it has to be said that the EcoSport was most comfortable in the city. And that’s because first and foremost the EcoSport is an urban SUV – Ford itself describes the vehicle as that.

It explains that while some customers still require the strength of body-on-frame off-road SUVs such as the much larger Everest, evolving customer demand has led to development of SUVs that are built on more roadfocused platforms, and designed with the urban jungle in mind.

Compact SUVs are experiencing rapid growth in their popularity, and a major reason is because they are nimble and easy to drive and park in busy urban areas.

At the same time they offer many of the same benefits as their larger SUV counterparts including a higher driving position, greater ground clearance, roomy cargo areas, and a feeling of robustness.

The EcoSport, which is essentially built off the platform of the little Fiesta hatch, is among the smallest of the compact SUVs. As such it competes directly against the likes of Holden Trax, Mazda CX-3, Nissan Juke and Suzuki S-Cross.

It’s available with a Trend level of specification for $29,990 and as a Titanium for $32,990. Those prices are very competitive – by our reckoning the Trend is the least expensive little SUV on the Kiwi market, with an RRP that is lineball with the S-Cross.

The EcoSport offers rakish and sure-footed looks, with muscular edges, a high belt-line, and an SUVstyle 200mm ground clearance which helps make it an easy vehicle to get in and out of.

The interior is well designed, although in some respects the fit and finish is a little lacking – hopefully that will improve too. But the seats feel good, and the interior does offer some excellent practical touches – the rear seats can be reclined for more back-seat comfort, there are no fewer than 20 storage spaces including a glovebox that doubles as a cooling box for cans and bottles, and the vehicle boasts Ford’s very good Sync connectivity system that is enclosed in a shield-shaped centre console.

It’s also a nicely quiet interior thanks to an acoustic headliner in the roof, sound deadening materials in the roof and body, and a double sealing system in the doors.

Powering the EcoSport is a 1.5-litre four cylinder petrol engine that offers 82kW of power at 6300rpm, and 140 Nm of torque at 4400rpm.

The engine is mated to a sixspeed PowerShift automatic transmission.

An engine of this size, being normally aspirated rather than turbocharged, will always be a modest performer, so in that regard the EcoSport loses ground to most of the opposition.

But then again, out-and-out performance is not what the Ford EcoSport is all about.

What it is about, is ease of performance, particularly in the urban environment. In that regard it is an enjoyable little car, easy to get in and out of because of that high-ish ride height, good room for something so small, easy to drive thanks largely to electric power steering and the automatic-only transmission, and low interior noise. There’s also that attractive price.

However, the EcoSport has one major fault – its rear door.

It’s not so much because the the vehicle’s spare tyre is mounted on the door, because the location of the tyre there actually opens up more available cargo space, which is 346 litres with all seats in use, and 705 litres with the rear seats folded down. But the big design fault is that the door opens to the left, which might be OK for lefthand drive markets like Brazil where the EcoSport was designed, but totally unsuitable for righthand drive markets such as New Zealand because it blocks access from the footpath to the load area.

There are photographs currently doing the rounds of a facelifted EcoSport that is scheduled for release in various markets from 2017, and the good news is that the sidewards opening door-tyre combination looks to have disappeared, presumably replaced by a rear liftback and with the spare under the floor. We hope so.

Rear door aside, the Ford EcoSport appeals as an easy car to drive, particularly in the urban environment. It is easy to get in and out of because of that high-ish ride height, it offers good room for something so small, electric power steering is light, it has the automatic-only transmission, and low interior noise. There’s also that attractive price.

Downsides? The sooner the rear door gets replaced, the better. Let’s also hope that any facelift will also see introduction of an example of Ford’s EcoBoost engine technology, because that would give the little SUV more pep. And that would make it an even better urban SUV than it is now – whether in India, Philippines or New Zealand.