Ford EcoSport long term review final report
India’s first compact SUV lives up to its billing as our Car of the Year. But there are things we’d change.
Published on Mar 14, 2015 07:00:00 AM
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The big tank of the EcoSport makes it a car to be taken on long drives.
Brakes lack bite under hard braking.
A bit slow at times, but the system has a myriad features, and it sounds really good.
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Ford’s EcoSport has had something of a dream run in India. Its modern take on a compact SUV really thrilled Indian car buyers and what also helped was that Ford got the price right. Little surprise then that the EcoSport was our Car of the Year for 2014. But how well would we get along with it, a whole year later? Familiarity, after all, does breed some amount of contempt.
What’s pretty clear even 12 months on, however, is that Ford’s baby SUV continues to exert considerable pull and appeal. There’s still that sense of wonder that a sub-four-metre car (it’s 3999mm long) can feel so substantial and full-sized on both the inside and out. I still marvel at the punch from what is essentially a 1,000cc engine, and it still has the ideal blend of urban agility and high-speed highway stability. Whichever way you look at it, this is a contradiction that works.
I recently spent a week and a half again with the EcoSport, driving it both in the city as well as over long distances, and found myself admiring it even more. What I love most about the car is the effortless manner in which it covers ground at a good pace. You can throw it at a rough road and not have to worry too much about adversely affecting the suspension or damaging the underbody. The EcoSport, in fact, instilled so much confidence, I chose to drive to Janjira on the coast of Maharashtra via some seldom driven over roads. Needless to say, the hard-charging EcoSport was an absolute pleasure to drive around the serpentine roads of Pali and Pen. Exploiting the considerable punch of the engine felt really good and the composed manner in which it tackled some bad patches was really impressive. The EcoSport petrol does possess a bit of stiffness in its springs, which helps give it a nice balance of ride and handling. But we did consistently find that it administers the occasional loud ‘whack’. This is especially true if you encounter a large horizontal ridge, over which the light nose of the car tends to skip. Still, on an everyday basis, the car isn’t uncomfortable to sit in or drive, and the undulations don’t toss you around too much either. Sure, it isn’t as well settled as a Duster, but then, what really is?
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