[zenren]

Originally Posted by spinfreak

It's surely up to seat back height of rear seats excluding head rests. Nothing to do with wind screen

Thanks for clarifying, whether it is till the bottom of the windscreen or top of the rear seat, the point is that there is still some 'unaccounted' usable space till the roof for the Ecosport that is not available for the sedan counterparts making the boot more practical even with an identical boot size in the spec sheet.

[sunilg33]

Coming back to Ecosport vs Duster I feel the engine of EcoSport still has a long way to go. Today when I took a Meru Logan cab to the airport, the car looked a bit old. I curiously asked the driver about the mileage. It had run 3.5 lakh Kms without any major repair. It seems his friend has done 4.2 lakh Kms without any major repair till date. These figures speak volumes about the duster engine.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by zenren

Thanks for clarifying, whether it is till the bottom of the windscreen or top of the rear seat, the point is that there is still some 'unaccounted' usable space till the roof for the Ecosport that is not available for the sedan counterparts making the boot more practical even with an identical boot size in the spec sheet.

True.

But stuffing luggage in a hatch-boot up till the roof or even half-way is never a good idea, especially while driving on highways and expressways. It will hinder visibility and is a major safety-risk. If boot-space is a concern, one should look elsewhere.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by sunilg33

Coming back to Ecosport vs Duster I feel the engine of ES still has a long way to go. Today when I took a Meru Logan cab to the airport, the car looked a bit old. I curiously asked the driver about the mileage. It had run 3.5 lakh Kms without any major repair. It seems his friend has done 4.2 lakh Kms without any major repair till date. These figures speak volumes about the duster engine.

Agree on your points on the Duster/Logan engine life. But for personal segment, a trouble free 1.5L kms should make sense and nothing more than it. Yes, for a very small percentage, another 50K-1L kms will be nice to have. But since EcoSport will NOT be looking at a taxi segment, there is hardly any negative feedback going to come based on it.

And as far as I understand, even the 1.4L TDCi easily lasts a 1L kms. The new 1.5L should be better considering it's a newer technology.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Petrol engines should last 1 lakh km. A diesel should do better.

By the way... it is nice to see this thread getting meaty again, after the weeks of endless speculation while we all impatiently awaited this exciting car.

Of course, it isn't here quite yet...

[spinfreak]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

True.

But stuffing luggage in a hatch-boot up till the roof or even half-way is never a good idea, especially while driving on highways and expressways. It will hinder visibility and is a major safety-risk. If boot-space is a concern, one should look elsewhere.

Yes, true, but I hardly suppose space inside EcoSport will be more than a hatch, esp as the increase in GC and overall height are absolutely arithmetic. Hatchback with 160mm gc , 1580mm height. Es is 200mm gc, 1679mm height. Pretty much same height available inside.

A capable hatch on stilts is what it seems, and the spare wheel position makes it look more menacing than it actually should be

[zenren]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

True.

But stuffing luggage in a hatch-boot up till the roof or even half-way is never a good idea, especially while driving on highways and expressways. It will hinder visibility and is a major safety-risk. If boot-space is a concern, one should look elsewhere.

I've found using both ORVMs to be more useful than the IRVM during highway trips. Based on my experience, when there are three passengers in the rear seat, there is only a limited area of the rear glass that is visible in the IRVM - the area between the heads of the passengers. Remaining portion would be blocked by the people sitting at the back, especially when there are 3 adults. For cars with full head rests at the rear, even without passengers, the visible area in the IRVM is actually just the top half of the windscreen. An eg. is the old Dzire- there is only a very small area visible after those massive headrests.

In such situations, there is no harm in filling up the boot till the shoulder height of the rear passengers as that area is blocked anyway by the passengers. When we say filling up, it doesn't always mean filling up evenly to a height. There could be one big suitcase that extends a little higher and the baggage height of the remaining area could still be at the seatback. IMO, for someone who drives using both the ORVM, there wouldn't be any significant blind spots introduced if the left most or right most area of the rear windscreen is blocked as this would be covered in the ORVM.

With the height of a big SUV, low slung cars like Zen might not come in the IRVM prominently even without any luggage if they are immediately behind. So drivers would have to rely more on ORVMs when using taller cars.

[kopakabana]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

True.

But stuffing luggage in a hatch-boot up till the roof or even half-way is never a good idea, especially while driving on highways and expressways. It will hinder visibility and is a major safety-risk. If boot-space is a concern, one should look elsewhere.

Originally Posted by spinfreak

Yes, true, but I hardly suppose space inside EcoSport will be more than a hatch, esp as the increase in GC and overall height are absolutely arithmetic. Hatchback with 160mm gc , 1580mm height. Es is 200mm gc, 1679mm height. Pretty much same height available inside.

A capable hatch on stilts is what it seems, and the spare wheel position makes it look more menacing than it actually should be

@ Suhaas: Although i agree with you completely with the safety part, i'm sure you must have also loved the way TSK uses his Safari's boot on his trips in the mountains ( wanted to attach a relevant picture from his travelogue but changed my mind). IMO, since Ecoposrt will be having roofrails, a cargorack at the top will be an excellent and safe option for extra luggage space. I, for one, would not worry about the boot space. It can be created. The car itself seems too tempting.

@ spinfreak: The spare wheel on the tail gate must have also helped Ford to create more boot space apart from adding to the looks.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by spinfreak

Yes, true, but I hardly suppose space inside EcoSport will be more than a hatch...

The squarer, more upright lines of an SUV should result in more space. The design heritage of these vehicles is the commercial/agricultural model, eg the Landrover, rather than the family saloon or even hatch and...

Originally Posted by zenren

In such situations, there is no harm in filling up the boot till the shoulder height of the rear passengers as that area is blocked anyway by the passengers.

...even if laden to the roof, the visibility situation is no worse than driving a commercial van or small carrier. However, safety is seriously compromised by carrying stuff that is either a crushing load or a skull smasher in the case of an accident.

Mostly, vehicles are bought for style anyway, with, for instance, even estate cards rarely being loaded as designed. Apart from a company car, which also served as delivery vehicle for computers that I was installing, I have seldom even lowered the back seat rest of a hatch, let alone filled it up. In fact, just once in my year-old Polo have I done that, to transport a small desk. Of course, it is nice to be able to do so when you do want. One of my beefs about my London Rover 620 (British-built Accord) was that, although a fair-sized saloon, its load-carrying capability was pathetic.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

And as far as I understand, even the 1.4L TDCi easily lasts a 1L kms. The new 1.5L should be better considering it's a newer technology.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Petrol engines should last 1 lakh km. A diesel should do better.

Have personally experienced Japanese diesels like Toyota, Izusu crossing 2.5Lakh and still doing fine. I think 1.5dci should do equal or even better.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

However, safety is seriously compromised by carrying stuff that is either a crushing load or a skull smasher in the case of an accident.

The taller luggage extending above the boot area that I'm looking at would be the max dimension check-in luggage allowed in airplanes. If Ecosport can accomodate two such bags in vertical position in the boot, I wouldn't need to look at an additional car for the occasional airport trips - something the hatches and CS versions cannot manage.

I fully agree that it is a big safety risk to keep small things above the back seat height that could fly around in case of accident or even hard braking. Anything kept on the rear parcel tray is equally dangerous. I've had the experience once where the tissue box flew from the parcel tray and landed near the handbrake area after a sudden brake. Luckily for me, I never carry anything else in the parcel tray.

Since we are speaking about cars that come with just 2 airbags upfront and no side curtain airbags, you don't need to look further than the C pillar for a static skull smasher. With seat belts and rear head rests, I dont see the luggage interfering with passenger safety unless it is a rear ending. In case of rear end collision, I doubt if the passengers would survive even otherwise if the impact is huge for the contents of the boot (loaded only till the specifed height of the boot) get pushed to the passenger area.

[Python]

Understand that this is repetitive update but still,

Got a call from Metro Ford, Bangalore and the executive confirmed a mid March launch with deliveries starting in early April.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by RGK

Have personally experienced Japanese diesels like Toyota, Izusu crossing 2.5Lakh and still doing fine. I think 1.5dci should do equal or even better.

Good that someone brought this up. I have heard far too many people saying that the diesel engine in Ford vehicles is pretty useless after 70K odd KM's. Needs major work(not sure what exactly) and NVH goes for a toss too. How true is that? Any fellow BHPians who have long term experience with the TDCI engine?

[sbala]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

Good that someone brought this up. I have heard far too many people saying that the diesel engine in Ford vehicles is pretty useless after 70K odd KM's. Needs major work(not sure what exactly) and NVH goes for a toss too. How true is that? Any fellow BHPians who have long term experience with the TDCI engine?

My current ODO reading is 96k and my BIL's reading is 99K+. I have heard from my service advisers about cars with more than 1.5k.

[KarthikK]

Just noticed this on some news feeds - may not add any value to the discussion here but anyway here goes :
http://www.cartrade.com/car-bike-new...y%20time%20now

What is interesting is this piece of news , quoted from the above article (not sure how true it is though) :

The American auto giant is expected to begin advanced bookings of EcoSport soon in the country.

I'd like to see what happens to Duster's monthly sales figures once EcoSport bookings start.