[blurust]

This is a small first drive observation of my ecosport automatic titanium plus.

Please understand, these are strictly my views/observations and I am not an expert in anyway. Kindly excuse me for any errors that I may make. It is not easy. This also made me appreciate our wonderfully deatailed reviews even more. It's not easy guys. Kudos.

Yays !

Smooth Gearbox.
Seat Comfort.
Driving Position.
Steering.
Safety features.
Great handling and Dynamics.
Paddle Shifters.
8 Inch Touchscreen.
Bright Headlamps.
Puddle Lamps.
DRLs.
Cabin Insulation.
Cargo Management System - Great for pet owners.


Nays

Reverse camera Adaptive Lines.
No Native SatNav - Iphone owners can't use Google maps on Apple Car Play.
Odd tyre Size.
Non Sliding Armrest.
Space - Not a concern for me though.
Odd Wheel Size.
No spped sensing autolocking doors.

As you can see the " Yays " were more for me than the " Nays " and hence I bought her home.

Time to get in the details now.

The Gearbox

Not the best gearbox in the world but it does the job. When the car has not reached its optimum operating temperature, and it is still cold, you can feel the gearbox up shifting and downshifting. When the car warms up, the gearbox is smooth as butter. When you want to overtake, I suggest, like anyother TC gearbox, plan ahead or use the paddle shifters if you have them. Which brings me to the next point, the paddle shift response. To summarize , There is half a second delay from the point of hitting the gear and gearbox acknowledging and shifting the gear up or down.


The 8 Inch Screen

Very responsive, very bright. Legible under sunlight. No complaints.

The Audio System

Although I love listening to music, I Don't really consider myself an audiophile. So no Complaints here except maybe my Figo's stalk system sounds better.

The Brakes.

Satisfactory for the most part, I wish I could get aftermarket tires in the OEM size. braking would definitely improve. Also I think when in D mode, the brakes are less effective as the car is trying to be in motion - works against the brakes although the brakes have a good progressive bite but the initial bite could be better. In neutral brakes are very progressive and has an aggressive bite. Again, just my observations.

The Autolock

The car doesn't autolock on crossing a certain speed. You have to do it manually. Maybe there is a way to activate it, but I am not sure. The manual doesn't talk about it either.

The Ride, Handling and Dynamics

Absolutely phenomenal Dynamics, no complaints whatsoever, The car is super stable in triple digit speeds. It is actually even better than my swift. Very very happy about this. The ride is firm in city speeds and handling is also great with body roll very well controlled. I didn't find the ride at low speeds to be bone jarring. Maybe I am used to the firmness.

The Steering

After using Figo for close to 5 years, I got tired of too much feedback on its steering as it used to tire out my arms and hands, it was a great steering but on long drives or bad roads it was just too much to handle. On this one though, Not a lot of feedback but the steering is still quick and and responsive and its a joy to use on highways and in city. Also i'd like to mention, I thought this steering is probably as good as the global fiestas. I am not an expert but maybe someone with more experience can share their thoughts.


Reverse Cam & Sensors

The adaptive lines will only appear if your steering is not in the centre position before you have engaged the reverse gear, I think its a bug, shouldn't be in this way. They should try solving this with a software update. Camera quality though is great.
Sensors work like a charm and also take the door mounted spare wheel in consideration too. Great Job on those.
You can program the reverse cam to be on even after you change the drive mode to D, the camera stays on till you cross 15 kmph, great for those quick turns right after you have reversed your car. I generally keep it on when I am in slow moving traffic too, helps me a lot. The camera perspective in this mode cannot be changed though.

Lights

No complaints whatsoever. For highway or for city night drives, I found the lights to be pretty good. high beams are better than the projector low beams. Fog lamps are great.

Mileage

Have done 590 km's in 14 days. In city bumper to bumper traffic I get around 9.7 kmpl and on highway at an average speed of 60 kmph, The mileage hovers around 12.5 - 13 kmpl. My driving is 90 percent in city and 10 percent highway, so I am averaging at about 10.5 kmpl overall.


Seats

Great Front and Back Seats, so no complaints there from my point of view.
People primarily looking for a spacious car, please look elsewhere.

Overall though I find Ecosport to be a great car which does most of the things right - for me and I couldn't be happier.


Note to Mods - Please change the thread if you find this post inappropriate here. Thanks

[vprabu]

Originally Posted by ravib

In my test drives, i noticed that in T+ variants, after we engage the reverse gear, the camera immediately switches on and we can see the rear view in 8" touch screen. Once we are done with reversing and shift to 1st gear for forward movement, the 8" touch screen was still showing up the rear view for may be about 15 to 30 seconds although i started moving forward and car crossed about 20 to 50 metres. The touchscreen content didn't switch to prior screen (like Radio/Settings/Navigation etc).

Are the new owners of T+ seeing this problem? Or was it just a test drive car issue. No idea if there was any specific reason to have it designed, if it is intended that way.

-Ravi

It is not a problem. It is a configuration option called camera delay. You can turn it off if you don’t like it. Please read the manual as the car has a lot of configuration, programming options. By nature, most (including me) don’t read the manual. This time I did

Auto locking needs to be programmed I guess. Will talk to service folks and share the details.

[Akshay89]

Originally Posted by ravib

In my test drives, i noticed that in T+ variants, after we engage the reverse gear, the camera immediately switches on and we can see the rear view in 8" touch screen. Once we are done with reversing and shift to 1st gear for forward movement, the 8" touch screen was still showing up the rear view for may be about 15 to 30 seconds although i started moving forward and car crossed about 20 to 50 metres. The touchscreen content didn't switch to prior screen (like Radio/Settings/Navigation etc).

Are the new owners of T+ seeing this problem? Or was it just a test drive car issue. No idea if there was any specific reason to have it designed, if it is intended that way.

-Ravi

There is a feature for driver's convenience, this is called delay cam feature which one can find it in camera settings to activate/deactivate it.

Originally Posted by vprabu

It is not a problem. It is a configuration option called camera delay. You can turn it off if you don’t like it. Please read the manual as the car has a lot of configuration, programming options. By nature, most (including me) don’t read the manual. This time I did



Auto locking needs to be programmed I guess. Will talk to service folks and share the details.

No programming needed, one can activate/deactivate auto lock from the driver settings displayed in the MID

[vprabu]

Originally Posted by Akshay89

No programming needed, one can activate/deactivate auto lock from the driver settings displayed in the MID

Can you help with the setting that will do this auto-lock job?

[blurust]

Originally Posted by Akshay89

No programming needed, one can activate/deactivate auto lock from the driver settings displayed in the MID

Originally Posted by vprabu

Can you help with the setting that will do this auto-lock job?

There's no auto-lock, that's auto unlock. A simple check. Drive the car past 30 kmph, stop the car and pull over, open your front or rear window and try to open the door from outside, it will open, so there's no auto lock in the car. However if you lock the doors manually, it won't open if you repeat the above steps.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by vprabu

It is not a problem. It is a configuration option called camera delay. You can turn it off if you don’t like it. Please read the manual as the car has a lot of configuration, programming options. By nature, most (including me) don’t read the manual. This time I did

Auto locking needs to be programmed I guess. Will talk to service folks and share the details.

Am just waiting for the car to get delivered. I guess it may be another 2 months till it reaches my home

-Ravi

[vprabu]

Originally Posted by blurust

There's no auto-lock, that's auto unlock. A simple check. Drive the car past 30 kmph, stop the car and pull over, open your front or rear window and try to open the door from outside, it will open, so there's no auto lock in the car. However if you lock the doors manually, it won't open if you repeat the above steps.

I am trying to check with the Service team to find out the details as well. Somehow I felt it locked once (hope I am not imagining things here ). I will try it again today.

Originally Posted by ravib

Am just waiting for the car to get delivered. I guess it may be another 2 months till it reaches my home

-Ravi

Wow, 2 months :-) I could not wait that long and hence changed the color from lightning blue to moonlight silver and took the delivery in a week's time.

BTW, the PDF versioin of the user manual for new Ecosport is now available on the India Ford website. Previously they had only the HTML version. Now you can download and use offline.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by vprabu

I am trying to check with the Service team to find out the details as well. Somehow I felt it locked once (hope I am not imagining things here ). I will try it again today.



Wow, 2 months :-) I could not wait that long and hence changed the color from lightning blue to moonlight silver and took the delivery in a week's time.

BTW, the PDF versioin of the user manual for new Ecosport is now available on the India Ford website. Previously they had only the HTML version. Now you can download and use offline.

Thanks. I will check out ford website to download the PDF. Good task to do for two months of waiting. BTW, i did check with Ford and they confirmed that for high demand lightning blue color, the waiting period is 60 to 90 days.

-Ravi

[roby_dk]

Originally Posted by ravib

In my test drives, i noticed that in T+ variants, after we engage the reverse gear, the camera immediately switches on and we can see the rear view in 8" touch screen. Once we are done with reversing and shift to 1st gear for forward movement, the 8" touch screen was still showing up the rear view for may be about 15 to 30 seconds although i started moving forward and car crossed about 20 to 50 metres. The touchscreen content didn't switch to prior screen (like Radio/Settings/Navigation etc).

Are the new owners of T+ seeing this problem? Or was it just a test drive car issue. No idea if there was any specific reason to have it designed, if it is intended that way.

-Ravi

This is not a problem it is a feature which can be turned on and off as required. I find it quite useful at times where you might need multiple to and fro movement to come out of tight spaces. The camera display remains on at all times till you move out of those tricky situations and attain speed as per manual. Another example is while taking U-turns in market area where you might require similar movements hence keeping the rear display on at times will definitely save you from sudden misses.

From Endeavour's Manual:
Note: The system will automatically switch off once your vehicle speed has reached approximately 15 km/h if you have switched on the camera delay in the information display.

[dushmin]

Originally Posted by vprabu

BTW, the PDF versioin of the user manual for new Ecosport is now available on the India Ford website. Previously they had only the HTML version. Now you can download and use offline.

Sir , could you please share the link? I checked the Ford India website , it takes me to the old manuals.

[blurust]

Originally Posted by dushmin

Sir , could you please share the link? I checked the Ford India website , it takes me to the old manuals.

The manual is also accessible on ford owners app, for IOS and for Android.

[vprabu]

Originally Posted by dushmin

Sir , could you please share the link? I checked the Ford India website , it takes me to the old manuals.

You can use your VIN number to get the new model PDF.

[dushmin]

Originally Posted by blurust

The manual is also accessible on ford owners app, for IOS and for Android.

I do not have a VIN to login/register to the app. Is it somehow possible to upload the User manual here ?

[vprabu]

Originally Posted by dushmin

I do not have a VIN to login/register to the app. Is it somehow possible to upload the User manual here ?

Here you go.

EcoSport_B515_CBW_MCA_Owner's_Manual_India.pdf

[vprabu]

Today, while starting the car in the evening I saw the 'wrench' symbol appearing the on the dash and the display in the MID said 'See manual'. In the manual it says 'Service Engine soon'. Can someone clarify on what this means?