Likes:- Compact size and visually appealing proportions
- Elevated seating position
- Equipment levels, lots of “cool features”
- Exterior fit and finish & Paint quality
- Effortless gear shift and light clutch.
Dislikes:- Hard dashboard plastics that don’t fit in a snug way – hints at rattles down the road.
- Limited thigh support in driver seat especially for tall people,
- Big blind spots at A-Pillar positions
- Engine not the most spirited when it comes to highway overtaking maneuvers
- Front of vehicle not visible during parking even for a tall driver.
Genesis and Alternatives Considered:
My Polo TDI was past the three year mark. It had served me well, no issues during the entire ownership. The car looked as good as new till the very end, it had absolutely amazing paint quality. It was immaculately put together, with good quality interiors even on the base trim that I had, no rattles or niggles. Decent city mileage (around 13 kpl) and very good highway mileage (nearly 19-20 kmpl). The only problem I had towards the very end was some shaking beyond speeds of 90 KMPL (probably a wheel alignment issue). Well, I got the three year itch. Though the Polo was my second best loved car among the seven I had owned in my life at various stages, but the low seating position, the complaints from the kids about poor leg space at the back, the heavy turbo lag while driving in the city, absence of safety features were finally denting some of my enthusiasm for this car. Due to the missing ABS/Airbags, every time I had to a long distance trip, I would take the bigger car at home, a Honda CRV. The CRV had fantastic highway manners, very accurate in every respect, but it guzzled fuel - no more than 10 KMPL in the highway and barely 6 KMPL in the city.
I was very keen and clear on a few things about my next car:
- My car is not just for transportation. Like it or not, it does and will make a statement about the owner in our country.
- It should have a personality (e.g. like the POLO – German engineered, one of the best put together cars in the price bracket, up-market perception and feel good factor etc)
- Should be a globally fresh design at the time of launch
- Should have a decently high seating position, should have adequate back seat room (not necessarily generous, but adequate to prevent too many complaints from the kids)
- Should have mandatory safety features – ABS, and Front Airbags.
- As you can see my criteria are more of “lifestyle criteria” not necessarily functional criteria.
I started looking for my next car at the beginning of this year. Ford Ecosport was definitely in my short list, even though it had not even been launched. The moment I saw the pictures of the unveiling in Auto Expo last year, I was hooked to the looks of this car. Besides looks, the most important factor to me was - the car was being introduced to us here in India ahead of most markets in the world, and Ford was going to introduce a fully spec-d version for India (not a stripped down version compared to global markets).
The main alternative I had playing in my mind for months was the Skoda Rapid/VW Vento twins. They were in my consideration set, primarily due to the legendary 1.6 TDI engine and the more than satisfying ownership experience I had with the Polo. In addition, they had decent level of kit, with new features that kept being introduced incrementally, like the RCD 320 music system. On the Skoda, there were periodic deals and special editions to enable one to get a good deal. I rejected the Duster outright, although it was a new model and we could get the car in India almost same time as rest of the world got it. But it looked uncouth and reminded me much of the 90s designs Ford Icon – designed primarily for low cost and ease of manufacture (no offense to Duster Owners).
Two more vehicles were added into the mix (actually after I had pre-booked the Ecosport). The first vehicle that came suddenly into my consideration set was the Linea T-Jet. It was being re-launched just around the time I booked the Ecopsort and was very tempting, due to the outstanding value proposition based on pricing that Fiat came up with. Plus, the solidity of the car and the T-Jet engine, about which I had heard much in Team-BHP. Finally, one more contender was added in June - The Polo GT TSI. I was still a bit remorseful over having sold the Polo early in anticipation of the arrival of the Ecosport. I missed the tough little car and all the thoughtful and precise engineering. Then came the reviews in Team BHP and other magazines about the blistering performance of the Polo GT TSI. I must say I was tempted! Especially, since delivery times of the Ecosport were uncertain and there was a recall issued by Ford days after launch, which got me a bit worried.
As you can see, I was comparing cars across multiple segments and also Diesel and Petrol variants – a mini SUV, two sedans, and a hatchback! Some of you may think this is not a rational decision process, but let me tell you, I think it is not so dissimilar to the way some other shoppers I know are decifiding on their next cars. Today, there is a new segment of buyers in the market who dig technological sophistication, global freshness, value based pricing, urban maneuver-ability etc - assorted factors rolled into their purchase consideration set. This is especially true for buyers of second cars for the home.
Prior to booking the Ecopsport, I took a test drive on the Rapid TDI. The engine was every bit as good as what the reviews said. What a huge improvement from the 1.2 TDI on my Polo! The car had tons of rear legroom as well. But some of the glaring shortcomings of the Polo were still there. A very low seating position, making it hard for elders such as my parents to get in and out of, limited road presence on highways (you do not get treated by other drivers much better than Maruti Altos do - from the front, the Vento/rapid has exactly the same amount of road presence as the Polo/Fabia. Plus I was used to the identical interiors as the Polo for three years already and did not get a “new car” feel. So I ruled out these two twins from my consideration.
This was back in May. At that time, I did not see anything else that excited me in the 10 Lac price range. I decided to go ahead and get in front of the line for the Ecosport. I pre-booked the day the Chennai dealer formally started accepting pre-bookings (May 22). I had initially booked the 1.0 Ecoboost Petrol variant. As I said before, I am a big fan of new technology, and the Ecoboost sounded very exciting, with 125 PS of power form a 1.0 litre engine and a host of awards to its credit. Then I went through quite a bit of dilemma – The news of recalls on the Ecosport, no firm delivery commitments, tepid reviews about the 1.0 engine in Team BHP and other places (high turbo lag, low fuel efficiency etc). There were a couple of “hot” launches of cars with just as advanced and much stronger engines – the Fiat Linea TJet and Polo GT TSI. After quite some deliberation, I ruled out the Linea – it is a fairly old body design from back in 2009 and may be refreshed soon or even completely renewed. Plus, talking to a friend who owned one, Fuel efficiency was pretty dismal.
It was hard to let go of the idea of changing to a booking of the GT TSI. All the reviews were singing praises about the performance of the engine and transmission. Yes, there were worries about the long term reliability of the DSG box, but it seemed like a chance worth taking. Finally, it was the fact that the interiors and look and feel of the Polo TSI would be too close to the car I owned for the last three years, that helped get to a decision - With one more Polo, I would miss much of the new car thrill, except for the new engine and transmission. So, I dropped all the other alternatives and settled down to wait for my Ecosport allocation.
Buying Experience:
I first called the dealer in February 2013, when there were rumors that “unofficial” bookings were on. I got the responses that bookings were not yet started. Same response for calls in April and early May. Maybe, if I had gone directly to the dealership and talked to the sales people, they may have taken my booking “unofficially”. In any case, I saw the post on Team BHP from one of our esteemed members around May 21st that bookings were being accepted. Called the dealer again, and he said bookings will start next day with an advance amount of Rs. 20K.
The very next day, I went to the dealership with the advance cheque and booked the car. It seemed to be a fairly “official” booking process, since I had to fill out a couple of proper looking forms etc. On inquiring if I was ahead of everyone else, the dealer said I was around #50 on his list! I asked him how that is possible, since I had come in the very first day the booking started?? The answer was “Sir, it is nearly afternoon and there have been a lot of visitors already” There was only one other party discussing the Ecopsort in the showroom through the 1 hour I spent there, so I am sure there must have been some sort of unofficial pre-booking over several months and these must be the people ahead of the list in front of me. Still, I was assured of delivery in the “first batch, probably at the end of June”. The good thing with this dealership was, they allowed me to choose the color and variant after pricing is announced. A few days later, the dealer called saying the advance amount announced by Ford was 50K and I had to pay the balance. I did that, and then there was silence for a couple of weeks.
The official launch and price announcement kept getting pushed from June 11th to 19th to finally 26th. The web-cast announcement from Ford on the 26th June was pretty memorable to watch, with the positively surprising pricing being announced. The very next day, I got a call asking me to choose the variant and color. I now went for a proper test drive of the Ecoboost variant and the Diesel variant. My desire for the Ecoboost was more of a draw based on the supposed tech content and awards it won. But after driving in Chennai traffic, I knew this was not the right one for me. I was going to primarily drive the car in the city. In bumper-to-bumper traffic, it was hard to get it going after a complete stop witht he Ecoboost. I had to do too many gear changes and also I found the transmission a bit Jerky at low engine speeds. On the other hand, the Diesel was very linear, with solid low-end pulling power. I could drive in 2nd or 3rd gear most of the time and seldom had to use the first gear. Also some research revealed some of the fuel economy woes from Ecoboost engines that were overly downsized compared to the requirements of the application and also some information about recent recalls of Ecoboost engines in the US. Same week, there were two price increases for Petrol, reminding one that petrol is indeed liquid gold in India! So, I decided to switch my booking to the Diesel version. The dealer was very co-oerative in chanign my initial booking preference - since allocations were managed by the dealer locally, it was easier to do this. As far as color was concerned it was a tough decision. The Mars Red is an unbelievably vibrant color and it is hard to resist once you see it in person. But I had had a Red polo now for 3 years and maybe it was time for a change. Among all other colors, the Sea Grey looked best to me. So I gave these two colors as my choice colors.
When entering my choices into the dealers’ booking log, I saw my name was 27th or so on the list. Ahead of me, there were maybe 15-17 Diesel variant bookings, 5 or so Ecoboost variant bookings and a couple of 1.5 Petrol & Auto bookings. So I was pretty confident I will get the car in a couple of weeks time. End of June came and went and no news of deliveries. By mid July, I was calling the Sales Associate a couple of times every week. I wrote the dealership an e-mail also. On July 30th, I got a call saying my car had been allocated and I can come in and pay in full and submit the required documents. Once the payment was made, the dealer handled the rest of the delivery process very smoothly and I had my car delivered 3-4 days after payment was completed, on 08/08.
On road price was 10.8 Lacs. The dealer was pretty firm on the Essentials pack (priced at Rs. 7200 - mud Guard, floor mats, trunk mat and waxoyl body coat), dealer-provided insurance (about Rs. 36K) and Extended Warranty. I got a quote externally for bumper to bumper insurance for Rs. 23K but did not want to argue much with the dealer, given they had been treating me well so far.
Equipment Levels:
The equipment level in the Ecosport puts many vehicles in the higher D segment to shame. The Titanium Optional variant I purchased had leather seats, 6 airbags, push–button start, one touch up/down windows, pinch protection, reclining rear seat back, a good quality music system with 6 speakers and Bluetooth Audio and Phone connectivity, tilt and telescoping steering, turn indicators on side mirrors, excellent paint quality with metallic finish, cooled glove box, under seat storage, driver armrest,……(too many items to list in full, but you get my drift!). I think Ford had done enough market research to know that equipment level is what sways the average Indian Buyer, next to price and fuel efficiency. If these three are indeed the main buying criteria, my surmise is that the Ecopsort Diesel is going to take massive market share from a couple of segments up and down (and sideways ) in the pyramid.
Exterior Styling and Design
The exterior styling is full of character. The stance of the Ecosport conveys a young, robust, energetic, fit for purpose personality. It makes a statement with mostly straight lines and creases, but avoids odd-looking flourishes like the semi-circular crease in the XUV’s side rear area (which I hate). The paint quality is superb, my side wing mirror brushed another car’s on day-1 of my ownership and I was expecting some minute scratches, but there were none. The front grille gives the car an imposing look, despite being a sub 4 meter compact car that is not exactly very tall compared to the proper SUV clan. The chrome strips are what gives this grille some character. I saw an Ambiente version being delivered the same day I took delivery, without the chrome strips in the grille and it actually looked almost cartoonish (no offense to Ambiente Owners) - a massive black serrated plastic plate in front of the car. The chunky door handles are very satisfying to hold and convey a feeling of solidity. The roof rails add a bit to the height and reinforce the rather weak SUV credentials of the vehicle.
Build Quality, Fit & Finish
In terms of the build quality and fit & finish, the Ecosport is like two somewhat contradictory worlds rolled into one. The exterior - in terms of solidity, quality of the paint finish, how everything feels well put together etc - is in the league of a much more expensive car like a VW Passat. The doors are heavy and close with a “thunk”. They are nicely spring loaded and well damped with double beading.
The interior is a different story. If you take aside the front dash, the quality of the rest of the interior is OK for this segment. The leather seats are well stitched (although the leather itself is not of the best quality, my skin felt a bit sweaty and uncomfortable after a long ride). The inside plastics on the doors are of acceptable quality. The padding at the elbow position on the inside of the front seat door is brilliant and provides a nice place to rest the elbow on long rides (this is something I sorely missed in the Polo). The Front dash though, is sub-par. The plastics feel hard to touch in many places. The top of the dash itself is acres and acres of dark grey/black plastic as far as the eye can see. Some parts, like the glove compartment and in the underside of the steering column feel brittle. There is definitely a good chance this area will develop rattles very quickly.
Interior Space & Comfort
In terms of space, the car is “just what the the doctor ordered” for me. There is sufficient leg, head and shoulder room at the Driver’s seat. Even with the driver seat adjusted to my driving position (I am 6’ 2”) there was enough space for my mom to easily get in and sit right behind. My kids (who used to complain of poor leg space in the Polo) no longer complain about the back seat space. I wanted a compact and comfortable car that would be easy to drive and park in the city without a huge compromise on space like in the Polo and the Ecosport is all of that. In terms of a compact footprint for city driving, the Ecosport has the perfect length. But for some reason, I feel it could have been a wee bit narrower. I scraped my side wing mirror against that of a parked car on day 1. After being used to the Polo, I can say this car is certainly wider and not necessarily a car you can slip through those really narrow gaps in city streets.
Other Points about the Interior
The aircon is very effective and cools the cabin fast, as many others have already said. However, I found the ACC to be somewhat hyperactive and tries to reach the desired temperature too fast. If, for instance, you start the car and want the inside temperature to be a couple of degrees lower than the outside, the automatic control seems to make the AC start full blast and then reduce it progressively every few seconds rather than realizing the temperature difference is not much going easy on the blower. I feel uncomfortable with this "instant full blast" sometimes, since it is noisy and the sheer force of that is a bit uncomfortable.
To me, the front seat is perfect except for one thing. The base is too short and lacks thigh support. This is hardly a major deal in short commutes in-city, but could get annoying on long highway drives, especially for tall people. I think I will have to look for some sort of additional bolstering like a seat cushion or something similar on long trips. The Glove box is very small, and once you keep the owners manual docket inside, there is hardly any space left. There is a nifty aircon vent that can be opened or closed by rotating a small invisible knob inside the glove box with your finger. I only wished the glove box had been larger, it is hard to believe how Ford managed to get half a dozen soda bottles in there for their advertisements! The storage box under the front passenger seats is a really useful feature, especially since the glove box is so tiny.
Driving Impressions, Engine Performance:
I went for a long drive, covering both city traffic and the East Coast highway (well over a 100 kms) last weekend. The vehicle has 180 kms on the odometer now (62 when delivered to me). My usage pattern is typically around 12 KMs or so daily commute to office and a 50-60 km trip in the weekends. I know this running does not justify Diesel by traditional calculations, but I like the feeling that my car can do a long range trip and have very good fuel efficiency for long out-of-town trips. Plus, the resale of my Polo Diesel was a breeze, I had only less than 25% depreciation in 3 years, so this experience has biased me towards Diesels.
The 1.5 TDCI engine is a very peppy sort. It resembles an eager and talkative child, almost impatient to get going at any time. When the vehicle is started, the engine idles quietly, something about the sound suggesting it wants to get going. Slot into first and the engine pulls neatly, even up a slope without any accelerator input. The response to accelerator input is very sharp, there is hardly any turbo lag in the first gear. The second gear is also very potent, able to move the vehicle from crawling speeds very easily. The only time you may a feel a bit of turbo lag is if you try to navigate a big speed breaker entirely in second gear and come to an almost complete stop and then have to pull back to a much higher speed quickly. It then takes a second or two to spool up and start pull hard. As many of the reviews indicate, the third gear is a potent weapon for city traffic that is moving well. The range of speeds possible in this gear is pretty broad ( I could use it right from 25-30 kph to about 60 kph, still not doing RPMs over 2700 or so at the high end). All three gears so far are precisely progressive. Between 3rd to 4th, I felt a slight gap (i.e., the third is a bit short while the 4th is a bit tall). There is similar gap between the 4th and the 5th gears. The fifth gear is very tall, I could cruise at about 90 kph with the revs below 2000 rpm. There seemed to be plenty of juice left and I am sure I would be able to reach 120 or so pretty quickly, just did not want to go too much over 2000 rpm range, since the card has not been broken in yet. So, Ford seems to have a hit a sweet formula for combining short gearing in city (1-2-3) and quite tall gearing for highways (4-5). It would just have been great if the Ecosport had six gears, some of the gaps as above could have been avoided.
On the highway, the engine is a perfectly happy cruiser. The chassis feels perfectly firm and planted and the steering weighs up nicely at high speeds. I took the vehicle up to 90 KMPH, at which speed the engine rpm was around 2000. Overtaking on highways requires somewhat careful planning, though. I was handicapped a bit since I did not want to rev the engine beyond 2500 rpm, but even if that constraint was not there, I sense the Ecosport Diesel would not be the best in this department. Don’t get me wrong, overtaking those trucks going at 60-70 kph is a breeze, but overtaking other fast moving cars was not as easy as on the Polo Diesel. The Polo Diesel is pretty poor in city driving performance, but has a strong mid-range in 5th gear that can be leveraged for those surges of power required when doing quick overtaking maneuvers. I missed that part in the Ecosport.
Gearshift & Transmission Quality
The gear shift knob is fantastic, no other word for it. It is short, nice to hold with reasonably short throws (almost as short as on the Polo Diesel) and looks elegant with a silver color paint on its head. The shift quality is pretty good, but not as good as that of the Polo. I had a couple of mis-shifts probably because I was used to the forgiving behavior of the Polo gearshift and lulled into not always fully depressing the clutch. The clutch pedal in the Ecosport seems to have the right range of movement and is soft enough for a Diesel car. The clutch needs to be fully depressed while changing gears, otherwise, you can get into a mis-shift situation. In comparison, the Duster has a really hard clutch and my left foot ached every time I drive it in the city for more than an hour or so.
Fuel Efficiency
When the car was handed to me, it had 62 kms on it and a full tank of Diesel. After driving about 100 KM mostly on highway, the fuel level indicator hardly budged. At the end of the weekend journey, when my odometer read about 180, the indicator grudgingly came down to around 7/8 full. My display showed a fuel efficiency of around 20 kmpl most of the time, I am yet to a do a full tank to full tank check. My first impression is that the highway fuel efficiency will be one of the best across hatchbacks, C-segment Sedans and mini-SUVs. Also, I think this vehicle will have a range that may top 800-850 KMs on a sedate highway journey, given its 52 liter fuel tank.
Suspension & Ride Quality
I had an opportunity to drive a relative’s Duster from Chennai to Bangalore and back a month ago. So I can compare the suspension and ride quality of Duster and Ecosport fairly well. Overall, I feel the Duster trumps in this respect, but the Ecosport is close behind. The highway between Bangalore and Chennai had many diversions, since work was on with many of the overpasses. The diversions were full of potholes and speed bumps. The Duster took this variety of terrain in its stride. I hardly had to slow down much when getting off the main highway and taking the side roads on account of the road undulations (except to calibrate for traffic, pedestrians, animals etc.). The ride was flat and completely predictable. The rear passengers were also well insulated. The amazing thing is how the Duster's suspension set up works so well both at low speeds in the city as well as higher speeds out in the highway. The Ecosport is very planted at higher speeds and the suspension is tuned to dismiss minor road irregularities in this condition. Inside the city, I found it is among the better ones compared to my earlier car (the Polo) and the CRV. However, sharp bumps and objects do interfere with the ride quality at slow speeds and send some sharp vibrations into the cabin.
Handling & On-Road Behavior:
There were a number of W-shaped speed restraint stands on ECR (courtesy of highway patrol), where you have to stop and go if there is traffic form the other side, but if not, these can be used as a nice test of the car's high speed handling of minor turns. I was concerned about the Ecosport’s steering and body stability in turns, after reading reports of the light steering. What I found was that the steering weighs up very well at speeds. There is enough resistance to avoid unintended inputs. Still it is sensitive, in the sense you need to “dial” it rather than “twist and turn” it at higher speeds. Once you get accustomed to the steering sensitivity, I think there is nothing to be concerned about regarding stability and handling. I could go through the W-speed restraints at reasonable speeds, the steering responses were spot on and the car was rock steady during the maneuvers. The grip from the stock Goodyear tires seemed to be sufficient. Again, I did not exceed 100 KMPH given the run in period and I did not drive much on wet and slippery surfaces, so more to come on this later. The brakes on the Ecosport are quite liner and have reasonable stopping power.
Specific Likes & Dislikes:
I would rate the stock music system on the Ecopsort Titanium-O variant (with two additional tweeters compared to other Ecosport variants) a 7/10. The Honda CRV's audio system (the other car in the house), would get a 8/10. Unless you are an audiophile, you would be quite fine with the stock system in the Ecosport. The sound is quite loud, but if you listen closely, you would notice it is somewhat flat in terms of sheer quality. You will probably have to make do with the stock system due to its unique shape and the level of integration to SYNC system controls etc.
One quirk I noticed on the Ecosport is that the doors do not have a multi-stage opening, but swing out wide once you push them open from the inside
. This can result in other cars in a parkign lot being hit and damaged by with the ultra-heavy doors of the Ecosport. This is also going to make it a bit tricky when opening doors on the car's right side when stopped on narrow streets with traffic. Maybe this is just me, not being used to this kind of door action, since my Polo had a nice 3-stage door opening. I observed the same problem with the boot door that swings sideways. Once opened, it swings out wide and can hit things unless this is done cautiously.
Overall Practicality
In the Practicality department, the Ecosport trumps most other cars, in my opinion. There is enough front and rear legroom to accommodate four people comfortably, the ingress and egress is quite easy due to the higher position of the seats, the 4 Metre length makes getting in and out of tight parking spaces pretty easy (though the car is quite wide and you have to watch out for that part), the luggage space is enough for small to medium duration trips, the car is very fuel efficient with a really long range, and has almost all the comfort and convenience features one would want.
Possible Niggles:
I feel sooner or later, the car will develop some rattles in the dashboard area. I could sense a loose piece of plastic under the steering column, to the left. There is none of that confidence inspiring feel that the Polo gave me regarding interior fit and finish. Ford seems to have focused on ticking as many boxes as possible with regard to features within a cost target and the dashboard is one area that should have had a re-do in terms of quality of material used, at least for the top end variant.
Summary:
In summary, I am pretty thrilled with the car. It offers an incredible value at the current price point (of course, for those who booked well enough in advance to get it in a reasonable time frame and not having to wait for a year). It is a new-age design that will hold its freshness for at least 5-6 years to come, the Diesel variant is a proven and reliable engine/transmission combination, and it has massive appeal and finesse in exterior design, fit and finish. It is very fuel efficient, loaded with features and very practical for both city and highway use. To top it all, we get the car at about a 30% lesser price point than in international markets such as UK, Argentina and China, even with the recent depreciation of the rupee. Well, I cannot ask for much more!
14th August 2013, 10:09
(25)
Thanks
) so you're not alone in comparing cars across segments.
