[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Yes even I learned the above facts as you have written here, the hard way. Blundering about daily in my Scorpio which was mostly empty and very bumpy indeed, I started experiencing neck ache and back ache and so on. Realized that it would be best to go a couple of segments higher to the best available compact SUV at the time, which had comfort, finesse, safety, luxury etc all rolled into one neat, smart, compact package. Hence the Yeti.


This clean accelerating sound of the EcoSport harked me back to 1999 when my friend who was a Ford Engineer, lent me a brand new Ikon 1.6 Josh machine to play with one weekend, in exchange for my Gypsy. This was just before the Ikon got officially launched! I remember the same thrilling high revving engine sound from that Ikon driving it about near Besant Nagar beach in Madras. Lovely thing!

Exactly. I am not sure about others but if I were to drive an empty huge car, I would feel like a bus driver. I prefer a compact car wrapped around me snuggly. Compact enough to scoot through traffic and park easy. 5-up and boot-stuffing should concern taxi-wallas, in my opinion. Where are the joint families these days? And who stuffs cars these days? Almost every one has a car of his own. If, you look at rush-hour traffic, most cars are solo or 2-up.

As for driving with 5 up, I really HATE doing that. I mean no matter which car it is, the minute you load up , the whole dynamics of the car change. If it SUV then it would roll and sway more. If sedan, then rear would sag and you would be scrapping every bump in town. And not to mention how loading up effects handling, ride ( suspension bottoming ), poor braking, poor acceleration and poor steering response. Does any one really enjoy driving in this manner? Isn't it better to hire a Tavera/Innova and let the driver do the bus-driving for that once or twice in a year affair?

With regard to Ecosport, good to hear it feels like the josh machine of yester years. There indeed is some JOSH in Ford petrols. The petrol Ikon I drove years back was very free-revving. It was like a friction-less engine. Am waiting anxiously for this thing to come to my city. Am yet to see it in metal.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

With regard to Ecosport, good to hear it feels like the josh machine of yester years. There indeed is some JOSH in Ford petrols. The petrol Ikon I drove years back was very free-revving. It was like a friction-less engine. Am waiting anxiously for this thing to come to my city. Am yet to see it in metal.

The Ikon 1.6's josh was enhanced by that brilliant steering as well. From the reviews, it looks like that particular aspect is missing in the Ecosport. Even though an EPS, the new Fiesta got a brilliant steering, and I was expecting that in the Ecosport as well. Anyway if the Ecoboost clicks, we may probably get to see that in the Fiesta soon.

[damager21]

Originally Posted by ishaanranderia

Friends, i went and gave a token to SC ford, i got my token number as 179 (which means 179 people have already given a token for it and it's been only 2 days since they started accepting the token). In any case they had a brochure which was a dealer copy and saw that 7 colours will be offered. Kinetic Blue, Orange, Red, Silver, Grey, Black and White.
Apart from that those worried about the difference in specs between the Titanium and Titanium (O) version. The normal Titanium version will come with start stop, keyless entry but will loose out on side curtain airbags and leather seats.
But for the Automatic titanium version all four, curtain airbags, leather seats, start stop button and keyless entry is missing. Depending on the price i'm looking at Titanium Ecoboost. What some people are forgetting is that there is another kind of urban buyer who already has other cars and wants the Ecosport as an additional car or a car for someone else in the family for whom the car is a perfect alternative to the usual sedans. For the boot and 5th passenger arent the foremost concern.

P.S. i forgot to mention another difference between the Titanium and Titanium (O) version is the interior tone. Titanium (O) will come with black and dark shadow grey interiors where as the brochure mentioned Black and Grey interiors for the rest of the variants, which i think means that the rest of the variants will have a lighter grey tone to the interior, which to my mind isn't as nice as the dark grey we see here in the pictures, again this shade i haven't seen with my own eyes, i'm just mentioning what is mentioned in the brochure

Congrats for booking your EcoSport and thanks for sharing some additional information on the specs which was not known till now. Its surprising to know that Titanium version will come with Push start button because the vehicle on display at malls did not have one. So if this indeed is true it also means that there could be some surprise in the specs as far Ambiente and Trend version are concerned.

I know for a fact that from next week EcoSport will be kept on display at all showrooms and even test drives will be available.

Hormazd confirms unofficial launch of EcoSport

[ampere]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

Well said Ampere / Balan. I do not understand this obsession of some people with 5th seat and boot space. How often do we take 5th person and stuff boot? Most of us do it 5 times a year. Now, out of 365 days, if you use 5th seat and boot space only 5 days then which is more important-- 360 days of discomfort driving a huge empty car or 5 days of discomfort driving a packed compact car? I prefer latter. And personally, if I have to stuff my car, I would hire a taxi like Tavera/Innova and let the driver sweat through traffic while I involve in conversation with my guests.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Yes even I learned the above facts as you have written here, the hard way. Blundering about daily in my Scorpio which was mostly empty and very bumpy indeed, I started experiencing neck ache and back ache and so on. Realized that it would be best to go a couple of segments higher to the best available compact SUV at the time, which had comfort, finesse, safety, luxury etc all rolled into one neat, smart, compact package. Hence the Yeti.

@Sagar I totally agree to your views. I also subscribe to the same set. But if I just play the devil's advocate (which I did before my purchase of the Duster), its only 5 days of the year when we head out. Again its those 5 days we tend to look forward to! So why not the space ?

True as I said earlier, the space for the fifth guy is something which we can easily pass. But the boot is an aspect which is sometimes difficult to let go.
Why tell others, even I found it difficult to digest, having driven a Fusion with huge boot. (Fusion is still compact to me)

About two suitcases, gadget bags (Read Camera, GPS, chargers etc! ) , Food bags, kid stuffs etc are things which most families carry for the road trips. Its, true they can be packed smartly and things can be cut down to size. But many a times these things tend to border on irritation. To me thats the only chink in the armour.

I do make these statements, without actually seeing the car. I should be in a better position to judge, once I see it in flesh.

Other than that, for distance touring, more than space around, its the leg room which is important. And thats the part which makes the drive fatigue free. As the person driving, it does not make the difference much, but to the passengers in the rear seat, it means a lot.

[shankar.balan]

Here are the 2 blurry pics of the ecosport we saw this morning near HSR. As mentioned in the earlier post the bloke driving it about is a part of their Urban Discoveries program and was quite pleasant to chat with at the traffic lights...


Reading the Motorbeam article, is it true that the EcoSport with the EcoBoost engine will Not get a few goodies like Hill Hold Control and ESP? Experts please clarify!

I really want to do my Golf bag test in this car....

[thiagust]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Reading the Motorbeam article, is it true that the EcoSport with the EcoBoost engine will Not get a few goodies like Hill Hold Control and ESP? Experts please clarify!

Not sure about ESP but hill hold is available only on the AT.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by thiagust

Not sure about ESP but hill hold is available only on the AT.

Both ESP and hill hold are a feature of the AT only. So there won't be an EcoBoost with ESP and hill hold.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Both ESP and hill hold are a feature of the AT only. So there won't be an EcoBoost with ESP and hill hold.

Wonder why Ford is doing this? Would it not be far more sensible to have that petrol EcoBoost fully loaded? Considering that they are trying to woo consumers back to petrol via this route?

[thiagust]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Wonder why Ford is doing this? Would it not be far more sensible to have that petrol EcoBoost fully loaded? Considering that they are trying to woo consumers back to petrol via this route?

From what I have heard and read , ecoboost is going to be the most priced version. This would be the way for ford to reclaim the investment done so far. It might be on par with the top end diesel version. If Ford has to add more goodies, then the pricing would go still high and end up making it really insane.

[damager21]

TAI user has uploaded official brochure of EcoSport. Variants and respective features seems to be in lines with the leaked info except that Titanium version will now come with Push button start.

It seems prospective buyers have no choice but to go for Titanium or higher version of EcoSport as lower variants do not have CD/ MP3 player, Rear parking sensors, Airbags, 3.5" MFD screen and Fuel computer displayed in cluster.

[blurust]

If this is exactly what we are going to get, then ford please price ecosport auto titanium at less than, equal to 10 lakhs Ex showroom . If not i might have to go back to fiesta auto.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Wonder why Ford is doing this? Would it not be far more sensible to have that petrol EcoBoost fully loaded? Considering that they are trying to woo consumers back to petrol via this route?

Good point. It appears that all these permutations mean that there'll be no 'true' top-end version!

I've just been reading up on ESP, and a majority of the hardware required is part of ABS. A key hardware difference is that ABS uses a modulator to momentarily reduce brake pressure, the ESP modulator needs to increase brake pressure.

Hill-hold - not sure if this is applied at the brakes, or the gearbox. If its the gearbox, it's probably a feature of the autobox. Then again, if we're having modulators for ESP, it shouldn't be all that hard for the modulator to energize the brakes for all wheels.

[sharninder]

Originally Posted by damager21

TAI user has uploaded official brochure of EcoSport. Variants and respective features seems to be in lines with the leaked info except that Titanium version will now come with Push button start. It seems prospective buyers have no choice but to go for Titanium or higher version of EcoSport as lower variants do not have CD/ MP3 player, Rear parking sensors, Airbags, 3.5" MFD screen and Fuel computer displayed in cluster.

That brochure looks a little weird. The titanium (o) version doesn't get 4 speakers but gets two tweeters ?

From this the titanium does seem like the version that'll sell the most. The lower versions get almost no safety features. Seems like they're trying to do the duster game of launching with a really low price tag knowing fully well no one will buy it. I just hope the Titanium version. Is priced sensibly.

[Dr.PK]

A big hello to all Fellow BHPians.
I do not have words to describe the review by Vid6639 and GTO. Deserve 'SIX' stars actually, five are less for them !!! Most of the fellow BHPians will agree to the same.
It was Vid6639's review that helped me to decide on my Maruti Ertiga ZDI.
And this review makes me think about buying the ECOSPORT now !!
Deserves a 'standing ovation.'
Thank you very much indeed gentlemen for such a great review.
Regards to all.

[Vid6639]

So looks like the AT gets side and curtain airbags but loses out on smart keyless entry and start / stop button.

That's a very nicely specced AT variant.