[quickdraw]

Hey Guys, as mentioned earlier I took part in and won the Ford EcoSport Urban Discoveries contest.



I spent a good 3 weeks with a car and had a lot of fun shooting some fun videos. Our personal favourite was this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1U76127QTM

You can check out all of my videos and pictures on the Urban Discoveries website here : http://ecosportdiscoveries.co.in/team/mumbai-boyz/

I had Digen and Nikhil, my friends as team-mates who won international trip vouchers. And I won an Eco Sport, and just today selected the varient, color trim that I am going for Black Diesel Titanium (O) I really wanted to go for the Automatic one because of the dual clutch but, since I was going to give this car to dad it was his decision and he wanted diesel.

Fun fact which I mentioned earlier about Gift Tax - http://taxguru.in/income-tax/tds-und...m-lottery.html I'll have to pay 30% of the ex-showroom cost of the car to the Govt of India.

India Shining!

I still can't believe that I've won (this is the first time I won anything in my life) But I did work very hard for it, I self taught myself how to shoot/edit videos. And you can see my videos progressively got better (at-least thats what I think).

Here are some pictures from the period that we had the car.













It was a crazy journey for me, I registered on the contest just for fun. While researching to buy a new car. I didn't want to go for the Duster because I felt the car was not worth the Rs 13 lakh asking price. I got called for the video auditions, which I decided to attend just for kicks. And the rest is history.

Now lets get to the car. I know some bhpians have asked me a bunch of questions about the eco-boost engine so i'll try and talk about things that I noticed.

Things I liked

• Fantastic power, totally unexpected. I used to let me friends drive the car and ask them to guess the engine capacity. Have answers ranging from 1.8lt all the way to 2.4lt.
• Styling, this thing turned so many heads! Everywhere i stopped there were cars that stopped and people came to ask me questions. Infact you can see that I complied all of these interactions into a video.
• Driving Feel, I am not an SUV guy, and honestly initially I was a bit scared about the higher driving position of the car. But this car is an absolute joy to drive. I have owned a Mondeo before and would definitely call the EcoSport a drivers car.
• Stereo - Rocking factory fitted stereo. And the sync and all that you all already know about.
• Pothole Magic Carpet - I drive a Polo and Swift and have many a times gone into bad roads and potholes which completely upset the fabric of my being. Bombay roads were really really devavoured by the ecosport. The changes in height, the bad cracks. Everything. The ecosport floats over them.
• POWERRRRRRR - I loved a turbo petrol engine, I've never driven a petrol turbo before. Its addictive and fast. I have touched very very questionable speeds on a daily baises in this car on the way to work (I live in Navi Mumbai and travel via Palm Beach road)
• Braking and Stability - Fantastic for a car of this size, I could drive it like my hatch, make sudden changes in direction. We drifted it in a closed parking lot and dirt. The car will not let you down in case of an emergancy manovuer.

Things I didn't like

• The steering rack is exposed and rubs against my shoes sometimes while turning.
• I didn't like how the gear level felt :( it slots nicely, but I don't like the actual lever.
• I felt the main lights could be stronger, I would highly recommend you go for the fog lights. They are quite useful.
• The centre console EcoSport holder thingy. There is a little rubber mat on the bottom of the centre console which feels of cheap quality.
• No dimmer for centre console/speedo :(

These are some of the things I can remember on the top of my head right now. But feel free to ask me specific questions. I would answer it to my best capacity.

[rajneeesh]

Congrats Quickdraw. Could you please share the mileage figures recorded by you. You surely would have covered a lot of miles in the three weeks you had the car.

[zimbly]

Yeah Quickdraw, Mileage figure would be really welcome. I test drove the ecoboost and switched the trip meter to "0" for avg fuel. I only managed a 8.8 during the ride. and i definitely drove with a light foot for the duration of the test drive. I mentioned this to the SA, who then took me for another test drive with him at the helm. He was pottering around in 5th gear without any acceleration input(speed was 45kmph). There was no knocking at all from the engine and he returned with a fuel economy of 16kmpl. i was amazed the engine could lug the weight so effortlessly, but at the same time driving with a bit of zest is a given in a car as accomplished as this. so lets hear your take on the fuel figures.

P.S: Congrats on winning the Urban Discoveries contest and the Ecosport. Well done.

[sansvk]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

I felt the main lights could be stronger, I would highly recommend you go for the fog lights. They are quite useful.

You are probably the first to give a review about the head lights on the Ecosport. Just hope its not as pathetic as the Figo's.

[StrangeWizard]

Hey congrats on winning the EcoSport !

Will you get immediate delivery or even you'll have to wait for 3-4 months?

Cheers

[PatienceWins]

Congrats on winning the ecosport. How is the mileage of the car?

[nipcarlover]

Congrats on winning the contest quickdraw!
Nice to see a BHPian winning the EcoSport

Have seen a few pics of the Black EcoSport and it looks quite nice, much less 'flashy' compared to the orange most of the EcoSports so far pictured.

Would love to hear a few more detailed impressions of the car in day to day use.

Congrats again!

[amansanc]

Congrats quickdraw on winning such a nice contest! I always thought these kind of contests are fake and they always let some of their employees win. But seeing you win, i have started believing that SOME of these competitions are real

Originally Posted by StrangeWizard

Will you get immediate delivery or even you'll have to wait for 3-4 months?

Cheers

This is exactly what i was gonna ask

[saisrujan]

Thanks for the report. Dispelled several fears I had about the ecoboost engine with your 'POWERRRRR' description. Here are some questions:

• How does the ecoboost engine do under full-load on a slope? Do we need to slip clutch in first gear?
• Which are the situations, if any, when the engine feels 'out of breath'?
• How comfortable is this engine with stop-and-go traffic? Will it pick up from zero in second gear (heard the second gear is quite tall and didn't have a chance to test this well in my TD)
• Can I use voice-commands to request for a song to be played from my bluetooth connected smart-phone? Ford's facebook page says I can, but it didn't work when I tried.
• Did you ever face issues with the thick A-Pillar?
• After the 15 days of rough driving, did you notice any squeaks, loose contacts - from the boot, dashboard, anywhere?
• The mat-finished cladding all around the car - will it get scratched quickly? Is that easy to maintain?
• Are there any bothersome reflections of the dash / chrome AC vents on the windshield / windows?
• Last but not the least - real world mileage?

[puchoo]

Many many congrats!!! i know how i excited i get when i win movie tickets , this is a different level alltogether

And yes , winning something in India can be quite expensive , that 30% can hurt and its charged upwards of a value of 5000 , or at least used to be!!

[pamishra]

Ahh, congratulations for the great win!!

In your report, you do not mention of the city drivability. Can you please comment how did you find the turbo-lag? Is it really a problem for city slow speed driving?

[pranjal1984]

Congratulations dude. The black ecosport is surely going to turn a lot of heads. You deserve it for your focussed effort in the campaign.

[ghodlur]

Congatulations Quickdraw. You have made the T-BHP family proud by winning the contest. Must be a nice feeling to have won the car in which you were driving. BTW can you share which variant of the Ecosport you drove for the contest. Can you also share the 3 weeks travails - where did you travel to?

"We drifted it in a closed parking lot and dirt" - Now this is something we are keenly interested in knowing more.

[gr8guzzler]

Congrats Quickdraw. Good to see a tbhpian win this, I always thought these company sponsored events were always rigged. Nice to know that a normal person has a fair chance to participate and win.

Cheers!!!

[SDP]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

Hey Guys, as mentioned earlier I took part in and won the Ford EcoSport Urban Discoveries contest.
....

Congratulations quickdraw!

Good to hear first-person experience about ride quality, stability and brakes in real-life conditions.

Things I didn't like

• The steering rack is exposed and rubs against my shoes sometimes while turning.
  ...
  
• I felt the main lights could be stronger, I would highly recommend you go for the fog lights. They are quite useful.
  ...

Ecosport shares those two "Things I didn't like" with XUV500!

Congratulations once again! Have fun with the car!

Just a word of advice: Go easy with the drifting. Besides the media-person who toppled the car in Goa, last week another EcoSport toppled during test-drive by a prospective customer. In general, drifting with a high GC car is a bad idea.