[Sarkar_ask]

There are already so many ownership reviews available for the Ford EcoSport in this forum, that too with vivid details, so what additional value will my ownership review bring to the readers? This was my initial thought which kept me away from writing this review, but the answer to my doubt also came from those classic ownership reviews written by fellow BHPians. I noticed that every ownership review, for the same vehicle, is different in its own way; I realized that those were not only traditional reviews, those were experiences rather which was making all those reviews unique. I am a different person, so my ownership review is also a different experience then and maybe unique too, so why not share it. So, here I am presenting my six months and 10,000 km ownership experience of my Ford EcoSport.

A very detailed official review of face-lift Ford Ecosport can be found here- https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...al-review.html (2018 Ford EcoSport Facelift 1.5L Petrol : Official Review)




Likes

- Very strongly built chassis and uncompromised quality,
- The 1.5-litre, TDCI, 4-cylinder unit mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox is a really good engine for city as well as highway; it produces 100 PS of power and 205 Nm of torque.
- 200 mm of ground clearance.
- Clutch is lighter now than previous generations.
- 8 inch Sync 3 has the best touch responsiveness in this price range. Also it connects to android auto and apple carplay.
- Automatic headlamp with projector setup.
- Auto fordable ORVM with puddle lamp
- 352L boot space is good for long journeys.
- Stability on highway is good.
- Automatic climate control works like a charm.
- No request sensor but smart entry with capacitive sensor makes life easier.
- Parking sensor and rear view camera make parking a smooth job.
- 6 airbags with ABS and EBD and hill hold control.

Dislikes

- The thick A pillar takes time to get used to it.
- Back seat leg room is very little and only 2 adults can sit comfortably.
- Given the size of the car the turning radius is comparatively large.
- Feels a bit under-powered on steep hill climb when fully loaded with 5 persons and luggage.
- The headrest position is uncomfortable for shorter passengers.
- The tail gate opens horizontally, cannot even open the boot when another vehicle is tightly parked behind mine.
- Very difficult for me to find the perfect driving position.
- High beam is not that powerful.
- No lumber support provided.
- No front parking sensor.
- No storage under the seat.
- Glove box is not cooled.



Car is a luxury

I belong to a family where owning a car is still considered a luxury, neither my father nor anyone of my very close relatives owned a car till 2008. People around me had and still having motorcycles, but to be very honest this machine has never thrilled me much, maybe because I am always afraid of riding a motorbike as I have seen some fatal accidents of my bike rider friends back in college days. On the other hand, cars and trains always amazed me, I always used to watch cars and trains when I was a kid with so much astonishment in my eyes. This love grew fonder day by day as I was growing up and knowing more about cars, the astonishment in my eyes turned into enthusiasm. I was staying with my parents while growing up in a small town named Siliguri (Darjeeling, West Bengal). As it was a small town so you could easily roam around the town in a cycle or a rickshaw or a motorbike, so my father never felt the necessity of a car in the house as everything was available nearby. Poor little me, only imagined of buying this luxury someday when I would go to office and travel the world in trains.


First car is like first love

Fast forward to some 15 years- I aged 15 more years and started doing a job in IT since last 2 years. By this time, I had become a mobile phone maniac, all my salary I was spending on new mobile phones. I tried and bought all those semi-expensive to expensive phones starting from Nokia E-Series to Blackberry to Android to iPhone; I really flaunted a lot with my Samsung Note 3 and the S-Pen. One day while I was coming home from office, I noticed that one of my batch-mate who joined the same company at the same designation with me was exiting through the car exit gate on a Hyundai EON. The very next day I went straight to him in the office and asked him how could he buy a car and maintain it and he taunted “I still use Samsung Guru”.

I started my research and made mind that I would get a car in next three months. I had a very little money in my saving account (I was only 2 years into job by then and was staying alone in Kolkata) but I dared to take test drives of Polo and Swift and even newly launched Creta. After a lot of research and considering my vitamin M capacity at that point (and without taking any help from my father) I bought a Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 VXI model in Silky Silver color. I cannot tell you now how happy I was at that time, my first car with my hard-earned money (first car in my family actually), a sense of achievement and fulfillment took over me. I absolutely loved driving the car and did numerous long drives with it. Till date the car has never let me down, never gave me any sort of trouble. I did my Kolkata-Pune drive in this car only and I was really surprised with the capability of this small machine, maybe that’s why I still have it. I don’t want to sell it as it is my first car (high emotional value) and is as dearer to me as my first love.



Why I felt the need of a new car

Year 2018, now I am an experienced IT resource with less mobile phone obsession. All my friends and old colleagues left the company and moved on and started earning a lot more than me, some got married too. I also was thinking of switching to some other organization and coincidentally at that time I got an employment offer from one IT organization and the job location was Pune. I accepted the offer and moved to Pune and my bae who was also in IT sector took a relocation to Pune. Everything was fine except one thing- I got unwanted attention of Pune traffic police as my Alto was bearing the WB registration plate. I did not want to re-register in Pune and get the MH number plate as initially I thought of sending that car back to my home town in West Bengal as my parents were aging and thought of keeping the car there would help them to travel around with ease (Siliguri has changed a lot now and people are having cars; they are no longer travelling on cycle or rickshaw). So, after few months I told my father that I would send the car to them and buy one scooter, to which they strictly replied “No two-wheeler”- plan cancelled!

We started catching up with old friend in Pune and Mumbai, started to go on weekend trips and occasional Goa trips. Highway travel increased too as I frequently started visiting my uncle in Mumbai area (not that I enjoy staying with my uncle a lot, but due to family pressure). Most importantly I became a dog parent and the dog became my vacation companion along with my bae, my friends and a lot of luggage. So, I gradually started to feel the need of a bigger car with more boot space, more power, more steadiness on highway and of course airbags and lastly 'MH' number plate.



What I wanted in my new car

All I was looking for-

• A bigger car than my Alto
• A diesel engine (as my daily travel is 50+ km)
• A large boot
• Lots of airbag
• A display where I can cast my phone for google maps
• Highway stability

Options considered

JEEP Compass - The first car which I saw was JEEP Compass limited plus 4X4 in red color. Some handsome discount was there at that time on Compass. I really liked everything about it and was almost convinced to buy it without looking at any further option. Though it was much over my budget, but I was so amazed with this vehicle that I was ready to stretch my hand and take a loan. But the car buying experience was never the same again for me as I was no more single. My bae was strictly against spending so much money on a car as, according to her, we needed to buy a house for us soon (which I couldn’t buy till now). My parents were also suggesting the same, so had to let it go.

Now we fixed our budget to be around 15 lakhs with 1 lakh buffer and went to a Tata dealership.

TATA Nexon. We both liked the car, it had everything that I was looking for, the music system was top quality and infotainment was very nice. Took a test drive – it’s okay.

Hyundai Verna - very nice car, felt premium to me from inside. So many good features available and boot was quite large. But I was not ready to take a sedan, also it would be difficult to park the car in my tight parking spot.

Mahindra XUV 500. - I actually liked this car, the road presence was good, equipped with all the safety equipment and modern features. Most importantly it was having AWD system. My bae though did not like the car as it is large and 7-seater. She was more concerned about the money actually and told me if I needed a big car with 7 seats then why not considering the Maruti Suzuki XL6!

XUV 300 - It was also a good car, but I did not enjoy driving it somehow. Though it was the only car in that segment which offered 7 airbags and front parking sensor.

Renault Duster - The new facelift Renault Duster, I would really love to have this car. Drivability was great, comfort was great, boot space was huge and had AWD. But the top end version, which got all the bells and whistles, was not getting the AWD and the version which was getting the AWD was not even getting the rear wiper. This version did not have good features, looked dated from inside, but still I was considering because it got a good AWD system.

Ford EcoSport Titanium S – One of my friends had the pre-facelift EcoSport 2015 model, I drove that twice, I loved everything about the car except the super hard clutch! So, I was a bit in dilemma whether I should consider this car or not, but the sales person told me that new EcoSport clutch are now smooth. I reluctantly went for a test drive, but as soon as I started driving the car my thought changed. I found the clutch very light on the newer version. This car ticked all the boxes on our checklist- had 6 airbags, sync3 which supports apple car play means I would have my google maps on the infotainment screen, 1.5 liter diesel engine, sturdy body, 350+ liters of boot space. Along with it the car offered automatic projector head lamp, automatic wiper, hill hold assist, tire pressure monitoring and a sunroof.

Choose the winner - Down to two cars now- Ford EcoSport with all its bells and whistles or Renault Duster with AWD and majority votes were in favor of EcoSports. Also, the frequent fuel injector failure problem of Duster made me go with EcoSport finally.


Dealership review and final price

Now that we were sure that we wanted a race red Ford EcoSport Titanium S diesel manual, so we started hunting for the best deal.

Shivalik Ford - First, we went to Shivalik Ford, Baner, Pune. None attended us for about first 30 minutes, they were all busy with one EcoSport delivery, all of them! I was just wandering in the showroom like a nobody, looking at every car, opening the doors, seating inside and killing my time. I asked for a brochure of EcoSport and I was told that some executive would attend me shortly. Another 10 minutes passed, but no one bothered, we were not even offered a glass of water. We were very agitated and disappointed at that point and walked out of the showroom. Three days later I received a call from this dealership, they apologized for not being able to attend me when I first visited the showroom and told me that their sales person would come to my home or office, with every detail and quotation, at my convenient time. The very next day they came to my office in the afternoon with brochure and quotation and also one TD EcoSport if I would like to test drive it once more. They came with good preparation which I liked about them. The quotation given to me by them was 13.4 lakhs. The race red color was though not available with them and would take 2 months to deliver.

Dhone Ford - Second, we went to Dhone Ford, Manjri, Pune. Very polite and well-trained executives, service offered was nice. The sales executive attending us was friendly, had a good knowledge about cars. He gave us the brochure and worked on the quotation and gave us the final price 13.2 lakhs. They were also having the shortage of Race Red color and told us that delivery will commence after a month at the earliest.

Talera Ford - Third was the Talera Ford, Yerwada, Pune. This was also a good dealership, service was good. The executive who attended us was very jolly. They also offered 13.2 lakh and told that if I would take white color then they could deliver within 7 days and give me another 10K discount, but we were ready to wait for Race Red, so decided to go back to Dhone Ford and make the purchase from there only. We walked out of the showroom and the attendant salesperson told me to give a visit to PPS Ford as well before making any decision.

PPS Ford - Lastly, we went to PPS Ford, Bibwewadi, Pune. Very polite and hospitable staff I must say. As soon as we entered the showroom, they greeted us and directed us towards a table and told us to wait as all their executives were attending customers already. Meanwhile they offered us refreshment and asked if we need WIFI password to kill our time, it was something new to us that they were offering WIFI to watch YouTube while we were waiting. After around 20 minutes of waiting an executive approached us and we explained what we were looking for and what quotation we already had. He then told us that there was one race red EcoSport S diesel available and he could deliver it within next 7 days, I almost shouted ‘Excellent’! After that negotiated the price a bit and he gave me the final quotation of 12.9 lakhs, and we were happy with that. But they wanted us to book that car right at that moment as there was only one race red (S model) available with them and they would not be able to hold it unless we book the car. I started to doubt as why are they pushing me for the booking, I knew they were suspecting that I would take their quotation and visit another dealership for a better deal, but was that the only reason? They showed me some excel sheet of their inventory and I found that there was genuinely only one Race Red EcoSport S left in stock. I also told them to show me the manufacturing date and they told us it was a July manufactured vehicle (I was buying it in the month of October). I took the chassis number and engine number and told one of my friends to inquire about it from a different ford showroom and confirm me if that was really a July manufactured machine. My next doubt was maybe the car was running on 17-inch wheels and due to that they are trying to sell it to me anyhow; but to my relief- it was having 16 inch alloys. The sales representative, meanwhile, was continuously pushing me to do the booking; I told him that I would need some time to arrange money, I did not have my cards and cheque book with me handy at that time and we would get back to them after one day. We went home and by that time my friend also somehow confirmed that the car was a July made. Next day we went to PPS Ford again and made the booking and they gave me a delivery date of exactly after 7 days.

So, I ultimately got my facelift Race Red Ford EcoSport 1.5 diesel Titanium S(ports) booked from PPS Ford, Pune for on-road price 12.9 lakhs rupees which included road tax for 15 years, HSRP cost, bumper to bumper zero dep insurance which got third party insurance as well, fastag charge, 2 years extended warranty and basic ford accessory kit.


Welcome Home Red Machine

I already started the countdown and I could see things happening as the sales person always informed me about the progress on WhatsApp. Only 4 more days left- I was literally being happier with each passing day; I got a call on this day that a police verification copy is needed for registration purpose as I was staying at rent. At the time of renting the place my owner gave me the copy of rent agreement only but there was no police verification copy with that. So, I called up my landlord and asked for a police verification copy, but due to some reason it took him 3 days to get me the copy. Also, it took some more time to get the HSRP, this delayed the delivery process and got my car after 14 days of booking. But the waiting period did not feel that bad as in the mean time my mom and father came to visit us for ‘Durga puja’, and I was kind of occupied and had no space to feel bad about my new car delivery delay.

On 12-Oct-2019, four days after Durga Puja was over I along with my family went to take the delivery of the car. We got to unveil the car followed by a small ‘Puja ceremony’ performed by my mother. All the paper works were already done, and the sales person gave me a demo about the features of the car (specially Sync3, auto head lamp, cruise control, TPMS etc). They handed me over the chocolate box and captured some photographs for us, and we bid them goodbye and moved on. It was a very smooth delivery experience and the entire act took around a little more than an hour. We went straight to a ‘Bengali restaurant’ to celebrate out new purchase.





Initial impression!

Just after 3 days of receiving the car we headed straight to Goa! What a fun it was to drive this vehicle on highway, it was pretty planted, the steering feedback was also confidence-inspiring. The car returned a good fuel economy and the automatic climate control worked like a charm. Also, thanks to the TPMS, I never had to bother about the tire pressure. The car did perform fantastic in its first long drive.

I started to take this car to my office, and it was a fun to drive car in city traffic with its new lighter clutch setup and bold presence. The AC was a chiller, the space was adequate, the mileage was satisfactory. I did many small to medium distance long drive after that Goa trip and was quite happy with the performance of this vehicle.


Scheduled Servicing

The car went for its first free servicing at 2000 km mark in the odo by the end of November 2019. I approached Dhone Ford as that is close to my office, they took my car from the gate of my office, worked on it, washed it and returned it to me by the afternoon and the bill was ZERO. Same for the second service which wad done on March 2020 just before lockdown at 10,000 km (yes, it took me 5 months to reach 10k km). The bill was around 3,000 INR as they had changed the windshield washer pump and motor due to which water was leaking (I once bumped on to a small rock which damaged the motor).


My long-term impression on the car

After driving the red machine for more than 10,000 km (around 7000 km in city and Pune traffic and 3000 km on highway) I have observed some interesting things about it and some not-so-interesting things as well. I am listing below my observation on a high level.

Build quality - The build quality is rock solid, no doubt! The stepney at the tail gate adds another level of protection to the vehicle from rear-ending by other cars. Once, my car was hit by one alto from behind and nothing much had happened to my car, just the spare tire bracket got damaged as it took the maximum impact, but the bonnet of the Alto was deformed badly. The thud from the doors are enough to assure you about the built quality of this car.

Gearshift & clutch - Mine is a 5 speed diesel manual machine. The gears feel slick, the shifts are smooth, throws are accurate and because of this changing the gear requires very minimal effort. The clutch in this face lift version is really on the lighter side as compared to the older EcoSports, it feels like a petrol clutch! One of the things which I dislike the most on the older version of EcoSport is the hard clutch, but Ford has done a good job on this facelift version and the clutch feels much better to use now.

Ride quality & Suspension - The ride quality of the car is good, but the suspension setup is a bit on the stiffer side. For highway drives this suspension setup is good. It gulps bumps and potholes easily. The car is very stable even at triple digit speed with minimal body roll, I once did good speeds on the expressway and the car was very well planted and never felt I was losing control(I don’t encourage over-speeding in anyway).

Fuel economy - The average is okay, I am getting 15 KMPL in city with AC turned on. On highway the figure is around 18 KMPL for me, maybe will increase 1-2 more KM per liter with time.

Wipers - Wipers do their job well; windshield washer spray is also good. But I haven’t found the automatic rain sensing wiper to be much useful, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Maybe I am doing something wrong with its setup!

NVH - The NVH level is also lower than some other cars in this segment. The noise insulation is pretty good and doesn't let road noise and engine vibration enter in the cabin. I if you are doing high speed and listening to music then you cannot even hear the wind noise at all. The cabin feels pretty quiet overall.

Braking – The front has discs and rear has drum brakes. The car is also equipped with ABS. Brakes are good and effective and have enough bites. The brakes do their job really well and do not take much time to come to a stand still from 100 KMPH.

Engine - The performance of the car is very good, it’s got a powerful 1.5L diesel engine. On the highways this car easily hits 120 kmph and does not show any sluggishness. The car really performs well on highways and reaches to triple digit speed very easily. Also, the car shows a great amount of enthusiasm in city travel. The good amount of torque helps in moving slowly in start-stop bumper to bumper traffic – without the need of the accelerator the car speeds up to 25 KMPH in 2nd gear. I would say that the power delivery is linear and turbo lag is minimal. However, at times, specially while climbing steep hills with 5 passengers on board with luggage, I felt that a bit of more power would have helped this thing to push the boundaries (the vehicle is heavy). Overall the engine responsive and the performance is satisfactory for daily city travel and long highway trips.



Alloy and tire - The 16 inch alloy wheels look very nice and performs really well on road. The spare wheel is also 16 inch alloy and enhances the rear profile of the car. The TPMS sensors are attached to all for wheels, but the spare wheel does not get one. I got the stock Good Years 205/60 R16 tires which offers really good grip on highway and tarmac roads.



Sync 3 infotainment system - The Sync 3 works like a charm. It easily connects with my iPhone and mirrors some of the useful applications like Spotify and Google Maps which I use quite often. It’s very handy to have the Google map in the Sync 3 screen, I don’t need to take my eyes off the road anymore to navigate the map in my tiny mobile screen. Also, the sound output from the stock speaker setup is good (Nexon’s was better) and the voice receiver (mic) captures clear audio for telephone calls.



MID - The MID is a small 4 inch unit which shows so many useful information like distance to empty, average fuel consumption, trip meter, tire pressure, digital speedometer etc. I keep it in digital speed view generally.



automatic climate control - The automatic climate control is a showstopper! It chills the cabin quite fast and maintains the temperature effectively. This car does not get rear AC vents but the overall cabin remains cool when I keep the temperature set at 22 degrees centigrade. Rear passengers (without having rear AC vents) never complained about the AC till now.



ORVM - The ORVMs are large enough to get you a good view and the ORVM are now electrically fordable and adjustable. Whenever the ignition is turned off and the car is locked, the ORVMs also gets folded automatically. Also the ORVMs get puddle lamps which are helpful at night. The IRVM comes with auto dimming feature. The electrical mirror adjustments are placed on the driver side door.





Lock and Unlock - Door handles are now equipped with inbuilt sensors. This is one of the features of the car which I like and use the most. If you have the keyfob with you then just grab the door handle and the car gets unlocked, mirrors are unfolded, lights are turned on and all these happens simultaneously, within 1 sec. It is really cool that I don't separately need to unfold the mirror or turn on the lights. Similarly when you are done just turn off the ignition and touch the sensor located on top of the door handle (refer picture: the tree lines on top) to lock the car and all the lights turn off automatically and mirrors fold back too. This is so good, you will never lose the keyfob as you will never need to take the keyfob out of your pocket.



Automatic headlamp - The automatic headlight is another thing which is useful, and the light sensors are pretty good too, turns on the lights within fraction of seconds (experienced this while entered the tunnels in Mumbai-Pune Express Way). It is connected to the brightness of the Sync 3 as well; headlamps on and the brightness goes down in Sync 3 to adjust the lighting condition, headlights off and the Sync 3 is brighter again- it is a good touch. The stock head lamps are okay type! Low beam projectors are fine and do their job well, but I am not satisfied with the performance of the high beam. The headlight assembly now comes with DRL.





TPMS- - I use it to check the tire pressure every day, it pretty accurate. I am kind of scared of going to the road side garages in Pune to check the tire pressure and top up air (I had a terrible experience), this TPMS keeps me notified about the air pressure. Whenever I feel any need I go to some gas station to refill air (though, now I have purchased a portable air pump to top up 4-5 PSI).



Boot space - The 350+ liters of boot space is really one boon for me, it helps me to accommodate all the food and toys and other items for my dog. It is really a lot of space for our usage. I always keep there a pair of shorts and t-shirt , a pair of badminton shoe, 2 badminton rackets, a cricket bat, one tire inflator, one 5 liters empty bottle and one Jopasu car duster; all these items only take a small corner of the boot. The tail gate though opens horizontally and the boot open button is hidden under the grab-handle (making it difficult for some to locate that tiny button) and that handle is placed together with the right side tail lamp assembly- this sometimes create problems though! The boot has got a tiny bulb though which helps in dark.



Steering feedback - The steering is EPS and light. The feedback is excellent and accurate. The steering can be adjusted both tilt/ telescopic. The steering houses the music, MID, telephone and cruise controls. Being a light steering it is very good for city drives and specially for tight parking lot, but also as you pick up speed on highway the steering becomes heavy.



Seats - Seats are well cushioned and comfortable and comes with height adjustment which helps drivers like us, who are around 170 centimetres, to get a commanding position. But it is really difficult to figure out the sweet spot for the seat, it took me several days to finally get a comfortable yet commanding position, it is a tough task. I still struggle to re-establish that position every time someone drives my car and changes the seating position according to their need. Rear seat leg space is very tight though and it is uncomfortable for 3 adult passengers. Rear seat occupants though gets armrest, cup holder and a charging point too. The stitching of seats are good and over all feel nice and premium.





sunroof - I was not that fond of sunroof, but my bae was. I think we hardly opened the sunroof twice or thrice in last six months. Possibly we don’t know the exact use of the sunroof! By the way it is an anti-pinch sunroof.



storage - The car has plenty of storage spaces for your belongings including the sun-glass holder. The glove box is decent and the elbow box under the center armrest is deep. The front cup holders are placed adjacent to hand brake. Each front door is having 2 water bottle holder, one vertical and one horizontal; but if you place a bottle horizontally and going downward or brake heavily then the bottles come out on the floor easily.



Safety Features - The car is equipped with speed limit warning chime. First at 80 kmph milestone it alerts once and then after reaching 120 kmph it alerts again and this time the alarm rings continuously until the speed is below 120 kmph. This is a nice initiative. There is a chime for seat belt reminder too. The chime continues to go on if seat-belt is not fastened while the car is doing more than 20 kmph. This actually irritates a lot and forces passengers in front to buckle up the seat-belt; so a very good way of ensuring safety. The car is equipped with ABS, EBD and 6 airbags which provides a peace of mind (though I don’t want to be in a situation ever where airbags need to inflate).

Hill hold assist, parking sensor, rear view camera - Hill hold assist is another very useful feature for me- my parking is a bit inclined and the parking spot is very tight, so I always need to park the car backward; this hill hold feature really helps me to get on the incline easily. Also, the parking sensor and rear camera come to my rescue daily as well. The camera resolution is good enough, even at a very dark place the camera produces good picture with the help of tail lamp.



Instrument Panel - The instrument panel consists of the round analogue speedometer and tachomete and the MIDr. Also it houses the engine temperature meter and the fuel meter.



Ambient lighting - The car comes with pre-installed ambient light. The color of the light can be changed easily from the Sync 3 and it supports 7 colors.



Keyfob - It is simple yet stylish! It's got two buttons- lock and unlock. There is one key inside it which helps to open the car from outside when there is no juice left in the fob. If you leave the keyfob inside the car and go out from driver's side and close the gate, the car honks to remind you that the key is still inside the car.



Maintenance – Gone are those days when maintaining a Ford car was a costly affair. The maintenance of this car is pretty easy on pocket. It takes around 5000 INR for every periodic maintenance. Ford takes care of it’s consumers and delivers good after sales servies.

Epilogue

This vehicle, like every other car, has some good and some bad; in my case the good are overpowering the bad which ultimately has made this an overall nice car to me. This is a very good compact SUV in this price range and gives a tough fight to all its rivals. This car is loaded with safety equipment and the strong built of this car gives me a feeling of safety on road. The auto headlamps, TPMS, hill hold, reverse camera, parking sensor etc. makes day to day driving easy for me. The maintenance cost of this car is also reasonable and doesn’t make a hole in my pocket. Though there are some shortcomings, still this car matches my expectation and never turned me down till date (I will rate it 8/10). In terms of practicality it is not at all a bad machine, but if we could have a bit more space at the rear seat and AWD in this car then I, without any doubt, would have called it the perfect compact SUV.



The parting shot -

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

Your car is going to our homepage today

[Reinhard]

Congratulations on the EcoSport S. A wonderful car & you got a great colour! Wishing you & your complete family including the sweet Labrador retriever - unlimited safe & happy miles.

I have always loved the EcoSport. This and the Nexon are my top picks in the crowd of subcompact SUVs. People talk of the Puntos, the Skodas & the VWs when it comes to timeless designs. The Ecosport often gets no mention in this list. If you ask me - even with its radical design (for the time when it was launched) - the Ecosport has aged exceptionally well & surely is a timeless design. I'm sure Ford is having a hard time bringing the next generation of it since there is little chance to make a design look BETTER than this one!

A nice crisp review. Fun read.

[jithin23]

Congrats on the EcoSport S and good that you went for the top most variant as Ford cars are not very mod or aftermarket friendly like other brands. This car will surely tempt you to places which you would have thought it's hard to reach!

Wishing you a blissful and a memorable ownership with the Ford!

One heads-up: update the sync 3 to v 3.4 because the UI, voice commands and bass output is better in v 3.4. Indian accent works better in this update.

Link to update to v 3.4( post #50)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...um-tdci-4.html

[jecenth]

Nicely written. The colour is absolutely smashing. Congrats and happy miles!

[07CR]

Nice and Crisp review! Even I recently purchased a Pre owned Titanium S model. It's a July 2018, 12 K run model. Your review has prompted me to start an ownership review of my own!

Here's a glimpse of my dark knight!

[sachin_cs]

Congratulations for the new purchase buddy. Amazing car and the fact that it has remained relevant in the market even after so many years of its launch is a testimony to its engineering prowess. I’m really confused between a Polo and Ecosport as I’m looking for a city car, taking my rapid on tight lanes & narrow streets of old Raipur is a pain. Going through your ownership review has made it all the more confusing for me

[07CR]

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

I’m really confused between a Polo and Ecosport as I’m looking for a city car, taking my rapid on tight lanes & narrow streets of old Raipur is a pain. Going through your ownership review has made it all the more confusing for me

If budget is not a concern, get the Ecosport eyes closed! I don't see any point where the Polo could be better than the ecosport, since both are also having identical dimensions.

[fiat_tarun]

It's been a while since your purchase but congratulations on the Ecosport S! As a fellow owner of a Race Red S I'm totally loving the car over the past year and a half. It fits my requirements perfectly and would probably be my choice if I was in the market today as well.

Strange you found it hard to find your driving position since along with the seat adjustments, the Ecosport is one of the few vehicles in the segment that gets reach adjustment for the steering which makes such a big difference.

Not sure if you remember, but was great catching up at the Mumbai-Pune owners meet.

Wishing you a great trouble free ownership. Here's a pic of my Paprika after an Aquatint visit

[ron82x3]

I am so jealous of you right now. I thought I'll have the first red EcoSport S in the forum!
My car is yet to be delivered. Booked one from Kaikan Ford Kolkata.
Sharing picture from PDI at stockyard

[scorpio2107]

Beautifully written and very detailed. Wishing you more miles with this beauty! On second thought I think the labrador is the real beauty

[TheGearBox]

Great read. Congrats on the new ride!

Originally Posted by Reinhard

I'm sure Ford is having a hard time bringing the next generation of it since there is little chance to make a design look BETTER than this one!

That's true, Reinhard. There's really not much Ford can improve on the EcoSport's looks. At most, they could do something similar to what Maruti Suzuki did with the Swift. One of the reasons for the first generation Swift's massive success was its looks. So when the time came to launch the second generation model, Suzuki just tweaked the design a bit and kept the overall look almost same.

[sahil624]

Great review of a great car. The Ecosport in Red avatar and S variant looks dashing. Though the S variant seems a bit expensive for the compact SUV segment but the kind of looks makes you want to go for the top model. Moreover, the Sync 3 is only available with the S variant, I think it makes sense to go for the top model and keep it for a long time. Congratulations to you and wish you happy miles with this great machine.

[bharatmarch]

One of the most beautifully written reviews. You have a friendly, call writing style. Love the colour, simply superb.

[tp_dominator]

Congratulations for the S! It simply blows my mind away whenever I take it out on the highway. Your car in race red looks stunning.

However, I have the 17 incher version and I am sure the ride quality would be a bit better on the 16 inchers.

My journey was quite opposite to yours as I moved from MH12 to CG04! (only the registration numbers and not the cities). But I usually drive to my hometown and more so in the Covid era will be driving down only so no issues on that front.

Wish you many happy miles and wonderful ownership experience with your beast!