A week with the Ford EcoSport Titanium S 1.0 EcoBoost

In Car Reviews, Ford by Neil Lyndon

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It goes to show how misleading the impressions of a single test drive can be.

 
Neil Lyndon improves his relationship with the Ford EcoSport Titanium S 1.0 EcoBoost ‘World Car’
 
When Ford launched the second generation of their EcoSport compact crossover to the press in 2012, a few little things got massively on my wick and put me right off the car.

First, there was some half-witted guff in the presentation about this being “a world car” because it was manufactured in Brazil, India, Thailand and Russia – as if that made it unusual. Hello? How many cars on the road today aren’t manufactured on several different continents?

Then there was the colour of the test cars, all in a sickly orange the colour of the fruit when you take off the peel and find the segments are soft with rot.

Then there was the absence of a coat hook in the rear. That one really got me going. How miserably penny-pinching can a manufacturer’s bean-counters get if they could even think of depriving the customer of a twist of plastic hanging from the grab-handle in the back on which to hand a jacket?

A full week with the car, in a calmer state of mind, has allowed me to see it in a different light. It’s still not very distinguished and it is still far from cheap but, as a matter of fact, the Eco Sport is not half bad.
Put together, these trivial annoyances were enough to blight my view of the EcoSport and led me to conclude that it was nothing more than an overpriced mediocrity.

The test car was blue, which was a better, if unadventurous start, the silver roof rails, gave some edge to its pudding shape; and the interior was more stylish, with part-leather black upholstery and leather-bound steering wheel. An added extra was the £230 winter pack with heated front seats, quickclear screen and heated mirrors.

Best of all, our car came with Ford’s fabulous (Dunton-developed) three-pot 140 PS one-litre EcoBoost engine which could bring new life to the deadest corpse of a car. Torque of 180Nm make this version of the EcoSport a pleasing little zinger and its sports suspension matches its powers a treat.

There’s nothing to complain about in this car, then, except that the price (£19580 on our car, all-in) still seems like a mistake on the calculator. Is it possible that an extra £10000 got added by a fat finger?
Oh, and – even at £20,000 – it still hasn’t got a coat-hook. Unforgiveable.


Car reviewed: Ford EcoSport Titanium S 
1.0 EcoBoost 5 Speed Manual – On the road £17,995, price as tested £19,580 0-62mph 11.8 secs Top speed 115mph Fuel Economy combined 52.3mpg CO2 emissions 125g/km Engine 1.0 EcoBoost Petrol Max Power 140PS Torque 180Nm Transmission 5-speed manual

  • Great Engine

  • Sporty suspension

  • A pleasing little zinger

  • No Coat Hook

About the author

Neil Lyndon

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Neil Lyndon has been a journalist, broadcaster and writer on the UK's national stage for 40 years, writing for every "quality" newspaper on Fleet Street. He started writing about cars and motorbikes for The Sunday Times in the 1980s and was Motoring Correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph for 20 years, having previously written a column on motorbikes for Esquire. He is also recognised as a leading commentator on gender politics, having published No More Sex War in 1992 - the first ever critique of feminism from a radical, egalitarian point of view.

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