2019 Ford EcoSport SE 1.0 liter 3 cylinder ecoboost

Summary:

A laughable flop, lost and outclassed in the modern world

Faults:

This was a loaner car from a collision repair shop, nothing has gone wrong.

General Comments:

The instrumentation, controls and infortainment on the SE model is simple yet intuitive and well laid out.

I found the driver's seat firm yet mostly comfortable.

The backseat looks like it would be cramped for width for three normal sized adults.

Vision from the driver's seat looking forward is great, but the sides to the rear seem to have some awkward blind spots for such a tiny car.

Trunk space is tiny and cramped with the rear seat upright. The rear window parcel shelf is cheap flimsy fabric coated cardboard or fiberboard. I would not put anything heavy on top behind the rear seat headrests, and I don't think the "shelf piece" will last very long.

Handling is stable and smooth, though I didn't really push the car's limits. Ride is relatively quiet and smooth for such a small car.

This car's biggest downfall is the drivetrain, the transmission and especially the underpowered and needlessly over complex engine. Performance is merely adequate for normal driving. Passing on a 2 lane road would need a lot of space and careful planning. There are econoboxes from the 1990s that perform better than this car under hard acceleration. The transmission also hunts for gears at times in normal slow city traffic.

There is nothing reliable or efficient about a tiny, wheezy 3 cylinder engine that is straining with all its might to move a car this small. It also gets worse fuel economy than nearly everything in its class. Can't even get 30 MPH on the highway. Even beyond the poor acceleration, a tiny high compression direct injected turbocharged engine is sure to be a maintenance nightmare as it ages. My 9 year old Honda Civic without a turbo and without direct injection, with a whopping 1.8 liters (nearly twice the size of the engine in the Ecosport) gets 38 MPG highway sometimes. And it also accelerates better.

If you look past the bad power train, I suppose it isn't the worst car in the world. Since Ford no longer wants to build sedans, I get it, this thing is "entry level". But it just feels and looks like Ford built and designed about two thirds of a car and just sort of forgot the rest of it and rushed it to production, merely for the sake of having a compact crossover.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 13th May, 2020

17th May 2020, 03:09

Nice review.

Ford has tended from time to time to resort to extraordinarily complex/radical approaches to powertrains that ultimately deliver ordinary results. This vehicle is a good but surprising example of this. I say surprising in that this is a "entry level" appliance, and you would think that they would want to keep costs down via a naturally-aspirated 4-cylinder engine.