Ford EcoSport SE Petrol First Drive Review

But on the flip side, the three-cylinder engine makes its nature felt the moment you crank up the motor. Even though there are no vibrations felt on the inside, you can hear the three-cylinder chiming out when idling. On the move, it does have a linear power delivery, but you might find yourself wringing the motor slightly more than necessary to get the best out of it. To keep up with the traffic or manage highway speeds, one has to keep it running between 2,500-3,500rpm. Give it the right amount of beans and it will outrun some of the competition too. But we’ll wait for our test figures to find that out.

Since there’s no turbo, there’s barely any lag, and the motor revs freely all the way to the 6,500rpm redline. However, it does get noisy at this point. Another thing we were left unimpressed by was the notchy gear shift action. It takes effort to slot in the tall gearlever and there’s no fluidity to it like you get in other cars of this segment. On the upside, the clutch action is light and easy to use, thus ironing out the shortcomings of the irksome notchy gear shifts. As for the fuel efficiency, Ford claims 15.9kmpl for this petrol-manual combination.

Show it some corners and the EcoSport manages to bring a smile to your face with its direct and rightly weighted steering. It also manages to hold its line commendably despite some amount of body roll. But being an involving car to drive, it comes out of the corner with solid assurance.

Take the air-con controls below the screen, for instance, look outdated with the simple buttons and monochromatic screen – just like the driver’s display. In today’s age when more and more budget cars are being offered with an all-digital driver’s display, this analogue dial combined with a black-and-white screen looks long in the tooth. In terms of visibility, we found the thick A-pillar hindering the view by a huge margin. Otherwise, the commanding position of the driver’s seat offers ample space with good ergonomics too. It’s a comfortable seat as well, with support in all the right places.

Even though it’s a solidly built cabin, we did expect better quality plastics in some places. There are a good amount of storage spaces here, like on the centre console and door pads – but the exceedingly tall storage bin below the driver’s armrest deserves a special mention. Move to the back seat and there’s ample amount of head and knee room and three can sit with relative ease here. You even get a folding armrest with cupholders but there are no air-vents for the second-row passengers, which is a bit of a letdown.

Lastly, the boot of the EcoSport opens up like a conventional door and not like a hatch like in any other sub-four metre SUV. Open it up and there’s a massive space of 352litres. The door opens wide and far but it might not be the most convenient to open in tight parking spaces. But what’s more impressive about it is that the loading lip is relatively low and the boot itself is fairly tall and usable.

The touchscreen has proven to be one of the smoothest and easy to use systems, and now it also comes with Ford Pass connectivity tech along with smartphone integration like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Safety front, there’s a long list here as well. This includes six airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control, hill start assist, and TPMS. On the flip side, the SE trim misses out on funky-looking alloy wheels, ISOFIX child seat anchors, puddle lamps, and leatherette upholstery – all of which are available on the S trim.