2019 Ford Ecosport Titanium 1.5 TDCi - Canyon Ridge

[deville_56]

Ford Ecosport 1.5 TDCi
Variant - Titanium.
Color - Canyon Ridge
DoD - November 18, 2019.

Background Story:
Story begins and ends here, 2011 Volkswagen Polo Trendline TDi. After clocking 1,37,593 km and 8 years of ownership and just as it was unreliably unreliable and expensively expensive, decided to replace it. Total expense in 2019 was ₹ 86041.74 and it still cropped new issues. Again, this is for my sister and brother-in-law, and their small 2 kids.

Options:

1. Volkswagen T-Roc - Once a VW, always a VW guy. BIL wanted this one badly and been waiting from some time, but it never hit our shore and the expected price not in expected range.

2. Hyundai Venue - Must say indigestible design (at least for us). With not so good long-term use of two Hyundai diesels and smaller than their own pseudo-SUV avatar of i20, it was also struck off.

3. Ford Ecosport - Actually I was fed up with the diesels and suggested him to go try the petrol versions of Ecosport. Instead the sales guy convinced for diesel and after TD, wanted nothing else.

4. Tata Nexon - Spoilt by Ecosport, didn't even bother to think about it. It was a good car indeed.

Buying Experience:

It was kind of an unfortunate experience, not because of the dealer's fault, may be curse the long holiday week and the processing at bank and RTO ends.
- Booked the car on August 28, 2019 paying ₹ 5000.00. Chose Canyon Ridge (a shade of copper and brown) as Titanium variant was available in next stock. Delay for other colors in Titanium.
- Ford Assured executives took the car on August 30, 2019.
- Our car arrived in September first week itself. Checked the car and did a partial PDI on September 5, 2019.
- Sister is a bank manager and had to take finance from her bank itself due to some policy. Only ₹ 4 lakh was financed, rest was settled in DD after adjustments of exchange amount and some discounts.
- Loan approval was delayed from their regional office due to the recent bank merger and approved only on the evening of September 7, which was a Saturday and RTO working hours over.
- Once payment done, car was billed and went in for PDI and necessary customization per our request.
- Comes the long Onam week. Festive mood and all institutions excepts Jewelries and clothing shops remained close almost the whole week. No government offices either.
- September third week. Hoped for delivery on Monday, but again huge backlog at RTO. We needed only temporary registration. Processed on Tuesday.
- Finally car got delivered on the Wednesday, September the 18th.

Dealership experience:

Bought it from Harry Ford, Trivandrum, part of Pothen Group. They deal MG, Hyundai, Honda in Trivandrum and had Tata and FIAT dealerships in the past. Customer end was neat, but it wasn't 100% transparent though seemed so. Dealings were fast and all followups till delivery was properly handled. There is still some confusion over billing, which they are yet to resolve. Asked them to paint alloys as well, which they didn't do saying some silly reasons.

Bill:

Ex-Showroom - ₹ 9,97,557.00
Insurance - ₹30,587.00 (Third party for three years and zero-depreciation for a year) (Provider Liberty General)
Road Tax - ₹ 89,750.00
Registration Charges - ₹ 1,000.00
Extended Warranty - 11,323.00 (Three years or 1,00,000 km which ever comes first plus roadside assistance)
Essential Pack - ₹ 3,600.00 (Mudflaps, floor mats and boot mat).
Customization - ₹ 8917.00 (Details and split up below).
Miscellaneous Charges - ₹ 500.00
Discounts - ₹ -38,434.00
(Executive/Corporate discount - ₹ 11,323.00
Discount - ₹ 5,000.00
Cast Discount - ₹ 22,111.00)

Net Price - ₹ 11,03,800.00

Customization:
Chrome grille inserts replaced with piano black from Titanium S variant - ₹ 4841.20
Fog Lamp bezel painted black - ₹ 624.75
Front bumper (pseudo)skid plate painted black - ₹ 1428.00
Roof rail painted black - ₹ 1487.50

PDI Labor - ₹ 535.50 (God knows what)

Unveiling

Just delivered

Initial Driving Experience:
For me, it's again another go-kart. Suspension is stiffer and power on tap. Turbo kick in linear. Less body roll. Handles well at the cost of comfort. Rear seat experience not so nice. All road unevenness could be felt. Best drive-able in 1.5-3k rpm in city. Yet to hit highway. High diesel clatter, which would subside over time, experienced before in other cars. NVH is good.

 

[GautamJ]

Congratulations @deville_56, wishing you millions of safe and fun drives.
We too bought Ford EcoSport (Titanium S TDCi) 40 days back and crossed 3000 km on odo, always pleasure driving it. Just felt AT missing

 

[harishankar]

Congratulations on your new ride. Canyon ridge is a nice colour for this car. Wishing you a happy ownership experience.

 

[Ambylovers]

Hi,
Congratulations on your new Ford Ecosport.
Wishes to clock many more miles without issues.

 

[deville_56]

Ownership begins from the showroom.

First glimpse of the car. PDI was done during the night and heavy rain.

Other tempting beasts on display.

 

[deville_56]

Photo Essay:

The body style is typical 4-meter pseudo-SUVish, but with proper claddings and better proportions, especially after the facelift.

Rain is always there like in a Lijo Pellissery movie.

Rear mimics a wraparound windshield but has only the tiny window.

The corrugated roof adds to structural strength. I believe they can take some weight with the optional crossbars.

Side view.

The spare wheel stands out among other ego-booster SUVs. I love the old-school rear-mounted spare wheels. Hated Tata for removing them from Sumo and Safari.

Keys. Both keys were remote. No cost-cutting.

The normal key can be pulled out. It can be used to unlock the door. Just before the feature deletion, there was the option to start the car using this key by inserting it to a slot inside the centre armrest. Ford deleted such essential things as well. Very bad move.

Welcomed in by the great-looking and too-good-to-hold steering wheel.

Push-start button. I am still in love with the old school key-start. Buttons can't give that feel.

Press the pedal and push the Start. You are good to go.

Pushing the Start without clutch activates the accessories.

Personal experience:
The bulk and height of the car need time to get used to. Been driving only low slung cars and the tallboys, still love them. NVH is very much refined inside, but outside, there is very much diesel clatter, which will hopefully subside over time. One issue faced was getting stalled at inclines, unlike other diesel.

 

[Kumar_CarFreak]

Congrats on your new buy and wish you millions of Happy and Safe miles.

Please keep updating on the FE, maintanence, drivability, handling areas of your Ecos.

Regards
Kumar

 

[mayankdixit]

Nice car.Nice pictures!
Your photography skills are very good.

 

[deville_56]

Pictorial continued: Front End

Front end got that butch look. LED DRL adds to the character. DRL got two different modes. In DRL mode, it will be full brightness.

In park light mode and during headlamp ON times, it will glow in lower intensity.



The headlamp is double-chambered and houses the DRL. Low beam is a projector and high beam is a normal multifocal reflector. Beam throw is great with good cut off.

DRL intensity difference, hardly noticeable in images, camera limitation.

Turn indicator moved to bumper along with foglamp assembly. Foglamp bezel was body-coloured, changed to black. Indeed asked to replace with the base model or Titanium S or Thunder, but the delay in ordering ended in painting the panels.

Titanium comes with chrome grille. They offered to paint in piano black, but they replaced the inserts with piano black ones from Titanium S or Thunder variant. The base model doesn't have the inserts, just the base grille.

The faux skid plate in the bumper was painted black as well.

Under the hood, the Ford 1.5 TDCi, the reliable workhorse. Great midrange, but lacks the low end. Stalled at many places where I used to do in 2nd gear in every other car in crawling speeds. Never checked the FE, but the computer shows 14-20 range on various occasions, of course with 100% AC. Even the Polo was used with 99.9% AC. Hood is damped.

Sadly only export version got the engine cover/insulator. Global Fiesta's cover is a direct fit. Would get one if not expensive.

No pop-through-grille hood release like older Fords. Neat yellow one.

Indeed many yellow bits, loved that. Airfilter plumbing sits high, water wading should be trouble-free.

Loved this quarter of the car. Lights in various modes.

 

[deville_56]

Big ORVMs suits the butch size of the car and functions over form. Electrically foldable and adjustable and houses the side turn indicators and also the best part, puddle lamps. Also got the auto fold function. Retracts when the car is locked and opens when unlocked. The mirror can be folded manually as well electrically. Puddle lamp also works with unlocking.

Puddle lamp adds to looks as well as function.

Lights up the area very well.

The puddle lamp assembly is huge and lost the hope of fitting in Fiesta. About 2 cm in diameter, hardly fits any other ORVMs.

Another nice touch was the multifocal mirror. The dotted border demarcates two different convexities of the mirror. The inner part is usual convex and the outer part is more convex and got a great wide-angle view. But sometimes felt that as annoying. Objects in the mirror look faster than they appear.

 

[Nairrk]

Nice Big car and excellent pictures.
Congratulations.!

 

[deville_56]

The Rear:

High ground clearance is prominent at the rear. Boot handle is integrated into taillamp and the LH gets a chrome insert. Omitted rear foglamp, could have integrated in LH assembly.

The most prominent part is the rear spare wheel and of course the only baby-SUV with one.

Got a lock nut, which can be removed only with the special bit in the tool kit, but unfortunately, anyone can procure one and not foolproof.

Came shod with MRF ZV2K

205/60R16. The 17-inchers on premium variants were Bridgestone Ecopia, prone to bulging issues. No recalls were issued, but replaced for customers who raised voice.

Lots of badges. Bigger in size to match the bulk of the car.

The boot opens in a weird manner, designed for LHD market. Hate such stupid cost-cutting. Bootlid is very heavy and assisted by damper below. There is also support (the black thing near the warning sticker) to hold the door in place when closed to prevent sagging.

Taillamp turns on as courtesy when the boot is opened.

Reverse light sits down in the rear bumper and has a strip of reflector around half the perimeter.

LH vs RH. The rear wiper is frameless type. Gotta see how hard is to source spare blades and how expensive.

High-mounted stop light houses the windshield washer nozzle.

Closer look.

Front nozzles sit neatly tucked under the boot lid.

 

[deville_56]

Rest of the exterior:

Fuel lid doesn't have any opening mechanism, which is kinda cool. It can simply be pulled open whenever the car is unlocked.

Fuel type is marked on the cap and got a securing tag and a notch to hold it when out.

Front 2 doors get capacitive sensors. Marked by three lines.

Simply hold the door with key in pocket and it unlocks. No request button.

Driver door can be opened with key as well, in case.

Rear gets no sensors.

Bootlid also gets the sensor.

Got push button to open the boot lid. Electronic like most Fords.

Doors all are super heavy and needs extra effort to close. Door ajar warning in HU comes handy, in case the dome lights are always off.

Works individually for each door.

Warning pops up in speedo MID as well.

Roof rails. Functional over just looks. Stock was silver. Painted black as well.

Short FM antenna. Shark fin would have been nice. Already taller than any car that stays in the house and hard squeezing under the small tree, my natural canopy.

Wind defector in rear bumper. Deflects mud as well

Side claddings. Saves running board in case of bottoming, which would never happen in this case, unless we try something crazy

200 mm GC. Moulded mudflaps. Only car where I have no plans of removing them.

Fastag. Now mandatory.

Front wiper blades are conventional type. 22 and 16 inch. Rear frameless is 11 inch. VIN number sits under windshield.

Ribbed roof aids in the small but significant load-carrying capacity.

The 8-spoke alloys, I would rather call it 4-spoke. Would have been better with 10 spokes. Ford guys are unsure of the number of alloy wheels designs on Ecosport. At least 5 models in my observation. Front gets discs and drum in rear. Gets ABS and EBD as well.

Rear gets camera

as well as parking sensors.

Annoying part is message pops up everytime reverse in engaged.

Offers good coverage. Low slung reverse lights aids very well in lighting up the surroundings.

Reverse sensor proximity is displaced in the right-hand side. Hardly noticeable initially. Chime will warn as well.

Some more stickers.

OE chrome grille that was returned by the dealer. Each part can be bought individually.

The part number for the piano black outer part. GN1Z8419FB. Costs ₹ 1924.00
Horizontal slats costs around ₹ 3000.00 combined.

 

[Kumar_CarFreak]

Excelent pics. Please update on the FE you get by tank full to tank full method.

 

[deville_56]

Interiors

Dashboard, the best part to start with.

Leather-wrapped steering wheels. Perfectly weighted.

Blue Oval and the airbag.

Reach and tilt adjustable.

Gets steering mounted control for MID as well as the HU.

Push start

with the fugly panel. They could've made a better and plain-looking panel for the keyless version. Also the weird-looking panel gap.

Speedo assembly. Pretty simple.

Push of the button and the accessories will come alive.

Starts only with clutch. They could have added a delay because most owners are not patient to push the start to enable accessories, aka priming and POST. They would simply get it, push start and go. I can't digest that.

Infotainment. Plain and simple user interface. Black theme for the night, but enable that full time. Looks better than the blue for the daytime.