[07CR]

Need for car- I am sure few you must be familiar with my thread in the whatcar section. I needed a car under 7 L. My annual running is quite low at around 4-5K kms. Hence mileage was not a concern. My wife, me and a 6 month old baby would be the primary occupants of the car. I needed this car atleast for the next 3 years, post which I may switch to an EV (provided the EV market matures). If I get the car which I wanted I am sure to keep it for long haul!
So these were the criterias-

• Fun to drive
• Reliable
• Fuss free ownership
• Good build quality and set of active and passive safety features
• Great styling
• Feature loaded
• Great interiors
• Good NVH
• Good AC
• Good Ground clearance

Having owned a Honda Amaze IDTEC, Ecosport S TDCI, Kia Sonet iMT P and Seltos GT DCT in the past and currently using my dad’s Fronx NA for the minimal commute I have, I was more inclined to Honda and Ford vehicles. Kia was out of budget, while Maruti (except S cross) doesn’t excite me much. In addition I was also looking at Corolla Altis and Duster’s.

Following cars were under my radar-

Global Fiesta- I came across a 2014 Titanium facelift variant, and at first glance the car looked good. But upon further inspection I found some faults and through some sane advice by many Bhpian’s I rejected the car. It almost fulfilled all my criterias but the condition of car was above average and the fuss free ownership may have hampered due to severe spare parts shortage.

Duster- The 85 Ps variants had proven reliable. The famed ride quality was a brownie point. But the prehistoric interiors coupled with lethargic motor (85 PS) made me drop it.

Figo and Aspire- They had all of typical Ford qualities, however the low GC and a bit costly diesel variants (dull petrols were never in the consideration) made me drop these.

Freestyle- I came across a Freestyle Titanium variant which was being sold at 5.5L. It had run 95K Kms and looked in good condition. However, due to work commitments I could not check it and the car was sold in no time.

Ecosport- These were available a plenty but I was shocked to see the insane resale values they still commanded. 7~ year old Ecosport’s were still retaining about 70% of their resale value! But by now I had made up mind to get the Ecosport facelift whichever engine gearbox combination I could find. Daily OLX scrolling finally borne fruit on 31st March 2025!

THE CAR-
I came across a good looking Ecosport S Ecoboost variant. It was a November 2018 first owner car that had done only 43250 kms. Quoted price was mouth watering. The car had almost 0 scratches, and the interiors too looked in great condition. I contacted the dealer and received all the details about the car. It had been regularly serviced at only Ford dealerships and had insurance running till September 2025. The last service was completed on February 18 2025! I did a further digging and could find the first owner of the car on facebook. I got in touch with him and got a flying recommendation of the car. Only reason he sold it was because he dreamt of owning a Honda city and increasing family members the Ecosport was getting to cramped. He mentioned that his wife still taunts him about letting the Ecosport go too soon

After a few negotiations I requested the dealer to get the car home for inspection. Two issues observed. The MID had gone Kaput and there was a slight vibrating noise (Khat Khat Khat) from the engine everytime the car accelerated and I let go of the accelerator pedal. Noise would persist only for about 2-4 seconds after I let go the accelerator pedal. Dealer assured to get this checked and fixed it the next day itself. Turns out the turbo shield was vibrating and was easily fixed. However, I negotiated on the price with the MID now needing fixing. The dealer obliged offering me the option to fix MID on my own or them getting it fixed and including the same in final bill. I preferred the former as I wanted a little more advanced and color MID, and I was getting it at a lower rate than the official Ford dealership. We finalized the dates and after a small ceremony by the dealer we got the car home on 5th April. I managed to fix the color MID on the same day and now the car looks as good as new.

Pros-
Tremendously powerful ecoboost motor. Having owned a Sonet turbo petrol, I expected the power to be in similar league. But this motor has about 10-15% better power delivery than the Sonet and I could not be happier. It relentlessly pulls after 1500 rpm and you can get above unmentionable speeds in no time.
Fuel efficient motor- I drove this car at 80 kph on a open stretch and was pleasantly surprised to see 20+ KMPL. Turns out depending on throttle input this car might give competition to a NA fronx mileage to a turbo petrol Virtus's performance!
Good NVH- There is slight 3 cylinder thrum on startup but post that it’s a very smooth affair. That said, the engine NVH was slightly better on the Sonet, however overall noise insulation is at par with Sonet.
Ride and Handling- Point and shoot steering. This was nothing new for me considering the S TDCI I owned in the past, and the petrol variant is no different. Ride quality improves as the speeds rise.
Styling- This car still turns heads. S variant I believe has become like a cult classic on the similar lines of Polo and hasn’t aged even a bit. Considering the great care the first owner took, many in my society mistook it for a brand new car!
Features- Again nothing surprising for me, since I already knew all of them. Good thing was all of them still worked on this car. It has climate control, cruise control with limiter, auto dimming IRVM, TPMS, 6 airbags, ESC, Hill start assist, HID headlamps, Fog lamps (I activated the cornering function), Rain sensing wipers, auto headlamps, keyless entry on both front doors, front and rear armrests, all illuminated buttons, 7 color ambient lighting and the works. The list is truly exhaustive for a 2018 car.
Excellent Ground clearance- Was an important one for me considering I was accustomed to driving crossovers for past 5 years. This car can do mild off roading effortlessly.

Cons-
Climate Control- It isn’t as sensitive as Sonet/Seltos or my dad’s Fronx. I need to manually set the temperature at 24 and with fan speed at 4, I am comfortable. It’s not that the AC is bad. Infact it’s better than all the mentioned above, just the climate control should be more sensitive to outside temperatures.
Stiff low speed ride- Ecosport always had a stiff low speed ride quality. When I got the car delivered it was a bit too stiff. Once I reached home and the tyres had cooled off, I was surprised to see the air pressure at 41-42 in all 4 tyres! Dropping them to near recommended 31-32 has transformed the ride quality magically. That said, my dad's fronx still has a better low speed ride quality. I plan to enhance the tyres to 205/55/17 from the current 205/50/17, once the car completes 50K Kms. That should further improve the ride quality.
Car specific issues-
Even though the car is in great condition, I have noted following issues only specific to this car.
Boot door locker and door bushes need to be replaced. This was shown by the dealer to me, and I need to get it done. This is not paramount as of now, but I am sure the boot rattles and the NVH with door bushes would improve.
Hot air through AC vent- I observed this on a night drive. The ambient temperature was 28 degrees, and I set the climate control to 24. Every 5 minutes or so, the AC would throw warm air for about 5 seconds. I set the temperature to 22 and frequency remained same, but the warm air duration decreased to 2 seconds. Is it some issue, or the way climate control is designed to work in ecoboost to regulate temperature? That said, my S TDCI never behaved this way. Since it chilled the cabin in every 5 minute duration, the warm air actually felt nice! Again this occurred only at night, and when the daytime temperature was above 40 degrees, climate control worked as expected. Experts please comment.
Tyres- As mentioned above two of the tyres are relatively new (1 and 2 year old), while the other two are stock tyres. I plan to get them replaced by this year end.
TPMS When I navigate to TPMS screen in MID, I get a ICON saying store. I guess this is not an issue, and I simply need to store/ update the air pressure.

Modifications done-

• I installed a color MID available on UK ford cars and it looks much more modern than the standard S variant.
• I also activated the navigation directions in MID, which mimics your apple carplay/android auto’s google map directions. Makes driving little easier.
• Activated the cornering fog lamps.
• Upgraded the Sync 3.0 to Sync 3.4 and added a Raptor Splash screen.

Time for some pics-

HID in action



LED puddle lamps look great



Footwell lighting (available in 7 colors)



Color MID with Navigation updates



Bachhe Sukhane Ke liye Sunroof

[yedukrishnan199]

Congratulations on the Ecosport. The fact is, once you drive an Ecosport, nothing comes close to it in the budget. Back in 2014, my uncle bought one. When it was time for a replacement in late 2020, he considered all the options. Still, the Ecosport was the only one which he liked despite newer models like the Sonet, Venue etc available at the time, so he went for the Facelift EcoSport TDCI, the same engine and gearbox combo he had before! It was a gem of a car and remains so.

[Omkar]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ketan007]

Congratulations on your purchase. EcoSport is a gem of a car and perfect for your requirements.

[Happyrev]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Bachhe Sukhane Ke liye Sunroof

LOL, i thought i read it wrong. I think you meant 'Kachhe', not Bacche.

Congratulations on your purchase! A friend of mine is looking to buy one, how much did you have to pay for this beauty?

[Centauri]

Congratulations on your purchase of one of the best and most sorted compact SUV's even today. Being a owner of the Ecosport Ecoboost 2014 model , I still absolutely love driving it , and can relate to and vouch for most of the points in your post. You will truly cherish the car, for its fantastic engine, great driving dynamics, adequate features, safety , and the rock solid feel on the highway drives. Even maintaining it for next few years should be fine, as decent levels of service support is stiil present in the major cities. Enjoy the drives..

[07CR]

Originally Posted by Happyrev

LOL, i thought i read it wrong. I think you meant 'Kachhe', not Bacche.

Congratulations on your purchase! A friend of mine is looking to buy one, how much did you have to pay for this beauty?

Thank you! Pm'ed you the details.

[arindambasu13]

Congratulations on getting back into the Ford family. Aint nothing to beat the Ecosport in this segment, no matter what fancy new compact SUVs enter the market. The Ecoboost should be interestingly different from the TDCI. Enjoy the beast !

[07CR]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Congratulations on getting back into the Ford family. Aint nothing to beat the Ecosport in this segment, no matter what fancy new compact SUVs enter the market. The Ecoboost should be interestingly different from the TDCI. Enjoy the beast !

I quite like the dual nature of the engine. It can be very fuel efficient if you are light on the throttle. But can also be FAST if you are aggressive!

[jithin23]

Hi Tejas, congratulations again on the EcoSport. Whatever points you have mentioned are accurate For the negatives, you can consider the Euro Spec AC controller which I have in my car and that has better AC effectiveness. For the speedometer, if possible try laying your hands on a Focus or Fiesta speedometer because the red needles will look sexy on the cockpit. Also the flat bottom steering wheel.
For the dicky latch issue you can change the dicky catcher from fass.