Ford EcoSport Titanium FWD: Lacking in power

The Ford EcoSport (pronounced echo-sport) represents Ford’s future. Having announced it’s all but abandoning the car market in the U.S., Ford will focus instead on trucks and crossovers like the EcoSport.

On the outside, the subcompact EcoSport has modern styling, with a tall body and a short overall length. Inside, it’s space efficient, with good front headroom. Mounted on the dashboard is an 8-inch iPad-like touch-screen display with Ford’s easy-to-use Sync system. The rear seats have good headroom but are short on legroom. The rear cargo area is tall but not very deep, and the side-hinged rear door takes effort to close.

The base EcoSport is powered by 1.0-liter turbo 3-cylinder with 123 hp. Acceleration is slow, with a hint of torque steer, and some body lean occurs during spirited cornering. But the ride quality is comfortable, especially for a small vehicle. A 2.0-liter 4-cylinder producing 166 hp is also available, as is AWD (only with the larger engine). Unfortunately, blind-spot warning with rear cross-traffic warning is the only available advanced safety feature. 

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