MotorTrend

Ford EcoSport: 2019 Motor Trend SUV of the Year Contender

Short of eco and sport

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WE LIKESync user interface, well-appointed interior on SES model

WE DON'T LIKEEngines that sound like they're begging for mercy

This is a shareholder-value vehicle, not a customer-value vehicle. There's a mini-ute profit war brewing, and Ford can't afford to be Switzerland, so the company has gone to battle with the aging army it has, not the cutting-edge army it surely must have wanted.

We look forward to discovering flashes of Expedition/Navigator brilliance in the EcoSport's replacement, but for now there's little to recommend a tall, tippy, gawky-looking, ironically named, developing-market trucklet that's woefully short of both eco and sport.

Several editors nevertheless managed to find nice things to say. Human sequoia Zach Gale was pleasantly surprised by the spaciousness and cushy armrests in the tall, upright rear seat, gadget-boy Stefan Ogbac appreciated the Sync 3 system's ease of use and instant responsiveness, and Kim Reynolds praised the EcoSport's dynamics on our figure-eight course. It even traversed the tilted-slab L.A. Interstate 110 replica with reasonable suppleness, making us wonder if that was because its wheelbase was shorter than the slabs.

But these pleasantries were outnumbered in our logbooks by less flattering critiques. "It's poor on gas, noisy, and ugly," Scottish straight-talker Gordon Dickie declared. Noted Angus MacKenzie: "The engines drone, and there's a lot of diagonal pitch in corners." Ogbac observed, "Everything screams 'built to price,' yet it can hit $30,000 when fully optioned."

And on the off-road course, where the 1.0-liter front-driver struggled mightily in shallow, snowlike sand, Christian Seabaugh so flustered the poor thing that it threw this very unusual warning: "Power reduced to lower engine temp." His EcoSport summation expresses our collective sentiment: "Ford of North America didn't take this vehicle seriously, so why should I?"

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2018 Ford EcoSport SE (FWD)

2018 Ford EcoSport SES 4WD

Base Price/As tested

$23,995/$25,685

$27,875/$28,345

Power (SAE net)

123 hp @ 6,000 rpm

166 hp @ 6,500 rpm

Torque (SAE net)

125 lb-ft @ 3,500 rpm

149 lb-ft @ 4,500 rpm

Accel, 0-60 mph

11.2 sec

9.9 sec

Quarter-mile

18.2 sec @ 76.7 mph

17.4 sec @ 77.0 mph

Braking, 60-0 mph

128 ft

132 ft

Lateral Acceleration

0.74 g (avg)

0.77 g (avg)

MT Figure Eight

29.3 sec @ 0.54 g (avg)

28.7 sec @ 0.56 g (avg)

EPA City/Hwy/Comb

27/29/28 mpg

23/29/25 mpg

Vehicle Layout

Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV

Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV

Engine/Transmission

1.0L turbo DOHC 12-valve I-3 /6-speed automatic

2.0L DOHC 16-valve I-4 /6-speed automatic

Curb Weight (F/R Dist)

3,054 lb (62/38%)

3,390 lb (58/42%)

Wheelbase

99.2 in

99.2 in

Length x Width x Height

161.3 x 69.5 x 64.8 in

161.3 x 69.5 x 65.1 in

Energy Cons, City/Hwy

125/116 kW-hrs/100 miles

147/116 kW-hrs/100 miles

CO2 Emissions, Comb

0.70 lb/mile

0.76 lb/mile

Frank Markus

I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…

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