Ford EcoSport VS Fiat 500X
Ford EcoSport
Likes
Dislikes
Fiat 500X
Likes
- Fun looks
- Good interior
- Great safety package
Dislikes
- Iffy transmission
- Oddball ride
- Slow
Summary
Ford EcoSport
Baby SUVs are currently the flavour of the month - indeed the decade, it seems - and one of the easiest ways for a car company to create a player in this burgeoning segment is to take the skeleton of its smallest hatch and remould it in an SUV style.
This is exactly what Ford has done with the EcoSport, taking the foundations from the company's smallest car, its Fiesta hatch. How has the translation worked for Ford's smallest SUV?
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 1.5L |
| Fuel Type | — |
| Fuel Efficiency | 6.5L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Fiat 500X
Fiat's indomitable 500 is one of the great survivors - not even VW's recently deceased New Beetle could keep riding the nostalgia wave, partly because it made itself just that little bit out-of-touch by not being a car anyone can buy. The 500 avoided that, particularly in its home market, and is still going strong.
Fiat added the 500X compact SUV a few years ago and at first I thought it was a daft idea. It's a polarising car, partly because some people complain it's capitalising on the 500's history. Well, duh. It's worked out well for Mini, so why not?
I've driven one every year for the last couple so I was keen to see what's up and whether it's still one of the weirdest cars on the road.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 1.4L turbo |
| Fuel Type | Premium Unleaded Petrol |
| Fuel Efficiency | 5.7L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Ford EcoSport6/10
The EcoSport is less adventure vehicle and more a vehicle for those for whom adventure comes in smaller, easy to access doses. It’s small, easy to park and easy to drive, but it’s certainly well behind the rest of the class when it comes to a complete package.
It’s not a particularly nice thing to drive, for example, thanks to underdone suspension and poorly modulated brakes, and the quicker that tailgate spare is consigned to history, the better.
Does the Ford EcoSport rate a spot on your shopping list? Let us know!
Fiat 500X6.8/10
The 500X is a fun-looking alternative to the various options available from everyone else and is - overall - better to drive than its Renegade twin.Â
It packs a very good safety package which you can't ignore but does lose points on the warranty and servicing regime. But it's also built to take four adults in comfort, which not every car in the segment can boast.
Would you choose the Fiat 500X over one its better-known competitors? Tell us in the comments section below.
Design
Ford EcoSport
Looking at the front end of the four-door, five-seat EcoSport, it's obvious that Ford has developed a company-wide look for its SUV family, with the large prominent chrome grille mimicking that in the company's other SUVs, including the Escape and the Everest.
For a small car, the EcoSport is quite slab-sided with narrow windows, a prominent roof and squared off rear, and an overly long front-centre look. Along with a squared-off, bluff bonnet line and the EcoSPort’s tall suspension, it gives the EcoSport the faux SUV look that Ford is gunning for.Â
On the inside the car is dominated by a deep dashboard that's lined with a hard, dimpled plastic. This theme continues throughout the car, across the tops of the door cards and into the rear as well. The colour scheme verges on sombre, with a low-key grey, silver, and black theme challenged only by a cream coloured head lining.Â
Fiat 500X7/10
Look, I like the 500X, but I know why people don't. It's clearly a 500X in the way a Mini Countryman is a Mini. It looks like a 500, but get closer and you see the difference. It's chubby like a $10 weekend market Bhudda statue and has great big googly eyes like Mr Magoo. I find this endearing, my wife does not. The looks aren't the only thing she doesn't like.
The cabin is a bit more restrained and I quite like the band of colour stretching across the dash. The 500X is meant to be a bit more grown up than the 500, so there's a proper dash, more sensible design choices but it still has the big buttons, perfect for the meaty fingers of people who won't be buying this car.
Practicality
Ford EcoSport
The EcoSport is marketed as a five seat, five door small SUV, or compact SUV, but really the rear compartment particularly, is designed best for two occupants.Â
ISOFIX points are located in the rear but there are no provisions for charging or for ventilation, while in the front the sheer lack of dimension of the EcoSport means the driver and passenger are seated quite close together.Â
In terms of storage there are a handful of very small oddment bins scattered on the centre console, along with two cupholders line astern. All four doors can take small bottles and there are another two cupholders in a rear pull-down armrest.
Probably the most distinctive - and probably most annoying - feature of the EcoSport is its rear tailgate. Instead of a traditional top hinged style, the EcoSport uses a side opening door with a single strut, with a full size spare wheel mounted to the rear of it.Â
Finding the switch to open the door itself is hard enough, especially if you've never done it before, and the door itself is surprisingly heavy. As well, if you park the EcoSport in the wrong place you simply won't be able to open the door to access the boot area fully.
It's an anachronistic design in a world where practicality rules, and this will make or break a buying decision for a lot of people. Thankfully, Ford has responded, and will offer the EcoSport without a rear door-mounted spare wheel from the middle of 2018.
The cargo area itself has 743 litres of space with the seats up and 1178 litres with them down - isn't too bad in terms of floor space, although it does narrow up quite significantly when you get to the seat backs.Â
Ford, though, has added a split-level floor that's designed to provide a flat loading surface when the two rear seats are tumbled forward. Oh, and you have to lift the seat bases up and away before you drop those seat backs, too.
Passenger accommodations are okay at best. The fitment of a sunroof to the top spec Titanium model doesn't do the car any favours, particularly in the rear, thanks to the deeper roof lining needed for a sunroof. If there is a taller driver up front, then you’ll need to find a very small rear passenger as legroom all but disappears, while fitting three across the rear really isn't an option for even a moderate journey.
ISOFIX seat points are provided for two baby seats, while the driving position itself is more than adequate with fair visibility. Something to note though, the porthole provided at the base of the A pillar to give the driver a slightly better view really does nothing at all thanks to the thickness of that pillar.Â
The steep windscreen, a long dash, and slightly bulbous bonnet also means that front visibility, particularly when parking, is quite difficult and it's very hard to get a sense of where the front of the car actually is.
Ford's SYNC 3 system does provide an excellent interface for all operations with phones, media, and satellite navigation, though as mentioned the buttons on the steering wheel are quite numerous and very small, so a little bit of tactility is needed to operate them.Â
Other than that, the rest of the main controls are pretty straightforward with a traditional automatic gear shift and manual handbrake.
The multimedia system is operated via a small screen that sits proud on the dash, while all instruments in the EcoSport are reasonably well labelled. The majority of buttons are clustered around the steering wheel and can be hard to discern their function given their lack of size.Â
The top-spec Titanium offers a black leatherette style interior treatment, which is reasonably well presented… but the sheer volume of harder plastics does let the side down.
There are two USB ports up front but none in the rear, and the 12v points are very well hidden.Â
Fiat 500X7/10
At just 4.25 metres, the 500X isn't big, but makes the most of what it's got. The boot impresses at 350 litres and with the seats down, I think you could reasonably expect to triple that figure, though Fiat doesn't have an official number that I can find. For added Italian feel, you can tip the passenger seat forward to get really long things in, like a Billy bookshelf flat pack from Ikea.
Rear seat passengers sit high and upright meaning leg and kneeroom are maximised and with that tall roof, you won't scrape your head.Â
The doors each have a small bottle holder for a total of four and Fiat has got serious about cupholders - the 500X now has four.
Price and features
Ford EcoSport
The EcoSport Titanium we tested costs $28,990 before on-road costs, and it’ll be cross-shopped with cars like Hyundai’s Kona Elite FWD ($28,500) and Honda’s HR-V VTi-S ($27,990), as well as the category-leading Mitsubishi ASX LS FWD at $28,500.
Its specs include keyless entry and smart key, start button, an 8.0-inch colour multimedia screen which uses Ford’s Sync3 system, single-zone climate control air-conditioning, automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, sunroof, leather seats, HID projector headlights and LED daytime running lights, 17-inch alloy wheels and roof rails.
Fiat 500X7/10
I drove the Pop Star, which is the second of the now-two model "regular" range, the other being the, er, Pop. I drove a Special Edition in 2018 and it's not clear if it is Special as there's also an Amalfi Special edition. Anyway.
The $30,990 (plus on-road costs) Pop Star has 17-inch alloys, six-speaker Beats-branded stereo, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, active cruise control, sat nav, auto headlights and wipers, leather shifter and steering wheel and a space-saver spare.
The Beats-branded stereo speakers are supplied with noise from FCA's UConnect on a 7.0-inch touchscreen. The same system is in a Maserati, don't you know. Offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, UConnect loses points by shrinking the Apple interface into a lurid red frame. Android Auto properly fills the screen, for some reason which is ironic given Apple owns the Beats brand.
Under the bonnet
Ford EcoSport
The Titanium offers up Ford’s clever 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, which combines with a six-speed automatic gearbox. It makes a fighty 92kW and 150Nm, which is pretty cool for such a tiny motor – but ultimate performance is blunted by a 1368kg kerb weight.
Fiat 500X7/10
Fiat's rather excellent 1.4-litre turbo MultiAir does duty under the stubby bonnet, making 103kW and 230Nm. Rather less excellent is the six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, which sends power through the front wheels only.
It's rated to tow a 1200kg braked trailer and 600kg unbraked.
Efficiency
Ford EcoSport
Rated at 6.7 litres per 100km, the EcoSport Titanium consumed a dash-indicated 7.9L/100km over a shortened 120km test loop. It can run on 91RON, and it has a 52-litre fuel tank.
Fiat 500X6/10
Fiat rather optimistically suggest you'll get a combined cycle figure of 5.7L/100km but try as I might, I couldn't do better than 11.2L/100km. What's worse, it demands 98RON fuel, so it's not the cheapest car to run. This figure us consistent with past weeks in the 500X and no, I wasn't thrashing it.
Driving
Ford EcoSport
Unfortunately the EcoSport doesn't really come together that well. Developed in a relative hurry off the basis of an ageing Fiesta platform, the car just doesn't really gel, particularly when driving around town.Â
The brakes, in particular, have a very strange modulation feel, in that the first small part of pedal travel does very little to stop the car, before the brakes bite very hard. It makes the car awkward to drive smoothly, which is an annoyance in stop/start traffic.
The three-cylinder one-litre engine is a surprise package. It's smooth, linear, and although it’s raucous when pushed, settles down into quiet operation very quickly. Steering is okay, but it doesn't provide much in the way of feedback to the driver. Of course, this is not a sports car, but this is also a car that will make a regular driver wonder why it doesn't feel as nice as it should for a new car.Â
The EcoSport's ride is soft and comfortable, thought it quickly falls apart when pushed even moderately hard. It's a level of ride that's designed to add comfort for occupants… and really little more.Â
The front suspension, in particular, crashes and bangs over even moderately sharp impacts and overall it really feels like a narrow, tall vehicle it is. The centre of gravity does feel quite high and the slab sides do leave it susceptible to even moderately stiff side draughts.Â
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Fiat 500X6/10
Again, I shouldn't like the 500X but I really don't mind it. It's flawed, which might be why.
The dual-clutch transmission is dumber than a box of loose cogs, lurching from start and looking the other way when you expect it to shift. We know the engine is a good one and I think part of the reason it's so thirsty is the confused way the transmission goes about its business. I'd love to drive a manual to see what it's like.
The 500X initially feels worse than its Jeep Renegade sibling-under-the-skin, which is quite an achievement. Part of that is to do with the ride, which is very choppy below 60km/h. The first 500X I drove wallowed about but this one is a bit tauter, which would be good if you weren't punished with this bounciness.
The seats themselves comfortable and the interior is a good place to hang out. It's reasonably quiet, too, which is at odds with the old-school silliness of its conduct. It feels like Labrador let out of after day kept inside.
And that's where the car I shouldn't like is a car I do like - I really like that it feels like you're on Roman cobblestones, the type that make your knees hurt when you walk on them for a day. The steering wheel is too fat and is at a weird angle, but you kind of square up to it and drive the car like your life depends on it. You have to take it by the scruff, correct the shifts with the paddles and show it who's boss.
Obviously, that's not for everyone. If you drive it really gently, it's a very different experience, but that means going slowly everywhere, which is no fun at all and not at all Italian.
Safety
Ford EcoSport
The Titanium is the best equipped of all the EcoSport range, with It also offers a rear-view camera with front and rear sensors, digital speedo, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert. It doesn’t, however, offer AEB in any model, and this generation of car won’t ever have it.
Regardless, it still carries a maximum five-star safety rating from ANCAP.
Fiat 500X8/10
Out of the box, you get seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, forward collision warning, high and low speed AEB, active cruise control, rollover stability, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind spot sensor and rear cross traffic alert. That's not bad for a $30,000 car full stop, let alone a Fiat.
There are two ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors for baby seats.Â
The 500X scored a five-star ANCAP rating in December 2016.
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Ownership
Ford EcoSport
With just a three-year, 100,000km warranty, Ford’s offering is fast becoming one of the least generous in the game. Its fixed price service deal works out at around $280 for the first five years or 75,000km (whichever comes first), so that’s not too bad.
Servicing should be carried out every at 12 months or 15,000km.
Fiat 500X6/10
Fiat offers a three-year/150,000km warranty, along with roadside assist for the same period. It's not great as more manufacturers shift to five years.Â
Service intervals arrive once a year or 15,000km. There is no fixed or capped-price servicing program for the 500X.