Ford EcoSport

Ford’s offering to the horribly crowded, but highly lucrative supermini SUV segment. Based on the last-generation Fiesta’s underpinnings – a perennial best-seller in the UK – it has all the ingredients to rise above the melee, but somehow has never lived up to the promise.

That’s probably because this car was originally designed to service emerging markets in South America and Asia, where affordability and ground clearance are the crucial factors. So, when Ford began churning them out in 2013 from factories in India, China, Thailand and Brazil it was a car built to a strict cost base, and therefore not suited to more discerning European tastes.

Still, that didn’t stop Ford from lightly dolling up the interior, plumbing in a few new engines and sending the car over here, complete with boot-mounted spare wheel that brought back nightmares of the nineties Vitara. Sure-enough, the handling magic from the Fiesta was gone, leaving a car whose launch was well-timed for the surge in SUV sales, but woefully under-engineered.

In 2015 Ford got the message and gave the EcoSport a makeover by removing that ungainly spare wheel, overhauling the suspension and upping the equipment count. Another three years on and Ford has given the EcoSport another major restyle, and moved production to Romania, in an attempt to cling onto an explosion of new rivals including the Citroen C3 Aircross, Hyundai Kona and Seat Arona. The 2018 updates include exterior styling to match the Kuga and Edge, an interior to match the new Fiesta and new trim levels with increased personalisation options.