Ecoboost 1.0 125Ps First Impressions

[Taeasz]

Having had my Titanium 125PS for nearly a month now, I thought I would share my first impressions of the car. I bought my 63 plate with 9500 miles on the clock and it was first registered to a Ford main dealership. A couple of minor stone chips on the bonnet but apart from that well worth the saving of £6000 over the new price and I wont cry as much when I get my first supermarket car park ding as I would with a brand new car.

As others have previously commented this small turbocharged engine takes some getting used to and demands a particular driving style to get the best out of it. The high gearing meant that for the first few drives I was in grave danger of collecting points on my licence especially with the large number of speed cameras in my area. Coming from a Focus petrol 1.6 125PS which was smooth, quiet and low geared, but quite gutless, the Ecoboost is far more charismatic and entertaining providing you don't change up a gear too early.

I find the start/stop system works quite smoothly but can be irritating at times, especially when traffic is crawling along and the stopped time is very brief. I know it can be disabled with the switch on the dash, but each time you drive the system defaults to 'on' again. I also find that when trying to let the engine idle for a short time before switching off after a fast run to help the turbo bearings to cool down, the start stop beats me to it and kills the engine as soon as I stop on my driveway.

Yesterday I drove a colleague's new 2014 model Mini Cooper which now has a 1.5 litre 3 cylinder turbo engine pushing out around 136PS, and to drive has a similar character to the Ecoboost engine, but interestingly I didn't find it any faster than the Fiesta and was less entertaining to drive. It also costs around £20k once you spec it up to the level of Titanium!

[KenP]

I did the similar thing and got a 14 plate with 6000 miles, I didn't think I was going to have any luck second hand as I wanted the Sat nav and it doesn't seem to come up very often.

I haven't really found any faults yet and got 44mpg from my first tank of fuel, which is a big saving after running a Type R previously. I love the stop start, but if I know I'm only going to stop for a couple of seconds I keep the clutch down to stop it activating.

[kathyp]

I went out in the new cooper, to me it was a pleasant surprise as it felt much more pokey than the zetec s I drove few months back,then again that's in line with the figures I suppose. I do agree though, the cooper is ridiculously overpriced for the power it offers - could get an ST for less.

[GrahamJC]

As far as stop/start is concerned, I took someone else's advice and simply turn it off - for what it really saves in fuel it is probably more gimmick than anything else - just my opinion of course. I went in a new automatic Porsche 911 S on Sunday

and my son seems to think stop/start is more suited to automatics!

[Willy]

There's a fuse for the stop / start that I'm thinking of removing to disable it. If I'm successful I'll report back :)

[Willy]

OK so I found the fuse and relay in the owners manual but guess what? No fuse or relay in the actual fuse board :(

[KenP]

Can't quite understand why anyone would want to permanently disable the stop start, the system seems to work really well.

[Willy]

Because it's a pain in the rear when it's only for a few seconds. I didn't buy my car for the fuel economy ;)

[KenP]

Still don't get it, but then again the fuel economy and the healthy power output was the exact reasons I bought it.

[SandyCat]

A year or so ago I wrote to HonestJohn the motoring journalist about my concerns with stop/start because in my view it put extra strain on the starter motor and battery and stopped you idling a turbo engine. He said it was early days but it would be interesting to see if there were higher cases of failures. Also the turbos in these engines are not highly strung so it's possible they can put up with a bit more abuse.

Considering the numbers sold and the time the car has been on sale we don't seem to be overrun with complaints but I prefer to be in control of things and don't like it when the car tries to take over.

[alexp999]

They put higher rated batteries and stop start systems in the cars, so extra strain shouldn't be an issue. The system also monitors the battery and will not use stop start if the battery is getting low.

[KenP]

It's the sort of system I've been wishing I had for years, the thought of sitting at lights for ages and wasting fuel just annoyed me, and if you stopped the engine on my old car when you restarted all the stuff like sat nav would go through the start up procedure again.

[Pathfinder]

I've retired now but over the years have owned quite a variety of brands and engine sizes - my latest model is one of the best I have owned and all the bells and whistles are just great, the engine is a real star and the stop start system a joy to use and when not needed just turn it off, love the hill assist as well and the front and rear sensors are fun.

Just clocked up 1300 miles and fuel consumption improving all the time. Needed to overtake yesterday and have great confidence in this little gem - it really responds well when you ask it to. Looking forward to a drive to Scotland.

[KenP]

I've retired now but over the years have owned quite a variety of brands and engine sizes - my latest model is one of the best I have owned and all the bells and whistles are just great, the engine is a real star and the stop start system a joy to use and when not needed just turn it off, love the hill assist as well and the front and rear sensors are fun.

Just clocked up 1300 miles and fuel consumption improving all the time. Needed to overtake yesterday and have great confidence in this little gem - it really responds well when you ask it to. Looking forward to a drive to Scotland.

I'm on holiday at the moment and have loved driving it, it just doesn't feel like a small car.

Oh, and the Sat nav has come in very handy.