The newest Ford in town – the Freestyle – is what the company calls a compact utility vehicle or CUV. Based on the Figo platform, Ford India claims the Freestyle is an almost entirely new product. And it is new in many aspects – it’s a new body style for Ford, it gets a new engine and a new transmission too. The company invited us to drive the Freestyle from Jaipur to the Sambhar Salt Lake, India’s largest inland salt lake in Rajasthan recently. We delve under the hood of the new Ford Freestyle.
INTRODUCTION
At the first glance, the Freestyle is unmistakably a sturdy, tough, crossover hatchback version of Ford’s small car, Figo. Having said that, the Freestyle – as Ford claims – is indeed an entirely new product. Sure it looks different, but Ford has also got the Freestyle a new heart – a new 1.2 l petrol engine and a new 5-speed manual transmission.
With its position as a CUV, Ford India is clearly trying to create a niche between the crossover hatchbacks and the compact SUVs. It gets the compactness of hatchbacks, and is also given the body style and performance characteristics of a sports utility vehicle. Ford has made the product all the more compelling for interested customers with a fairly aggressive pricing strategy. Starting at a price of ₹5.09 lakh, it actually undercuts the Figo.
We’ll get to the details of how the vehicle drives a little later in this report. For now, let’s consider the technical highlights of the Freestyle.
HEART OF THE MATTER
Ford has two engine options on the Freestyle – a 1.5 l TDCi diesel unit that produces approximately 100 hp of peak power and 215 Nm of torque, and a new 1.2 l Ti-VCT petrol engine that generates around 95 hp of peak power and 120 Nm of maximum torque around 4,250 rpm.
The new 1.2 l petrol engine has been derived from the 1.5 l petrol unit Ford introduced earlier in the EcoSport. The compact three-cylinder engine is made of a lightweight aluminium engine block and cylinder head, and features an integrated exhaust manifold that is aimed to lower NVH levels. The use of aluminium is claimed to have considerably reduced the weight of the engine. The exhaust manifold, on the other hand, is integrated into the cylinder head, which heats up the catalyst faster, thus leading to decreased emissions.
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