Last year’s Shanghai show saw Ford wheel out the Escort Concept; fast forward a year and we’re now looking at the production Ford Escort at Auto China 2014. The modern day Escort is a roomy, inexpensive three-box sedan made in China for the Chinese market.
Developed by Ford’s Asia Pacific design team in Australia together with the Blue Oval’s Research and Engineering Centre in Nanjing, the Ford Escort was designed for a Chinese consumers looking for a sedan that is “stylish without appearing arrogant or pretentious.”
With that Aston Martin-style inverted trapezoidal grille, it’s unmistakably Ford up front. Elongated jeweled headlamps feature a floating turn signal, LED signature lighting and chrome graphics designed to resemble the lucky number eight. Chrome highlights around the fog lamp bezels call to mind the letter E on the Escort’s rear-mounted nameplate.
Working from Ford’s global C platform, the designers pulled the A-pillar rearward as far as possible to maximise the dash-to-axle ratio, for “premium, athletic proportions.” An upward kick at the rear of the beltline suggests the shape of the rear window edge where it meets the trunk lid.
The tail lamps, which also feature LED signature lighting, are shaped to echo the headlamps. A chrome bar bridges the lamps and helps create a wider appearance, always welcome in a compact sedan.
Ford strived for a premium appearance in the cabin, which should be roomier than a Focus Sedan‘s, although measurements were not given. Materials like perforated leather surpass customer expectations for a compact car, Ford says, while the instrument panel features a stitch line running the width of the interior.
Ford says that the Escort has been designed to provide a quiet and refined ride, even with the windows open. To minimise the throbbing sound that occurs when driving at speed with one window down, designers and engineers worked to optimise the design of the car’s side mirrors and their interaction with the body sides. This must be a common driving habit in China for Ford to specifically focus on it.
The 1.5 litre Ti-VCT-powered sedan is a China-only model for now, but do you think the Ford Escort will work here as a rival to the Toyota Vios and Honda City? That’s a task too big (literally) for the Fiesta Sedan, which is a backmarker in the B-segment race for space.
Live pix by Kwek Chai Li
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Awesome! Hopefully this car will come here
I think the Best description for this Ford Escort:
it looks like a premium Datsun.
very Oldies design
Agreed that the fiesta is too cramped but this look more roomy. If the price tag is right, it might compete inn-segment market here.
If the price slight higher, then fight with city, else fight with almera. Sorry that the Vios is totally beat by city unless those still prefer brand name than a car.
meh
Bring it here.. I may consider.. poor man’s Aston Martin.
It could work here due to 2 reasons. 1) It looks way better than the Fiesta sedan and is much larger to take on the competition and 2) There are many who hold fond memories of the last and second last Escorts sold here officially, the Mk2 and Mk1.
The car looks really weird from the first photo but the dead front end is quite good looking. Not quite a fan of the interior tho, gray doesn’t really match well with beige, Ford.
Bring it here Ford. This is a properly designed compact sedan (unlike the current Fiesta Sedan) with nice execution inside out plus the legendary nameplate. Handling performance should also eclipsed most of the Japanese competition.Go Ford!
This cud be the best replacement for fiesta sedan cuz it moves more upmarket compared to the current elongated fiesta.
not bad not bad…
Ford could record some Fiesta like sales figure if they bring this New Escort here…
Quite smooth and agile looking exterior and creative interior as well…
The only thing that i dun like is the Rim….
A decent design for decent people.
Which compare for Focus is less aggressive looking.
BTW ecoboost engine not available.
Let the Fiesta be what it is always meant to be – a hatchback. Which means that Ford Malaysia could still maintain the Fiesta hatchback in their line-up , whereas for the compact sedan model/B-class model they should offer this new Escort to the market and ultimately replace the Fiesta Sedan.Nuff said.