For those of you who aren’t yet aware, Ford has recently come out with a new small crossover called the EcoSport, which slots below the Escape in the brand’s lineup and competes with other tiny crossovers like the Mazda CX-3, Chevy Trax and Honda HR-V. The EcoSport has a cool touch in back: It has a little hidden door handle in the tailgate.
Take a look at the photo above, and you’ll see, pretty clearly, that the EcoSport has two normal taillights and a normal tailgate, and everything’s normal. But if you look over on the right, you’ll see the taillight on the right isn’t quite the same as the one on the left. Check the rest of the images I’ve included and you’ll see that the EcoSport integrates its rear tailgate handle into the passenger-side brake-light assembly — and it’s hidden so well you’d never know it’s there.
I noticed this at the New York Auto Show when I was climbing in and out of cars to find strange quirks and features (does this sound familiar?), and, indeed, it’s a good one — it’s a nice way to hide something that can otherwise be a bit ugly, much like Ford does on the Focus hatchback by integrating the fuel door into the rear fender.
You might be wondering, however, why exactly the EcoSport’s rear tailgate opens up like a door that’s hinged at the side, rather than a traditional tailgate that’s hinged on top. The reason is the spare tire: Base-level EcoSport models have a rear-mounted spare, and a top-hinged tailgate will be too heavy to lift if there’s a spare tire attached to it. As a result, nearly all cars with rear-mounted spares have swing-away tailgates — including the EcoSport. But few disguise the door handle as cleverly as this one. Find a Ford EcoSport for sale
Doug DeMuro is an automotive journalist who has written for many online and magazine publications. He once owned a Nissan Cube and a Ferrari 360 Modena. At the same time.
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The EcoSport is well known in my country, in fact its first generation was designed in our neighbor country Brazil during the 2000’s. This current one is the second generation, which was released in 2012 for the same foreign markets the original EcoSport was meant for, and just the latest redesign brought it to the US. Here it sells like hot cakes, but it doesn’t surprise me that Americans don’t care much about it. I wonder what they will do for its next generation, now that it is a fully “global” model, and Ford wants to become a “SUV and Mustang only” brand.
Cool would be if it had double purpose, latch and reverse light.
Does it only have the reverse lights on the left side?
May have a cool door handle, but it has the worst car name in history. Even “Edsel” was a better name.
I like Ford but this isn’t a very good CUV. It’s essentially a lifted previous gen Fiesta that’s been around almost 5 years in other markets. It’s also nearly $30,000 well equipped! Hopefully it’s just a placeholder for the next gen that should be out soon.
Having been exposed to a number of these in the country I’m currently in, the EcoSport is kind of garbage. Sad that Ford thought better to go to India for something this low-grade, rather than find a way to build something of better quality in the US. Of course, that likely would have infringed even more on the Escape… but given Ford is nearly completely abandoning the sedan market, it’s “MORE CUV FOR ALL!”
Very curious how it drives. There’s been some grumbling that it’s not so great. I haven’t gotten behind the wheel yet.