American automaker Ford Motor Company has unveiled its all-new Compact Utility Vehicle (CUV) – the Ford Freestyle, for Indian consumers in January 2018.
With Freestyle CUV, Ford India aims to seize the opportunities generated by fast-growing demand for SUV-like vehicles in the country. Ford Freestyle will be launched in India during Q2 CY2018 (April-June, 2018).
The vehicle will be competing with the likes of Fiat Avventura, and Honda WR-V.
Ford Freestyle
Ford India is likely to price its upcoming CUV within a range of Rs 6 lakh - Rs 8 lakh.
The Freestyle will come with Ford’s all-new, three-cylinder 1.2L TiVCT petrol engine that will generate 96PS of peak power at 6500rpm and 120Nm of torque at 4250rpm. Consumers will continue to have a choice to opt for Ford’s 1.5L TDCi diesel engine that produces 100PS of peak power at 3750rpm and 215Nm of torque at 1750-3000rpm. Both the engines will be mated to five speed manual transmission.
There will be an option of four trims each in both the engines – Ambiente, Trend, Titanium, and Titanium+.
The five seater will be available in six exterior colour options – Absolute Black, Canyon Ridge, Moondust Silver, Oxford White, Smoke Grey, and White Gold.
Freestyle will feature six airbags, traction control system, anti-lock braking system with electronic brakeforce distribution, electric power assisted steering, among others.
The Ford Freestyle will also feature Ford’s in-car infotainment system, SYNC 3 with a 6.5- inch touchscreen which allows drivers to control their entertainment and their connected smartphone with conversational voice commands. SYNC 3 system is also Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatible.
From design and styling perspective it sports a grille with three-dimensional mesh, sweeping straight lines moving from front to the rear, front bumper with an integrated skid plate and sculpted fascia sections, blacked-out high contrast headlamps complemented by fog lamp bezel, and an inclined windshield.
Fiat Avventura
Offered in four trims – Active, Dynamic, Emotion, and Powered by Abarth, Fiat Avventurais available in 1.3L Multijet diesel engine, and 1.4L T-JET petrol engines. Prices across the trims are – Rs 711,801, Rs 796,132, Rs 876,340, and Rs 989,219 respectively.
It comes in five different exterior colour paint options – Bronzo Tan, Bossanova White, Exotica Red, Minimal Grey, and Hip Hop Black.
Avventura’s all new navigation system features a 12.7cm (5) smart, resistive touch screen with USB & Aux that allows you to connect most devices to the self-adjusting volume audio system.
For safety, Fiat India is offering dual airbags with early crash sensors in Avventura.
Honda WR-V
WR-V comes in two trims – S and VX, in both 1.2L SOHC i-VTEC petrol and 1.5L DOHC i-DTEC diesel engines. While the petrol trims are available for Rs 778,017 (S) and Rs 900,414 (VX), the diesel variants has been priced at Rs 881,683 (S) and Rs 999,900 (VX).
Honda Cars India is offering six exterior body paint options for WR-V – Premium Amber Metallic, Modern Steel Metallic, Alabaster Silver Metallic, Carnelian Red Pearl, Golden Brown Metallic, and White Orchid Pearl.
Honda’s Digipad offers touchscreen audio, video and navigation facilities. It features satellite-linked 3D navigation, mirrorlink support for smartphone connectivity, vice recognition for media, navigation and phone, and Bluetooth telephony and audio, streaming.
With standard dual airbags, anti-lock braking system, electronic brakeforce distribution, multiview rear parking camera, and intelligent pedals, the Honda WR-V has everything for safety.