How to zip about town? Elementary, my dear Henry

THE FIRST task of the Ford EcoSport mystery case was to break out of a locked room. Who said you had to wait till dark for horror thrills?

The game’s afoot, or rather, a Ford. A cryptic invitation arrived late Wednesday afternoon, a directive to show up the following week for a “mystery case.” The only clue then was that the Ford EcoSport would be involved.

“EcoSport” is a preposterous name for a car, even more so for an SUV, but the vehicle the name’s attached to is a cleverly thought-out beast. It’s a tall wagon based on a B-segment (subcompact) platform. That design creates two distinct advantages: more interior volume, for both passengers and cargo; and higher ground clearance, for wading through flood and other obstacles in this great city of ours. That 530-millimeter wading depth and its purported superiority has caused some consternation among the automotive aristocracy. Alas, the weekday turned out to be quite clear and hot, removing any possibility of watery adventures.

Stepping  from the sunshine into the dungeon-like facility of Breakout Manila needed some adaptation in both eyesight and mentality. The task was to solve our way out of a locked room in 45 minutes. To relate more would be to spoil the game, but suffice to say that it was like playing a live-action “Resident Evil.” A seven-person solution of motoring’s and Ford’s finest detectives failed to come up with the complete picture, and the timer ran out on us. We emerged pleasantly shaken from the experience.

END OF THE RUN AT ENDERUN. A potentially harrowing day made easy by the comfortable EcoSport

The fleet of brightly colored EcoSports then convoyed to Intramuros for the next chapter. Figuring out how many soda cans the EcoSport could fit in proved to be harder than it seemed. Apart from the obvious four bottle holders in the doors and the three cupholders in the center console, more could slide into the door panels and cooled glovebox—a total of 13.

The next puzzle involved two long numbers—and a hint to turn on a motorist’s best friend, the Waze mobile app. Waze can apparently be fed the longitude and latitude, and its GPS would do the rest, giving turn-by-turn directions. The EcoSport’s compact footprint proved advantageous on the streets of Intramuros, where the horse carts on narrow streets brought us a step closer to Victorian London. Only dense fog and the cold were lacking. The occasional cobblestone sections did not faze the car’s suspension, either. The MacPherson struts up front and twist-beam axle at the rear soaked up the bumps.

In the fascinating Calvo Museum on Escolta, we had to hunt down the oldest Ford advertisement among the hundreds of vintage photographs. We discovered that the EcoSport’s

LOOKING for clues near Manila’s muelles, EcoSport felt at home on the narrow streets.

ancestor, the Model T, retailed for P795 in 1920. Adjusted for inflation, that converts to P980,000, eerily close to the 2014 EcoSport’s list price. Comparing the EcoSport’s 110 horsepower and top speed in excess of 160 kilometers per hour to the Model T’s 20 HP and 72 kph top speed, and all of the new car’s creature comforts, we get an idea of just how much the automobile has progressed in nearly a century.

The next puzzle waited at Ford Manila Bay. We unfortunately avoided Roxas Boulevard and the scheduled earthquake drill, and so ended up crawling along Taft Avenue. We were anxious as hell to move along, but despite the time pressure, the EcoSport was a pleasant car to drive. The driver’s seat was easy to adjust to a comfortable, commanding position. Controls all fall readily in hand. The cabin is practically identical to the Fiesta on which the EcoSport is based, and that’s a good thing. Switches and displays are grouped logically and are intuitive to operate.

Belying its tall ride height, the EcoSport was a cracking drive. Steering was as pleasant and responsive as the lower Fiesta hatchback. Body roll is minimal and, despite the box-like shape of the cabin, the car felt solid. The six-speed dual clutch transmission could be jerky at takeoff but, once the car gets going, the power delivery becomes seamless.

TO GET to the next stop, we had to talk to our EcoSport. Good thing the Sync voice command complies.

The puzzle at Manila Bay depicted a washing machine planted in the EcoSport’s cargo area, with room to spare, because there is no spare. Or rather, it was moved to the rear door, freeing up a lot of interior space and allowing for a lower load floor. There is plenty of room for stuff in the EcoSport: 346 liters in the trunk with the rear seat up and 560 liters with seats folded.

The last stop was at the appropriately selected Enderun Colleges, the upscale culinary school in McKinley Hill. The food was sumptuous and the company stimulating. A good ending then, with all mysteries solved, except for one. Before the car’s launch, we had some reservations about the sub-P1-million maximum price for the EcoSport but soon found that all convenience features are included in the Titanium variant. These include keyless go with push button start, electronic stability control and rain-sensing wipers. How could Ford afford it? The shared platform with the Fiesta is a clue, but it seemed to us that the Blue Oval simply wants the car to fly out of dealerships. As Holmes would say, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Photos by Jason K. Ang