There’s a reason this Windstar owner in San Miguel de Allende slapped an EcoBoost badge on their minivan. Ford’s EcoBoost line of engines have been tremendously successful in migrating owners of naturally-aspirated four-, six- and eight-cylinder engines to turbocharged mills.
The EcoBoost family of engines was originally supposed to wear a decidedly different name—Twinforce. Ford decided to instead use a name with stronger connotations of reduced emissions and increased fuel economy, selecting EcoBoost. By marketing the wide range of engines with the same nameplate, Ford has established excellent name recognition for the technology and its efficiency and performance advantages. No, EcoBoost doesn’t sound as cool as Twinforce (or Hurricane, or Rocket) but evidently it is well-known and respected enough for somebody to want to put an EcoBoost badge on their Windstar. Oh, and it sounds a lot cooler than Essex.
Related Reading:
New Car Capsule Review: 2015 Ford F-150 2.7 liter V6 Ecoboost – Rapidly Changing Mindsets
Wow, an EcoBoost Windstar boggles the mind. The Windstar transmisssion couldn’t handle the low-output V6. I couldn’t imagine that unit behind a turbocharged engine. Vouchers in the glovebox for BOGO transmission replacements?
And yes, a peaky turbocharged four is *exactly* what a family and cargo hauling minivan needs. I think I’d pick another badge. Maybe a Grande’? 🙂
Dare I say that we would not be seeing an EcoBoost anything right now but for CAFE?
Driving a 2017 F150 3.5 ecoboost might change your perception.
The best rebadge I saw was a Crown Vic police interceptor badge on a Caravan.
Someone around us has a Ford with an “Ecobust” plate; not sure if they’re being ironic or if it’s a sort of rolling Yelp review.
Twinforce was a way better name, but with the present being a pussy-whipped, Brady Bunch version of itself, run by a bunch of robed sissies (/end Wesley Snipes voice), it doesn’t surprise me much that they’d choose to substitute it with a milquetoast name like Ecoboost, which sounds like either an off brand vitamin supplement, or quite possibly a laxative. Marketing substance has really disappeared. There was always a sprinkling of BS to sell a new feature, but flipping one, that in the 80s would have merited application of a door sized banner declaring TWIN TURBO, to be some sort of Hybridesque green technology is ridiculous. It’s a power adder, and with at least 100 horsepower on every last Ecoboost application probably being excessive for real world use, it’s greenness is about as full as substance as someone taking a private jet all over the world to lecture people on energy conservation.
Anyway. I’m not one to talk :D. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j108/cougarman1/2015/002_4.jpg
I have heard that Ecoboost engines are actually decently fuel efficient when not in turbo boost mode, it’s just that they are very liberal with the turbo so you can’t have a lead foot. I’ve never driven one myself though, so I wouldn’t really know.
Luv my 2013 Ford Escape 1.6 Turbo
I can average 35 mpg on the hwy / 23 city
Has x-lent scoot power when needed.. The Turbo makes all the diff.
It’s either Eco or Boost, with not much area in between.
The twinforce name doesn’t really work for an inline engine with one turbo though
People that put random rebadging on their cars are either-
1) Trying to be funny (like the guy who slapped a Benz star on his Smartcar)
2) Are a few fries short of a happy meal
3) also think stick on fake chrome classes things up (all the Buick-esque ventiports on old POS Altimas and Neons)
And what appears to be park assist sensors?
Now that’s an interesting badge to add – my own suggestion, given this month, would have been “Ford Deadly Sin”……
Though I have no proof, the conspiracy theorist in me continues to believe Ford raided Volvo for its extensive Turbo expertise to come up with its Ecoboost models.
Ford did have prior “learning experience” with the Lima turbo shortly before Volvo with their “Redblock” turbo.
They did – and I test drove a T-Bird with the 2.3 Turbo in the mid eighties – and saw the same engine used in the Merkur XR4ti – but these were marginal efforts, and Ford had no real other Turbo experience, until it purchased Volvo – so my guess is they leveraged what they could (as they did with the many Volvo platforms) in their quest to create the Ecoboost technology.
So maybe if there was real truth is advertising the badge would say “Ecoboost – with help from Volvo”