It's been a while

The last time we had a Ford in the CarWale long-term garage was way back in 2017 and now nearly two years on, it feels great to welcome back a member of the blue oval to our family parking. The Aspire has been around for a bit and in this 2018 update, the compact sedan has gained some bling and good features as a part of the package.

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Joining our crew is this car that you see in the pictures. It’s a top-of-the-line version of the Ford Aspire compact sedan and one with a heart of diesel no less.

It’s a fully loaded car and this means you get six airbags, ABS with EBD, driver’s seat height adjustment, climate control, power windows and a infotainment system in the form of Ford SYNC3 setup. We’ve already reviewed this system in our massive touchscreen shootout and you can read about that here. One of the major selling points of the Aspire is its boot which in this case is a rather deep 359-litres. It will be instantly put to the test thanks to all the camera equipment I carry around for our shoots.

The heart of the diesel is of course the Ford 1.5-litre dragon engine producing 99bhp/215Nm. There’s a five-speed gearbox on offer and so far from what we have seen, there seems to be quite some potential for good fuel efficiency from this engine.

City run

My first order of business with the Aspire will be what it is like in the city. Of course, what’s a better place to put it through its paces than the under-construction Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. With the withdrawal of the monsoons, this will also be a test of the climate control system over the next month.

Photos: Kaustubh Gandhi