It seems that the 2022 Ford Ecosport is no longer available in the Philippines.

We tipped our hats off to Ford Motors (FM) for giving the world Ford Ecosport along with its darling siblings (Titanium, SE, S, SES trims), considering that this remarkable (in a way) vehicle had once established a fine reputation as a phenomenal blockbuster hit; in terms of lucrative automotive sales. 

Therefore, it was almost a complete surprise to everyone about the car being “discontinued” production-wise, from the lineup of saleable crossover SUVs.

Thus, the ensuing effect of the car’s discontinuation was like a slap-shock to many but most especially to those teeming hordes of die-hard Ecosport fans from the known (and probably unknown) quarters of the globe who just can’t get enough of this ute-Fiesta look-alike.

Moreover, after Ford Motors announced the rather untimely demise of the former “one-hit car-wonder” (EcoSport), from the US car marketplace, the rather abrupt news of the car’s downfall was viewed with indifference as some local folks view the whole matter as an inevitability.

As one executive analyst from Autotrader.com wrily commented that the former’s sudden death from the US car scene “comes as no surprise.” 

But almost everyone knows all too well that there’s always a multiverse of sides to every story whether it’s real or largely imagined which, in this case, the public has greatly overlooked.

According to Hot Cars.com, the real reason why Ford Motors had shut down both of their two factories located south of India was that both of these plants were “underutilized” not to mention grappling with “poor car demands” that translated later to $2 billion of production losses over the past “10 years.”

Moreover, as those two Ford India plants were nearing bankruptcy, the Ford’s main US headquarter had no choice on the matter but to pull out both plants from the said region as they were also barely straggling in with just a lesser 2% of the passenger car market while at the same time, also was being hammered with a non-operating closure or write-down of assets worth $0.8 billion as of 2019.

From the horse’s mouth, the argument comes clean as a whistle.

But the significant issue here is whether or not the public, with regards to that controversial “discontinuation”(suavely trumpeted by Ford), were being served with a platter of genuine “truths” or probably with a generous portion of white lies duly promoted by those “bean counters” (pardon the rather vitriolic expression) from the top-rung ladder of Ford’s committee. 

But more surprisingly, this latest travail from Ford Motors has brought to mind an incident from one of the company’s mostly checkered history of automotive wrongdoing. (maybe its time to let your fingers do the walking for some research)

Are you ready for this? Ta-da! Who can forget the Ford Pinto Disaster? (saw your cheeks colored at the soundbyte Georgy hah-hah)

That disaster was nothing but one hot-regurgitating mess of a national scandal that happened during the psychedelic-tripping 70s wherein three teenage girls died from a fatal car crash that happened on an Indiana freeway on August 10, 1978.

The said victims were onboard a 1973 Ford Pinto that burst into flames when the car was rammed from behind by a speeding van.

FYI though, the Ford Pinto was a subcompact car offering a three-body configuration made by Ford Motors wherein 1971 and 1980 trims were first marketed in North America while much later on (FM) revamped the whole Pinto line-up and dubbed it as Mercury Bobcat, so there.

But going back to the tragic back story, the company, before that unfortunate incident happened, knew all along that the said car had issues with the fuel tank as it was installed in a somewhat awkward and vulnerable manner ( the fuel tank sits behind the rear axle), that is prone to eventual damage caused by rear-end collisions.

Yet, during that time, people from Ford’s higher-ups, never budge, never even move a muscle to attend to a problem that would later escalate to a worst-case scenario until that tragic day in Indiana wherein three girls died as a result of a badly-misplaced fuel tank which FM engineers had greatly overlooked.

Moreover, fearing more reprisals from court indictments and the need to salvage more of the company's public reputation (by now tarnished) Ford Motors, finally relented to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) bidding and was forced to recall 1.5 million Ford Pintos and Mercury Bobcats (built also with Pinto’s signature fuel tank), in 1978, the largest recall in automotive history ever made at the time.

Now fast forward to 2022, and it’s looking more like the same old crazy loop had reloaded yet again as old ghosts from Ford’s morbid past had returned to haunt the new and refurbished Ford Ecosport.

But the only difference this time was the number of lawsuits that were accountably filed later against the former.

Modestly speaking, approximately 117 lawsuits were brought against Ford Motors in connection with rear-end accidents involving the Pinto automobile.

What’s more, (FM) doggedly faced three previous counts of reckless homicide resulting in a controversial legal case known as Indiana v. Ford that later became a landmark in product liability law.

But more importantly, back then, in the way-ward '70s, Ford Motors was the first car firm ever to be slapped with a homicide case,

a serious criminal charge back in those days, hence, necessitating the need for a massive recall of a million Pinto subcompact cars.

While today, Ford Ecosport, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to suffer from the same inimical fate of being served with a plateful of lawsuits but over the years, a similar trend in recalls, however, has deeply stained its initially spotless reputation as one of Ford’s best-selling crossover SUV’s since 2003.

Therefore, rather than redesigning or updating the (now under-selling) Ford Ecosport from the ground up, the company to date, did a rather unthinkable (for some) move of putting the car out of production by decommissioning it entirely.

After all, a major redesign, according to FM was an expensive undertaking more so than the already costlier recalls while profits, lots of it, as folks say, will always be the meaty grist in a card game run by subtly-deceptive automakers like Ford and before you point an accusatory finger, keep in mind that Ford Motors had already dealt with the math;

(eons ago) had deftly crunched the delectable numbers to their wicked advantage, the result being a vital formula that can be gleaned from a technically-detailed manifesto that was created way ahead of and most probably even before a Millenial’s time. ( for the second time, are you ready for this?)

The document in question was none other than a 1973 cost-benefit analysis report that was euphemistically termed later as “Pinto Memo” and for those who are in the dark, this special document was allegedly described as one “notorious paper trail” considerably cooked up in the automotive industry, according to Time magazine. 

Hence, this leads us to speculate on the question, do you still believe in Ford? But that, my friend, is another angle of a somewhat confusing backstory you have to deal with at your own pace and time.