I think it is ridiculous that there should have been such a furore over Ford’s decision to name its latest electric car the Capri.
Some motoring enthusiasts threw a collective fit when the name was announced for the new medium SUV-coupé.
The funny thing is that the name of the car they were yelping about would have gone over the heads of most, younger, drivers. That’s simply because they would have been too young/born to have encountered the name on a car until now.
Ironically, they are likely to be the people buying the car and its name on its merits – not on its historic nomenclature.
I mean where is the logic with the whingeing? Is the car going to go quicker or drive more smartly, or cost less because it is called Capri.
I remember the old Capri well. I drove one for fun a couple of times. It was based on what was a popular mainstream car called the Cortina – I owned three of them. All of them let me down badly. So should I take my anger out on the new car that has no lineage – it doesn’t have anything to do with the current model except the brand’s blue oval badge?
Did the experts kick up a fuss when BMW called its modern baby the Mini, even though there had been one for decades prior to the new one being produced.
And there wasn’t a word when Volkswagen called the new Beetle, despite having had a long-term, best-selling model of the same name.
As far as I am concerned they could have called it the new Bucket – I don’t think a car of that name has yet to be produced – so long as it did what I expected.
The main thing to remember about this Capri is that it is a large and roomy 5-seater coupe SUV, very much of the modern era and ticking a lot of boxes..
It bears an amount of technical and engineering know-how from Volkswagen but is still built in one of Ford’s own factories.
I wouldn’t be truthful to you if I said it didn’t have faults. It does. But so do its rivals – which includes Ford’s own Explorer. There is little between them on size except the Capri is its coupe sibling. Other rivals include the Volkswagen ID.4/5, Skoda Enyaq coupe, Tesla Model Y, KIA EV6, Hyundai Ioniq, Nissan Ariya, Peugeot e-3008, Opel Grandland.
The Ford does a lot of things quite well.
I’m not sure about the new Capri looks, however – especially when held up to the mirror of eye-catching designs wrought by some of those rivals.
More specifically, if I were in Ford’s design department – the car is built at the company’s Cologne Electric Vehicle Centre – I would stipulate that they restrain from making a Capri in a dark colour – such as in my test vehicle.
There are decent, if obvious mid-size, design lines but you get more impact from brighter colours. Vivid Yellow, a key colour for the car, is a good looker and certainly makes a statement while the dark one is too monochrome.
The same goes for the inside; my cabin version was quite dark and it lacked that certain appeal of warmth of brightness that would have you looking forward to sitting in and driving.
I must say, however, that there was an abundance of soft-touch materials and the sculptured one-piece front seats were excellent.
There are two battery sizes and three trim levels.
The entry-level rear-wheel drive has a 52kWh battery but I suspect the 77kWh model will probably be mostly in demand.
They claim the battery can give you up to 627km driving range between charges while 10pc-80pc charging takes around 26 minutes using a 185 kW DC fast charger.
Prices start from €46,490 for the Style grade, and from €51,490 for Select models while top-tier Premium costs from €53,490 (it has 20ins wheels, a panoramic roof, Matrix LED lights etc).
Standard spec includes a 14.6ins central screen that slides smoothly up and down so you get a good vantage point, keyless entry, ultrasonic sensors/cameras/radars, assisted lane change and clear exit warning,
But it doesn’t have a heat pump on board which is a disadvantage as it helps save energy.
It uses space quite well. There is excellent rear-seat room, though entry to the back isn’t as easy as it should be for six-footers, due primarily to a sloping ‘coupe’ roofline.
And there is up to 572 litres of boot room, while a 17-litre ‘Mega Console’ under the front armrest was a wonderful place to secure stuff you would normally have to leave in the boot or drag around with you. Ideal for a family.
The touchscreen worked quite well and I can have no complaints about it.
For convenience they have little fingertip buttons for audio, cruise control etc on the steering wheel. But the buttons were feckity and plasticy and, in my case, I had to press two or three times to get the outcome I required. It may have been that my thumbs-for-fingers hands were partially to blame but I don’t think they were all the time.
It drove well with a suspension, steering and chassis tuned for a bit of get up and go. But I liked it even more for the ability to stay relatively upright on tight bends at decent velocity.
The Capri doesn’t break boundaries to any greater extent than most of its genre.
But it is well worth a test drive regardless of whether or not the name should have been kept for a more dramatic electric model.
