Ford will give the Ford Aspire that was launched in
India in 2015 a facelift this year. MotorBeam reader Aneesh Chowdhury recently
spotted a 2018 Ford Aspire near the Sanand plant where it is manufactured.
At the front, the 2018 Ford Aspire features a
reshaped hexagonal front grille with a new mesh pattern, inverted lower air
intake and a restyled bumper. On the sides, there are new eight double-spoke
alloy wheels. At the rear, it is worth noticing that the reverse parking sensors
are in body colour. The current model isn’t equipped with reverse parking
sensors but Ford offers them finished in black as an accessory.
The 2018 Ford Aspire will swap the 1.2-litre
four-cylinder petrol engine (88 PS/112 Nm) with a new 1.2-litre three-cylinder
petrol engine from the Dragon engine family. This engine develops 95 hp and 115
Nm of torque in the Ford Freestyle (name TBA) that will debut at the end of
this month. The MX65 5-speed manual transmission from Getrag will replace the
aged IB5 5-speed manual transmission.
Ford may replace the 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol
engine (112 PS/136 Nm) with a new 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. The
6-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission could get replaced by a conventional
6-speed automatic transmission. No changes to the 1.5-litre four-cylinder
diesel engine (100 PS/215 Nm) are expected.
The 2018 Ford Aspire could go on sale in the first
half of the year along with the updated Figo. The twins sold under the Ka
moniker in Brazil will get similar updates.