[pannags]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Real sad.

Indians only deserve Marutis. So many iconic brands had to exit India because they couldn't build Marutis. A decade or two later only Maruti and Hyundai would exist in India. Even Honda and Toyota will eventually pack up and leave.

I beg to disagree. In this particular case, Ford completely lost the plot due to the evident lack of a strategy!

Fun-to-drive, reliable cars combined with decent, reasonably priced service experience, but riding way too long on ageing products and constantly changing configurations.

As for Honda, I agree completely with your assessment.

[souvikjana83]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Real sad.

Indians only deserve Marutis. So many iconic brands had to exit India because they couldn't build Marutis. A decade or two later only Maruti and Hyundai would exist in India. Even Honda and Toyota will eventually pack up and leave.

There is a huge section of people in India who would want to own a vehicle with minimal cost, minimal maintenance and a lot of trust. Whose only aim is to reach from point A to point B without any issue. Nothing else matters to them.

Maruti and Hyundai provide that. Period. These 2 brands boasts reliability. Even in remote places. These people will readily buy an Alto or a Santro today without giving any thought to their 0 star safety rating and will run them for 15 yrs happily.

[tharian]

I am glad I made use of the choice I had when I bought my Ford Figo 1.2 and later a Ford Aspire Sports.

The previous gen Figo is what thought me what an involved drive is all about and made me enjoy every drive. Even the Aspire to some extent emulated that, unlike popular opinion here.

I am not annoyed with Ford for exiting, after all they are a business and they also gave us some true enjoyable cars especially the Fiesta S.

I just hope I got 'S' specific parts for my car when the time comes as I am not planning to get rid of the car anytime soon.

[BoneCollector]

I feel sad due to Ford's exit. They had all cars with one variant having 6 airbags, a good automatic and capable engines. Sadly, that won't be possible now.

Someone in family has a 1 year old petrol Ecosport Titanium S and it's a great vehicle no doubts.

Endeavor was another capable one. Really sad to see them go.

[anb]

Originally Posted by souvikjana83

There is a huge section of people in India who would want to own a vehicle with minimal cost, minimal maintenance and a lot of trust. Whose only aim is to reach from point A to point B without any issue. Nothing else matters to them.

Ford used to provide such cars. Figo is cheaper than swift, even lesser maintenance and a very good reliability. The same goes for Ecosport as well.

[Deep Blue]

Adios Ford! Thank you for the wonderful memories. Hope to see you again sometime in the future. 9yrs with the first gen Figo taught me what good vehicle dynamics means. I wanted to desperately continue the Ford connection but didn't find a suitable product in their profile and ended up with a Skoda!!. Now, I just keep praying Skoda-VW too don't leave the country though it does seem a distinct possibility if their recent experiments in the budget end of the market fail.

[Vysakh]

Knew it was coming, but still sad. I will still hold on to my 1.6S. Gem of a car.

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by anb

Ford used to provide such cars. Figo is cheaper than swift, even lesser maintenance and a very good reliability. The same goes for Ecosport as well.

Just what I wanted to say too. In addition, Ford cars were more safer than Maruti. As Bone collector pointed out, they had at least one variant with 6 airbags.

[AKSarkar1]

Really sad to hear of this news. I feel Ford over the past couple of years has delivered absolute smashers of products from the iconic 'Ikon' to more recent cars like the Endeavour. It really has left a footprint in the local petrolhead world. Sadly sometimes even great products don't work out as planned due to numerous reasons, evident with this Ford example.

Sad to see this happening!

[AZT]

The Ikon was my best friends first car, what a rocket that car was. Can't believe Ford's era is ending.

[TusharK]

Car dealerships in India are shocked by Ford's announcement

Earlier today, Ford announced that it would no longer manufacture its cars in India. This has come as a shock to the dealer community.



Mr. Vinkesh Gulati, President of Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), stated that the auto retail fraternity was shocked to hear another US auto major announcing its exit from the Indian market.

There are about 170 Ford dealers in the country with around 391 outlets. Dealers have invested approximately Rs. 2,000 crore in setting up their dealerships. While Ford India employs 4,000 people, dealerships are said to employ around 40,000 individuals.

Ford India dealers currently have about 1,000 vehicles in stock, which amounts to around Rs. 150 crores via inventory funding. The dealerships have hundreds of demo cars as well.

Mr. Anurag Mehrotra, President & MD, Ford India, has assured that the company would adequately compensate its dealers.

After General Motors, Man Trucks, Harley Davidson and UM Lohia, Ford India is the 5th biggest exit from the Indian market since 2017.

Link to Team-BHP News

[MAS]

It is a sad day.

I had owned three Fords, the Fusion, the All-New Fiesta and the Old Endeavour.

[Lowflyer23]

Even as a 20 year old grown up, I was shedding tears while going through this thread. Others might call me or people like me stupid, enthusiasts here would surely understand this feeling. Just this morning I took our 8 year old EcoSport tdci for a drive and I just like always I was still smiling and marvelling at the car's dynamic capabilities.

When I opened this thread in the afternoon, I didn't have any worries of resale or service or anything. I was just sad that we Indians lost a gem of a vehicle manufacturer due to stupid rules and bhedchaal customers. Was just thinking about how we waited 6+ months for our steed back in 2013, today I was smiling and had teary eyes, was happy and sad at the same time.

Thank you Ford India, your offering saved my family and me from a couple of close calls and always kept the driver engaged no matter what. Heck, the service cost was cheaper than some bikes and the quality components never gave up. From my father hitting an electric pole while reversing (eventually causing it to tilt to one side), to me enjoying my own company redlining the engine, the tank called EcoSport of ours never let us down.

[srikanthmadhava]

Sad to see another Big manufacturer exit our market.

But I see some posts blaming the 'consumers' for exit of OEMs like Ford, Chevrolet etc. This cannot be the case.

If Indian consumers tend to shy away from new brands, KIA or MG would not be considered as a success (albeit initial) today.
If Indian consumers tend to shy away from well implemented cars, Ecosport or Duster would not have been success stories when they were launched.

While Ford's exit is sad, it is completely of their own making.

Let us look at the mid-size SUV segment.

• Neither Ford nor Renault updated their most impactful products from the first half of last decade, the Ecosport and the Duster.
• These products created segments of their own, but their makers still could not capitalise on them. Half-hearted attempts will not take them anywhere.
• These were not low priced segments, these are the most lucrative segments.
• In the meantime, Hyundai launched 1st generation of Creta, and even after its enormous success, followed up with a new generation 5 years later. KIA built a new factory and MG is launching their 5th product soon.
• Creta + Seltos sells 20k units per month in the 11L to 22L segment. Harrier, Safari, Hector, Alcazar and Thar together touch 14k units per month consistently in the 13L to 26L segment. Ford has no product in there, neither does Renault.
• Sub-4M SUV segment sold more than 50k units last month, spread across more than 7 products. This was a segment created by Ford.
• They were neither aggressive with their products, nor visionary. Other OEMs ate cakes made using their recipe.
• Ford's exit is not because of lack of opportunities in the market, not because of herd mentality, not because of having to create cheap products. It is only because they could not evolve, because of their incorrect vision, lack of understanding and commitment. They might have their reason for what they do, but the market does not care about that.
• Renault seem to be learning from their earlier mistakes by launching new well thought out products, although no sight of new duster.

Indian market is less price sensitive now and more value sensitive.

If ford had a version of Ecosport with better rear leg room, a >4m version, I would have bought its 1.5 petrol Auto. They were anyways not enjoying sub 4m tax benefits for Ecosport petrol, might as well created a more roomier car easily.

No point asking for funds from US to invest in products now, new ones should have already been in market 4 or 5 years ago.

While the market is never sympathetic, it is always rewarding to those who put in the efforts. Neither Indian consumers nor other OEMs are responsible for Ford's exit. It is all their own making.

[AKB]

Indeed it is sad to see a large manufacturer go, it also important to reflect upon the role of Ford India leadership: they failed to scale-up. It is easy to blame a tough market, but this is the exact market where Kia, MG and Tata Motors have increased their volumes and market share

This is a classical case study on why right leadership is important to get the business right. The A team, the aggression and not being slotted as a niche/fringe player across segments is necessary.

While we are sad that Ford is exiting, we also need to see how Honda 4W has failed to change with time. Question is how long will Honda stay in India with limited scale? What has Honda 4W India leadership done in last 12 months?

Emerging markets are not 'far off markets' - they are the future. It is the half hearted efforts that emerging markets don't tolerate well.

Also, to put things into perspective. Ford in 2020 globally had sales of $127B, and losses (EBIT) of $4B+. Providing justification of closure of operations as 2B of accumulated losses over a decade doesn't seem convincing. By this logic their accumulated losses are largest in the US.

In summary, don't blame the market, dealers and consumers. Learn to get your best to emerging market if you want to succeed. Ford is on a decline, and not sure how they will survive next decade in their homeland.