Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

I was thinking why many prospective buyers might not go for diesel.

Does a prospective customer does not know that diesel might be deregulated by beginning of next year. Some people can counter by saying the petrol prices will also go high given the Rupee weakness. But then its elections next year and the probability of increasing the petrol prices over "Bharat Nirman" might be less.

So, as a prospective buyer, and i am not talking about t-bhpians, what could be probable reasons as to why somebody will buy diesel, except that the daily running thing.

Earlier to recover the extra cost, which was around 1 lakh, cars needed to be driven around 50K kms. Now, for the same thing , i think the cars needed to be driven around 65-70K kms, which means around 7-8 years. I think actually very few people keep their car for soooo long.

PS: As per TOI, the selling of diesel to petrol cars is coming down. Initially, before demand for diesel cars, the petrol to diesel cars ratio was around 70:30. Then with the continuous increase of petrol prices, people shifted towards diesel, and shifted so much that it came to 20: 80.
But, now, the petrol cars have started gaining and the ratio was somewhere around 30:70 when i read. I might be wrong in the exact ratios by a margin but the trend is very clear. Even on t-bhp, we are seeing posts in which some people are actually tilting towards petrol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepjaju (Post 3161580)

Awesome pricing by Ford.
Gonna book the car in a day or two.
I got a query, it would be great if anyone could advice me.

My running is around 50 km per day and I drive the i20 diesel as of now. So which model of the ecosport should I book.
The diesel is most sensible but isn't it underpowered ?
The 1.5L petrol is attractive for the Automatic transmission or is the manual better ?
What about the 1.0 Ecoboost?
Considering the price points and my running can anyone suggest which one to go for ?

Take a test drive to find out if the 1.5 Desel meets your requirement. Figures sometimes can be very misleading. The Figo with 68 Bhp and 160 Nm of torque is ok. It is a relatively heavy car. The Eco sport has 21 additional horses and 44-45 Nm advantage in terms of torque.

The 1.5 At gives you the convenience of an Automatic. This dual clutch tyranny is pretty advanced and has been acquiting itself well in the FIesta AT.

I would like some publications ( including team-bhp) to do a long term road test of the Ecoboost before we can conclusively arrive at any verdict.

I'd say the Game is changed only when you manage to play it.

Where is the EcoSport? I haven't gotten as much as a TD yet. and there is no official waiting periods quoted either.
When the Duster was launched, I got the TD that very day, Ford need to step up its game before changing it.
The yesterday's announcement of "Nationally, deliveries begin today" was just for creating the hype. The dealer here has only one car for display only.

I visited Lathangi Ford,JP Nagar Bangalore, and was told that the only TD vehicle is the Diesel, they do not have the 1.5 Petrol and the Ecoboost , and they dont expect to have the TD vehicles of those variants for another 3-4 months ! Looks like the same story as the Duster launch, price the Petrol low for getting footfalls, then sell only the Diesel. None of the reviewers has written about the 1.5 Petrol as yet, does Ford even plan to make and sell those 1.5P variants ? Is there a minimum number of vehicles a manufacturer has to produce if they launch a variant, or can they create "vaporware" variants for the positioning and get on with making only the high margin ones ?

This thread poll http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-m...lt-duster.html

seems to give some interesting results, that nearly half of the people wanting the EcoSport to be their comapct SUV of choice, choose the EcoBoost.

But I haven't seen a single post about a booking made for the EcoBoost in this thread. I mean, it could be the people like me, who want to book it, but haven't experienced it yet.

The Booking trend as I see now isn't surprising(It is a Diesel market after all), but the Poll numbers are for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by msmatic (Post 3161789)

Guys, this urgent, need your recommendations amongst these three Ford dealers in Bangalore - Lathangi Ford vs Cauvery Ford vs Metro Ford.

Which one do you recommend ?

Cauvery Ford or Metro Ford - Both are good. I booked with Cauvery Ford as its closer to home and they have Sale, Service & Repair all at one place.

Dealing with Metro - found them to be very informative & professional.

Lathangi - No Way. Found the Sales people lacked know how (my experience) and were not very interested. They dont have a decent place to keep cars is also one problem I noted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sknair (Post 3161839)

I am hearing 10.32 Lakhs OTR for the AT version in Bangalore, Anyone has price list or confirmation?

Got a quote of 10.49 from Lathangi,if i recollect correctly on the AT Version. Had prebooked the same.

This includes extended warranty/accessories/handling/tax/insurance etc and all regular charges. Should definitely try to negotiate on the Insurance part - my current Fiesta is on 40% NCB.

Seems multiple dealers are quoting different prices.

Cheers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo_delight (Post 3161861)

Earlier to recover the extra cost, which was around 1 lakh, cars needed to be driven around 50K kms. Now, for the same thing , i think the cars needed to be driven around 65-70K kms, which means around 7-8 years. I think actually very few people keep their car for soooo long.

PS: As per TOI, the selling of diesel to petrol cars is coming down. Initially, before demand for diesel cars, the petrol to diesel cars ratio was around 70:30. Then with the continuous increase of petrol prices, people shifted towards diesel, and shifted so much that it came to 20: 80.
But, now, the petrol cars have started gaining and the ratio was somewhere around 30:70 when i read. I might be wrong in the exact ratios by a margin but the trend is very clear. Even on t-bhp, we are seeing posts in which some people are actually tilting towards petrol.

Well couple of points to consider:
1. The Petrol cars are never efficient enough(till date).If you take same model of any make, Diesel is any day more efficient say by atleast 30% in comparsion to its petrol counterpart..
2. I dont see any difference when it comes to maintaining a diesel and petrol car. The cost of maintenance is also similar.
3.Everybody just talk the initial cost of diesel being more by 1lakh. But while selling, the diesel will fetch atleast a lac more than petrol. In most of the cases it is more than a lac.So effectively you get back the the initial extra lac you spent on diesel.
4. High revving petrol's are always fun. But with advantage of torque and new technologies coming in, the oil burners are fast catching up. I must say the development w.r.to oil burners have been rapid in comparison to petrol heads.
30 Years back a petrol Amby used to give 10KM/l in City and around 14-15KM/l in highway. I dont see much improvement with current generation petrol sedans except for more power(not all) and refinement. Where as diesel's in current generation delivers 17-18KM/l on highway with ease.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedragula (Post 3161723)

The ARAI figures may only be a pointer towards what the vehicle can deliver in standard test conditions. The actual on road mileage need not necessarily tail or be in any way consistent or even proportional with the ARAI figures.

A bit more reading and pondering please. What I said is, a fairer comparison would be to compare the ARAI figures of these cars than by what my uncle and nephew said what their cars' mileages are. To put it more aptly, both the methods of comparison are flawed, but since ARAI testing happens in similar conditions tend to be a better comparison than comparing individual experiences.

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo_delight (Post 3161861)

Does a prospective customer does not know that diesel might be deregulated by beginning of next year. Some people can counter by saying the petrol prices will also go high given the Rupee weakness. But then its elections next year and the probability of increasing the petrol prices over "Bharat Nirman" might be less.

So, as a prospective buyer, and i am not talking about t-bhpians, what could be probable reasons as to why somebody will buy diesel, except that the daily running thing.

Even if petrol and diesel are priced at the same cost, diesel will deliver more efficiency per litre than its petrol counterpart. This alone is reason enough for people to continue to stick to diesels than try experimenting with petrols and their famed gas-guzzling abilities. Take a rough example of Ecosport Ecoboost 1.0 and 1.5TDCi:

Ecoboost 1.0 : 12-13 kmpl @ ~70 Rs. per litre translates to a running cost of ~5-6 Rs. per km.

1.5 TDCi : 17-18 kmpl @ ~65 Rs. per litre translates to ~3.5 to 4 Rs. per km.

On highways, the difference in running cost is even more because diesels are capable of returning well over 22-23 kmpl at constant speeds. Over a period of say 50,000 km running, the fuel expense savings might go to 80,000 bucks with a diesel version (compared to petrol variant). In my opinion, the obsession with diesel variants will continue for some more time in this market even if both fuels are priced the same, thanks to better efficiency and superior resale value of diesels here.