Guys :
I am posting a "TD report" behalf of a good friend (Rahul K from Hyderabad) who was keenly following this thread and has almost decided to buy the new Endy
Since he is not a BHPian yet (He plans to be one very shortly), he requested me to share this report with you all so that you can also benefit from his view points as much as he has benefitted not just from this thread but, from the forum overall
Since he is not a member, he will be able to see your responses but, may not be able to respond till he becomes a member
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Ford Endeavour Test Drive
30 January 2016
08:44
After a long wait, I finally managed to get the test drive for new Ford Endeavour. It was 3.2L 4x4 Titanium Auto variant. I managed to get nice one and half hour long drive on various roads and the sale rep was very helpful.
Before I get on to the actual driving experience here are some of my observations:
• There is lot of discussion about interior color. For the Titanium variant, it's not full beige. Its actually very nice combination of beige and black, for example the roof is all black. Unlike lot of folks, I really liked it.
• Another debate is about navigation. The vehicle is equipped with GPS hardware and shows the long/lat coordinates in info mode. Dealer need to load-up maps using SD card and it will be MapMyIndia maps. The cost is not known as of now.
• Difference I noticed from the Thai spec vehicle reviewed by S2:
○ No blind stop warning in side mirrors. The mirrors are huge and there is small (1 inch wide) portion at the far end of the mirrors with different glass. The sales rep was not able to explain it properly.
○ Only one scuff plate, the scuff plate with "Endeavour" is missing.
• The cabin is really quite (expect in 1 and 2 gear, more on that later) even high speed. The view from the front is nice and one can see the entire hood. This make is really easy to drive.
• All windows supports one-touch up-down as oppose to only driver side. Also, since there is no physical moving part for door lock, the auto lock on motion is not as loud as my Corolla. On holding the lock key on remote, it rolls up all windows, sunroof and even closes the tailgate. Opens up all windows on holding the unlock key. Nice touch.
• At least for me the front parking sensors are highly required. It very difficult to gauge the actual extent of the SUV. At times I thought I am going to touch something during parking and was wondering why the sensor is not beeping. But as you come close the display start showing the sensor data. Folks planning for lower variants should consider this for sure.
• Reverse camera is useful and necessary. Also, the camera stays on for short while even after reverse is changed to drive. This was useful during 3 point u turn on small roads.
• I really liked the massive moon-roof, its operated by button instead of manually sliding the cover. It makes the SUV feel more airy. I agree the sunroof is not needed in India but moon-roof is nice luxury.
Now on to driving experience. My baseline here is the 2010 Corolla Altis Auto.
• One key debate is about the sluggishness of the auto gear box. Unfortunately, it is quite sluggish, especially in 1 & 2 gear. Even worse than Corolla. It seems this puts lot of stress on the engine and one can hear a loud growl but it sounds good.
Now there is a solution to this, the sport mode. Put the SUV in sport mode and it make the massive SUV really agile. So after a while, I started using the sport mode to get off the signal quickly and once the SUV gets moving slot it back to normal drive mode. BTW I only observed the sluggishness in 1 & 2 and not at higher gears. So overtaking was not a problem on ORR in D mode as well.
• The SUV is really easy to drive and doesn’t feel large and bulky from inside. The steering is as light as my Corolla but has much better feeling at higher speed. Turning radius is more than Corolla and 2 lane U turns might need 3 point turn. As I said above the reverse camera helps.
• Ride is really comfortable and much much better than XUV and Fortuner. In fact it's quite close to Corolla at speeds up to 100-120 kmph. I tried really broken roads and the SUV seems to handle them well.
• On ORR, I was able to touch good speeds. Up to 100-120 the SUV remains close to 2K RPM and even at higher speeds its was well within 3K and without any fuss. I was not comfortable pushing it anymore but the sales rep said pervious TD person took it too good speeds. BTW, there is some vertical movement post 120.
I really liked it and planning to book it. I am waiting for the delivery timelines but looks like it might take a while.
This dealer is only getting one 3.2 Titanium every month and 2 are already booked by some politicians.
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