[sandeepmohan]

BKC was my work spot back in 2005-2006. I am unable to relate to the conditions of traffic that maybe the case today. Back then, the road in front of the IL&FS building was a rip road.

Ford coming out with a Figo DCT was a complete surprise. I don't think there is a better, cheaper alternative to the VW GT Tsi when it comes to automatics. Honda don't care to sell a Brio AT any more. I've experienced the 1.5l petrol in the days the Fiesta had it and I was not pleased. It probably does better in a lighter car but still not an engine that excites in any particular way. The glory days of the original Duratec series are no more and I don't think that's ever gonna come back. As much as the 1l Ecoboost sounds interesting from a technology stand point, it ain't when it comes to driving one.

Your experience with the SA is very rare to come across. These chaps are usually there only to sell you stuff. You maybe looking at the best car but it all goes down hill if the SA isn't in sync with you or rather, has no knowledge of the car he/she is selling.

There are a lot of initial car ownership logs and then, there are one's like yours that make for an interesting and entertaining read. Thank you.

[Ashdel]

Congratulations on choosing The Ford. I was always fascinated by this American brand, however always heard about the little high overall maintenance of these American cars as compared to Japanese ones, so never made up my mind to try one myself . Can you share your experience about your first couple of services. Thanks.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by Ashdel

however always heard about the little high overall maintenance of these American cars as compared to Japanese ones, so never made up my mind to try one myself.

Talk about first impressions being lasting impressions in the minds of consumers.

• The first set of Fords in India (up to and including the Mondeo) were frightfully expensive to maintain.
• The second crop of Fords (Fusion, Ikon) still had higher maintenance costs, but given that some engines were shared with later models, the engine maintenance costs were lower. Body parts also showed a good decline in costs. Its around this time that Ford realized just how badly this "high cost of maintenance" perception was hitting them, and they took strong steps to address this (such as child parts, cheaper parts, etc.).
• The later generation of Fords (starting from the Fiesta in the mid-2000s onwards, through to the Figo, new Fiesta, EcoSport, Aspire) all have comparable or cheaper maintenance costs than equivalent Japanese/Korean cars.

Yes, every authorized service centre (ASC) has its own satisfied and dissatisfied customers. But if you're considering the Fords you can buy today, then cost of maintenance should not be a deciding factor at all. It is on par with the market, or cheaper. Consider the car on its merits and then make your decision.

[Doge]

Add to Arun's point, Ford also sell spares to the customer which means that a car can be easily maintained at any local garage. This is quite useful for people who know a trusty mechanic/ garage.

[catchjyoti]

"To be brutally honest, had the Elite come with an AT option for Asta variant, we would have been hard-pressed to have looked beyond it."

Well said. Even I do not know what Hyundai Marketing was thinking when they decided not to come out with an AT variant in Elite i20 at all. They have surely given away some business to Honda Jazz and Ford Figo and lets now add Maruti Baleno to it.

May be they do not have enough 6 speed AT's in their supply chain. The ones they have are earmarked for the more profitable Creta. And they do not want to use the older 4 speed AT in their premium hatchback offering?

[gaurav_3000ad]

What an excellent review. Throughly enjoyed reading it, and as you advised, with a nice hot cup of steaming brew.

Figo is not going to set any sales charts on fire ala the i20 or the swift but will always be in the reckoning for a discerning buyer.

Cheers and wish you many miles of happy motoring.

[Zodak]

Thanks methecupid for the detailed review of the Figo. I am also in market for a hatchback for my sister. It has to be an AT (read: I cant buy Abarth Punto ) & I'm torn between Polo GT, Figo & Baleno.

Baleno looks to be out of reckoning because of lesser safety features on the CVT & less power. My heart says Polo but looking at the state of VW dealerships, don't have courage to take the plunge as I am a frequent visitor to workshops since I am very fussy about my cars. Your review of Figo makes me comfortable enough to go & make the booking which I will do this week.

I test drove the diesel as well as the automatic version of the Figo last week but none of these cars are tarmac scorcher and this is in comparison to my lovely workhorse Fiesta 1.6. None of these two cars have the FTD factor & they fail to inspire the feeling & the confidence which the fiesta does even after 7 years of faithful service.

Also I didn't get wowed by the interiors or the cabin & people looking for a premium cabin should look to VW or Hyundai.

@methecupid - Are headlights very weak ? I do frequent night-runs on Yamuna expressway & would they be a point of concern ?

[methecupid]

Originally Posted by gaurav_3000ad

What an excellent review. Throughly enjoyed reading it, and as you advised, with a nice hot cup of steaming brew.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Buddy, I'm in the office, so go on as long as you want

What material have you used? Is it a rubber sheet?

Given the popularity of the Jopasu duster on TBHP, we can use that as a unit of boot measurement! 2 Jopasu's wide by 1 Jopasu deep!

Arun, Considering the chats we had on the Aspire thread, I can only imagine we made the coffee companies quite a bit of revenue. (On that topic, totally OT, Gaurav_3000 try the Davidoff Rich Aroma - been an absolute favorite for 3-4 years now.)

You had me tickling my curiosity and actually ended up measuring the boot with the Jopasu duster Its just short of 2*1 (L*B), should be enough for our monthly grocery drives. (We just drive for anything now, don't we!). One thing to note is that the boot is fairly deep and this liberates a bit more space, added to the fact that it doesn't have those ungainly struts of the Aspire to eat into it further.

I just used a sheet of anti-slip mat, made cut outs from it measuring the cubby holes, and voila! The car doesn't remind me of the coins (aka chillad) I left from the toll booth.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Nice report. Congrats on an excellent buy. Wishing you miles of happy ownership.

Originally Posted by johannskaria

Hey loved your review.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

There are a lot of initial car ownership logs and then, there are one's like yours that make for an interesting and entertaining read. Thank you.

Originally Posted by samabhi

Just what the doctor ordered. Was an absolute pleasure to read and a late morning well spent at work. Rating *****

Originally Posted by Ashdel

Congratulations on choosing The Ford.

An absolute pleasure to hear from all of you, I would imagine that such sharing can only clear the air for so many of us who find ourselves sitting on the fence. Reactions and feedbacks like these tend to give this forum the feeling of coterie, like minded people sharing an exclusive interest. Thank you once again!

Originally Posted by johannskaria

Love to see your F.E figures as my friend is getting bad F.E figures in his amaze auto and the service centre keeps on replying "It's normal in Mumbai sir".

How is the service at Bhavana Ford?

The fuel efficiency has been getting better by the day Johannskaria. It was infact yesterday when I saw the display at 12.4. However, one additional thing I missed out before - The FE indicator on MID does not reset every time you turn your ignition. Hence, if you reset it manually when filling fuel and keep it as it is till the tank empties itself, you'll be able to figure out what your FE was for the entire tankful. Pretty neat I must say!

A manual tankful-to-tankful is, however, much called for and awaited.

Originally Posted by samabhi

Just what the doctor ordered. Was an absolute pleasure to read and a late morning well spent at work. Rating *****

IMHO, if I have to compare only between the Figo automatic vs the Baleno CVT (leaving out Jazz CVT here as it didnt appeal to me much), the Figo scores lot in lot many areas.....

Considering all the above, the Ford Figo DCT is a total VFM acquisition.

I agree with most of your points there Samabhi, looks to be a very educated conclusion. However, bear in mind the weight difference also has its bearance on the drivability of the respective cars. The power-to-weight ratio for the lighter Baleno should be acceptable to most, even if it is not as high as the Figo's.

Plus, after one has enjoyed the 4-5 years of blissful owenership, one random guy will come fine day and proclaim "Saar! Maruti is Maruti..." and Poof! It all boils down to individual preferences, am sure there's enough market for both these cars to coexist.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

BKC was my work spot back in 2005-2006. I am unable to relate to the conditions of traffic that maybe the case today. Back then, the road in front of the IL&FS building was a rip road.

Your experience with the SA is very rare to come across. These chaps are usually there only to sell you stuff.

Sandeep, that stretch my friend, has been embellished with half a dozen traffic lights.

The experience has indeed been quite good, and the same has been reiterated for both the sales team and service advisor to Ford call center. It seems customer service and satisfaction indices have made its way into the boardrooms of all companies; for some it might be a power-point slide, for others reason for their slide.

Originally Posted by Ashdel

Congratulations on choosing The Ford. I was always fascinated by this American brand, however always heard about the little high overall maintenance of these American cars as compared to Japanese ones, so never made up my mind to try one myself . Can you share your experience about your first couple of services. Thanks.

Like has been correctly explained by both Arun and Doge, the learning curve for car companies in the Indian market is quite steep. Thankfully, based on initial experience, Ford has made arrangements of the carabiners, harnesses and quick-draws et al. to make an effort to climb that incline.

I will keep try and keep this thread alive for cost of ownership and services.

Originally Posted by Zodak

Thanks methecupid for the detailed review of the Figo. I am also in market for a hatchback for my sister.

@methecupid - Are headlights very weak ? I do frequent night-runs on Yamuna expressway & would they be a point of concern ?

Thanks for the post Zodak, appreciate it. Since it'll be driven by your sister, please make sure she likes engines more than features, factor over form. I am not too sure if she'll like the Figo over the competent feature set offered by the Baleno, and whatever missed out by the Delta variant can be added to the car. Just saying!

The headlights are indeed weak, I wish I could say it otherwise. Since YE is as wide as it is, maybe the high beam can be employed. Having said that, it might not be a big issue for others, but I surely did not like the throw. I am yet to drive the car on highways, but I can foresee a niggling feeling in my OCD-inspired brain.

[baskar]

Wonderful review. Superbly written in a very humorous way. Your flair for writing is as good as the contents of your review. I am waiting for my Figo 1.2 Petrol manual Titanium trip - Same as your color - Steel grey.

Rated 5 *.

Wishing you many more happy miles with your car

[goacom]

Excellent review! I particularly enjoyed the light hearted tone it was written in

I am in the process of purchasing this car for my dad. I live in the US, so it is being done by remote control, if you will! I chose the the Figo DCT because I wanted to extend his driving years a bit more (he is 78 years young). You mentioned that the headlights were poor. This is a concern because my old dad has issues driving at night. If you are considering upgrading it to HID lights (a logical choice IMO because of its 3-5x increase in lumens with same or lower power), I'd be curious to know what kind of projectors it would take.

On a side note, I wanted to get him a Polo GT, but the sole VW dealership in Goa shut down recently. I felt the Jazz CVT would not be responsive enough when mated to its gutless engine. Also considered the Baleno CVT, but it was offered on the lower end version and their Nexa showroom is quite far away and may have had the same performance issues as the Jazz. We finally settled on the Figo because of its theoretical performance edge as well as the fact that their dealership is just minutes from my parents house.

Anyway, congrats on your new car and thanks again for the entertaining review!

[Zodak]

Took the plunge today and have booked a steel grey one . Waiting period I am told, is 3 months . Dealer is charging 7100 as the handling fee but I will send an email to Ford & try getting these charges waived off. Also the dealer is forcing me to take insurance from him which I will take up with them closer to delivery.

[methecupid]

Originally Posted by goacom

You mentioned that the headlights were poor. This is a concern because my old dad has issues driving at night. If you are considering upgrading it to HID lights (a logical choice IMO because of its 3-5x increase in lumens with same or lower power), I'd be curious to know what kind of projectors it would take.

Anyway, congrats on your new car and

Originally Posted by Zodak

Took the plunge today and have booked a steel grey one . Waiting period I am told, is 3 months .

Congratulations to both of you. The car, I am sure and wish, dishes out a memorable ownership experience.

Goacom, I had read about your decision making process in the other thread. Uncle will be served well due to the proximity of the Ford center to your place. I am not planning to put in a HID setup as I did on the Polo; however in my view the HID didn't turn up things as much as the 90/100 w HL with relay. The HID will come in 4300K which throws a whitish light, that takes a hit under the sodium road lights. Maybe you can exercise the option of upgrading to the 90/100, notwithstanding the warranty issues.

Zodak, I was told of that 3 month waiting when I took delivery, they proclaimed I was lucky since I booked ahead of time. Interestingly the Aspire DCT doesn't get picked back in the priority list as the Figo does. Nevertheless, have fun with the car buddy.

[abhjain]

Just test drove this car and came back mightily impressed. The motor is more than capable for day to day city drive and will be more than sufficient for 90% of our highway requirements. DCT is spot on and mind you I drive a Rapid DSG. The salesman told me that a 10 year warranty is being offered on the DCT box which is an icing on the cake. The car was planted on bad roads and felt like a heavily built Ford. I understand though that Ford has chosen to go with a thinner metal sheet as the customary thud while closing the door was missing. All in all, impressed with the car and might book it soon as my second car.

[rsm97]

Originally Posted by abhjain

Just test drove this car and came back mightily impressed.

The salesman told me that a 10 year warranty is being offered on the DCT box which is an icing on the cake.

Hi abhjain, if you can specifically compare the down shifting behaviour of DCT vis-a-vis DSG. I heard a couple of DSG users complaining about that aspect.

And regarding 10 year warranty on DCT, both the dealers at Gurgaon have conveyed otherwise. As per them, the gearbox coverage remains in line with that of the overall car. I request if someone from current set of owners quote from the warranty book.

[abhjain]

Originally Posted by rsm97

Hi abhjain, if you can specifically compare the down shifting behaviour of DCT vis-a-vis DSG. I heard a couple of DSG users complaining about that aspect.

And regarding 10 year warranty on DCT, both the dealers at Gurgaon have conveyed otherwise. As per them, the gearbox coverage remains in line with that of the overall car. I request if someone from current set of owners quote from the warranty book.

Hi Rsm, the downshift on DCT was better controlled and less jerky than DSG. However the sheer shift speed of DSG is unmatched by DCT. Club this with a brilliant Tsi and you have a winner.