My 2005 Ford Ikon ownership experience: 6 years & 25,000 km

The fact that my car is still running in good condition, is a testament to the build quality of these old Fords.

BHPian Joshua_Ray recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first ownership thread on this esteemed forum. As a 25-year-old enthusiast, I consider this as a great opportunity, to share my love and passion for cars, as well as share my experience. This forum has been a source of invaluable information to me and I hope my contribution will help many others with their car queries.

There are now 3 cars in the garage, my 2005 Ford Ikon, a 2009 Honda City AT and a tuned 2010 Skoda Laura 1.9PD TDI MT. I will make dedicated threads for the others, but I wanted to start with the Ikon, as it was the car in which I perfected my driving skills, made many rookie mistakes & done some crazy experiments - which we will cover in this thread, with as much detail as possible. The main aim of this thread is to cover my Ownership experience of the Ikon - the buying, driving experience, maintenance and servicing, handling the December floods, crazy experiments and everything in between!

The beginning:

The story with my Ford Ikon started on an unassuming evening in February 2015. I was a fresher in college and reached home to find out that my dad had 'gone to see a car for me'. I had just turned 18, in December of 2014 and I was super excited on hearing this! (Yes, I got my LLR on my birthday and got my proper Driver's license in Jan of 2015)

Fun Fact: I was crazy (and still am) about the mk1 Skoda Octavia vRS and dreamt of having that special car (in red or yellow) as my first car!

I was hoping that my dad had gone to see a vRS, as I had shown him a few on OLX the previous day. However, my dad had other ideas...

Like any sensible person, my dad knew that a vRS in the hands of an 18-year-old enthusiast, is an excellent recipe for disaster - hence, he had gone to see a 2005 Ford Ikon, which he thought would be a good starting point for me to learn driving - in a safe and controlled manner.

I was a bit disappointed, and the fact that it was an Ikon with the 1.3 ROCAM and not the coveted 1.6, made matters worse. However, the car looked sinister in black, came with an aftermarket end-can and a massive sub-woofer, which did help boost the 'flair' of this pretty boring Ford. After a short drive, and a promise that I would get a vRS 'soon' if I could prove that I am a safe driver, negotiations were done and on 6th Feb 2015, we took delivery of what I call 'Black Panther' - my 2005 Ford Ikon Flair in Panther Black! It was a 2nd owner car and had 50,750 km on the Odo! Attaching a few photographs from my early days of Ownership.

Driving Experience:

My initial driving days were focused on perfecting the mystery of the Manual transmission! Yes, I was determined to drive an MT but was forced to practice only on Automatic cars (the City was automatic and we previously had an automatic Santro).

Days went by and as I got more comfortable with the car and its driving characteristics, I started exploring the limits of the massive 70 BHP and colossal 90 NM of torque

'A wheelspin a day, keeps the problems away' became a motto with this car and I spent the next few months red-lining at 6000 RPM, launching, cornering, pushing the boundaries and understanding the limits of the car and myself. The car was an absolute riot and fuel efficiency was abysmal, lol. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction - this was a statement waiting to prove itself.

The motto was a really important part of my misery in future, as we will cover soon.

So far on the maintenance side, new spark plugs, engine oil and a new air filter were all that was needed.

My free flow end-can was replaced back to stock, as my college authorities were not pleased with my loud car. This incident triggered a thought to make my car, the loudest Ikon in Chennai, and this is something which I accomplished in 2021!

Anyway, back to 2015 and sadly the December floods trapped both my cars. The water level was luckily not that high but had risen up to almost 3/4th the height of the wheels. Luckily, apart from wet carpets, both cars escaped with minor repairs, but that is where things started to go south with the Ikon...

Attaching a picture after the water level had reduced a bit.

Post Flood problems:

The City had escaped pretty much unscathed, the only thing that needed fixing was some brake cylinders in the rear drums and the AC Compressor whines when switched on (till date, it works like a charm, but is a bit noisy) - but this is for another day and another thread.

The floods had not been kind to my Black Panther and one-by-one issues started cropping up.

Firstly, it was the rear wheel bearings that were groaning, a few months later the starter motor failed and next was the steering rack! All these issues were fixed (either replaced or repaired) with the help of my local mechanic. We also replaced the brake pads and rear brake shoes.

For a few months, all was good until one fine day, I entered college with my car puffing white smoke from the engine bay! A coolant pipe had broken and turned my engine bay into a dry ice machine! The culprit was an elbow hose on the side of the engine, which is apparently a common failure point on these engines.

After this incident, things were good for a while, we replaced the suspension at all 4 corners and that transformed the ride quality of the car. By this time, I had the car for over 3 years, but there was still no vRS to be seen on the horizon...

A few months passed by and then I started hearing a groaning sound from the front of the car, I assumed it was the front wheel bearings and kept on driving, but the sound kept getting louder. A visit to my mechanic revealed that my front wheel bearings had gone, and so had my driveshaft! Yes, remember my motto... well it had finally taken its toll and the effect was accelerated by the floods. Anyway, with a chunk of money already spent on the car and no vRS insight, this too was fixed.

The year was now 2019, I had graduated from college and had been working for 1 year. Over these years, the car had been fairly reliable (obviously, with all parts changed) and apart from that pesky elbow hose, which gave up another time, all was good. Black Panther was now at 70,000 km and was running well.

The Major repair:

The car which was meant to be my 'learner' had now been with me for 4 years and while a vRS would have definitely been nice, I had grown to like the Ikon for its compact size, nimble handling and the fact that I could take it anywhere and park it anywhere without bothering too much.

In 2019, the 'perfect' Skoda came for sale, a 2010 Laura TDI with only 34k on the odo! We jumped at it and the Ikon was supposed to be sold in exchange... however, the dealer offered us INR 40,000 and also suggested that we keep the Ikon as a 3rd car, a decision that I was overjoyed to make!

Exactly 1 month after taking delivery of the Laura, the clutch in the Ikon had become quite hard and the vehicle would start juddering after just a 15-minute drive in traffic (Yes, the motto was to blame again). Also, to make matters worse, the engine started to overheat (again) and I thought it was the elbow hose (again). To our shock, it was apparently a coolant line inside the engine that had failed.

This was bad news for any car, but especially for a car worth so little, as the cost of repairs could not be justified. The Ikon had become more of a family member (to me, lol) and after a lot of discussion at home, I ended up paying INR 40,000 to my dad and officially bought the car! The go-ahead was then given for the repairs (thank God for depreciation!)

A long list of parts had to be changed and the total bill came to... drum roll, please... INR 21,550!

The work needed the engine to come out and a week later, the car was ready! Among the parts changed was the clutch, a new battery (3rd one since I got it), a complete fluid flush and a few other odds and ends.

By this time, we had changed/refurbished the suspension, brakes, steering rack, power steering pump, driveshaft and clutch!

Special mention to my Black Panther, for waiting till I got another car, before requiring the engine out repairs!

From that day, till now, the only other replacement was the AC Evaporator coil and touch wood, the car has been running fine since then!

Experiments:

This is where things get interesting. So, I too fell prey to the Covid game, as I lost my job due to the virus. I used this as an opportunity to start my YouTube channel to document life with these cars as well as review new & used cars in an unbiased fashion.

Now, the thing about YouTube is that to reach success or fame on the platform, especially as an automobile vlogger, you either need to drive like a maniac, buy the cheapest worst version of an exotic car, have a girl accompany you on reviews or do some stupid experiment to gain views.

The latter was my only option and not wanting to risk Laura or the City, the task fell on my Ikon.

Now after the flood, I had removed the cat-con and mid-muffler from the exhaust due to corrosion. So, the car was basically straight-piped with a stock backbox. Inspired by the chapri boys, I wanted to install a bike silencer on my car, but not just any bike, an aftermarket Royal Enfield Goldstar silencer!

The dimensions matched and the next thing I knew, my car could be heard at least 300m away on a cold start!

It was extremely loud and after a few weeks of driving like a moron, I had made a few videos and went back to stock.

Now, my next experiment is using 195/60 R15 wheels on the car. I have just done the 'mod' but will probably make a few videos and revert back to my R14 setup, as there is only a few mm of clearance between the arches and the bumper - YouTuber life is fun!

Conclusion:

6 years and 25,000+ km is pretty long enough to understand a car quite well and the words that I use here are a culmination of all the experiences over an eventful history. From perfecting my driving skills, understanding and pushing boundaries, to fun drives with friends and family, to taking me to college and to work, the Ikon has seen it all. The journey was not smooth, with almost every mechanical component changed or repaired due to my early driving experiments, the 'wheelspin a day' motto and general crazy things we enthusiasts try. As I enter my 7th year of Ownership, the 'josh' machine still ticks all the right boxes as a cheap and practical car.

With most Ikon's in miserable condition due to negligence, it is rare to find an Ikon in good running condition. We bought the car for 1.2 lakhs and have easily spent over 2 lakhs in maintenance, servicing and upkeep. The fact that my car is still running in good condition (despite all the use and abuse, from my side and 10 years from the previous 2 owners), is a testament to the build quality of these old Ford's and I am glad I got my initiation into the driving world, with this machine!

And yes, when I look back, my dad probably did the correct thing in getting me this car, a vRS would have cost 5x more to fix considering all the craziness of an 18-year-old or I'm sure I would have binned it somewhere while exploring the limits!

Moral of the story: Always start small, then the experience & growth will be appreciated better!

Attaching a few more pictures, to sum up my extended ownership!

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