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My Ford Ikon turns 20

11th June 2021, 16:08 by Chirag Moro

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This car recently completed 2 decades of existence, and hence deserves a tribute. So put on your seat-belts, as the time machine blasts into the past, a bygone era which many still remember very fondly.

BHPian Sanidhya mukund recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Make: Ford
Model: Ikon
Year: 2000
Month: September
Variant: EXI
Engine: Ford 1.3 Endura-E
Colour: Tourmaline Green metallic

Likes

Simple, mechanical nature of things.
Timeless design (to my eyes).
Ride and handling balance.
Light Clutch, with a short travel range and smooth gear shifts.
Lovely Steering feel (a typical Ford characteristic).
Reasonable cabin space and decently sized boot.

Dislikes

Poor braking. Does not inspire confidence at all.
Really cheap plastics. A sea of hard, grey plastics everywhere inside the cabin.
Rubbish quality of headlights. Barely lights up the roads.
Cabin ergonomics aren’t great.
No bottle holders whatsoever.

Introduction

A Ford Ikon review, especially of one that is 20 years old, might seem a bit out of place in 2021.

This car is no longer relevant to the market in any way. You cannot possibly buy a new one, and even those who look for used cars of this vintage would most probably ignore this one in favour of a far more easy to maintain Esteem or Accent. But I still have plenty of reasons to write this. Firstly, this is my 100th post on the forum, so it ought to be special and I thought that the best way to make it special was to write something about a car that is special to me, and I am sure is also to many of you. Secondly, this car recently completed 2 decades of existence, and hence deserves a tribute. So put on your seat-belts, as the time machine blasts into the past, a bygone era which many still remember very fondly.

Why Ford Ikon?

The year is 2000. The last few years have seen a considerable amount of change. Indians no longer have to buy the caveman equivalents of cars (Ambassador, Premier Padmini). It’s already been 9 years since the economy opened up. In the last 5 years, most auto-majors have tried their hand at the Indian Market. Also, we have recently made the transition from those old carbureted engines to modern MPFIs.

A cover page of ‘Auto India’ shows the buzz taking place in the market. (image source: Team-BHP)

The Indian consumer is now spoilt for choices. Want a small car? You can buy the cute Matiz, the economical Alto and 800, the spacious WagonR and the Tall boy Santro, the fun to drive Palio or the Zen. Want a diesel hatchback? Go ahead and buy the Indica.

The hatchbacks with their bright colours made car showrooms look like candy stores. (Image source: Autocar India, Bsmotoring)

Want to transport people? You have the Omni at one end of the market, and at the other, the Bolero, Sumo and Qualis are stepping on each other’s feet.

Want a sedan? You can pick any one of the luxurious Honda city, the status symbol Lancer, the VFM Daewoo Cielo or even the Opel Astra. You even had the Ikon, Accent or Esteem, in case you wanted something smaller.

At this point, there were broadly 3 categories of buyers. Some people still believed that modern cars cannot survive Indian roads, and thus it is best to stick to Ambassadors and Fiats. The other group, whole heartedly adopted the modern metal. The third category that we belonged to, wanted to buy modern cars, but only from brands we had heard of. Please note that this was the pre-Internet era, so brands that were very well established in their own countries did not really have much brand recall in India.

(Image source: Google Images)

We did not really research too many options. We did not buy the Esteem since we already had one. We were also not keen to go for brands that we didn’t really know much about. Now, Ford as a brand, has a really rich heritage. If you know what a car is, you also most probably know what a Ford is. Indians had been buying Fords since times immemorial. So when Ford launched the Ikon, we immediately decided that this would be the car to buy. No options considered.

The smashing new “Josh Machine”.

Choosing the Variant

Ford had launched the Ikon in late 1999, with two engine options. One was the awesome 1.6 petrol and the other was a 1.8 litre diesel. At a later stage, Ford also introduced the old Escort's 1.3 Endura petrol, to compete with the Esteem's pricing. Since the car would have been fully chauffeur driven, there was no point going for the 1.6. Also, our running wasn’t high enough to justify a diesel. Thus, we chose to buy the 1.3, in the EXI variant. Neither do I have the price break-up, nor is it relevant today. But just as an indicative figure, we paid nearly 5.8 lakhs for this car.

Exterior, build and quality

The Ikon is a derivative of the 4th generation of the Ford Fiesta hatchback, which was a pretty popular car in the European Market. The front fascia is pretty similar, and even some engine options are shared. The differences start beyond the B-pillar. The rear door is completely different, and so is the rear quarter panel. I must say that the boot integration has been done really well, and compared to the modern compact sedans with their stubby boots, the Ikon looks far more proportionate. It doesn’t have the design flair of a Lamborghini, but those who like cars from the 90s, will really like it.

As far as build quality is concerned, this car has pretty thick sheet metal, and the doors close with a solid ‘thud’. Panel gaps are also even for the most part, except for the region around the boot lid. The bumpers protrude out of the body and do their job really well. On many instances, they have saved us from expensive body repairs. Once the car had crashed into the back of a Swift, and the Swift’s rear had gotten obliterated. The Ikon on the other hand did not suffer much more than a broken headlight bracket.

Even after 20 years of facing the rain and sun, there is almost no corrosion on the body work, except for a little rust at the bottom edge of the drivers door. Also, thanks to the thick sheet metal, there are no major dents as such. The paint on the other hand, started looking knackered after 10 years, mostly due to bird droppings, children vandalising it and NCR traffic. So in 2010, we got it over-coated at a local garage. But since even that was 10 years ago, it does have some battle scars.

The 4th gen Ford Fiesta, the car on which it is based. Image source: Google images

Love the colour. Very unique.

The front end. Many people get their headlights changed to the clear lenses. I personally like the orange side indicators much better. Also notice the missing tow cover. I have it with me, but the mounting brackets are broken.

The rear end. Notice the tail lights. It has orange indicators, amber reverse lights and red brake lights. Most people get them changed to the latest clear lenses, but I retained them for the classic look.