[mobike008]

What I liked

--Brilliant, Punchy, Torquey Engine
--Excellent Ride
--Reasonably sorted handling
--Steering wheel feels nice to hold (Light at slow speeds and weighs up as speed increases)
--Excellent braking
--Front-seats offer nice lumbar support with good under thigh support
--Spacious interiors (rear legroom is pretty generous)

What I didn't

--Light build quality
--CBA (Clutch, Brake, Accelerator) pedals are closely placed with no foot-rest
--Gears aren't really butter-smooth
--Clutch travel is long'ish


There is no Titanium + badge even if mine is one



Newest entrant to the "FTD" category cars in India



As American as it can get



Below 3 pictures are the best viewing angles of Aspire, IMO

[mobike008]

What Car???

After returning to India, I was looking out for a car and I got strict instructions (Please don't ask from whom..LOL!) that I should not spend more than 10 Lakhs.

Infact, the lower the better. With suggestions even coming in source that I should even look at pre-owned 3-4 lakhs small hatch. Reason being, this would be my 8th (brand new) car in 15 years and folks at home are appalled at my outlook towards automobile purchase and apparently, think that iam wasting lot of good dough on them

Well, I was never confused in what I want. I am not the confused sort, I am usually clear in my decision-making and almost always know what I want. But, these instructions kind of put in a dilemma and I even considered a few pre-owned cars but, my heart didn't t make me settle for it as I never drove a pre-owned till date. So I decided to stick to 10 lakhs budget and test drove the following cars even though they all fall in different segments and category

Elite i20 : Hyundai is one of my favorite manufacturer having owned 3 cars from them in past. Not surprisingly, as always it was great to deal with them. When I approached Laxmi Hyundai which is 500 meters away from home (Incidentally, I live 500 meters away from these (Maruti, Hyundai, VW, Mahindra ) showrooms. I was without too much hassle nor waiting given the Elite i20 test drive car and we (me & better half) took it out for a nice long spin. I loved the exteriors ( best looking hatch according to me) and interiors are no less, best out there. But, it was extremely disappointing to drive. Steering wheel felt super light, vague and had absolutely no feeling. Power delivery was also very unimpressive, I had to stand on the gas to make it run a bit lively. Handling is typical Hyundai, no confidence in corners and overall a completely soft chassis and suspension set-up. It would be a lovely car for city drives but, didn't find the joy that I normally look for when I drive a car.

However, I still thought maybe i should just buy this and close this car hunt story as there are so many cars its selling, there must be something awesome about it which Iam not able to gauge in my test drive. That's the impulsive side of me coaxing to take a decision

With those thoughts, I kept it on back-burner for that moment

Polo GT TSI : I know this car well, having test driven it for Team-BHP, I was absolutely in love with this car and I always felt this car will one day adorn my garage. After a couple of visits to VW showroom ( SA lead was same guy who sold me Cruze), finally got a test drive car. March 2012 came rushing back to me when I drove this car in Goa. It was the same experience. Blistering performance and that outstanding DSG gear-box. But, for my heavy footed style of driving and minimum 60kms every day, it would return < double digits figures. Besides the rear is extremely claustrophobic and even though its not a mandatory parameter, it did play some role in making me think twice

Mind won the battle over heart as this car would be great as a second car for those hard-driving on weekends (especially on ORR) and definitely not for 60kms in bumper to bumper traffic each day

Fluidic Verna : This experience was much better than Elite i20 which I had driven a few minutes prior to taking over the wheel of Verna. Nice package with lovely interiors but, it just didn't appeal to me for whatever the reason. Even though its power rating is 132 PS, it felt sluggish than the Aspire. Besides, the car cost 13+ lakhs (I don't mind splurging a few more lakhs if the car hits me where it matters). Unfortunately, Verna felt like a nice car with nothing that stood out clearly.

Vento TDI : Drove the manual TDI variant, it was the worst experience of entire lot. The engine made so much noise that I wanted to abandon my test drive from half-way. But, I wanted to be courteous and completed the test drive and due to the annoyingly loud engine, I just couldn't concentrate on its positive features. It went out of the window straight-away

Ford Eco-Sport : Drove this after the Aspire test-drive. It's a lovely mini SUV to drive and has great dynamics and decently peppy performance but, compared to Aspire, it felt little sluggish even though the engines are same but, tuned for better performance for the Aspire.

Finally, Ford Aspire : Well, took it out for a spin and was immediately impressed with everything. It was fast, great steering wheel, outstanding bite from the brakes, zero turbo lag and most importantly the engine felt smooth, great NVH and brisk performance.

After the 1st test drive, I immediately knew this will be my next car. But, being little finicky, I test drove the Aspire couple of times more to re-confirm my feeling and each time I drove, that feeling of "This is the car" compounded. Since the top-end (Aspire Titanium+ TDCI) was coming right in my budget, I decided to get the top-end with full safety and other convenience features

Exploring & Booking Experience with "Mody Ford, Hyderabad"

Right from the day I first visited till I actually bought the car which was < 1 week, my experience with Mody was excellent and everyone seemed very eager to provide service. Especially a newbie SA from whom my purchase was his first sale and also first job in auto dealership space. He was eager to serve and was very co-operative and provided me with 2 long test drives which helped me arrive at this decision

I decided on Sep 16th, 2015 to buy and told them I will get my company to transfer the money immediately and it was done within a few hours. I called them on Sep 17th ( Ganesh Chaturthi) and told them would like to come and select the color. We were wavering between Ruby Red, Grey and Blue

Since the cars were not available at showroom, they gave me a TD car to drive and Rajesh.Rawal (BHPian) who came to help me do PDI followed us in his Santro AT ( Btw, he owns the GT TSI too). It was a long 20kms ride to their stockyard in Medchal. Got a good feel of the car yet again. We saw many Aspires and new Figo there and family didn't like the Ruby Red and Grey so it was the Deep Impact Blue which is very different from Kinetic Blue of Ecosport ( Now glad that I decided on this color) and completed the PDI in 30 minutes

We got back to showroom around 1:00pm. Told the SA to get the car ready for delivery by 6:00pm and Voila- we took delivery at 7:00pm the same evening. Whole process went like clock-work. No hitches anywhere..

My car purchase story completed in one week with just 2 days for actual booking and delivery of the car. Fantastic experience, I say !!!

Aspire at the stockyard



359 liters of boot space inside that nice looking butt



Better half & me...happy ( don't go by the expression as it was a tiring day)



Odo-reading at time of delivery and some pictures of 1st day after getting her home

[mobike008]

Butter Smooth, Extremely powerful and super drool-worthy 100PS engine



Performance

Aspire is all about the engine. It's a brilliant and powerful engine and too good to be plonked into a CS segment car. It feels extremely fast and can leave behind any car in its segment and a few from higher segments also in the dust !!!

When I did the first test-drive of Aspire Diesel, I was slightly taken aback as I was not expecting such a blistering pace from this car. I thought maybe Iam not used to driving in India for a while so my assessing skills might have taken a beating. But, when I requested the Service Advisor (SA) to let me take the car for a longer spin on Necklace road ( Test drove it for 20kms) which is a long winding stretch ( incidentally test drove the Cruze on same stretch and instantly fell in love with it) and gave it the full gas and chucked into every possible corner that came through in the test drive ( and, there were quite a few). During the course of the test drive, I knew it, this is the car that will keep me reasonably happy

What truly impressed me was the complete absence of "turbo lag". The Aspire pulled from as low as 1200RPM and keeps pulling till the red-line which I tried in a few gears in the TD car. Well, it doesn't have a brutal push in back type of power surge but, is linear and pulls neatly and alarmingly reaches triple digits too fast.

It's 100 PS at 3750 RPM with a punchy 215Nm of torque that spools in from 1700-3000RPM (official figures-But, I felt the car comes to life from 1200RPM-So don't know why Ford says the torque comes to play from 1700? Anyone can throw some light on this?)

The diesel mill of Aspire is bit noisy when heard from outside (car in a stand-still mode) but, when your inside and take off from standstill, within a few minutes of engine heating up, it feels like a petrol engine. I was mentally comparing this with Vento Diesel which I had driven an hour before driving the Aspire (it felt like a truck making all kinds of crackling noises-no offense to Vento owners). Engine felt strong, punchy, smooth, eager and meant for revving it to red-line

As per some reports, Aspire is the fastest diesel in India right now with 0-100KMPH figure of 9.72 seconds and this test was conducted using the VBOX equipment so quite believable and at same time quite astonishing as it means its as fast or faster than a Cruze...Whoa !!!

It feels extremely punchy even in 5th gear with 3 people in car at speeds of <50kmph and a little tap is enough to send the car scuttling forward.

Some examples of its drivability :

-- Launch the car in 2nd gear from standstill with 3 people occupying the car? It's easy-peasy...

--3rd gear it coasts easily at 20kmph with absolutely no knocking to the engine

--- Overtaking in 5th gear? Sure, you can be at 1500rmp at 40kmph and a small dab to accelerator and whoooosh, off you go !!!

And, if you are not in the mood to drive enthusiastically which is hard to do in this car, it doesn't disappoint as it can potter around town in 4th gear at 30kmph without stalling the engine. It's still in run-in period, so I haven't pushed it much and have been generally cruising at 100kmph which is achieved at 2200RPM. I understand it can easily hit a top-speed of 190kmph which is easily possible since the car can be pushed till red-line and strangely, Iam seeing this for first time-REDLINE at 5000RPM.

General practice is to see the redline at 4500RPM....

To cut a long story short, This car is meant to be driven "Spiritedly" and anyone who is not driving it that way, I would have to say is not using it's true potential

[mobike008]

Exteriors

I was never a fan of sub 4-meter or compact sedan (CS) segment and always use to think of something or other to criticize it. Even its overall existence itself was a big question mark to me at one point of time. It started with 1st version of Dzire and then my disgust grew strongly with the upgraded version which looked like a stubby little thing that didn't look beautiful from any angle. But, as time passed, this segment grew on me since the sheer numbers that you see on the road and there has to be a time when you have to accept its existence between hatches and sedans category. First time I liked a CS was the Hyundai Xcent which looked quite decent like all contemporary Hyundai's ( I almost like every car in it's stable with respect to how they look).

With such attitude towards CS segment, none of their cars came into my radar except Aspire as everyone seemed to be waiting for its launch and its 100 PS potent engine which was the "ONLY" reason for me to even consider it. When I saw the Aspire in person for first time, I was pleasantly surprised. In my personal opinion, Figo Aspire is arguably the best looking compact sedan in the country now. It's Aston Martin-esque trapezoidal front grille with horizontal chrome slats form the core design element which is surrounded by generously proportioned peeled-back headlamps with nicely shaped air-dams and circular fog-lamps in black housing (Iam bit disappointed it doesn't come with chrome rings like the eco-sport-though available as an accessory) and a beautiful contoured bonnet with muscular bulges that hints at a sporty character to the front-end design.

If you look at overall profile, I find looks of cars in this segment a bit comic like most compact sedans from atleast more than a few angles looking out of proportion. But, in my personal opinion, Ford has done a wonderful job and I think it looks odd only from the rear quarter profile (accentuates its small tires and empty wheel wells). The overall design looks smooth with nothing looking out of ordinary or disapportionate. Except for the fact that the overall look of Aspire is marred by its 14-inch wheels which are atleast 1" smaller than it should have been for this car. Surprisingly, even the rear looks nice with that chrome strip running across the width of back-side

In short, this is the most good-looking car in its segment (atleast for now)

Blue Bombardier ready to fly with its wings wide-open



Lovely looking Aston-Martin'sh front with large wide-mouthed grill



Side-profile-Not the greatest looking angle for the Aspire



Resting under a lone-beautiful tree



Looks pretty decent from this angle. Doesn't it?



Whoever said the rear of Aspire looks bad-Just take a look at this picture ONCE



View to a biker breathing down my neck at a traffic signal. Nice leather interiors view from rear



185/65/R14. Looks decent but, still doesn't fill the wheel wall completely. It should have been the 195's...Sigh !





Nice looking rear lamps with integrated fog-lamps





Posing with the rocks

[mobike008]

Interiors

For some reason, Beige interiors never came into most of the cars that I bought in the past except for one car (Accent Viva CRDi) in my stable every car had dark interiors. However, Aspire's beige interiors don't look bad at all.

Honestly, speaking its not like the Skoda Laura/Superb/Camry beige which is undoubtedly are the best beige colored interiors south of 30 lakhs

Ford has completely re-designed and seemed to have spent lot of time in developing the interiors ( except for borrowing some bits from the Eco-sport especially the center console). Entire cabin seems bright, airy and spacious. What took me by surprise that it has acres of legroom at back and that amount of space is not even found in some C+ segment cars (Cruze for example)

Beautiful and well-appointed front passengers area with nice contoured front-seats with good under thigh support



Passengers love being here. Extremely spacious and roomy. Family enjoys using the hand-rest and commented its very comfortable



Contemporary looking front dashboard



Side patch of rear seats are fabric and is not complete pure leather. Weird !!





Titanium + gets the display screen as against all other models which come with Ford MYDock





Center console stolen from Eco-sport. Hard plastics of good quality but, attracts lot of dust



Short stubby gear knob. Decent to use but, not the best



HU unit, Auto AC with nice looking knobs and that's the car perfume from Ford (not free )....AC deserves a special mention. It chills the cabin really fast



Odo-reading after 3 weeks of purchase



Switch for headlights, adjusting the headlight level and front and rear fog-lamps. Quality of switch/s is quite good



Steering wheel controls for volume/Ford SYNC for hands-free calling. I just press that center button; call the name in my address book and system dials the number automatically. It even understands Indian accent. Kudos Microsoft !!!



Best part was the endless amount of cubby-holes (20 + of bottle holders, door pockets, etc.) where you can slot in your knick-knacks. Titanium + gets full leather seats which are of decent quality. Front seats have good under-thigh support whereas the rear seats don't have as much. And, it's vice-versa for hand-rest. Rear seats get one and front passengers don't get one. There is no rear AC vent which should have been provided in the top-end model but, I ain't complaining as the AC is extremely effective and chills entire cabin in a jiffy

The steering wheel has music and SYNC controls which are a boon. Center console looks like a space-craft with multiple buttons and layout is easy to understand and get used to with the reach also effective and not disturbing the driving focus/concentration. Titanium + gets the display screen whereas the lower end models get the myDOCK for charging phones and keeping personal stuff in that large cubby hole. Auto AC is a feature that was not there even in my Cruze, so Iam enjoying this feature to the hilt.

Built quality of the entire interior is commendable. It is not as good as the i20 Elite ( which has lovely soft touch plastics that look and feel more premium) but, Aspire's interior quality is not bad and is maybe a notch below i20 if you ignore the hard glossy plastic used here.

First time in India, Ford has now adopted RHD-spec indicator and wiper stalk configuration, hopefully highlighting the importance of our market. The multifunction switch on the right side of the dashboard for headlights, fog lights and boot release is a nice touch. In general, the overall quality of the switch gears is impressive, certainly adding to the feel good factor of the interior. The material and build quality are at par with the best in the segment if not better.

A neat and secret area of storage is on right edge of the dashboard, which can be accessed only when the driver side door is open, is something which we haven’t seen before. Lovely design thought !!!

[mobike008]

Ride, Handling & Brakes

After taking delivery, Rode the car for about 100kms or so and then changed the tyres to 185/65/R14 from its original 175/65/R14 with Yokohoma Earth-1. This change has made a substantial difference to overall characteristic of car. Steering feel has become heavier, ride is much silent and smooth and a marked difference in cornering capabilities as well.

I have driven the Old Fiesta Diesel, Fiesta 1.6S (But, never the Figo) and was always impressed with its handling capabilities but, heavily disappointed with its power output. Even the 1.6S didnt impress me (I was driving the Cruze then) so Aspire was impressive about the way it delivered the power

When I TD'd the car, I was immediately in love with how the steering wheel felt in my hands and I know this car would be a fun car to drive. Even though the overall feeling of the car is "Light" the car lives up to its expectation of handling is more than satisfactory in corners and way better than most other cars in its segment

Independent Mcpherson struts upfront with anti-roll bars, and semi-independent rear torsion beams with gas and oil shock absorbers are very well damped. Be it straight line stability or composure around long, winding, high speed corners, Aspire seem to take all of this in its stride.

The electric power steering with Pull Drift Compensation technology (not sure what this actually means) is responsive, direct and has a good feel. As mentioned, stock steering wheel felt quite light and now after tyre change, it feels much better but, I would still have wanted little bit more weight (perhaps a 195 section tyre is answer to this problem) but, overall how the steering wheel feels while you hold kept the enthusiast in me happy to a large extent

Another important feature that blew me away was it's braking, this important safety feature deserves actually a few paragraphs of praises as they are really good and truly confidence inspiring. Even though it comes with ventilated front discs and rear drums, it has amazing bite, feel and stopping power. Wish it had come with discs all-around, it would be completely in a different league.

Besides, the availability of ABS with EBD provides a lot of comfort in situations of panic braking. The pedal feel is positive and the initial bite is reassuring. I was satisifed that a car with such lovely performance has equally good brakes to stop in time (if required)

I have experienced panic braking more than 3-4 times in my short ownership period and I was always pleasantly surprised how the car stopped without any drama and in shortest possible distance.

Safety Features & Convenience Features

I normally don't opt for top-end in any car that I have bought till date. But, what Ford was offering in top-end was super tempting and it just floored me that a car in this segment can even think of offering "6 Air Bags" (First-in its class). It's a reassuring thought at back of your mind that the car is equipped with 6 airbags. Pray to god that its never seen in action

Titanium + comes with a long list of features safety as well as convenience ; namely :

--ABS with EBD

--Perimeter alarm (yet to figure out what this feature is)

--SYNC 2 multimedia infotainment system with 4 speakers

--Bluetooth, USB and Aux-in connectivity

--MyKey (parental control on top-speed limit and seat belt reminder)

--Automatic climate control (ACC)

--Electrically adjustable ORVMs (foldable)

--Front and Rear power windows

--Alloy wheels

--Fog Lamps- Front & Rear

-- Steering mounted controls for volume + Hands-Free calling for phone with voice-commands

-- Pure Leather seats

Tyre upgrade

Before buying like all my previous cars, I had already decided to upgrade the stock tyres to something better and this car was no different. I had decided between either the Michelins XM+2 or Yokohoma Earth-1 with sizes of either 185/65/R14 or 195/60/R14

XM2's were expensive at INR 6000/Tyre with buyback of INR 3,200 for Apollo Aceres (MRP is INR 3700) and Yokos were coming for Rs.4000/Tyre. I decided to take the inexpensive route plus Earths being marketed as "For India" tyres. Felt it can be a decent option

After the tyre upgrade, the car has completely changed its characteristics. Steering feel is much more taut, feels more planted when chucked into a corner and best part there is no road noise seeping into cabin ( Apolló was noisy)

Overall, with an outflow of < INR 4000, I was a happy man !!!

BB jacked up for upgrading its shoes



Stock Apollo tires. It might be good but, not for my spirited style of driving





Swapped stock tires with Yokohoma Earth 1. Very good tires for the price paid. Super happy !!!

[mobike008]

Thread moved from Assembly Line to Initial Ownership Section.

As we already have a fantastic official report and a few members too have written about the Aspire in detail, I decided to take a quick stab at a short write-up of owning this car.

Will try to keep updating this thread as I learn to live with the "Blue Bombardier

[samaspire]

That blue looks fantastic on the Aspire. Congratulations on a great acquisition. And I must say you're a really good photographer - those shots can easily be used in the official ads

[bblost]

Wow. Been waiting for this thread for quite sometime.
Wish you a lot of awesome miles.

[dpkbehera]

Congratulations..Could not help noticing that both of you were dressed "Blue" for the occasion !!!

[krsna777]

Congratulations on your new car. This the best car in the segment. Totally VFM as well as an enthusiast's car, which is very rare to find in Indian market.

Originally Posted by mobike008

--ABS with EBD

--ESP

Does Aspire/Figo come with ESP. Only Automatic petrol comes equipped with it I guess?

[aeroamit]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
You guys have flair to describe in words. BTW, what's the story behind coming up with name Blue Bombardier. Blue is understandable and whats the link with Bombardier.

P.S. - Just got curious as my professional career is also linked with Bombardier Aircraft.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by samaspire

That blue looks fantastic on the Aspire. Congratulations on a great acquisition. And I must say you're a really good photographer - those shots can easily be used in the official ads

Thanks. Iam not such a good photographer. I just like to click it in different angles but have to confess that iam a bad photo processor as you can see ( just contrast, shadows etc...)

But, thanks for the compliment

Originally Posted by bblost

Wow. Been waiting for this thread for quite sometime. Wish you a lot of awesome miles.

Thanks Immy. Hope the wait was worth it...LOL!

Originally Posted by dpkbehera

Congratulations..Could not help noticing that both of you were dressed "Blue" for the occasion !!!

You have a keen eye as you spotted my tee as blue ( Seattle Seahawks) as it was dark when clicked.

We both realized this when we landed up there to pick up the car

Originally Posted by krsna777

Does Aspire/Figo come with ESP. Only Automatic petrol comes equipped with it I guess?

Thanks for wishes and also for correcting it. Your right, ESP is only in Petrol. I have corrected it in my post

Originally Posted by aeroamit

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
You guys have flair to describe in words. BTW, what's the story behind coming up with name Blue Bombardier. Blue is understandable and whats the link with Bombardier.P.S. - Just got curious as my professional career is also linked with Bombardier Aircraft.

Thank you. There is no particular relation with Bombardier. Just wanted a nice "resounding" type of name which works well with Blue like names of all my previous vehicles. Btw, I have a history with naming my vehicles which are little different..Haha!

Also, since the Aspire is reasonably fast car--Bombardier felt appropriate as its an aircraft

[arunphilip]

Thank you for the nice write-up and pictures.

Just earlier today, I was thinking of putting in a request on the Figo and Aspire threads for photos of either car in blue, given this shade of 'Deep Impact Blue' appears darker than Ford's previous 'Kinetic Blue'. Your thread has helped immensely in seeing how it appears.

[krsna777]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Before buying like all my cars, I had already decided to upgrade the stock tyres to something better and this car was no different. I had decided between either the Michelins XM+2 or Yokohoma Earth-1 with sizes of either 185/65/R14 or 195/60/R14

What is the reason not going for 195/60? What would be pros and cons for this profile.