Ford Fiesta Test Driven

[ghodlur]

I am a new entrant to the T-BHP club and in my introduction I had mentioned that I was planning to upgrade to a sedan from my existing Santro. I have identified 4 sedans a) Ford Fiesta, b) Chevrolet Aveo c) I20 and d) Mahindra Logan which I will test driving and looking forward to useful comments from all the exp BHPians. The main criteria for selection for a sedan are 1) Space 2) Good ride and handling 3) Good FE 4) Nearby Showroom/service. I stay in Thane, Mumbai and hence decided on the 4 sedans as listed above since they all were within Thane city limits.

Visited Wasan Ford, Thane on 19th for a test drive of Ford Fiesta. Was interested in 1.6 ZXi (petrol) which satisfies most of my reqmts. Called up Mr Nair of Ford and he confirmed the availability of demo car. Reached Wasan and Mr Nair cordially took me to the demo vehicle which was 1.6 SXi. The following were my observations.
Exterior: Smooth finish lines, nice looking grill with FORD logo. Rear spoiler, boot space was huge (after looking at Santro boot space). Good gnd clearance although doubted whether it would sustain bumpy Thane roads.
Interior: Good dash, great seat adjusment although I did not like the height adjuster since it adjusted my thigh inclination and was difficult to handle the steering with me being a 6ft+ guy. The steering was adjustable. The music sounded good with 6 speakers. Other plus features like ele OVRM's, a couple of cubby holes, nice glove box but plastic quality was not upto expectations.
Now for the test drive. Mr Nair accompanied me, I asked my wife to sit at the back to review the rear handling. Started the engine, nice vroom start, revved it a bit to listen to the exhaust. Now it was time to move on. To my surprise found the left right indicators to the right of the steering and the washers to the left. Took some time to adjust to this arrangment. Took off on the busy Ghodbunder Road, nice accelaration, touched 80 KMPL in 15-20 secs. The gear throw is very short after driving Santro for so long. Had to adjust the gear on couple of occasions. Mr Nair meanwhile was trying to explain me the features, requested him to do after we complete the test drive and he obliged. Took the car to a stretch notorious for potholes, speed breakers. Nice handling, even wife complemented on the rear ride was smooth over the potholes, good feel, a little body roll but that was OK. Came back on the highway and on the return to showroom applied sudden brakes, found braking to be superb, car came to a stand still within no time. Checked the reverse parking and found a good view of the back.
Ingress & egress out of the car was a bit of problem and felt can get used to. Mr Nair took time to explain all the features. He gave me the price list.
1.6 ZXi costs me 752333/- OTR. Checked the break up, found 5000/- depot handling charges. What was that??? There was an offer for zero insurance but no dealer discount, no corporate discount, no exchange discount. Even the buy back for my Santro would be done by a dealer and not FORD. Also the freebies offered were only mudflap, door mats and dicky mat and absolutely nothing else.
Mr Nair promised that if booked in a couple of days he would ensure that car would be ready fro Diwali delivery. Also the colours available in the stock yard are Morello and Platinum. Was more interested for Acquaris Blue.
Hope my review was useful, would welcome any suggestions. Can anyone provide information regarding the Wasan Ford Dealer. I checked their workshop, personally felt was not upto mark with cars spread all across the workshop in haphazard manner.

[vnabhi]

AFAIK, Aquarius Blue colour comes only with the 1.6 S, so you may have to choose between the other two. I suggest you wait and book any colour of your choice if you don't like those two---it is a personal choice, and when you are upgrading, why should you compromise on colours?
I agree that ingress and egress is not as convenient as the tall boys like Santro or WagonR.

[premjit]

Hey Great choice of a car. However, you could bargain for more discounts. There is free insurance avlbl and the dealer usually throws in accessories like mud flaps, rubber mats, idol, perfume and car cover. So why dont you give it a shot?

Why the 1.6Zxi? Did u look at the Limited Edition. Seems to have almost all features of the Zxi barring Airbags.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I am a new entrant to the T-BHP club and in my introduction I had mentioned that I was planning to upgrade to a sedan from my existing Santro. I have identified 4 sedans a) Ford Fiesta, b) Chevrolet Aveo c) I20 and d) Mahindra Logan which I will test driving and looking forward to useful comments from all the exp BHPians. The main criteria for selection for a sedan are 1) Space 2) Good ride and handling 3) Good FE 4) Nearby Showroom/service. I stay in Thane, Mumbai and hence decided on the 4 sedans as listed above since they all were within Thane city limits.

Visited Wasan Ford, Thane on 19th for a test drive of Ford Fiesta. Was interested in 1.6 ZXi (petrol) which satisfies most of my reqmts. Called up Mr Nair of Ford and he confirmed the availability of demo car. Reached Wasan and Mr Nair cordially took me to the demo vehicle which was 1.6 SXi. The following were my observations.
Exterior: Smooth finish lines, nice looking grill with FORD logo. Rear spoiler, boot space was huge (after looking at Santro boot space). Good gnd clearance although doubted whether it would sustain bumpy Thane roads.
Interior: Good dash, great seat adjusment although I did not like the height adjuster since it adjusted my thigh inclination and was difficult to handle the steering with me being a 6ft+ guy. The steering was adjustable. The music sounded good with 6 speakers. Other plus features like ele OVRM's, a couple of cubby holes, nice glove box but plastic quality was not upto expectations.
Now for the test drive. Mr Nair accompanied me, I asked my wife to sit at the back to review the rear handling. Started the engine, nice vroom start, revved it a bit to listen to the exhaust. Now it was time to move on. To my surprise found the left right indicators to the right of the steering and the washers to the left. Took some time to adjust to this arrangment. Took off on the busy Ghodbunder Road, nice accelaration, touched 80 KMPL in 15-20 secs. The gear throw is very short after driving Santro for so long. Had to adjust the gear on couple of occasions. Mr Nair meanwhile was trying to explain me the features, requested him to do after we complete the test drive and he obliged. Took the car to a stretch notorious for potholes, speed breakers. Nice handling, even wife complemented on the rear ride was smooth over the potholes, good feel, a little body roll but that was OK. Came back on the highway and on the return to showroom applied sudden brakes, found braking to be superb, car came to a stand still within no time. Checked the reverse parking and found a good view of the back.
Ingress & egress out of the car was a bit of problem and felt can get used to. Mr Nair took time to explain all the features. He gave me the price list.
1.6 ZXi costs me 752333/- OTR. Checked the break up, found 5000/- depot handling charges. What was that??? There was an offer for zero insurance but no dealer discount, no corporate discount, no exchange discount. Even the buy back for my Santro would be done by a dealer and not FORD. Also the freebies offered were only mudflap, door mats and dicky mat and absolutely nothing else.
Mr Nair promised that if booked in a couple of days he would ensure that car would be ready fro Diwali delivery. Also the colours available in the stock yard are Morello and Platinum. Was more interested for Acquaris Blue.
Hope my review was useful, would welcome any suggestions. Can anyone provide information regarding the Wasan Ford Dealer. I checked their workshop, personally felt was not upto mark with cars spread all across the workshop in haphazard manner.

Fiesta's a super drivers car, as far as I have heard from everyone who has owned/driven that beauty.

Now, i20 is a hatch - though it sure feels like a sedan inside.

All Indian cars (except GM/Ford - american companies) come with this arrangement! right side light, left side wipers.
I know that ford fiesta comes with right side wipers and left side lights - perhaps you meant that.

And lastly, IMO its almost always the dealers who do buybacks and exchanges, and never the company. There are exceptions, like GMs Optra for Opel offer.

Don't just settle for insurance discount, also press for an years extended warranty and corporate discount. Forego the substandard mats/bootmat/mudflaps that they shall throw in if necessery. You can get good quality ones fitted aftermarket.

Best of luck in your venture of getting home the beauty.

[dpkol]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

He gave me the price list.
1.6 ZXi costs me 752333/- OTR. Checked the break up, found 5000/- depot handling charges. What was that??? There was an offer for zero insurance but no dealer discount, no corporate discount, no exchange discount. Even the buy back for my Santro would be done by a dealer and not FORD. Also the freebies offered were only mudflap, door mats and dicky mat and absolutely nothing else.

Hi, I am also a new entrant in T BHP and a proud owner of 1.6ZXI Fiesta (Morelo) and I got good corporate discount of nearly 75K. Though the corporate discount varies from company to company, however it's always there. If you are eligible, you must get it. So press hard on same. However as I got corporate discount, I didn't get normal insurance discount as they give here in Kolkata. Anyway the corporate discount generally is much higher than insurance and after all it's our hard earned money. Hence go all out.

[nairrk]

@ghodlur
1.6zxi at Rs.7,52,333 ?(may be Road tax in maharashtra is high - we have it here only 6% on show room price)

According to my information (as I too bought similar one recently)
Insurance is free - you save Rs.20,000
Exchange bonus - Rs.10,000 (whether you sell your existing car to them or you make
your own arrangements. Only they asked me the copy of RC (one in my name and one after transferring to the buyer). When you give this copies to the dealer who then will forward same to Ford who then will send you the cheque for Rs.10000.
(I had this similar arrangement when I bought the hyudai accept few years back).
So you can try for this good 30,000 discount?

Rs.5000- depo handling charges - why you have to pay this amount???

Cheers

[contactme27]

ghodlur - when doing insurance from the dealer please check the insured value especially when there is offer on insurance. these guys cheat us by getting insured to lower value.have a check before taking the delivery.

[nairrk]

Originally Posted by contactme27

ghodlur - when doing insurance from the dealer please check the insured value especially when there is offer on insurance. these guys cheat us by getting insured to lower value.have a check before taking the delivery.

+
As I have seen, Ford has got a tie up with Bajaj Alliance (I believe it is not dealer to dealer arrangement of this insurance matter?) and ford cars are insured by Bajaj Alliance (Is there any different opinion?).
I have recieved the original Policy from Bajaj and the Insurance premium is for Rs.20,291.

So, possibly if someone give quote at lesser rate (anything less than Rs.17000 or so, then there are chances that they underquoting and you have to be very very careful (this is my opinion only).

Thanks

[dpkol]

Originally Posted by contactme27

ghodlur - when doing insurance from the dealer please check the insured value especially when there is offer on insurance. these guys cheat us by getting insured to lower value.have a check before taking the delivery.

I agree that you must check the insured amount of Car. As a normal policy, the new car insured value should be 95% of the ex-show room price.

Till it's so, you can be rest assured about protection whatever may be your premium.

[s3va]

My feedback in ITALICS

The main criteria for selection for a sedan are 1) Space 2) Good ride and handling 3) Good FE 4) Nearby Showroom/service. I stay in Thane, Mumbai and hence decided on the 4 sedans as listed above since they all were within Thane city limits.

If you have not confirmed on Fiesta, by looking at your requirements(since I didnt see peformance and power as your main criteria) you should also try a TD of the AVEO 1.4. I feel it has better interiors and ride quality especially for the price tag it carries, i.e., basic variant OTR will cost you about Rs. 6.3 to 6.5 lacs. It churns out a not bad 94 bhp though it requires some taming as its not quite peppy as Fiesta 1.6. Service and maintenance factors are comparitively the same for Ford & GM(except GM's image is not as good as Ford, but I would say 'big deal', as GM has certain good long term plans for India)

He gave me the price list.
1.6 ZXi costs me 752333/- OTR. Checked the break up, found 5000/- depot handling charges. What was that???

They are handling charges, in which they include the bribe monies they pay at RTO during registration et al. If you are ready to handle all these by yourself, it should not cost more than Rs.2000. Or you can try your bargaining skills for reducing the depot charges. I have seen this as standard across various brands, ie Rs.4500-5000 in this segment.

Even the buy back for my Santro would be done by a dealer and not FORD. Also the freebies offered were only mudflap, door mats and dicky mat and absolutely nothing else.

I had a Santro too that I sold it through Sulekha very recently. The true value or sort always quote about 15-20k less than market value. I would suggest you to sell the car by yourself. Freebies is something for which you should be ready to perform a 'vegetable market' bargain.

Also the Insurance quoted by Dealers will be way up high as compared to market quotes. I took care of the insurance myself and saved about Rs5000.

[ghodlur]

I am in a dilema. Yesterday the Ford exec called up to give a me a new offer. He said the Depot charges have been brought down to Rs 2000/- and will be waived off. Now the OTR comes around to Rs 7.21L approx. With this comes the usual freebies of Matting, mudflaps and now addition of teflon coating and sunfilm from Garware. When I insisted on a corporate discount they offered me 2 yrs extended warranty which I feel is around Rs 10000/-. The insurance will be still done by me which I had claimed to be atleast 8K less than their offer. Their offer: 26K , icicilombard online: 18K. The delivery would be in 10-12 days for Platinum and 5-6 days for Morello & dak grey.
When I enquired about the power steering issue which some of the T-BHPians had raised the exec was not even aware of that. He diverted me with an info about a Ltd edition ZXI model which would avail in Nov and would have leather upholstery and that I should wait for that.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

He diverted me with an info about a Ltd edition ZXI model which would avail in Nov and would have leather upholstery and that I should wait for that.

Another limited edition?

As long as it sells who cares!

[rajivn]

Originally Posted by kiku007

Another limited edition?

As long as it sells who cares!

Ford knows to sell. If you are in market looking a midsize sedan, you'll find Fords offers to be irresistible. But I wonder why aint they realizing that resale suffers because of this.

[nairrk]

@ghodlur

-2 years extended warranty (given by Ford and not the dealer): Rs.8300/-
-Insurance: you do it, if dealer rate is too high ?
-No depot charges
-Your existing car: Are your going to sell this or will keep with you?
Ford (not the dealer) gives Rs.10000 as exchange bonus upon showing the proof
i.e copy of RC of existing car(in your name) and copy of RC transferred by new owner. You may have to handover these RC copies to the dealer who then will
forward same to Ford. The Cheque will come from Ford direct to you. It may take
a month or more but you will get it. (I have already forwarded the documents to
Ford through my dealer).

Thanks

[kumar7]

@ghodlur:

When I initially approached local dealers from them I understood that they first push for free accessories as they again earn profit on it. If customer is rigid then they pass on cash discount to customer.

First take all cash discount from dealer and once you realize that he offered all possible discount then ask for freebies

For petrol car corporate discount is 15000/- and for Diesel its 7000/-
As Nairrk said you can avail exchange bonus if you sell your old car. Getting 10K back varies from dealer to dealer, as in my case dealer paid me on the spot (It helps if you get amount while purchasing the car as in my case I intermediately reduced my loan amount by 10K )