[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

It looks like you are more inclined towards Classic already.
Let me add more points to strengthen your case:
1. If Amaze were safe enough (I won't say it isn't safe), Honda would have sold at least the Brio in Europe. Europe has many similarly sized cars (Ford Ka, Peugeot 108, Suzuki Alto/Celerio etc), so there is a market for these cars.
2. What's more important to you? Is it enjoying the drive everyday and feeling sad one day after some 4-5 years when you sell the car, because you didn't get good resale value? Or just using the car to drive from point A to point B without bothering about the fun factor, and laughing all the way to the bank on the day you sell your car?

Very good points. Worth taking seriously before taking the plunge.

I'm surprised that the Titanium does not have leather vinyl seatcovers, going by the post above. The old sxi did have those as standard.

7.91 for a tdci looks mouth-watering. I'd have bought this instead of the Figo in late 2012, had this offer been around.

[shashant]

I say, when confused buy the one which has a better resale. May be in a year or two (with so many options coming) you set your eyes on some hot wheels, but can not trade off your current ride because of low resale.

Thats just my POV.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

It looks like you are more inclined towards Classic already.

Thanks Rohan, I agree

Originally Posted by rohanjf

Let me add more points to strengthen your case:
1. If Amaze were safe enough (I won't say it isn't safe), Honda would have sold at least the Brio in Europe. Europe has many similarly sized cars (Ford Ka, Peugeot 108, Suzuki Alto/Celerio etc), so there is a market for these cars.
2. What's more important to you? Is it enjoying the drive everyday and feeling sad one day after some 4-5 years when you sell the car, because you didn't get good resale value?

Thanks for that. Resale is not a very important point for either me or my parents. Safety and comfort is (and in that order).

However if everything was equal, my father thought that 'Amaze' is a newer car - hence might be better.

I guess the decision has been made. It has to be the Ford!

[rageshgr]

Rejoice! They have further reduced the price by 12-24K across models, post the excise-duty cut.

Please refer : http://www.india.ford.com/servlet/Bl...rue&blobkey=id

[aniketi]

Looks like Ford is just clearing the stocks and will stop production soon. I think they should stop it immediately and make sure that they produce more & more EcoSports instead of trying to sell this outdated car. Whatever you do, this car will not sell in market now. Feb sales just confirms that. Why waste energy then?

[itsashishsharma]

@WindRide, thanks dude, even I am looking for a new car for my parents. Ford Classic diesel, (though a tad slow) fits in the criteria and checks all the checkboxes for me. I never liked how Dzire looked and Amaze behaved. The old gen fiesta has always been a more complete car. And now, that it is very much VFM, it is the strongest contender. If it was for myself, I would have gone for 1.6 Titanium eyes closed, but my parent's running is a bit higher for a petrol.

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by itsashishsharma

@WindRide, thanks dude, even I am looking for a new car for my parents. Ford Classic diesel, (though a tad slow)

After you purchase a Ford Classic 1.4 TDCi, have it remapped just out of showroom and that feeling of tad slow will vanish. I too have Classic 1.4 TDCi LXi variant remapped and belts out 88 Bhp & 200 Nm of torque which is more than enough for both city & highway runs. Easily does 150+ Kmph and also delivers better FE after remap. Don't worry about workshop figuring out remap & doing warranty void. 1.4 TDCi is very old mill and hardly workshop people connect their VAS machine to check ECU. I have also done few under warranty claims and no issue whatsoever.

Have a go through this link.

[k_ajay]

Today's experience makes me wonder if Elite Ford's showroom staff ever care about genuine customers.

A friend of mine is going to upgrade from his old Zen classic model which he bought 2nd hand and is 99% convinced to buy the Ford Fiesta classic. A big part of that convincing was from my end, pushing him to buy a good driving and handling car with the budget he had. Understanding the 1.6 ltr petrol wasn't very fuel efficient, he decided he will go for the diesel which was just fitting his budget.

After checking out a friend's car and understanding various features of the car from the brocure and through me, he decided he will go for the diesel top end variant and we went to Elite Ford showroom in Marathahalli to discuss with them and cut a deal. This was yesterday evening. My friend called them and confirmed appointment for a test drive of the diesel Classic Fiesta for 2.30pm today, deciding we'll take persmission to go do the TD at that time. Post the call confirmation, his booked was sealed with an SMS and email from Ford confirming the same in writing.

Today we reached the showroom 20 minutes prior to our appointment. From a busy and buzzing Elite Ford showroom i remember seeing last June when EcoSport was launched, today was in stark contrast. Not a SINGLE person except the sales staff were in the showroom. No security guard was also at the door. We entered and requested the receptionist to call upon the lady who'd taken the booking from my friend. On meeting her, my friend and I requested we'd like to TD the top end variant if that was available. Being professionals, we even said we'll return in 20 minutes at the exact said time for our TD.

We entered in at exactly 2.33 and requested if the vehicle was available. To our utter shock, the lady calmly informs without a worry that the TD vehicle is not there, it has gone out 'it seems'. We were obviously irritated and displeased with the lack of professionalism, but asked her to probe when the vehicle will be back in the showroom. She enquires and come back with '45 minutes'.. This absolutely irked us and my friend lost his cool. We thought it was completely unprofessional and rude to take an appointment and at exactly the same time, choose to send the TD car to Manyata business park at Hebbal (the showroom manager then told us this).

My friend wanted to see the manager about this and register (at least vocally) a complaint (which they didn't seem to take very seriously). Instead of feeling the seriousness of the mistake, they were just calmly informing us where they choose to send the car instead and very uncommitedly chose to offer a 'sorry about this sir' statement.

Already Ford is hardly selling anything other than the self selling EcoSport and ok volumes on the Figo. Not a single fly in the showroom in excess of their own staff and this is the professionalism and courtesy the Elite Ford showroom guys display, for what was a committed and confirmed appointment for a TD (we can accept this if it was a walk-in). The manager and his sales representative tired to please us by choosing to send the car to our office for the TD, but we firmly told them our time was not theirs to waste and the attitude and lack of professionalism killed it for them. Their callous attitude by now had irked me as well.

Due to his understanding of the value of the car, my friend swore he'll never entertain the unprofessional incompetent ones from Elite and he'll now approach Lathangi Ford tomorrow to close a deal.

Just thought i'll put this here so people can think twice about stepping in to Elite Ford (do call them many times before you land up there, if it's the only Ford showroom you can visit).

[blacksport]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

he'll now approach Lathangi Ford tomorrow to close a deal.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Lathangi does not have a good reputation either.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

Due to his understanding of the value of the car, my friend swore he'll never entertain the unprofessional incompetent ones from Elite and he'll now approach Lathangi Ford tomorrow to close a deal.

Just thought i'll put this here so people can think twice about stepping in to Elite Ford (do call them many times before you land up there, if it's the only Ford showroom you can visit).

We faced a very similar issue with Lathangi Ford 3 years back. It took around 10 days and multiple followups for them to provide a test drive car, Ford Fiesta. This made us move to Swift Dzire which was never in our list.

Even 3 months back we approached Lathangi for Fiesta Classic, but couldn't find any difference in their attitude.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

Today's experience makes me wonder if Elite Ford's showroom staff ever care about genuine customers.

Due to his understanding of the value of the car, my friend swore he'll never entertain the unprofessional incompetent ones from Elite and he'll now approach Lathangi Ford tomorrow to close a deal.

Just thought i'll put this here so people can think twice about stepping in to Elite Ford (do call them many times before you land up there, if it's the only Ford showroom you can visit).

First things first, I am surprised with your experience at Elite Ford, I have dealt with them and there was absolutely no problem at all. Their manager (Mr. Deshik) was a great guy to talk to as well. I did not close the deal with them is completely another point though.

Point is that genuine mistakes happen and a lot of people book TDs and simply do not turn up. You probably should have called them before you visited their showroom for the TD.

Second - Lathangi Ford: I have yet to come across any great reviews of these fellows and even my experience was not very encouraging. Definitely avoid.

I rate the 3 best dealerships across Bangalore as:
1. Cauvery Ford 2. Elite Ford 3. Metro Ford

Lastly, there is no point being so critical of someone; everyone, including us 'professionals' make mistakes; you do not hang them for that

[k_ajay]

Originally Posted by blacksport

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Lathangi does not have a good reputation either.

Point noted. I'll inform my friend of this.

Originally Posted by arun_josie

We faced a very similar issue with Lathangi Ford 3 years back. It took around 10 days and multiple followups for them to provide a test drive car, Ford Fiesta. This made us move to Swift Dzire which was never in our list.

Even 3 months back we approached Lathangi for Fiesta Classic, but couldn't find any difference in their attitude.

Ok, noted. Obviously Lathangi was closed today so my friend didn't approach them today. He lives near the area so he said he'll just give them a try (to see if he has any better experiences).

Originally Posted by pratyush6

First things first, I am surprised with your experience at Elite Ford, I have dealt with them and there was absolutely no problem at all. Their manager (Mr. Deshik) was a great guy to talk to as well. I did not close the deal with them is completely another point though.

Point is that genuine mistakes happen and a lot of people book TDs and simply do not turn up. You probably should have called them before you visited their showroom for the TD.

Second - Lathangi Ford: I have yet to come across any great reviews of these fellows and even my experience was not very encouraging. Definitely avoid.

I rate the 3 best dealerships across Bangalore as:
1. Cauvery Ford 2. Elite Ford 3. Metro Ford

Lastly, there is no point being so critical of someone; everyone, including us 'professionals' make mistakes; you do not hang them for that

Thank you! Exactly what my friend and I wanted to read. And no one hanged anyone, we just shared our experience here and they lost a deal.

And I hope you did read my post carefully. You advised we should have called up. Fair enough. We actually turned up 20 minutes earlier than our appointment AND met the sales lady who registered the TD booking. She didn't utter a word about the TD car's unavailability. Wonder how you'll cover that up for them.

[null]

If they are bringing the TD car to your place (like how they took it to Manyata), why not avail that service? Am sure they will oblige since they couldn't give you the car when you went there.

[vnabhi]

Folks

What is the price of a Fiesta Classic 1.6 Titanium now, on road? I am asking because someone I know was planning to buy a 2-year old Honda City for 7.2 lakhs. I told him to consider a brand new Classic as it was around 7.5, but I am not really sure if that figure is correct.

I paid 8.3 lakhs for my sxi way back in 2007, after a corporate discount of 15 K.

[deepakv]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Folks

What is the price of a Fiesta Classic 1.6 Titanium now, on road? I am asking because someone I know was planning to buy a 2-year old Honda City for 7.2 lakhs. I told him to consider a brand new Classic as it was around 7.5, but I am not really sure if that figure is correct.

I paid 8.3 lakhs for my sxi way back in 2007, after a corporate discount of 15 K.

In Mumbai it is 7.9L on road, and small discounts may be possible. Am thinking of switching from my City VX CVT for 13.x to a fiesta + celerio for the same price!