[StepUP!]

I think Fiesta will be reintroduced along with new Ecosport as their current diesel mills produce less BHPs than Aspire despite, having the same engine. May be 100+ BHP with VGT? I see Ecoboost making its way into Fiesta's bay.

And none of these cars have had any serious flaws I feel as some are pointing out and giving reasons why it should have been phased out earlier.

If people can live with / stand
- Interior quality of "New age cars" like Amaze, Brio, Mobilio, Liva, Etios
- Ready to pay 12-15L for inside out "outdated" Duster
- Pay even more for Terrano which is nothing but Duster in different clothes
- Ready to pay 10L for "feature rich" i20 which brings heart in mouth at high speeds with her toy like steering
- Ready to pay 15L for so called crossovers like S-Cross and "pseudo" SUVs like Creta

Then I say Ford cars are brilliant and as a Figo owner I will come back to Ford for my next car. I prefer steering, handling, dynamics, suspension, safety, build quality over features, interior, platform etc etc

[abhii176]

Not very sad about the Figo and Classic, as they were probably at the end of their life cycles, especially the Classic. But will definitely miss the Fiesta! I think it made a great package at its price point and have always been surprised at the step motherly treatment meted out to it by Ford. Guess that's one less upgrade option for me now!

[Bibin]

Hey,

Just wanted to know whether will this affect the availability of spares going forward, say post a duration of 5years, will the owners of Figo/Classic will suffer from scarcity of spare parts availability??

Couldn't stop from buying Classic titanium diesel an year back though I knew the fact that it's going to get discontinued soon. Have covered nearly 20K kms in an year and the car is doing great till date.

Can any experts revert on my query?

Originally Posted by PearlJam

The 'enthusiasts' talk about handling, steering, etc. Fair enough, point taken.

But what about the poor 'non-enthusiast'? Fortunately or unfortunately, they constitute the majority and mainly drive in the cities, where great handling and steering don't matter. In fact, other cars might actually fare better in the city. What people want would be plush interiors and features that make you feel good and rich when you 'sit' inside, and not just drive it. I know that looks are subjective, but what do you see when you enter a Figo? This:
Attachment 1410307


And Fiesta? This :
Attachment 1410308

This would have passed off 5 years ago, but not today. Only Maruti can get away with such interiors and dashboard. Even the humble i10 fares better. The grand i10 feels outstanding. I'm trying to match the same price bands here.

Sorry, but I shed no tears. Times have changed, and Ford needs to move on too.

You are absolutely right. But we also need to consider the fact that say when we take the case of Classic Titanium which is the full option variant, a descent Sedan car with ample boot space, and good leg space both in both rear and front, coming with alloys, dual airbags, ABS, EBD, Bluetooth incar entertainment system, tilt steering, driver seat height adjustment with sturdy and well built interiors which is way way ahead than Maruti, you will not hear those rattling sounds which are the regular companions of Maruti cars etc was coming out for 7.4Lakhs (Ex showroom)

But yeah, the car is not that intelligent and it doesn't possess much number of sensors similar to the current new age ones and the interiors look outdated because of which the so said non enthus doesnt like it much.

[Carpainter]

Really sad to see this treatment from Ford for Fiesta. They could not or should I say didn't promote the car. One thing that makes me wonder is why did they not launch the fiesta hatch. There was this talking that they would launch the hatch a couple of months after the sedan. Infact I waited for that. IMO the hatch does look better than the sedan specially from the rear. But it never came. And now the whole line up is gone. Fiesta is a brand that has been there in India for more than a decade I guess and got reasonable success with the previous gen. Sad to see they pulled the plug from a successful brand when it's hard to be a success in India.

[rsm97]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

Hope you guys do not mind posting a picture of my 'Aspire'.

Attachment 1410359

That is what the aam junta will ultimately identify it as.

Very true. Someone in office parking actually last week asked me when I got delivery of my 'Aspire'.

[PratikPatel]

Originally Posted by Bibin

Hey,

Just wanted to know whether will this affect the availability of spares going forward, say post a duration of 5years, will the owners of Figo/Classic will suffer from scarcity of spare parts availability??

Couldn't stop from buying Classic titanium diesel an year back though I knew the fact that it's going to get discontinued soon. Have covered nearly 20K kms in an year and the car is doing great till date.

Can any experts revert on my query?

As mentioned in an earlier post, parts will not be a problem for atleast next 7 to 8 years. Even today parts for Ford Ikon (which was discontinued after being offered in the 1.4l TDCi version) are available at the SVC. During my discussions with the regional manager of Ford one of the things that I asked about was availability of spares and he responded that Ford has a policy of actively supporting a product for 10 years after it has been discontinued. Even after that parts will be available, its just that the SVC will have to place order with the company and the parts will be dispatched based on individual orders.

Just a little bit off topic; for a hardcore Ford enthusiast, there is a huge international aftermarket parts out there which supports cars that are even 15 to 20 years old.

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by aniketi

Hope Ford will bring us new cars now which users will like.

When my old pal Swift died, I was heartbroken. With a heavy heart, I started looking at options in the market to buy a new car. Options were the Polo TSi, Polo 1.5 TDi, Punto 90ps to start with. As Punto TJet was still not near its launch, took a TD of Linea TJet and liked the push and the best ride suspension plus HPS. During all this, there was one car that I kept on dreaming about. It was a sales flop and hence long term maintenance could be an issue, but still, planned to take a TD as it was being called the best enthusiast's car this side of Octavia. Yes, it was the Fiesta. Drove it and fell in love. The Polo/Vento twins are no good handler, my father's Zest feels much better at triple digit speeds than Polo. For the same money, I could get the City, Ciaz etc too, never test drove them.
As finances were real tight, and I didn't need a sedan, made myself clear that I would either get a Swift that is the best handler and with that sweet k series engine, it was everything I needed. And if I could arrange the money, would go for the Fiesta and stopped looking further. My Fiesta was delivered 2 months back. I am a user and I like it. Not sure what do you mean when you said this. You must have heard "once a Ford, always a Ford" and man that is true. The users not only like their Ford cars, they actually worship those.

Originally Posted by PearlJam

The 'enthusiasts' talk about handling, steering, etc. Fair enough, point taken.

But what about the poor 'non-enthusiast'? Fortunately or unfortunately, they constitute the majority and mainly drive in the cities, where great handling and steering don't matter. In fact, other cars might actually fare better in the city. What people want would be plush interiors and features that make you feel good and rich when you 'sit' inside, and not just drive it. I know that looks are subjective, but what do you see when you enter a Figo? This:
Attachment 1410307


And Fiesta? This :
Attachment 1410308

This would have passed off 5 years ago, but not today. Only Maruti can get away with such interiors and dashboard. Even the humble i10 fares better. The grand i10 feels outstanding. I'm trying to match the same price bands here.

Sorry, but I shed no tears. Times have changed, and Ford needs to move on too.

That is not Fiesta's interiors buddy, Fiesta's interiors are much better and feel a better place to be in than the competetion.
Times have changed, Honda City is no more niggle free, Ciaz is a let down from the mighty Baleno. Have you even driven a grand i10? Steering is awful, but leave that, I don't know how the users make peace with that instant brake bite. When I drove it, I couldn't dare pool put 3rd gear, it was that bad. Ford's cars are best and hence easiest to drive. Car starts feeling like an extension of your body, Fiesta feels as easy and intutive to drive as the smaller Swift in b2b traffic too.

[klassics45]

Biggest worry is how the steering will be in the future Ford Cars. With aspire, they have already compromised the steering to suit the indian needs. If they follow the same route then, soon we will have less options for car which are good at steering, handling, dynamics, suspension.

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by klassics45

Biggest worry is how the steering will be in the future Ford Cars. With aspire, they have already compromised the steering to suit the indian needs. If they follow the same route then, soon we will have less options for car which are good at steering, handling, dynamics, suspension.

They compromised the steering in the Ecosport and it sold well. They compromised it more for the Aspire and its supposed to be a sales success. I think Ford should buy Kia cars and even Chinese ones and sell those under Ford's brand to beat Alto and DZire in numbers. ROFL
On a serious note, it is sad to see new cars from Ford not having Ford's DNA, but Aspire still feels best CS, especially in diesel guise.

[mi2n]

While the enthusiasts will surely miss the 1.6S and to an extent all the old gen Fiestas (Classics) and Figos and while being a happy and proud Figo owner myself, I would say that I am perfectly fine with Ford's decision to discontinue both. In fact, I would like other manufacturers to follow suite and replace models with fresh and better ones at regular intervals and before they start getting too long in the tooth. It is a good lesson for manufacturers like GM, Tata, Maruti and to some extent even Mahindra all of whom tries to keep their registers ringing by sticking to decade old cars with subtle changes to bumpers and headlamps and at best a 5 bhp bump from a re-tune. As we all know, Figo and Classic were cars derived from Ford's European lineup and that is evident till date from their characteristics. They are still immensely satisfying to drive. I do feel that the Classic needed to be rested bit earlier. Atleast before they thought of making a cab out of it. That might have helped the new Fiesta too.

On that note, it is very sad that Ford had to pull the plug on the new Fiesta. It is an wonderful machine to which the competition cannot hold a candle till date. I firmly believe that Ford messed up in adding an awkward boot to it. Ford could have tried selling a 8-9 lakh premium Fiesta hatch instead. Look at what Hyundai and VW are selling in that price bracket now. The Fiesta hatch might have demolished the Elite i20 and the Polo GT with just her dynamics.

End of the day, all decisions must be driven by economics. I still hope to see Ford bringing in their global models in India, even if a generation or two older ones. I have first hand proof of how good that would be from an enthusiasts point of view. The economists' point of view will of-course differ.

I am starting to dislike the "cars for emerging markets" theory that most manufacturers have adopted. More so, as it has been established that we(the Indian car market) are now readily accepting million rupee hatchbacks and how. But that's not for this thread anyway.

[rider60]

Its been just 10 days since we sold our wonderful, ford fiesta, the former model, non classic model. It served us really well for 5years, and sold it with 90K kms on the odo.

We were tempted to bring home the aspire with its 6airbags, price, ford's build, suspension and service. But the deal breaker for us was the tiny boot, we either needed the same or bigger space this time.

I am both happy and sad with this news. Happy because our sale time was on the dot. and sad because, god knows how long ford will take to launch a new full sedan. And it was such a wonderful car and we are to bid adieu to it.

[Zoomer]

Sad to see that the Fiesta & Classic are on the way out. Memories of another day - I drove a Paprika Red Fiesta Zxi for 7 years and had some of the best drives in it. Had the chance to drive between Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai a number of times. I also did quite a bit of driving on Hubli - Harpanhalli - Mundargi routes a few time on visits to windmilll sites.
Driving the Fiesta (now Classic) was a pleasure. Sorry to see it go.
Traded it for an Ecosport.

[Bhatt]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

4 years! Could you be more specific and justify your answer?

The Classic IS a good sedan even today. For the price you paid for it, you got so much more than the Compact Sedans which seem to have caught the trend in recent times. It was much more dynamically accomplished, had a robust 1.6 Duratec engine, good ride, solid build, gem of a steering, and looked MUCH more proportionate than the sub-4m sedans.
Cheers,
Neel

Completely agree with petrolhead_neel. I think Classic was not only a no brainer for enthusiasts looking for a petrol sedan this side of 15 million INR, but also the best value for money preposition for sedan buyers on a budget(post last year's huge price cut) It is a proper sedan, with no compromises made in terms of basic shape, size & engine capacity. The 1.6 petrol heart is a hoot to drive and Steering feedback/weighing is near perfect, surpassing the available competitors in the C2/D1 segment.
The biggest issue with 1.6 Duratec was with the mileage, and that I believe, killed the model, before the 'discontinuation' whispers did the rest in 2014.

I could easily live with the interiors which in terms of current industry trends are functional at best, for the driving pleasure and the initial cost savings far outweigh the identified weaknesses of the Classic 1.6 Duratec.

Definitely going to miss seeing this one on the roads

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

Hope you guys do not mind posting a picture of my 'Aspire'.

That is what the aam junta will ultimately identify it as.

Honestly Abhi, I almost jumped out of my chair looking at that pic bro.

I was like "Figo Aspire looks like that??" !!

All due respect to Aspire, it can only be 'Aspire'ational to look like that.

Finally Ford have realized that contemporary is cliche and quirky is inn. Figo 2015 already looks great and with reworked hearts (TDCI & 1.5P), its got everything in place to be the 'Next Big Thing' for ford.

All that's left for Ford to do is price it right, which they only messed up with the 2014 Fiesta IMO.

[lamborghini]

Just called up a Ford Mumbai dealership to check if they have any stock left.
Apparently, they sold the last Classic Titanium Diesel (Nov. 2014 manuf.) for a discount of 1.15L a few days back. At that price, it would have been a steal!

Hope they can offer that good a deal on whatever stock they have of the current Fiesta

Sadly no 1.6 Classic was left.