[Chetan_Rao]

My grouse isn't Maruti-specific, but it's ridiculous that most sub-10L model manufacturers consider basic/necessary stuff like day/night mirrors, driver seat height adjustment, rear wash/wipe etc. as 'premium' features in India, only available on (near)top end variants.

I can understand if I need to buy the top end to get the auto-blah blah bling features (which I would gladly skip to avoid electronic niggles), but pushing a customer to buy (near)top end models just so he can adjust his seat to a comfortable position, or not have following cars' headlamps blind him in the IRVM at night, is utter nonsense.

[babu.sundaram]

I tend to disagree a bit.

Now, think of the mood of customers who took EcoSport delivery, say last month!

That said, Indian market doesnt really perceive price cuts as good ones (Jazz earlier?), in long term. Let us wait and see if Ford manages to break the myth.

[NPV]

God bless competition!!! I'm sure that'd be GTO's words
This is a very good move and I'm sure Ford India had to do this now rather than later to survive the Brezza juggernaut.
Just wondering how they arrived at that magical number of 112300 as the amount of reduction for all models ?

[hondacity]

Base models looks ferociously tempting as % reduction is huge. By the way Ford was giving discount of 40k on ecosport through exchange offers and loyalty. So net impact may be the hike in cess.

A lakh off officially on Aspire would be icing on the cake.

[tifosikrishna]

Reminds me of Cielo price cut in late 90's. If I had bought a Ecosport in last 2 to 3 months with say 95% financing, i will let the financier to repossess the car and buy a brand new one off the shelf and can still make some money right?

Such drastic cuts, though how much ever one can attribute to free market, competition etc doesn't augur well for the Company, especially a model that is not a dud.

[Lij]

The Ecosport is a very competent product and the couple of points where it loses out against the Brezza are interior space and ASS.

But with the Ecoboost Titanium+ variant falling below 10L ex-showroom and no petrol variant from Brezza for the time being I believe this is a very good proposition for people looking out for a petrol compact SUV.

The Brezza should have been launched with atleast the 1.4l petrol engine, even then I believe the Ecoboost to be more VFM.

[RaghuVis]

WOW, just WOW. Nothing else to say. Not that this is going to even the market. They lost to MSIL on 8th March and that's just not going to be reversed. Maybe they have saved themselves from a big annihilation. But as Rajeev said they never exploited the free run they had so it's not like they are doing this for staying at top. This is just a last ditch attempt by top management to make sure they still have jobs. That's all. FORD never cares about sales figures. At least in India.

[theredliner]

Lovely. The Ecosport looks great VFM now.
The Ecoboost Titanium+ is now 50k cheaper than Abarth Punto/Avventura Even the diesel is 20k cheaper.

The Trend+ Ecoboost will be a complete VFM enthusiast's car now (barring the steering). Agreed, the Abarth Punto/Avventura will be much purer and a level above in terms of driving pleasure, but paying 2L less (on road) for similar equipment levels and safety features and 20 odd HP less is not a bad deal IMO. With the upcoming 4% hike for the Abarth, the on road price difference will be close to 3L.

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Here are the differences in features between the two (Ignored many silly features that does not add any value)

Wow. The Trend+ is really well specced. I am not an SUV guy and had never digged into the details of Ecosport's variants, but this is one sweetly packed variant with everything that is needed thrown in:

- 2 Airbags
- ABS
- Telescopic Steering (Not even available in top variants in most cars)
- Fog Lamps
- Rear washer, wiper and defogger
- Driver seat height adjust
- Day Night IRVM

And some very nice to have features as well:

- 60:40 split seats
- Reclining rear seats
- Auto AC
- Steering audio controls

Things like alloys, HU, reverse parking sensors/camera can all be retrofitted easily. Hope other manufacturers take this as an example in the future. Good job Ford (even though I'm a year too late)

Comparing Trend+ with VDI+ makes the Brezza look terribly overpriced, with Maruti skipping a lot of the needed features as usual (unlike Baleno).

Hope there is a price cut on Figo and Aspire too

[sourabhzen]

Whoa, now that's war and I see the hatchbacks as biggest losers followed by mid sized sedans. TUV, KUV and Duster must be feeling a lot of heat now.

I thought S Cross was better option after looking at LDI Brezza today but this reduction has changed the perspective drastically. Now the winner will be announced after a couple of months when the dust settles.

[pannags]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

It looks like within 48 hours of the Brezza launch, Ford has felt the heat and has responded in kind. Prices of the EcoSport have been cut across the board with the diesel variants getting the largest reduction of 1.12 lakhs across all trim levels. With these new prices the EcoSport is now priced smack bang in Brezza territory and infact very close to the prices at the time of launch in 2013.

Goodness!!! Although I'm tempted to call it a knee-jerk reaction, it's obviously a very smart move. This is probably the best example for what competition can do to a competent product!

Customer is King, again!

Quoting myself. While the first mover advantage can never be undermined, flexibility brings its own rewards!

Originally Posted by pannags

Looking at things a little differently, I reckon it will take a lot from the Brezza to do what the EcoSport or Duster did to the sales charts, since the prospective customers base also erodes with time. It'd have been a different story had the EcoSport, Duster, TUV300 and Vitara Brezza debuted together!

[RSR]

Ford India seem to be finally waking up from their deep slumber! Their reaction and reaction time has really taken me by surprise. I was expecting a price "revision" along with feature updates for all variants together with a minor facelift soon (say, in < 2 months time).

However, they were smart enough to read the writing on the wall and take corrective action immediately! What I love about this price cut is the fact that one now has a wider choice of 7 variants from 3 models with a total of 6 airbags (front + side + curtain) on sale for less than 1 million rupees (ex-showroom) currently, and all of them are from Ford! The EcoSport 1.5 Ti-VCT Titanium AT also happens to be the only car below the 1 million mark with a full suite of safety features in the form of 6 airbags, ABS, ESP, TC etc.

One simply has to applaud Ford's serious commitment to safety in the sub-1 million rupee segments, a commitment that is not exhibited by any other manufacturer currently! I hope they make dual airbags a standard feature on the EcoSport soon.

One also has to applaud Maruti Suzuki for forcing Ford to reduce prices, thereby increasing the aforementioned options available to customers. The Vitara Brezza is the first direct competitor (sub-4m, 5-seater monocoque) for the EcoSport (ignoring the non-mainsteam Premier Rio) and the effect of strong competition is immediately visible. As GTO is very fond of saying, God bless competition!

[SchumiFan]

All those who were aghast at Maruti reducing the price of S-Cross should have a similar reaction now

At least Maruti were offering huge discounts on the models just before the price revision. This one is totally out of the blue by the Blue Oval.

And also shows how much profit they were making on a hatch on stilts model.

Either way, Brezza has a competitor now and Tata has even more headaches before their launch of the compact SUV.

I am guessing the introductory prices of Brezza will stay that way for some time now.

[timuseravan]

Great news for buyers! Makes you wonder what kind of profit margins car makers have if Ford can afford to drop prices by a lakh so easily.

[pedrolourenco]

Looks like most of you missed another important angle. What about second Ecosport Prices? Expect some fabulous deals in the used market now.

[TD_GHY]

Originally Posted by timuseravan

Great news for buyers! Makes you wonder what kind of profit margins car makers have if Ford can afford to drop prices by a lakh so easily.

Ford might be thinking long term in this. Even if they sell at a loss now or a very small margin, they get
1. Benefits over the lifetime of the car (or a few years at least) through after sales
2. Every car out of the factories on the roads increases visibility
3. Maintain market share in that segment.