[bled_soul]

I have a booking at ford and I met with my SA today, and what he told me is that there is some feature reshuffling on the ecosport that’s going to happen. Now that made me happy, and I thought they’re probably finally adding the sunroof to the titanium plus at the very least. Turns out, my joy was short lived.
Due to the pricing of venue, ford has decided to reduce the price of the ecosport. But not just reduce it, also remove certain features. So as per my SA, cruise control and sync 3 are being removed from the titanium plus variant, and the pricing will be reduced by 25-30k. The launch should be around 10th-12th of June.
If this is indeed true, then this would be the final blow to ford India and I can’t fathom how the upper management of ford can think of doing this. Also, if someone wants to buy an ecosport, I’d say book it right away as you don’t know what you might miss in the upcoming model.
I think ecosport S will continue to sell with the current feature set, which is a shame really. The way ecosport was launched should have been retained, and if anything, they should have updated their models to make them more appealing shading the venue, and not give Hyundai this clear win by removing such important features.
For ford’s sake, and for the customers, I hope this isn’t true but the SA was quite sure.

I have already paid for my vehicle and have approved the car shown to me at the yard, so there shouldn’t be a reason for him to lie to me, I think.

Note to mods: if this is an inappropriate thread, you may move it to wherever you think is fit.

[kubectl]

Sync 3 is one of the major selling points of EcoSport, it would be stupid to remove it from Titanium Plus. But on the brighter side, at least they are not removing 4 out of 6 airbags to compete with the weird variant lineup of the competition.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by bled_soul

...I’d say book it right away as you don’t know what you might miss in the upcoming model.....

Booking is no guarantee unless there's ready stock to choose from.

I have already paid for my vehicle and have approved the car shown to me at the yard, so there shouldn’t be a reason for him to lie to me, I think..

You got lucky. Let's wait for confirmation, but given Ford's penchant for constant feature juggling, it won't be a surprise if true. Removing SYNC3 from variants upto Titanium soon after launch was already a bad idea, it would be horrendous to lose it on the top trim now. SYNC3 is good enough to be a USP on its own

Ecosport has gotten expensive over the years, and now would be a perfect opportunity for Ford to give up some of the fat margins and sell a fantastic car a bit closer to a reasonable price. It's arguably still the most well-rounded compact SUV in its segment, but trust Ford to kneecap it.

[vishy76]

The SYNC3 was one of the major selling points of the Ecosport. Infact, many members even portrayed discontent when it wasn't offered in the Figo Titanium Blu variant either.

The FlyAudio that should replace it by power of deduction is mediocre at best. It is typical chinese stuff with a very laggy and buggy UI as testified by ownership reports too.

If this rumour is indeed true, then it will only be a matter of time before the Aspire loses it too. You can't have a 10 lakh compact sedan with a better HU than a 15 odd lac Compact SUV.

If someone from Ford is reading this, please have a bit of confidence in your product too. Don't be sooty idiots who just keep deleting major features like these and giving crappy excuses. You did the same when the Brezza launched (although the Ecosport can still hold its own against the Suzuki even today) and are now doing it for the Venue.

You have basically lost faith in a car which saved you from the doldrums and was the first to start the compact SUV trend in India. I will still say that the Ecosport beats the Venue in many areas and the same sentiment has been echoed by several bhpians on the Venue thread too.

Ford's innings in India has been turbulent due to a string of poor decisions which they continue to make till this day:

- Keep shuffling the Endeavour prices as if customers have taken part in a lucky draw

- Keep deleting features from the Ecosport sighting newly launched competition as the reason (Shouldn't it be the other way round?)

- Introduce the Figo and Aspire 1.5 AT but tell customers that it has either been discontinued or is very rarely produced and has a long waiting period

Grow up Ford!

[Samba]

I was at Ford showroom today afternoon with a friend of mine to inquire about Freestyle.

The sales guy told, the new batch Freestyle Titanium will get adjustable rear headrest but the rear parking camera will be removed!

God know what Ford is doing. They have taken the Tata way. Instead of deleting the features, its better to increase the price!

[fx45]

Cant remove sensors. Its a government norm.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Booking is no guarantee unless there's ready stock to choose from.

Exactly!

There's definitely something going on. The SA I was dealing with, said something similar as some changes coming in the new batch of cars. He doesn't know what the changes are but was hoping that sunroof may be added to lower variants (don't know if it was just a hope or if there is any more weight to it).

When asked about any discounts or offers on Titanium+ AT, he said they don't have any ready stock of this variant so no discounts from their end. If I were to book this variant, I will be allotted a car from the new batch. According to him production of current batch was already stopped and any new stock they receive will be with the changes, and some have already reached the dealer stockyard (I thought may be he was referring to Thunder).

Now this whole thing makes me nervous whether to book or not. Looks like I may have missed the bus! I certainly don't want to get a car with reduced feature set, price cut or not.

[procrastinator]

Is it car or a Maggi Noddles? With same price and less quantity over the years.

[sandx]

That was the one thing I was afraid of when talking about the EcoSport, Feature deletion at will. I am holding on to a March manufactured Titanium petrol model right now, fortunately it is also available in the colour I needed. Have agreed to release the payment only after I do a thorough PDI, but the social media forums are abuzz with reports of dealers not accepting bookings for the Titanium model, so something’s cooking for sure.

I am thinking features like the start/stop button and adjustable driver seat height are being pruned from Titanium while reducing the price. I increased my budget to Titanium just for these features including the chrome rings and the updated instrument cluster, not sure if it will remain as well.

[bled_soul]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

You got lucky. Let's wait for confirmation, but given Ford's penchant for constant feature juggling, it won't be a surprise if true. Removing SYNC3 from variants upto Titanium soon after launch was already a bad idea, it would be horrendous to lose it on the top trim now. SYNC3 is good enough to be a USP on its own

I did get lucky. I am getting the one with sync 3, and also the cargo management boot and it’s an April manufactured vehicle. My first choice of colour wasn’t available but I liked white enough to go ahead with it, and now I am thanking my stars for not having booked a fresh blue/red vehicle.

Originally Posted by vishy76

Ford's innings in India has been turbulent due to a string of poor decisions which they continue to make till this day:

- Keep shuffling the Endeavour prices as if customers have taken part in a lucky draw

- Keep deleting features from the Ecosport sighting newly launched competition as the reason (Shouldn't it be the other way round?)

- Introduce the Figo and Aspire 1.5 AT but tell customers that it has either been discontinued or is very rarely produced and has a long waiting period

Grow up Ford!

Ford has really lost the plot. It doesn’t seem like these are people who know how to run a car company. Or may be, they don’t want to run a car company here. What I think is that they’ll reduce their number of models soon and start selling the cars under Mahindra ford jv. Reducing features (and cost) to compete with the venue is a really absurd strategy. Had this happened a month ago, I wouldn’t even have considered the ecosport as an option. The people who are on the fence between venue and ecosport would just jump to the venue after this debacle by ford.

[strawhat]

I have lost count on the number of refreshes this facelift has had since launch in Nov 2017. My Titanium+ was delivered just after the first major reshuffle in June 2018. It lost on minor features like under seat storage but swapping 17 inch tyres with 16 inch'ers was a great move. Meanwhile it was a double whammy for Titanium and lower variant buyers as these variants lost Sync 3 HU and suffered a price increase.

Unfortunately the updates didn't end there. Most recently the information cluster was improved but the cargo management system was sacrificed. Frankly such frequent updates make it confusing for prospective buyers and dealers equally. Being the highest selling model in Ford lineup isn't exactly rewarding.

[blueeyed]

If the information I got is to be believed, Ford has deleted sync3, cruise control, Leather upholstery and ambient lighting from titanium plus models. The added features include a sunroof, and dual tone(black-biege) interiors.

If this is true, ford is really killing the variant IMHO. Sync3(EcoSport's USP) and cruise control are really important features at this price point.
The Titanium S variant will then be the only true top-end variant with all the features.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by blueeyed

If the information I got is to be believed, Ford has deleted sync3, cruise control, Leather upholstery and ambient lighting from titanium plus models. The added features include a sunroof, and dual tone(black-biege) interiors.

Leather upholstery? This could also mean losing those airbags as well, because other variants which come with fabric seats don't get additional airbags.

Any idea if these are applicable to both MT and AT?

If this is true, ford is really killing the variant IMHO. Sync3(EcoSport's USP) and cruise control are really important features at this price point.
The Titanium S variant will then be the only true top-end variant with all the features.

Titanium S may be top variant, but sadly not available in AT.

[blueeyed]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Leather upholstery? This could also mean losing those airbags as well, because other variants which come with fabric seats don't get additional airbags.

Airbags, traction control and other safety features are still present. But don't know if the changes are applicable to the AT variant as well.

[sandx]

Ford EcoSport commuter version or is it the dual tone version, sigh. The beige looks so out of place in this, some may like it. I am not able to come to terms with it.



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