[Candy$Cars]

Originally Posted by emkay.india

On other hand, is this the right time to buy a Ford? Showrooms will be desperate to clear off their stocks. But will buying a Ford now be a good decision? Surely spare parts should be available considering the already sold Ford cars. But how long will be a question and if one plans to keep the car for 5 years, will it be a good buy now? I understand there won't be much to think when selling the car after 5 years but just want to get opinions on this thought.

I don't think they are! Here in chandigarh, the dealer has only two Ecosports in stock as of today and was offering only ₹30k discount. I guess Ford announced exit very cleverly, they waited till they had very little stocks left.

[amol4184]

Ford has pulled the plug on Ecosport in USA too. It will be gone from there next year. An inherent slow seller, it already got beaten by bigger Bronco sport this year and upcoming Maverick is supposed to have garnered a 100k bookings - much more than what Ecosport was doing y-o-y.

Amazingly, the Maverick, again a much bigger proper "truck" undercuts Ecosport in price.

If you think about it, there was really no incentive for Ford to keep flogging India operation which was producing Ecosport for USA markets too - the Indian sales were probably just a side business for them. While Figo and cousins, Endeavour sales wouldn't even make a blip on Ford's radar.

Ecosport now will be reduced to just European markets, probably just waiting to get axed from there too.

[Techani]

Precisely due to this rumour, I avoided purchasing Ecosport last year. Though I liked the car had to take the hard decision considering the long term impact of what-if.
After waiting for a few months purchased a pre-worshipped Hexa XT which was less than 2.5 years old, this June.
Perfectly happy with it till now.

[vsrivatsa]

Long ago the Ford Ikon had impressed me. Later the Fiesta had looked good. Somehow never considered buying a Ford seriously. Sad to see them leave. Any company leaving creates a void and means less choice for the end consumer...
The Ecosport created a segment - their contribution to Indian Automobile Industry shall remain...

On a lighter note, now the directors of Drishyam have to look for a new car for the hero George Kutty in Part 3...

[arjab]

Originally Posted by emkay.india

On other hand, is this the right time to buy a Ford? Showrooms will be desperate to clear off their stocks. But will buying a Ford now be a good decision? Surely spare parts should be available considering the already sold Ford cars. But how long will be a question and if one plans to keep the car for 5 years, will it be a good buy now? I understand there won't be much to think when selling the car after 5 years but just want to get opinions on this thought.

If you get a "fire sale" deal on a new EcoSport, and if resale value is not on top of your wish list, I don't think you'll be worse off by buying a Ford.
Ford has sold close to 10 lakh vehicles in India and this existing vehicle parc is a strong revenue channel for dealer service stations, hence service and part availability won't be an issue - near to mid term. Also, as per international norms, it is mandatory to provide spare parts for an out of production vehicle till 9 years from the date of last unit produced.
If you get a good deal on a Ford go ahead. The cars are really nice to drive.

[anumod]

For people who are thinking is it the right time to buy a Ford, I will say yes . Below is the reason for it . Service is a money making business.

There are more than 1 million Ford cars in India .
More than 80% of these cars get serviced at Ford workshops today . The profit from servicing these cars Ford itself earning 2.8 billion rupees per year as of today . They are expecting it to continue in the same scale.

[kvothe_rules]

Originally Posted by ScorpioYadav

3 Distinct thoughts on ‘Ford India does a Joe Biden’ :

2. One less OEM & some others on ventilator or snoozing (to quote the phrases from comments above), is good news for the incumbent players doing good but bad for the customers as more the choices the customer has in the market, more it keeps the cos. on its toes, be it any industry. The senior members would recollect that Bajaj didn't even provide turn-indicators on its scooters till LML Vespa came along !! Some people have quoted the examples of mobile handsets brands above, come to think of it, today we are reduced to choose just between Apple, Samsung & the Chinese brands only with relaunched Nokia almost non-existent & HTC, Sony, LG & BlackBerry no longer available. Don't we feel frustrated sometimes due to lack of enough options in the market ??

With reduced competition, it becomes a seller's market & we would be forced to bear the OEM's high-handedness & choose from the brands churning out lemons or tin-cans or ones with issues in service.

I believe that players who are not serious about a market deserve to be booted out.
I think the mobile market is still full of options to satisfy every type of customer. The Chinese have ensured there is competition and Apple, Samsung and others are not sleeping easy on their thrones.
The automotive sector is very competitive and as soon as there is a void , we will find someone coming in to fill it. Look at the Tata, Renault and Nissan turn around stories. If they can do it, there will be others.
There will be pain in the immediate future as 4000-40000 people's livelihoods will be adversely affected. That is the real tragedy here. All because a company could not make up its mind for 5 years.

[matizcrazy]

Skoda and Nissan are one trick ponies presently. If the Magnite and Kushaq sales taper off, they will go away like Ford, Fiat, GM and HD.
I think all the other companies will have to find partners to survive in the long run; otherwise the big four ( just as in Men's tennis) will take away all the prizes.

[M00M]

Originally Posted by GTO

We need a market where 10 players have 10% each[/b] & fight fiercely everyday, not 2 players having 70%.

While I agree with you but very difficult to see that happen in India. When the consumers of our country are so happy with their herd mentality and ready to forego safety for tin can build and just flashy features rather than solid engineering and quality what will happen other than this ? Maruti, Kia and Hyundai will remain for their tin can build and loaded to the features. What you speak of is the ideal scenario which can only happen when the public matures and realises that they are being taken for a ride and their lives matter at the end of the day. Ask anyone buying a Maruti or Seltos about safety rating and they will be either telling you - "I dont take my car on the highway why do I need a solid build or more airbags", or they will say "have you seen the features Kia offers ? Same features that Audi / MB give at this cost, its a steal".

What you speak of cannot happen unless the audiences mature their taste and wake up and smell the coffee and the realise that their lives matter, solid engineering is what is important and not features and herd mentality.

[drsnt]

I have been hunting for a used car for the last few days and suddenly there's a huge increase of ford vehicles on Olx. People seem to be panic selling as an aftermath of the company shut down fearing low resales and service issues.

[jithin23]

Originally Posted by emkay.india

On other hand, is this the right time to buy a Ford? Showrooms will be desperate to clear off their stocks. But will buying a Ford now be a good decision? Surely spare parts should be available considering the already sold Ford cars. But how long will be a question and if one plans to keep the car for 5 years, will it be a good buy now? I understand there won't be much to think when selling the car after 5 years but just want to get opinions on this thought.

I just gave my car for the 60k service today and the the SA is a well known guy to me and he said that FASS will be there for 10 years but their showrooms will close curtains soon. I'd say anyway in the next decade, almost all ICE vehicles might have their resale value tanked and this might be a right chance to grab any ICE car.

Who knows, the Ford's(at least EcoSport and Endeavor) might turn out to become like the Yamaha RX100 and RD 350 where the demand in the used market is still there and their values are way more than the original price.

[sid3091]

Originally Posted by Singh101

What kind of elitist motoring gate-keeping is this and why am I reading this on TeamBHP?

To that point, does it on a Ford then? Why are we mourning their exit like they took away their Fiesta ST and Focus RS and GT350.

There's no logic or scale to this line of thought. In that view, I could easily say the "Live to Drive" sticker doesn't belong on anything lesser than a BMW M2 Comp and scoff at anyone who calls themself an enthusiast and drives a Hyundai. I'd be wrong, but I totally could.

Steering feel and a fun chassis. It's really that simple, and what a ridiculous point about high performance cars, when cheap and cheerful cars can and do bring a smile to people's faces. You don't get that with Hyundai's or Kia's. You do with many Suzuki's, Honda's, Fords, Fiats etc.


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[krishnakarthik1]

If Ford's exit is to be blamed on the government then you have to blame it on all governments since the past 25 odd years when they entered India because their problems suddenly did not start as soon as this government came to power.

If that is the case, then one should also give credit to all the governments for the stupendous success of Maruti and Hyundai.

Is it easy to do business in India? No, it's not and I say that with first hand experience. But a huge corporation like Ford might have already known the conditions on ground here before they were entering.

Ford's problem was not the government or tax structure. Its lack of innovation and opening its eyes and ears to what the customers were saying. No one stopped them from making an Alto or a Santro because that is what the market wanted. And no one stopped them from giving top class service.

And don't forget how badly the parent company was managed before Alan Mullaly came in and brought it out of the dumps.

MKBHD did a video comparing a petrol Audi, a Tesla and a Ford electric about how long it would take to complete a road trip on all those 3. The Ford got a very far third place where it had the lowest range and all kinds of issues with the power chargers. It's still that company with poor innovation.

The Americans in general look at things the way they want to look at, far from reality, like how they way they wanted to introduce democracy into a feudal country.

[Turbanator]

If FORD decides to sell the CBU's models, like Ranger, Mustang or even Endeavour, existing owners may not be troubled much for service/ spares. Otherwise, we can see an increase in the costs as well delays in getting some of the special parts as well body panels etc.

I have doubts about operating with just the CBU models though. Ford is no Porsche, they are talking about electric mustang, but a lot of this will depend on EV duty that's under discussion. I don't think, it will be easier for Ford to sell an Endeavour at 80 lac or even Ranger at 60 lac (if we consider 60% duties on the CBU, 40K USD) So, all this CBU thing might be just to present a scenario to show their commitment for our market and may never happen.

FORD will run the spare part division independently with no incentives on how its pricing will affect new car sales so I won't be surprised with high prices. Similarly, goodwill claims that they have been offering, will be gone. Frankly, no matter how good the car might be, for a sense of complete peace, I will give a pass if one has to buy a new one now. The one's who got it recently, we can feel sorry and hope that Ford plays fair as far as possible.

They had stopped production of both Endeavour and Eco-sports and the message was the launch of newer variants, so not many doubted. Most employees of the company and dealership were themselves caught unaware. So, either the management was actually keeping everything close or was split into two minds right until the last moment, we won't know.

I still feel, if they wanted to close & take the losses, they should have done only for the Sanand plant- Figo assembly line specifically, that was not being used. Chennai plant with around 800 + endeavours every month, should be making some money for sure and EcoSport was also giving reasonable numbers.

[Singh101]

Originally Posted by sid3091

Steering feel and a fun chassis. It's really that simple, and what a ridiculous point about high performance cars, when cheap and cheerful cars can and do bring a smile to people's faces. You don't get that with Hyundai's or Kia's. You do with many Suzuki's, Honda's, Fords, Fiats etc.

What a reductionist take on the concept of the automobile- to reduce it to just "steering feel and chassis"!

TeamBHP appreciates when members don't tackle personal qualms about others' opinions on the forum hence my generalised response to your faulty logic earlier but since you still don't (or refuse to) understand, let me clarify.

For starters, here's a thought exercise- Rolls Royce claims they make "the best automobile" there is. Do they? Do they really? Think about it for more than ten seconds with differing perspectives and try to answer it for me, thanks.

The "Live to Drive" sticker is not about the car it's on. It's about the emotions of the human being sitting behind the steering wheel.

A car purchase can be SO much more than just being about steering feel and a fun chassis. A fast steering rack and feeling the car rotate in the pit of your stomach may bring a smile to your face. To someone else, it may be watching their elderly parents' face light up when they experience creature comforts for the first time in a car. To another, it may be the fact that they can road-trip with their whole family with no worries about 'essentials only' luggage packing. To some, it may be the fact that they can wade through monsoon flooding with no second thought while hatches and sedans look for alternate routes.

✓ The "I Drive Safe" sticker isn't about the car's safety rating. It's about the good practices of the person navigating it.

✓ The "Driven by TeamBHP" sticker doesn't necessarily have to go on a car that's been driven by GTO. Anyone repping the forum (or even a potential member!) can have it on.

✓ The "Live to Drive" sticker isn't about the car's dynamics. It's about the state of mind of the person who stuck it on there.

Nobody gets to gate-keep who lives to drive and who doesn't especially based on the car they chose to buy.