The Ikon came at a time when the Indian automobile industry was beginning to mature. One year back saw a plethora of small cars hit the market and the year next, a new segment-that of entry level C segment sedan was beginning to take shape.
Ford India's innings started in less than stellar note when it launched its Escort in 1996. Dull to look at, dull to drive with underpowered engines, sparse level of equipment and a high price kept potential buyers away who kept on lapping loaded Cielos and Astras and those who cannot afford high price-the esteems. Even the 1.6 Zetec escort failed to ignite the market and it simply flopped.
More smackdown in its face came in 1998 when two Japanese atom bombs-the Honda City and Mitsubishi Lancer took the market by storm and wiped off both the astra and escort out of the market.
Meanwhile, behind the curtains, Ford was working on a midsized car project exclusively for the booming Indian market.
The lessons learnt from Escort dictated that the mass market is in need of an inexpensive 3 box sedan which is good to look at, packed with decent level of equipment, fun to drive and spacious and comfortable, while at the same time being adequately powerful and decently efficient.
Ford had one ace up its sleeve-sterling customer satisfaction as the inaugural JD power CSI study ranked the then JV Mahindra Ford as number one in total customer satisfaction, which Ford heavily advertised to win back customers.
Design and Development
For the development of the ikon, Ford turned onto its operations in western Europe where its Fiesta nameplate was selling extremely well. Known there for excellent driving dynamics, design, ruggedness and simple mechanicals which are easy on maintenance.
Quiet simply, sticking a boot on MK 4 Fiesta wasn't an easy task. So, Ford engineers went back to the drawing board and redesigned the car entirely from the B pillar onward. In the pics shown, the front end is identical to the MK4 fiesta which had just received facelift internationally and incoporated Ford's new edge design theme which debuted internationally on its focus nameplate in 1998.
Full of new gen creases, this design was chosen keeping in mind Ford's target market of all kinds of audience, both young and old alike.
Engineers from Ford India, western Europe, South Africa and Australia worked jointly on the ikon project, which was derived from Ford's B platform (underpinnings of MK4 Fiesta) and converted into the C platform, for segmentation.
The platform internally was codenamed
C195.
the ikon has a completely new roof, rear doors, rear quarter panel, the mandatory tailgate and bumper and is built on an extended wheelbase compared to the MK4 fiesta, a key component t increase rear passenger space. In fact, the car was so superbly designed that for 1999, it looked pretty futuristic, funky, youthful and extremely well proportioned, crucial in winning those showroom battles. The dart shaped bodyside moulding added to the character of the car and lessened the visual bulk.
Testing began in early 1998 and heavily cobbled up mules were being extensively tested across the length and breadth of the country, VRDE at Ahmednagar etc.
I remember getting the first glimpse of the ikon at age 14 when I purchased the then newly introduced overdrive magazine sometime in early 1999 which carried out the first spy pics of C195 in testing. It looked so ugly in disguise that I thought-"another escort in the making"!
Meanwhile, while the escort was assembled at a JV plant in Nashik, for the ikon, Ford India was setting up a fully fledged manufacturing facility at Maramalainagar, near Chennai in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu with an initial capacity of 50,000 units which can be expanded depending upon the demand.
Engineering
If a car was designed to look good, it must also be engineered with a go to match the show. But at the same time, the cost target was also strict for the project.
So, Ford came up wit an innovative set of power trains to power the ikon. It turned up to its South African operations which had just inaugurated an engine plant and was starting to produce Ford's new family of ROCAM engines which were to be used in a variety of Ford cars that were sold in SA.
Ford wisely decided to chose its 1.6 version of this superb motor. The ROCAM engine stands for
Rollifinger Camshaft, since its camshaft is driven by a chain instead of a belt. Originally developed by Ford Brazil, it is a relatively simple low cost motor with nothing new in terms of technology.
It has only 2 valves per cylinder, a single overhead camshaft, and is an iron block motor instead of an all aluminum one.
But the addition of
rollifinger camshaft has one great advantage-immense torque output at all rpm bands, crucial for pickup.
It displaced 1597cc and output was 91bhp@5500 rpm.Torque figures are unknown to me.
For the mileage conscious, the escort's hardy 1.8 endura diesel was retained.
While nothing spectacular in terms of tech, this diesel mill had proved well itself as an endurance runner in many escorts and gained a reputation for being a solid reliable workhorse with decent mileage, provided its maintained well.
It produced a modest 60 bhp, but the ikon being a full 180 kilos lighter, performance is stated to be better.
The lower midsize segment just started to grow with the addition of Fiat Siena and Hyundai Accent to existing players-the Maruti esteem and Daewoo Cielo, which had just turned the market in doldrums when its price of the GLE variant was dropped by a whopping Rs. 1,30,000 to 4,90,000, from an earlier of 6,20,000. Competition was beginning to be intense.
Now that we have seen the design and development of the car's exteriors and engine, its time to step inside and also see the underpinnings.
But before that, its time for some refreshments and that joshila break.
Stay tuned as we return under the skin to see the inside story, up in the next part.