[Mr.Boss]

Nice set of snaps, I just loved each of them. Weather at Ooty seems pretty good (neither too cold not sunny, almost covered with mist / fog always) and I wish the same continues for couple of months (I'm planning for a visit by early September)

[ampere]

Originally Posted by MAS

Having born and bought up in Chennai and having spent close to 4 decades of my life in Chennai, i never got a chance to visit Ooty!!!

This is something! But I also have some of my folks in Bombay who have been there over five decades, but have not visited Elephenta caves!

So looks like the Fiesta is ageing gracefully. Already past 60K. I am nearing 40K on my Duster. (I surely am not missing the Fusion. And I am sure so are you!)

Lovely snap of the Fiesta on the hills.

And yes the lag and tall gearing does seem to hinder its drivability in the hills. How do the others (similar engines with lags) survive such scenarios? 1.3MJD I hear has huge lag. It should have similar problems too?

[MAS]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

Nice set of snaps, I just loved each of them. Weather at Ooty seems pretty good (neither too cold not sunny, almost covered with mist / fog always) and I wish the same continues for couple of months (I'm planning for a visit by early September)

Thanks Mr. Boss. Ooty was great, raining all the time (drizzling through out the day/night). Like all T-BHPians, I loved the drive more than anything

September is going to be wet and foggy. Amazing weather and sceneries.

Originally Posted by ampere

This is something! But I also have some of my folks in Bombay who have been there over five decades, but have not visited Elephenta caves!

So looks like the Fiesta is ageing gracefully. Already past 60K. I am nearing 40K on my Duster. (I surely am not missing the Fusion. And I am sure so are you!)

Lovely snap of the Fiesta on the hills.

And yes the lag and tall gearing does seem to hinder its drivability in the hills. How do the others (similar engines with lags) survive such scenarios? 1.3MJD I hear has huge lag. It should have similar problems too?

Thanks, the clouds (or mist) + the head lights made the Fiesta look great.

The Fiesta is clocking kms quickly. Another 16-18 months, I will have it replaced with yet another Fiesta. I don't miss the Fusion much, but the 1.4L TDCi with its zero turbo lag and shorter gear ratios (when compared to Fiesta) would have climbed the hills a bit more easily.

Swift and Dzires with 1.3 MJD did struggle a bit, but I guess driving on the hills is a combination of driver skills and the car. I could see many Mahindra pick up vehicles with their pre-historic DI engines were literally flying through the curves.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by MAS

Swift and Dzires with 1.3 MJD did struggle a bit

May be because of FGT. My Linea with VGT never let me down on hills.

[MAS]

I am continuing to enjoy the stupendous drive and sweet handling of the Fiesta!!!

69999 kms


70000 kms


Problems:

The wheel nuts are driving me nuts!!!
(Special thanks to Rajesh*, whom i met at MPL today, for coining this sentence)

I suffered a double puncture in the rear left tyre last week. The air pressure was reducing gradually. Took the car to the tyre shop and found two nails deeply rooted into the tyre. While removing the wheel, one of the nut's top Chrome cover started rotating freely. After an hour's struggle, the nut was removed and the punctures were rectified. The rotating nut cover was man-handled and removed from the nut.

As the coverless nut required a smaller sized tool to work with, i requested the guys at the tyre shop to put the coverless nut in the front left wheel. I had earlier lost the nut cover of one of the nuts in the front left wheel.

The front left wheel with a pair of Nuts with cover and another pair of nuts with their covers removed.



Yesterday, the tyre pressure started acting up once again (in the same left rear tyre). Took the car to the same tyre shop and to our surprise, we found all the four nuts had their covers rotating freely; making it impossible to remove the wheel. Topped up air and took the car home.

I had pre-booked 70K kms service at MPL OMR for today. The service quality at MPL Pallikaranai had gone bad, as experienced during my 60K kms service, hence this change the workshop. As usual, I called up Mr. Sampath (General Manager, MPL Ford Service) for booking my service. He is extremely courteous and prompt. Once he is involved things happen like clock work.

Reached the workshop at 9:15 am. Mr. Prasad, the service Head of OMR took the car immediately to the work bay and work started at 9:20 am. As there were no complaints except for the nutty issue, service was completed in an hour's time. After trying out various ways to open nuts in the rear left tyre, it was decided to crack open the nut covers.



The alloy wheels suffered a few bruises in the process. 6 new nuts were required (4 for rear and 2 for the front), but since MPL OMR had only 5 of them in stock, i opted to get the 6th nut from MPL Pallikaranai.

Two punctures were detected and fixed. After the oil change, the car was taken for a test drive. The test driver was amazed at the smoothness of the engine and could not believe that the car had run for 70K kms.

The car was washed, cleaned and shined for delivery. I was ready to go at 1 pm.

- The 70K kms service invoice came added up to Rs. 4648/-, which was very reasonable
- The actual 70 K "service cost" was only Rs. 2400/- (including engine oil, oil filter, labour and other costs). Mr. Prasad mentioned that Ford had recently reduced the service costs by half.
- The 5 new nuts cost me a whopping Rs. 1650/- bucks.
- The two punctures cost me Rs. 125/- each, which is cheaper than my tyre shop who charged me Rs. 150/- for each puncture.

The OMR workshop is much better than Pallikaranai workshop and the work is carried out in a systematic manner. A big shout for Mr. Prasad and Mr. Ram of MPL OMR.

My Full-tank-to-full-tank mileage tracked on Fuelio App is as below



The average mileage after 70K kms is still above 19 kmpl, but due to increase in top speed on highways, this is expected to go down.

The Fiesta is not expensive to maintain. It is a wonderful car which is built to last and put a smile on your face every time you drive it.

* Rajesh Madhavan - is a thorough gentleman and is the COO of TopWheelz Automotive Pvt Ltd. He owns a Mars Red Ecosport Titanium 1.5 L Petrol Automatic. He had worked for Castrol earlier and obviously knows a lot about oils. He informed me that Ford uses top grade engine oils and they are able to buy these engine oils at extremely low prices. As customers, we benefit a lot as Ford invoices these oils at prices that are way cheaper than the open market.

[Simple_car]

Originally Posted by MAS

- The actual 70 K "service cost" was only Rs. 2400/- (including engine oil, oil filter, labour and other costs). Mr. Prasad mentioned that Ford had recently reduced the service costs by half.
.
.
.
The Fiesta is not expensive to maintain. It is a wonderful car which is built to last and put a smile on your face every time you drive it.

* Rajesh Madhavan - is a thorough gentleman and is the COO of TopWheelz Automotive Pvt Ltd. He had worked for Castrol earlier and obviously knows a lot about oils. He informed me that Ford uses top grade engine oils and they are able to buy these engine oils at extremely low prices. As customers, we benefit a lot as Ford invoices these oils at prices that are way cheaper than the open market.

Congratulations MAS on completing 70k kms on your fiesta! Mine hasn't even breached 20k:(

The service cost for the fiesta is now coming to very like-able levels My 2nd service cost me 5k (WA/WB included), and was done before the service cost cut was announced. Now, the same service should be in the range of 3-3.5k

With all due respect, Mr. Rajesh may be right, but I am finding it hard to believe that Ford is using top grade oils. Reason: different service centres are using different branded oils (option of Shell/Mobil/Castrol). Castrol is the only one which I have been able to find in the open market till date. My service centre is using Mobil oils, which the company itself is marketing not to be used for city, stop/start and variable speed traffic, which most of the users face!

My point: The oil procured by ford is certainly cheap for the customers, but the grade or quality is strictly OK (certainly not the best). This game is very similar to what Mahindra and Honda play. I try and get the oil changed every 5k to keep th

Anyways, lets get back to the thread. Wishing you many peaceful and pleasant miles in this car.

Regarding your apprehension for taking your Endeavour in ooty, I just want to say this:
The endeavour's A/T box is a torque converter unit, and you can certainly slot it into D2/D3 and use it while ascending/descending ghats. The box will have a tendency to go into overdrive-like mode when you press the brake pedal, but to regain control, you'll have to press the accelerator pedal a little bit. Practice in the plains before going to the hill stations. All the best

Thanks,
Simple_car

[commander]

Hi Mas,
Glad to know that you appreciate the Fiesta very much like me. Just ahead @ 85 in mine and would like to share a few updates.

*Service costs have always been quite reasonable at Ford and I feel they might be lesser than some of its competitors.

* The only recurring problem is that of brake pads which last only for about 30000 odd kms at max. The first time I had to replace them was at 35000 when i noticed a humming sound during my drive to Goa. That damaged my rotors too and had to replace both. The second time i waited for it to reach 70k as an assumption but unfortunately same process again and had to replace the whole set again. This time i will replace the brake pads at 90 itself and every 30 k interval.

*Regarding the Michelin Primacy Lc tyres, so far things have been very satisfactory. By current conditions it will last me to the 1 lakh km mark easily, giving me an additional life of 20000km compared to the Goodyears that came with the car.

*Did ponder of replacing the Fiesta at times but after an unplanned evening solo run into rural areas for about 200 kms with the rains it changed my idea completely. Enjoyed every bit of it and was completely relaxed at the end of the run. The amount of control and feedback gives you so much confidence even at cruising speeds. In fact it was much smoother that a friends Vento at 38k odo which i drove couple of days before.

Sometimes I do feel its not got to run a Ford over 1lakh kms having driven the Ikon and Classic for about 1.5 lakh kms. They become noisy and have always faced electrical issues in each of them esp the relay to the fan. Hopefully this Fiesta should be a better package and only time will tell.

Cheers
Barani

[MAS]

Originally Posted by Simple_car

Congratulations MAS on completing 70k kms on your fiesta! Mine hasn't even breached 20k:(

With all due respect, Mr. Rajesh may be right, but I am finding it hard to believe that Ford is using top grade oils.

Regarding your apprehension for taking your Endeavour in ooty, I just want to say this:
The endeavour's A/T box is a torque converter unit, and you can certainly slot it into D2/D3 and use it while ascending/descending ghats. The box will have a tendency to go into overdrive-like mode when you press the brake pedal, but to regain control, you'll have to press the accelerator pedal a little bit. Practice in the plains before going to the hill stations. All the best

Thanks,
Simple_car

Thanks. 20K Kms is very low for a drivers' car. You should start driving more to justify your purchase

The oil I saw at Ford service centre was Castrol Magnatec Professional, which is top of the line.

On the Endeavour, whatever you said about the gearbox shifting to idle rpm (overdrive-like mode) when brake pedal is pressed, happens only when the top gear is engaged after speeds over 85 kmph (in the speedo 90 kmph). In all other lower gears (speeds lower than 80 kmph), the truck never has any engine braking. Pressing the accelerator only makes the truck go faster.

But, I have tried this only in D mode and not in D3, D2 or D1 modes. Lemme try this out and get back.

Originally Posted by commander

Hi Mas,
Glad to know that you appreciate the Fiesta very much like me. Just ahead @ 85 in mine and would like to share a few updates.

*Service costs have always been quite reasonable at Ford and I feel they might be lesser than some of its competitors.

* The only recurring problem is that of brake pads which last only for about 30000 odd kms at max. The first time I had to replace them was at 35000 when i noticed a humming sound during my drive to Goa. That damaged my rotors too and had to replace both. The second time i waited for it to reach 70k as an assumption but unfortunately same process again and had to replace the whole set again. This time i will replace the brake pads at 90 itself and every 30 k interval.

*Regarding the Michelin Primacy Lc tyres, so far things have been very satisfactory. By current conditions it will last me to the 1 lakh km mark easily, giving me an additional life of 20000km compared to the Goodyears that came with the car.

*Did ponder of replacing the Fiesta at times but after an unplanned evening solo run into rural areas for about 200 kms with the rains it changed my idea completely. Enjoyed every bit of it and was completely relaxed at the end of the run. The amount of control and feedback gives you so much confidence even at cruising speeds. In fact it was much smoother that a friends Vento at 38k odo which i drove couple of days before.

Sometimes I do feel its not got to run a Ford over 1lakh kms having driven the Ikon and Classic for about 1.5 lakh kms. They become noisy and have always faced electrical issues in each of them esp the relay to the fan. Hopefully this Fiesta should be a better package and only time will tell.

Cheers
Barani

Thanks Barani for sharing your thoughts on this thread.

Congrats on driving 85 K kms in your Fiesta. Fiesta is simply a pleasure to drive and people who own this car can vouch for this. Its sure-handling eases any tricky situation.

- Brake discs - I changed them only at 60K kms. I guess you do a lot of high speed driving and use your brakes effectively.

- Tyres - The Made-in-Germany NCT5 s that came as OE with the car, performed superbly, but their life on Indian roads were short. I changed them at 36,500 kms. The F1 tyres currently on the car, seem to be good for another 10K kms.

- If serviced regularly, the Ford's TDCi engines can easily go for a few hundred thousand kms. The Fusion I had earlier with the 1.4L TDCi Duratorq ran for 1.34 K kms before I sold it. It was further sold by the second hand dealer for a big profit by reversing the speedo to 90K kms.

I will sell off the Fiesta in end 2016/beginning 2017 and most probably go in for another Fiesta.

OT: I keep driving down to/through Salem. May be next time, we could meet up.

[ank.nsit]

Originally Posted by MAS

- The 70K kms service invoice came added up to Rs. 4648/-, which was very reasonable
- The actual 70 K "service cost" was only Rs. 2400/- (including engine oil, oil filter, labour and other costs). Mr. Prasad mentioned that Ford had recently reduced the service costs by half.
- The 5 new nuts cost me a whopping Rs. 1650/- bucks.
- The two punctures cost me Rs. 125/- each, which is cheaper than my tyre shop who charged me Rs. 150/- for each puncture.

A 70K servicing just for Rs. 2400. That is really great and even less than half the normal servicing costs of Maruti (widely believed to be having cheapest servicing & maintenance costs).

[amalji]

Originally Posted by MAS

- The actual 70 K "service cost" was only Rs. 2400/- (including engine oil, oil filter, labour and other costs). Mr. Prasad mentioned that Ford had recently reduced the service costs by half.

Could you please post the split-up of the 2400. I'm interested in knowing where all, Ford has cut charges.

Originally Posted by ank.nsit

A 70K servicing just for Rs. 2400. That is really great and even less than half the normal servicing costs of Maruti (widely believed to be having cheapest servicing & maintenance costs).

It's just a myth that Maruti is cheap to service. It was cheap once upon a time in the days of 800 and Zen. No longer so. In fact, it gives you the highest maintenance cost among Japanese cars and even American cars ( like Ford ). The only other brands that might be more expensive to maintain would be VW, Skoda, Hyundai. FIAT may be at par or slightly higher. TATA might be expensive as well. But, that's more due to the frequency of repairs needed for that car.

There was a comparison that I had done long back. Posting it here.

Originally Posted by commander

Hi Mas,

* The only recurring problem is that of brake pads which last only for about 30000 odd kms at max. The first time I had to replace them was at 35000 when i noticed a humming sound during my drive to Goa. That damaged my rotors too and had to replace both. The second time i waited for it to reach 70k as an assumption but unfortunately same process again and had to replace the whole set again. This time i will replace the brake pads at 90 itself and every 30 k interval.

With the brake pads, every time, you give the car for service, ask them to give you the mm of brake pads left. Toyota adds it in their bill by default which helps us to plan properly. for

eg:-, I normally use around 3mm/10,000 kms. But, at times depending upon my driving style and the kind of roads that I drive on, it can vary between 1.9 mm/10,000 kms to 4.5 mm/10,000 kms.

So, the thing that you need to keep in mind are

• There is no best replacement interval for brake pads. It depends on a lot of factors.
• Get it replaced before causing harm for other components. Even if there is 1.5 mm of brake pad left, just get it replaced instead of waiting till 0.5 mm

[Sugeeta]

MAS!!!! Seventy Thousand Kilometers and more.......Congratulations!!!

Mine completed 44000 last week. My driving has reduced immensely, but I definitely need a new set of wheels. Your recommendations will be most helpful.

Will be going through your thread in detail over the weekend for sponging details on your Fiesta.

Cheers
Sugeeta

[Amarkarthi]

MAS - Out of curiosity what is your Fiesta upto these days? I'm an ardent follower of your thread and eagerly check out your ownership report once in a while for updates

[cogentr]

Howdy fellas,

I recently picked up 2013 (2012 Dec) Fiesta TDCI, run about 35k kms from a colleague of mine. Loving every piece of the car now. The car was serviced just prior to me taking over, a couple days back noticed during the morning start, it was spewing white smoke for a couple of seconds. Then after it was back to normal again. This was in Bangalore, I drove it to Chennai and have not noticed that since. White smoke from a diesel is quite concerning although it has not happened again, any reason for me to be worried about? Appreciate any advice.

Cheers,

[MAS]

Guys,

First of all, I'm sorry for this long absence. My Fiesta has now run close to 98,000 kms. I will put up an update once i hit the ton.

The car is doing fantastic and still drives very well.

At 75K kms, i had Racedynamics Diesel Tronics installed. There is enormous increase in power, especially in P2. P1 is perfect for highways, but in P2, the car emits thick black smoke under medium-to-heavy acceleration. Hence, i use P2 in bumper to bumper traffic and P1 when i hit the highways.

At 76K kms, the car suffered an accident (first one), where a bike had crashed into the front left fender. Got it replaced at MPL Ford Pallikaranai (Body Shop) and the guys there did a perfect job.

At 85K kms, I changed the tyres from Eagle F1 to Apollo Alnac 4G. Suddenly, i could hear the feeble grunt of the engne, but this was because the tires are super silent. The grip level is good, but there is a 10% drop in mileage after this change.

At 90K kms, i had changed the ageing battery as the car was taking long cranks before purring to life.

Touchwood, there has been no noise from the interiors in spite of my rouge usage. The music system continues to perform well. The cruise control switch had become hard and i had to press really hard to engage Cruise control. But all of a sudden, the switch corrwcted itself automatically and currently it performs like new.

The car is regularly serviced at MPL OMR and the car is always returned within 2 hours time. Efficient service team led by Mr. Prasad and key L3 technician Mr. Kumar.

Will post a detailed report when i hit the ton.

Originally Posted by cogentr

Howdy fellas,

I recently picked up 2013 (2012 Dec) Fiesta TDCI, run about 35k kms from a colleague of mine. Loving every piece of the car now. The car was serviced just prior to me taking over, a couple days back noticed during the morning start, it was spewing white smoke for a couple of seconds. Then after it was back to normal again. This was in Bangalore, I drove it to Chennai and have not noticed that since. White smoke from a diesel is quite concerning although it has not happened again, any reason for me to be worried about? Appreciate any advice.

Cheers,

I had the same experience after my trip to Ooty in November last year. The car emited a white smoke emited on cold starts, especially when the RD Dieseltronic was in P2 during the cold start. I actually got worried if i had a turbo issue. But after a few tank fills of good diesel, the white smoke disappeared.

The white amoke at cold start could be due to adulterated fuel. Check it after a few tankfuls of Diesel. If the white smoke still persists, please get it checked at the Authorised Service centres.

[coolboy007]

Originally Posted by MAS

First of all, I'm sorry for this long absence. My Fiesta has now run close to 98,000 kms. I will put up an update once i hit the ton.

You are about to hit the big 1 lakh figure very soon man, congrats and its good to know that the car is performing well. Which all parts have been changed under warranty so far, drive shaft was changed once right?

I have completed 15,000 kms in my Fiesta and it has been a blissful drive so far.