[fiat_tarun]

Update - 9800 km and 1st service completed.

Issue - Nil
Service Experience - Good (MPL Ford OMR)

Got my second free service done today. This is actually the first real service at 10k km or 1 year. My car is 8 months old and has done 9800km.

Booked an appointment with MPL Ford, OMR for 9am and was there around 9.10. There weren't many cars there and was attended to by an SA immediately. Asked me if there were any issues. Had nothing much to report, except a boot that needed a little effort to shut and a door sill plate that wasn't stuck properly.

He gave me an estimate and I asked for wheel alignment & balancing not to be done.

The car was ready on time, although I collected it late. Bill was Rs.1743 for oil, oil filter, gasket and wash fluid.



Overall good experience. The car was nicely cleaned, and my minor complaints were also taken care of.

I liked this car health sheet. Good insight into different parts and their condition.



Haven't driven the car much after the service, so can't comment on how it feels just yet. I'm expecting the mileage to improve.

Lot of small scratches / swirls all round the car. It badly needs a waxing. Will be planning one later this month.

[no_boundaries]

Hi Tarun, I suppose I saw your Blue Figo today on the OMR. I was in my Black GT TDi. Overtook you to show my BHP stickers. Guess you were busy in your conversation with the passenger.
Anyway, great seeing your car and the Blue looks awesome. Really well maintained ride.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Hi Tarun, I suppose I saw your Blue Figo today on the OMR. I was in my Black GT TDi. Overtook you to show my BHP stickers. Guess you were busy in your conversation with the passenger.
Anyway, great seeing your car and the Blue looks awesome. Really well maintained ride.

Hey no_boundaries, I did spot your ride and was admiring it while I was following you. I haven't been getting responses of late so assumed you were a non bhpian and didn't wave out. Great ride and I was actually talking to my co passenger about the GT TDi.. on how the 'got bhp' was very apt :-D

Good to be spotted. Hope to see you soon again.

[fiat_tarun]

It's been a while since I updated the thread, so here are the updates after the 10k service.

The odo. stands at ~15500 km and there have been no issues to report and the experience has been pretty good

The engine has quietened down quite a lot after the 10k oil change and I actually had some non petrol-head passengers ask me if it was a petrol while cruising down a highway !

The car turned one in July which meant it was time for insurance renewal. The free insurance that came with the new car was with United India and the quote they gave me via the dealership was quite high (not surprised). Ford dealers in Chennai have a cashless tie-up with 3 insurance providers and I went ahead with Bajaj Allianz's '0' dep. with engine cover policy which worked out to 16.5k, about 2k cheaper than what the dealer offered (with a 20% NCB). I bought the insurance via the Bajaj Allianz website.

Hitting the 15k mark meant going in for alignment and rotation. I decided to try out the new MRF place that has opened near Hi-Style on OMR. This place has some nice equipment, but the people there aren't very experienced is what I have concluded after my experience. I'm not sure if the Figo alloys have some unique bolt heads or they used the wrong adapters, but while trying to remove the wheels for rotation they managed to damage one of the wheel bolts and no spanner/adapter seemed to fit it, including the car spanner. I initially assumed the damage was done the last time I did my alignment and hence asked them to leave it as is and went to Ford the next day. They hammered an adapter onto the bolt to smoothen out the edges and it was fine, but suggested changing this and another bolt they found to be slighly damaged. Little did I know that an alloy wheel bolt costs Rs.390/- each !!
Anyway, So I head back to the same alignment place to get the rotation done and these people manage to mess up another bolt. This time I lost it - gave them the car spanner and made sure they used only that to remove the remaining bolts. Replaced the newly messed up bolt (which was removed after hammering another adapter onto it which totally ruined it) with the one Ford identified as the 'slightly'damaged bolt but was actually alright.




This is the first place this issue has come up and this is my 3rd alignment session, so it has to be the people there using the wrong adapter with the pneumatic gun that's damaging the bolt heads. Be careful if you head to this place !

With the car overdue for a waxing session to remove all the minor scratches & swirl marks which were quite noticable on the bonnet and roof, I headed to Car Cares on OMR road. I have read good reviews on t-bhp and decided to try them out. Their rates were also lower than 3M and they use Meguires products which I think are better than the 3M stuff. I opted for the wash + remove surface contaminants (claying) + swirl removal + wax. This included alloy wheel, engine bay, tyre side wall cleaning and interior vaccuuming as well. The cost for all this was Rs.3371/-.




Nicely cleaned alloys and tyres. Even the inner dish is cleaned


Even the plastic cladding in the wheel wells are polished !

They have done a pretty good job and the swirl marks and small scratches have gone. The shine on the car is brilliant and the paint is really smooth to touch. They have said this should last for 8 months. The people there are very pleasant and nice and they have a nice waiting room with a TV, auto magazines, etc and sofas and bean bags to relax while you wait.










Water beading effect after a small drizzle today

Fuel efficiency has been pretty consistent around the 14.5 kmpl mark in the City and about 16.5 kmpl in mixed conditions. I have hardly done any highway only trips, but I expect to get around 18 - 19 kmpl on the highway.



Need some opinions here. How does this look ? This is on PS - Plan on getting alloys painted gun metal and wrapping the front chrome grill in carbon fibre. (Been planning this for ever now, but sometimes I feel the stock alloys go well with the blue)

[no_boundaries]

That's a pretty neat job !! The Blue looks deep now.

That's exactly what I wanted on my car and strangely it never lasts when 3M does it. The OMR 3M folks have done a decent job with the paint sealent however, water marks are seen all over the body after rain drops dry up. I will go back to them once more and hope they fix it.

As regards to the mods you are planning, why not get an alloy upgrade / upsize. Would look brilliant on the Figo. May be black / grey alloys

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Little did I know that an alloy wheel bolt costs Rs.390/- each !!

I'm surprised at the cost - I changed a wheel nut for the very same reason on my EcoSport, and it cost me Rs. 213, including VAT. So you do seem to have been overcharged - particularly since I don't see how the nut for an EcoSport and Figo would be any different.

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Their rates were also lower than 3M and they use Meguires products which I think are better than the 3M stuff.

3M owns Meguiar's. Meguiar's is now a brand of 3M, an consists of car-care products that are sold to end users/home users. 3M's automotive division focuses on the professional crowd, which is why service centers typically use 3M branded consumables.

For more info, see: http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...-Meguiar-s-Inc

I love the Kinetic Blue, it looks brilliant on the Figo.

I'd suggest giving your car wash chappie a micro-fiber cloth for use on all painted surfaces, and tell him to rinse it thoroughly each day. That'll minimize swirl marks. Also get him to use 2 buckets of water while washing - one bucket with clean water for wetting down the body, and another bucket for periodically rinsing out the cloth.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

...
As regards to the mods you are planning, why not get an alloy upgrade / upsize. Would look brilliant on the Figo. May be black / grey alloys

I actually like the alloy design and for the power the Figo has the stock tyre size is sufficient , besides Vitamin M is also a constraint to be splurging on alloys and tyres !

I did think of changing the crappy MRF's after delivery, but since my usage is mostly in the city it did not make sense.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

I'm surprised at the cost - I changed a wheel nut for the very same reason on my EcoSport, and it cost me Rs. 213, including VAT. So you do seem to have been overcharged - particularly since I don't see how the nut for an EcoSport and Figo would be any different.

This is indeed strange, since I saw the packaging as well and it has the MRP printed on it ! I had a look at the Ecosport bolt and it did look the same. Also the billing system should not allow them to overcharge.

3M owns Meguiar's. Meguiar's is now a brand of 3M, an consists of car-care products that are sold to end users/home users. 3M's automotive division focuses on the professional crowd, which is why service centers typically use 3M branded consumables.

I wasn't aware of the acquisation but knew there was some connection, since they retail the Meguiar's stuff at their showrooms. Is the 3M stuff that the 3M centres use as good as the Meguiars ?

I love the Kinetic Blue, it looks brilliant on the Figo.
I'd suggest giving your car wash chappie a micro-fiber cloth for use on all painted surfaces, and tell him to rinse it thoroughly each day. That'll minimize swirl marks. Also get him to use 2 buckets of water while washing - one bucket with clean water for wetting down the body, and another bucket for periodically rinsing out the cloth.

I don't have a car wash guy for this very reason actually. Daily dusting is with the Jopasu duster and I wash it once in 2 weeks or so, as and when required. The swirls marks I guess cannot be completely avoided unless really good care is taken and on a bright colour such as this blue, it tends to show up more.


Another thing I have observed with the Figo is I feel the paint thickness isn't that great. There are quite a few areas on the bonnet & door where minor paint chipping can be seen that must have happened from sand or small stones.

[fiat_tarun]

An update after a very long time.

There was nothing much to report since the car has been performing very well, however I had major rusting on the doors of my car which Ford took care of very well. More on the ownership experience and the rusting below...

Post my 10k service below, I did my 20k, 30k & 40k services at MPL Ford OMR road in Chennai. All these services were regular services with the only issue that kept coming back being a dashboard rattle near the speedometer console. I do not get wheel alignment and balancing done at the dealership and do not take any extras. My service costs were as below;

20k - Rs. 4,066
30k - Rs. 5,004 (SA added engine room waxing on his own, but since the job was done well, I agreed to pay)
40k - Rs. 4,517

I find these service costs to be extremely reasonable and was pleasantly surprised at how affordable Ford service has become. I guess it also depends a lot on how well one takes care of their cars and on driving style. For instance I am still on my stock brake pads at 55k km

Other issues faced between 20k - 40k:
1)The resistor on the AC condensor fan failed. I think this is quite a common failure on the Figo. Replacing this part took 15 minutes at the service centre and was covered under warranty.
2)Paint bubbling with chipping on one alloy wheel. This was shown to the dealer who took photos to send to Ford. I was expecting them to repaint the alloy, but Ford gave me a new alloy under warranty !!


Paint bubbling and chipping off on one alloy - Replaced with a new alloy under warranty

After my 40k service in Chennai, I moved to Pune and was a little apprehensive about the Ford service experience here after my great experience with MPL OMR in Chennai.

I changed the stock MRF ZV2K's at 45k to 185/65 Michelin XM2's and it has made a world of difference, especially in ride quality.


The MRF's when I changed them after 45k km. They probably still had a little life left in them

The closest dealer to me in Pune was Sai Sakshi Ford at Wakad and my 50k service experience was good. Again, no issues other than the same dashboard rattle for which they put some packing tape behind the instrument cluster which isn't a permanent fix.

50K service cost - Rs. 4,115

Sometime around Dec. last year, while cleaning the car, I noticed rust under the driver door rear view mirror. This freaked me out, since I have been so careful with my car, even doing the washing myself. Moreover the car was now over 3 years old and hence out of my extended warranty. I knew the dealer wouldn't be very helpful here, so took it up with Ford India via Twitter. I got a call from Ford in 30 minutes of the tweet and the dealer was also asked to immediately look into this !


Initially noticed rust only on driver door under ORVM

As expected, dealer termed this as normal for cars in coastal areas and blamed it on the Chennai weather. They claimed that this is very common in Mumbai cars as well. I was not convinced with this logic and wrote back to Ford. Again they were very helpful and after some follow up, they agreed to replace the driver side door under goodwill warranty.
Just before I was to give my car for the door replacement, I noticed light paint bubbling on the rear door as well. I showed this to the dealer and on opening up the plastic cladding on the B-pillar it was way worse than I had imagined ! The picture below shows the extent of rusting ! Seeing this I asked for the cladding on the other B-pillar also to be removed and sure enough there was rusting there too.


Driver side rear door - under B-Pillar plastic cladding


Rust under left side B-Pillar plastic cladding as well. Note the sponge material used as packing. This is the reason water is being retained in this area and a result the area rusts. The left rear door was not replaced since there was very little rust. The rust on this door was sanded off and the door repainted

Seeing so much rust really freaked me out and the dealership GM suggested I get the whole car checked. I wasn't very up for this since they will have to strip the whole car and they will never be able to put it back to together as well again. Having checked the boot, boot hinges, bonnet hinges, underbody and no sign of rust anywhere I was quite confident it was only the doors.
Meanwhile, the pictures of all the 4 doors was sent to Ford and I was following up with them on Twitter. Ford finally approved the replacement of 3 doors and repainting of one with very light rusting, all under goodwill warranty !!

The root cause for this has to be the foam packing used on the doors. The foam retains the water and eventually the metal rusts. This is accelerated in coastal areas.

I gave the dealership a whole week to do the job properly. I was very concerned about them being able to match the colour, although they were very confident. They eventually did do a great job and matched the colour perfectly.


A steam wash and wax at Aquatint in Aundh. These guys do a great job. Note the perfect colour matching by Sai Sakshi Ford


All shiny after a good wash and wax

My Figo turns 4 in about a month, has done 55k km, still feels like new and is a thrill to drive. Will keep her for some more time before I think of what next. If only there was an old Figo 'S' with the 1.5L 100Hp engine.

My Ford experience has been very good and I can definitely vouch for their maintenance costs and customer care. My service costs are much lower than our Ertiga back home. Maybe it actually feels like family !! (*touchwood*)


All shining after a busy morning polishing and waxing her myself !


Beauty and the beast! Posing with a friends V-Cross