[pisthpeeps]

I am an hard core auto enthusiast from age 3 and loved and breathed cars all my life. Not a day has passed in my adult life without thinking about cars....
I would have loved to start my first Long term ownership review in teambhp like above, but the truth is exactly opposite. I am a big zero interms of automobiles till 2012, and graduated to a small zero now, after finding tbhp. So please expect a layman review. Lets go back few years.

2004

On May 17, Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage, and 4 days later I get married in Madurai. Nothing between them, just saying to engage you as a reader. Got my first car immediately after marriage in 2004 and unfortunately it was not part of the dowry. The car was a satin grey Santro Xing XP - knew how to change its tyres and check engine oil level after 8 years of ownership. Didnt bother to learn more as I never had any interest in the science of automobiles. And given a choice of understanding your new car or new wife, most would select the second option except few tbhpians.

2012

Fast forward 8 years..2012.Understood my wife very well, problems reduced, married life was smoother. On the other hand Santro started compaining - drop in mileage and poor pick up,famous 2004 batch Santro crankshaft issues,high service cost every time I visit hyundai ASS etc made me to look out for a new car. Every other car on road would overtake me and even after flooring the pedal the car would take its own good time to plunge forward. I felt like Vivian Richards sitting in commentary box watching Venkatesh Prasad bat. Mileage was around 11kmpl without AC and I dont drive in bumper smooching bumper traffic.Had alternator and AC issues as well. A short snapshot of my preiovus ride below

Santro - Aug 2004 - Aug 2012
75K kms on ODO(not driven for 3 years due to abroad trips) 90% driven within city
Extremely city friendly to drive with light steering, very small turning radius, nice driving position
Always been serviced at Hyundai ASS at prescribed intervals.
Major Incident : 2005 - Reacted late in braking and rammed a reacted-on-time Sumo in front, which stopped suddenly to avoid a cow becoming minced meat. In the process made my Father in law sitting in the passenger seat to jump and break the windshield using his head.Seat belts...What seat belts? Nothing major. Minor head injuries due to the glass peices. To the contrary of what all of you think, my FIL drove as a passenger many times later in the same car after this incident and he didnt wear helmet or seat belt.He doesnt like wearing seat belts generally, only exception is when the request comes from air hostess. Source:MIL. Nobody ever used seat belts in my Santro before, and even after that incident. I/We never gave importance to seatbelts or understood its purpose pre-Tbhp. Now safety is of utmost priority and thats the reason why I booked a Figo with seat belts..err..air bags.

Sold for 1.3L. The selling process went fine. But the RC name change was delayed by the buyer and it was one nightmare - numerous phone calls to buyer which was unattended, claims of car giving 5kmpl mileage(did I miss to fix a hole in fuel tank?), arguments,me asking the car back, threats, me informing RTO about sale(thanks to tbhp), police compliant and finally
after 3 months the RC name change was done. I lost 10K as loyalty bonus from Ford as I couldnt submit the RC name change on time. Lesson learnt-Never sell a car, just scrap it after heavy usage.



I felt a big vaccum the day I handed over her to the buyer. Somehow she had become an extension of my body. I started having issues with my spine after marriage - no pun intended - and avoid taking bike for long journeys. My Santro was my ride for any commute above 2kms.Taken all the abuse from my family. Particularly my wife who loves to generate 43Megatons of energy just by closing the doors when she is angry. Later when crankshaft issues came up I enjoyed blaming her saying its because the way she closed the doors. 75K kms clocked and 95% of it within city in approximately 5 years. I did only one long trip to Madurai, did a spirited drive seeing empty four lanes and exhausted myself and the engine oil(almost!) in the process. I have never seen her again on roads after selling. My eyes quickly check the number plates and my nostrils look for that familiar stink everytime a Satin grey Santro pass by.

2012 - June/July

Once the decision was made to sell Santro and buy a new car, I did what every other indian citizen with free office internet access would do. Open google and type 'hatchback reviews'/'best hatch back'/etc. Why again hatchback and why not a sedan, one may ask. One is budget and other is the problems of driving a big car in a city like Chennai. Still considered Dzire, Etios and Manza for few days and then dropped it. Read many auto portals and got hooked on to tbhp for its clean junk free presentation of information. Later understood the secret of such clean website when my first tbhp registration attempt was rejected.

I think the travelogues here spoiled me and deep inside I have already decided that my next car would be a diesel hatchback.Somehow managed to convince my financial damager regarding the choice of Diesel.

Constraints

Fuel - Diesel. As I almost clocked 15K kms per year in my Santro without any long runs. And I plan to do long runs in future as most of the highways in TN are too tempting.
Form- Hatchback. A small family of one adult and three kids. My wife agrees to the count, but the claim for the adult title is still under debate.
Budget - 5L initially when petrol was considered and later revised to 6/7 L for diesel.
Without saying, Wife should like the car. Remember reading somewhere - Never criticize your wife's choices..You are one of them.

With the above points in mind, started reading reviews.

Deciding the car

Following three diesel cars were test driven and rejected before selecting Figo.

Swift - The dealer - Popular(Pallikaranai) was very good interms of following up and arranging for test drive and explaining things. They also quickly evaluated my Santro and quoted the price. Did test drive of Swift(dont remember if its diesel or petrol) Liked the engine, drive and looks. Did not like the rear bench leg room,the inflated price and the waiting time.

Beat - Funky design. Cool dashboard and instrument cluster. Dealer -KLN Motors, Ekkaduthangal again was good interms of arranging for a test drive near my office and also offerred to bring the car home so that my wife can check. Liked the drive, felt very much like Santro when it went over speed breakers. Would prefer more rear visibility while driving as I am a nervous driver when reversing. Rear bench is poor even with Santro standards. Was double minded and was put on hold. Now I feel that I made a better choice with Figo as I did multiple long trips with family and they enjoyed the rear bench space and large glass areas.

Vista - Tafe reach, Pallikaranai got the car to my home for test drive. I personally like the vista's exterior looks and really love the headlamps design in vista and manza. Really spacious car and suspension was also good. But felt vibrations in clutch for a 5K run car. Plastic quality was cheap inside. Asked the SA at what rpm does the turbo kick in and he was blank.
The offers were very tempting but with deadlines. As the deadline closed in I was very confused whether to go ahead and book a top end Vista or go for Figo. Later decided against it due to the scary service stories and the niggling issues even in a new car.

Ritz and Liva rejected due to unimpressive rear profile. Actually the guys driving behind those cars are the one who should worry about it and not the owner. But still I do not want to harm fellow indian citizens who are behind me. Did not consider Polo,Fabia and Punto due to budget and ASS concerns though they looked cool - particularly the polo is a looker. Micra rejected as I am looking for a car for self and not for my wife.

No offense to Ritz/Liva/Micra owners.Still remember my comment to a friend when swift was introduced years back - 'A car with ENLARGED headlights,tail lights and door handles.' May be we were spoiled by the 800's, zens, ambassadors etc. But the swift design has grown on me and I like it now. Down the line I may love the Ritz/Liva/Micra rear profiles.

Figo test drive was a short one and on bad roads. Did not see any major issues in the test drive. Steering was not to my liking at slow speeds. But we felt comfortable overall. Neither super excited nor a downer. And for people like me who often listen to what the mind says rather than the heart, Figo ticks all boxes.

Thanks to GTO's review and ownership reports in tbhp, decided on Figo and convinced my better half.Apart from the VFM tag which Figo holds, I like the way its looks, particularly the rear profile. Old school me. Before you get any second thoughts about me, let me stop my gaga over rear profiles. From the start, I liked red on Figos than any other colour. Wife liked the sea grey and silver versions. But she gave in this time - 8 years back it was her decision to go with Satin grey Santro while I wanted Silver. So if I upgrade to a sedan in future it will be my wife who will pick the colour, provided I have the same wife.

Booking and Buying

Have a cousin working for Mahindra first choice and he had friends in most of the dealerships in Chennai. Bargained with MPL-Nandanam, MPL- Pallikaranai and Chennaiford. Preferred cash discount rather than accessories as the accessories offerred by ford were not very tempting. After some corporate discounts and bargaining finally managed to fix the deal at 6.75L on road(including 0 Dep insurance) from MPL, Nandanam with essential items like mud flaps, floor mats, parcel tray. Got a gold coin(1gm I assume) as gift. But no extended warranty/RSA. Would go for an 2 years extended warranty soon.

We booked a red Figo TDCi Titanium version. PDI was not allowed in yard even after pressing hard, but they offerred to bring my car to the MPL showroom for a day for me to do PDI. I never thought that they would put my car as a display car. So when I went there for PDI, prospective buyers visiting the showroom were already examining my car in and out. PDI went well and asked the SA to immediately move the car to yard or some safe parking area and not to keep it as display car further. Delivery process went fine without any issues. Me and dad went to pick up the car on D-day. Like any new car owner, drove it very carefuy leaving 4 feet gap on all directions except downwards.

Me and dad during the delivery


Car: Colorado Red Figo TDCi Titanium
Kms: 20K
Age: 14 months
Cost: 6.75L on road
Add ons immediately after purchase : 3M underbody coating,3m sun films Rs. 17K
Long runs from Chennai: Munnar, Kumbakonam-Srirangam-Madurai, Madurai(2), Coutralam, Vellore golden temple
1st birthday goodies
Seat covers - Art skin - black and red - Rs 6400
Headlight upgrade - Philips rally-90/100 - Rs 1400
Floor mats - Nomad type(Not 3m) - Rs.180/sq ft * 16 sq ft = Rs. 2800
Minda Trumphet dual horns(Vento type sound) - Rs 900
Spa- Meguers Wash & wax with Surface treatment(add-on) @ car cares, OMR - Rs. 1950

Overall mileage using Fuelog(Android) - Full tank method:

Best: 21.24 km/l - On a highway trip with full load when I intentionally maintained 80-100 kmph to check the best milage it can give. I think it can give better with less load or if driven driver less.
Average: 17.71 km/l - this is what I get within city - 18kms one way to office with mild traffic. Takes me 45mins to 1 hour one way.
Worst: 15.61 km/l - This is in a highway trip when consistently driven above 110/120 kmph

Service history:

2.5K - First Free service - Rs.1845(Includes addon: waxoyl cavity protection for doors)
10K - Second Free service - Rs.3190(Includes addon:interior fabric wash)
20K - Paid service - Rs.4437(Includes addon:engine room waxing)
As you can see I have a weakness for addon's. At this rate during my next service they will sell an ecosport to me as an addon.Need to be careful next time.




I have become a very sedate driver and does not involve in drag races now, particularly with petrol cars. Not because I have one wife and two kids, but because the car doesnt accelerate quickly when compared to petrol cars. If you still insist on driving spiritedly be prepared for a sharp decrease in mileage as every other car.

Few Incidents:

Hit a pedestrians right hand while overtaking from the left side and eventually lost my left orvm mirror. The quote 'You have nothing left in your right brain and nothing right in your left brain' aptly fits me. Isnt it?
Scratched entire windshield using scrotch brite(yes the same one used to clean the oily utensils) and had to buff the windshield. updates here - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post3182544
Was super excited seeing the Munnar ghat roads and did a spirited drive leaving all the passengers dizzy and my 2 yr old son vomitting on those lovely OEM fabric seats - which forced me to put covers later. Yes on the car seats and not on my son. Did controlled speeds later through out the trip. Enjoyed the munnar-udumalpet route to the core.
Hit the underbody once when I took a speedbreaker a bit fast with full load. A Big Thud sound. Inspected the car later and luckily nothing happened.
I am a very cautious driver on busy roads and a pathetically casual driver in parking lots and lonely areas. Couple of such incidents made its mark on the car. Once in parking lot and once while reversing the car in a lonely street. Need to be more careful going forward else I cant think of a Leh trip which looks deserted in photos.


Likes:

No issues till now, not even a puncture.Touchwood(used my manager sitting nearby)
Highway/ghat ride comfort and handling
Quality of stock ICE
BT connectivity for mobile
Boot space and bootlamp. Remote control to unlock the boot
Excellent AC- I strongly beleive that they named it Figo(Cool) after they picked that strong AC compressor
Theatre dimming effect of the lamp
Numerous settings for wipers and headlamp positioning
Beautiful Stock fabric seat covers.
Good brakes
Cornering- I normally do no slow down on corners if I am driving alone. If I am doing 50 and approaching a corner, I dont reduce the speed and take it in the same speed in my Santro while enjoying the some body roll. In Figo I can happily take those corners at a higher speed and less body roll. On one such instance when I was driving around 60kmph on fairly straight roads between madurai and theni, underestimated a corner and had to stop the car as it was too much for me to control. But that was one heck of a corner appearing suddenly on fairly straight roads.
Ergonomics - I am 5'6 and no issues here though finding the sweet spot may take time. No complaints from passengers as well.
Never knew about the rvm button for anti glare night driving.Was informed during my first tbhp meet.Comes handy on highways.

Dislikes:

Still love my old santro EPS steering inside city
Squeaks from rear left side occassionaly on bad roads when rear seats are occupied
Below par headlights and wipers - Most of the new car reviews/test drives are done during the day and we come to know about the headlight issue only after we see the initial ownership reports. I was aware of this issue and the various other shortcomings of Figo before buying. Thanks to the ownership reviews. The best upgrade I had done is the headlamps. It was very difficult to drive even with the fogs on. And it gets worse in rains. After upgrade I dont use the fogs and happy with just the headlamps. Touchwood - no reflector damage yet.
No dead pedal for such a nice highway car
No steering mounted controls(Aug 2012 version)- Difficult particularly if you have a habbit of jumping to different FM stations.Anyways can easily reach the HU controls while resting your hand on the gear lever.New version atleast has a stalk control attached to steering
Noise inside cabin - 50% wife + 20% kids + 30% Figo tyres and engine + 0% from me the silent driver
Hard to press horn - not sure if its due to airbag
Very meeky horns - Poor response from fellow road users earlier. After the upgrade it gets the same respect a vento gets.
Wiper and light controls in reverse to the normal standards - Whenever I give the car for valet parking the guy would switch on the rear wipers instead of turn indicators
Low quality floor mats - Very similar to the 'Thank You' papers which ASS places after the service
Plastic mud flaps which scrape and break on full load - luckily I havent broken any in one full year as I am very careful on speedbreakers - thanks to my bad back. Once it came lose and the clips were tightened by the ASS,
Need to wait for those slow 8 beeps everytime before starting the engine-be prepared for honking from behind if your car switches off suddenly in traffic
No adjustable head rests for rear passengers
Low ingress digress - pain for weak knees
AC indicators(on/off, air cirulation mode) are not visible clearly in daylight. You need to go closer or cover it with your hands to find out if its on or off
Key hole illumination - Difficult to find the key hole in dark
Ride could be better on bad roads in slow speeds

Few photos - Most of them taken recently

On a rainy morning infront of the house


Front


Side


Face off with BMW Z4 @ carcares, OMR


Driver and Passenger side


Rear Bench


During a recent trip




Happy?

Hell yes. Else I wouldnt do 20K Kms in an year and pamper her with some goodies whenever I could. I kinda knew what to expext from the numerous ownership reports here and no regrets after one year of ownership. Yes, I would like her to be more peppy like swift, spacious like vista and techy like i20, but hey every car has its own plus/minus. The grass is always greener on the other side - whether its automobile or spouse or girlfriend or job.

Good habits which I follow religiously(thanks to tbhp !!)

30 secs idling before and after a drive
Once in a while revving her to 4K just to clear the soot
Switching on the AC only after the engine warms up
Keeping her clean and shiny as much as possible

Go for a Figo diesel if..

you drive sedately most of the times - mileage!!
have rear passengers atleast 50% of the time - use those spacious rear seats
you clock at least 15K kms an year - Diesel
you do not have senior citizen passenger/driver frequently - low ingress/digress
you are not a good packer - use that big boot
you have a bad habbit of turning your cars upside down - this one just sticks to the road and a very difficult one to turn turtle.

Future plans?

Planning to put the fiesta 1.6L TDCi engine in my Figo, do a ECU remapping along with racedynamics chip and add gold plated alloys..Never mind.Reading too much of Mod threads. Just planning to add a black/red based leather steering cover.

End note:

Thanks for all the Figo owners who provided their valuable inputs here in tbhp which helped me in buying this car. I do not change cars quickly so this car is gonna stay with me for atleast another 5 years and I will try my best to keep this thread updated.

[DRIVE_ADDICT]

Hey Pisth :-), Nice witty write up man and it clearly shows that you are one satisfied customer. Keep the thread posted and have HapPy miles. Your point of view about the A/C switch back lit is exactly correct.

[vikred]

@pisthpeeps

Let's put your review of the Santro and Figo aside for a minute. And I haven't yet gone through your entire post now.



Your style of writing and the dose of humor in it is very good. Pun and your funny way of describing things is extremely amusing. Very rarely do I have a smile plastered on my face when I'm reading something in tbhp.

Do you write one-liners for Santhanam by any chance?

[MaxTorque]

Good write up Pisthpeeps. Nice choice. The photo graphs adding beauty to your writing style. May your next wish come true soon..

[Sherlocked]

Loved your sense of humour and enjoyed reading your ownership experience. Figo is a great car. Hope it serves you well for many years to come.
Drive safe.

[rameshnanda]

Nice write up there. Red Figo is looking fabulous. Red doesn't gel well with many cars IMO and my favorite shades of Red are with Punto, Polo and the Figo.

So, when is going to be our next meet in Chennai?

[TorqMaster]

That was one hilarious write-up. Laughed throughout the entire episode.
Enjoy your ride. By the way, where do you stay, the locality looks great.

[pisthpeeps]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Nice write up there. Red Figo is looking fabulous. Red doesn't gel well with many cars IMO and my favorite shades of Red are with Punto, Polo and the Figo.
So, when is going to be our next meet in Chennai?

Thanks for the photo Ramesh. Yes, IMO red looks good on smaller cars and if waxed on timely manner all dark colored cars would look awesome. No noise in the Chennai meet thread. After the sun-film and number plate drive by cops I think people are afraid to take the vehicles out.

Originally Posted by TorqMaster

That was one hilarious write-up. Laughed throughout the entire episode.
Enjoy your ride. By the way, where do you stay, the locality looks great.

Thanks. Slight drizzle + Trees + Black roads = Recipe for a good click. Mine is a run-of-the-mill locality in South of Chennai, near Medavakkam. Nothing special there, except me.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by pisthpeeps

Remember reading somewhere - Never criticize your wife's choices..You are one of them.


So if I upgrade to a sedan in future it will be my wife who will pick the colour, provided I have the same wife.


.

Oh, not to forget touching your boss(touchwood)



Was one of the most entertaining reviews apart from the few in the Travelogue section.

You are right about the red Figo, keep it clean and shiny and you will get stares all the time.
Enjoy the car. It is exactly worth what you have spent for and yes , buying it goodies is something I do for my car too to keep it exciting always and to have that new feeling.

90/100 bulbs won't harm the holder or reflectors. I have them for 3 years now and no issues at all.
Enjoy the ride and go for a tuning box, will help to some extent in improving the drive.

Regards

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by pisthpeeps

Planning to put the fiesta 1.6L TDCi engine in my Figo, do a ECU remapping along with racedynamics chip and add gold plated alloys

@pisthpeeps,

Your post had me in splits esp the incident section. Congratulations on the Red Figo. Between the Figo and the Punto, I had decided to let go of the Figo coz I couldnt bear the extra high engine noise.

As per your planning plans, you meant a 1.4L or 1.5L TDci engine right? Gold plated alloys - thats definitely needs some planning.

Happy many more satisfying (Bu....rrp) ownership years with the Figo.

[pisthpeeps]

Originally Posted by tharian

90/100 bulbs won't harm the holder or reflectors. I have them for 3 years now and no issues at all. Enjoy the ride and go for a tuning box, will help to some extent in improving the drive.

Read few stories in tbhp on damaged reflectors and hence the concern. I assume you make sure you dont run the headlamps for a longer duration continously. Right? Any other precautions you take?

Originally Posted by ghodlur

As per your planning plans, you meant a 1.4L or 1.5L TDci engine right? Gold plated alloys - thats definitely needs some planning.

Actually it was meant to be a joke. Since I did not use any smiley in my entire post this is bound to happen.

[swami.n]

That is a great review pisth. I'm finally laughing in my office @ my desk!!! Usually the desk is always gloomy and the cheer starts only while swiping out. The noise percentages are going to vary majorly if your wife reads this post, except, of course your share is going to remain the same:-)

By the way, where do you work? I goto siruseri(TCS) crossing medavakkam, through sholinganallur. We can probably meet up for a coffee and introduce my Black Figo to you Red one.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by pisthpeeps

Read few stories in tbhp on damaged reflectors and hence the concern. I assume you make sure you dont run the headlamps for a longer duration continously. Right? Any other precautions you take?

True. I turn them off every time the car is stationary. Also run on dim when ever possible . Not that running on bright for 30-40 minutes will affect. Its probably running on bright for couple of hours that will lead to issues.

Regards

[pisthpeeps]

Originally Posted by swami.n

By the way, where do you work? I goto siruseri(TCS) crossing medavakkam, through sholinganallur. We can probably meet up for a coffee and introduce my Black Figo to you Red one.

Thanks. I am in DLF IT park. I assume we take the same route daily but against each other. Sure we should catch up sometime. Howz your chipped Figo doing? Would love to check its performance some time. Will PM.

[swami.n]

Originally Posted by pisthpeeps

Thanks. I am in DLF IT park. I assume we take the same route daily but against each other. Sure we should catch up sometime. Howz your chipped Figo doing? Would love to check its performance some time. Will PM.

Ya we do travel in the opposite directions. Ironically, you stay closer to my office and I stay @ virugambakkam, a lot closer to your office. How I wish our office locations interchange

My Figo is doing great with the chip. But haven't got enough time to play with the settings much. Driving in traffic doesn't really show the differences in settings, Need to plan a long drive to change the settings:-)

Do PM me your number, so that we can catchup during some weekend, probably when I come near your place or vice versa.