[ruzbehxyz]

Excellent ownership review Sanidhya mukund.
This car was indeed an icon.

Unfortunately Ford service was pathetic during those days and many owners did not held on to their cars for long. This led to a mental thing that the Icon is difficult to maintain.

Kudos to you to keep the car for so long. Its a collectors item now.

[satrikon_454]

This post reaks of nostalgia. Thanks for sharing, Sanidhya mukund.

We owned one in 2004 and sold it with a shade under 50,000 kms on the odo after owning it for almost 14 years. There was nothing wrong with the car, but we were doing barely a couple of thousand kilometers annually in the last 3-4 years of its ownership. Plus, it was the third car, so parking issues in the apartment. Here are a couple of pictures of our "Josh Machine", a month before we sold it:

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Great write up Sanidhya Mukund. Happy to see an owner who took good care of the car and made every effort to source the parts to keep her alive.

I am surprised to know that this 1300 cc engine had push rods. I would expect overhead camshaft in a car made in 2000. Even the M800 had the overhead camshaft.

Pushrod probably is the reason why the engine runs out of breath after 3000 rpm when many DOHC engines come to life at this speed. By the way, how did you figure out the usable range of 2k - 3k rpm? The car does not seem to have a tachometer.

[condor]

@Sanidhya, CONGRATULATIONS for the 20 ! Speaks a lot about the care you have taken and maintained it.

All I will say is - I wish I had kept my Ikon 1.4D.

[pranavtengshe]

Does NCR have a classic car/ clsssic plate rule?

[sramanat]

Ah! the Ikon. I have fond memories of my first boss's (now a friend!) car.
He had returned back from the USA, having leased a Mustang convertible there and bought the Ikon here. We used to work late, go in the car for a beer + dinner, get back to office and work till 3 or 4. He'd drop me home and pick me up at 10 in the morning on the way to work. Having driven the driving school's "floor the pedal to move" car, I remember when I drove the Ikon. In under a second the car propelled to a nearby electric transformer and I braked just in time... disaster averted!
When I bought my first car, the Ikon had been replaced by Fiesta and the baleno was offered at really steep discounts. So went for the baleno.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by sjcherian

Great writeup @Sanidhya_mukund and nice photos and happy to see your Ikon at 20 years. Am very amazed you have it even though it cannot be driven much.

Thank you for the appreciation!

Originally Posted by Cessna182

Great review.

Is there any truth to the rumors about high maintenance costs for this car? Ford earned its reputation as a difficult to maintain car because of the Ikon it seems. I womder why we see so few Ikons on the roads today, even though the Esteem and accent are pretty common.

I would say that the maintenance cost has been pretty reasonable, but is definitely a shade higher than the Maruti Esteem. The last time I had it serviced at a FASS, it was around 6-7k for an oil change, filter change etc.
Part costs were also higher than the Tata Estate that we had before this car. The image of high maintenance was caused probably because the initial batches had electrical faliures and other little niggles. However today, Ford seems to be trying hard to shake off that image, with their various ad campaigns.

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

I guess the colour you are referring to sir was called Micastone, my dad had the same colour in his Ikon 1.6L CLXi. He wanted the paprika red but it’s waiting period was extremely long so settled for the Micastone. He still talks about the pick up of that powerful 1.6L engine!

@Sanidhya mukund you have maintained your Ikon brilliantly well!
Brought back memories of my childhood days sitting on top of our Ikon.

Thank you for the reply! The Micastone colour is also a very unique shade. Back then, car companies really used to offer some awesome colours. The 1.6 is one engine that many people still speak very fondly about. In fact, it was the engine that offered the complete Josh Machine experience.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Excellent ownership review Sanidhya mukund.
This car was indeed an icon.

Unfortunately Ford service was pathetic during those days and many owners did not held on to their cars for long. This led to a mental thing that the Icon is difficult to maintain.

Kudos to you to keep the car for so long. Its a collectors item now.

Thank you for the reply!
In my city, Harpreet Ford offered decent service when we purchased the car. However, we moved to Delhi Ford later, because the staff at Harpreet Ford used to come across as rather rude. Probably because all they could see was the low monetary worth of this car.

Originally Posted by satrikon_454

This post reaks of nostalgia. Thanks for sharing, Sanidhya mukund.

We owned one in 2004 and sold it with a shade under 50,000 kms on the odo after owning it for almost 14 years. There was nothing wrong with the car, but we were doing barely a couple of thousand kilometers annually in the last 3-4 years of its ownership. Plus, it was the third car, so parking issues in the apartment. Here are a couple of pictures of our "Josh Machine", a month before we sold it:

Thank you for the reply! It is really nice to see your Ikon. I loved the bumper of the NXT, gave the car a very sporty look.

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

Great write up Sanidhya Mukund. Happy to see an owner who took good care of the car and made every effort to source the parts to keep her alive.

I am surprised to know that this 1300 cc engine had push rods. I would expect overhead camshaft in a car made in 2000. Even the M800 had the overhead camshaft.

Pushrod probably is the reason why the engine runs out of breath after 3000 rpm when many DOHC engines come to life at this speed. By the way, how did you figure out the usable range of 2k - 3k rpm? The car does not seem to have a tachometer.

Thank you for the appreciation! Actually this engine belongs to a very old series of engines, which originated in 1976. This was introduced with a focus on reducing the price, so they introduced a very archaic and basic engine to have an aggressive starting price.
My car doesn’t have a Tachometer, the point you are referring to was made by Dr. Avinash in his post regarding the 1.4 TDCI.

Originally Posted by condor

@Sanidhya, CONGRATULATIONS for the 20 ! Speaks a lot about the care you have taken and maintained it.

All I will say is - I wish I had kept my Ikon 1.4D.

Thank you for the appreciation! I have read your thread about the ikon 1.4 D. Loved the subtle mods you had made to improve the Ikon.

[saur95]

Great review and a lovely way to bring your car back to life online.

Reminds me of my grandpa's 1.6 ZXi in the same beautiful shade. He loved revving it to the redline on road trips, flying through the narrow single lane roads of Kerala (Made me feel nauseous multiple times as a kid). I mean, I imagine having a Zen and Ford Ikon in the same garage meant you knew a thing or two about driving fun. Definitely major nostalgia as it evokes memories of him and I washing both cars together during my summer holidays spent with him.

I was allowed to park both cars (within house premises) by the time I was 16 and remember how progressive the clutch was and the nice weighty hydraulic steering (Maybe a vivid imagination helped here, since I never crossed 10 kmph ). The car was sold in 2013 to make way for a VW Polo.

[TheHelix0202]

Brilliant thread! Brings back so many memories associated with our own 1.6 and 1.3, both ROCAMs (clear lens ones).

I don't have the time to do so, or I would have definitely quoted relevant bits of your post and added responses to them. But I will just be content with adding a few points here, along with some childhood observations / memories:

1) The bumpers (especially the rear one) do their job brilliantly- a Maruti 800 once crashed into our 1.6's in the rain once. The 800's front crumpled in, but the iKon survived with barely a scratch.

2) When I was a kid, I used to love flipping through the pages of the 1.6's ownership manual. All those illustrated diagrams and that sweet smell emanating from the book's pages rattled my childhood self to its joyous core!

3) Our 1.6 had a 6 CD changer in the boot and oh, was it a joy to listen to the bass-rich tunes of Rasputin thudding through the speakers!

4) The 1.3 ZXI didn't come with fog lights and I remember mistaking the two horizontal slits below their actual mounts to be the fog light preparations.

This was the car that set the passion of cars in me, and I really hope I would be able to pick up a decent example once I start working! I think my signature perfectly suits the idea!

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by dr.aviansh

Attachment 2092868

Lovely shade! If I were you, I’d still keep it and probably upgrade the bumper and headlight to the 2008 facelift’s. Having extensively driven the 1.4 TDCi Ford Ikon, I think I’d love to add some points, since

.

Hello Doc, thanks for the reply. Nice to see your observations on the car. I didn't convert this car to the facelift, because I really want to maintain its originality.

Originally Posted by pranavtengshe

Does NCR have a classic car/ clsssic plate rule?

Even if it does, it would not apply to cars like mine. The rule states that only cars that are 50 years or older will get those plates.

Originally Posted by saur95

Great review and a lovely way to bring your car back to life online.

..The car was sold in 2013 to make way for a VW Polo.

thank you for the compliments. Both the zen and the Ikon were go-karts in their own rights. An ikon can only be replaced by an icon like the VW polo.

[fordfreak]

Loved your thread! Kudos to you for preserving a piece of Indian automotive history!

Reading your thread brought back a lot of nice memories from the time my family owned an Ikon. (that car was the reason for me choosing 'fordfreak' as my handle on T-BHP!)

Our's was a 2003/4 1.6 Sxi Nxt. I finally managed to get behind the wheel when I turned 18 in 2008 and needless to say, the Ikon became my favorite car to drive from our garage (others being a trusty Maruti 800 and a Gen-2 Honda City 1.5 Gxi).

The compact dimensions, sharp handling and enthusiastic engine made the Ikon an absolute thrill to drive. Sadly, after covering around 65,000 KMs over 6 years, we let it go due to reliability issues.

As our Ikon aged, issues with the central lock, AC / heater, headlamp stalks, etc., started creeping up. The local authorised dealer at the time wasn't the best either, so it became a pain to deal with them.

Attaching a picture of my former Ikon. The car originally came with a chrome-finished grille, but the dealer slapped on a black one from a lower variant when the grille had to be replaced after a minor shunt.

[anand.shankar]

Originally Posted by fordfreak

Loved your thread! Kudos to you for preserving a piece of Indian automotive history!

Reading your thread brought back a lot of nice memories from the time my family owned an Ikon. (that car was the reason for me choosing 'fordfreak' as my handle on T-BHP!)

Our's was a 2003/4 1.6 Sxi Nxt. I finally managed to get behind the wheel when I turned 18 in 2008 and needless to say, the Ikon became my favorite car to drive from our garage (others being a trusty Maruti 800 and a Gen-2 Honda City 1.5 Gxi).

The compact dimensions, sharp handling and enthusiastic engine made the Ikon an absolute thrill to drive. Sadly, after covering around 65,000 KMs over 6 years, we let it go due to reliability issues.

As our Ikon aged, issues with the central lock, AC / heater, headlamp stalks, etc., started creeping up. The local authorised dealer at the time wasn't the best either, so it became a pain to deal with them.

Attaching a picture of my former Ikon. The car originally came with a chrome-finished grille, but the dealer slapped on a black one from a lower variant when the grille had to be replaced after a minor shunt.

Attachment 2092939

The Nxt was my favorite Ikon varient, the chrome/aluminum finish grills, the round fogs and the funky front bumper design looked awesome and sporty back then. I used to drool over these, no matter how much I tried to get my hands on one, the Ikon never worked for me for one reason or the other.

[ciddharth]

A well-articulated review, Sanidhya. Apart from the original and pristine condition of the Ikon, it is impressive how meticulously you have preserved the original brochure and service invoices after 2 decades.

It was a visual delight down memory lane to see the Escort and the magazine reviews from a bygone era. Also, the overall cleanliness of the premises speaks volumes about your family.

Hope you maintain this to showcase 5 decades down the line in a museum - a budget car of the Millenium. Thank you for sharing this review.

[puneetakhouri]

Even we own a 2005 Ford Ikon 1.3 Flair and I totally agree to all your observations about the car. The car feels solidly built, has very few rusting spots, is beautiful to look at, has a fantastic steering system and equally pathetic wooden brakes. One thing however, where I differ from your opinion is the headlights. I find the headlights to be simply fantastic on the Ikon, I am not sure maybe it is the later model years that got better headlights, or if the car has higher rated headlight bulbs (say 90/100).

Since the car is with my family in Ranchi, Jharkhand and was bought used from the GM of a mining company, the car was in excellent condition and was mainly chauffeur driven in the mines. Because of running in the mines, the car, which is essentially black, looked red with ore deposits everywhere, be it the engine bay, the underbody, the grills, etc. It was over the course of a year with regular wash that those ores lightened up to reveal a beautifully maintained vehicle.

Recently while I was in my hometown, I purchased the 3M car wax and got it waxed from a local guy. Even the waxing guy was complimenting on the quality of the original paint and how the result will be amazing. Sharing a few pics of my car

[Rocketscience]

Wow, this brings back so many memories, not only did we own the same car, same model year, same exact color (which was quite rare, my mom suggested my dad to buy this at the time), but the same city and the same dealership as well. (I saw one Harpreet Ford invoice in your review), i think the showroom is still situated in Moti Nagar but has been shifted to the other side of the road, as they expanded the Hyundai and Toyota showrooms in the building it was located. (We bought cars from all 3 showrooms in that complex) (Santro, Creta, Corolla, Ikon)

We had the one with that lovely 1.6L Rocam Petrol engine and i remember my dad having a blast driving it and he used to always drive it enthusiastically (safely but still enthusiastically), i remember the rpm needle revving up very quickly, it was our first car to have a revv counter and i used to ask my dad about what it was but even he wasn't exactly clear on that and just said engine speed. (Maybe because i was just 6 year old at the time he didn't elaborate further ), he drives like a proper boring uncle now (no offence to boring uncles), but at that time he sure had a blast with this and later with Corolla.

There is one funny incident which happened with our car, one fine day all the dashboard lights decided to give up all at once, my dad being himself he didn't get it fixed immediately and drove it as it is and decided to get it fixed LATER, he is still the same.
So one day we were coming from a marriage late at night and we encountered a sharp bump followed by a loud thud in the entire cabin, and with that all the lights came back, just like that. That issue never appeared again, it was surely amusing for the then 7 year old me and my 2 year old sister.

He kept the car for 2 years as he used to sell his cars very quickly at that time with no real issues with the car, this is one car which i wish should have been kept for longer, much longer.