[jonesanto]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

PS. I am really sorry if this makes you sad, but that car looked really pretty. The unique colour, the way you had maintained it, it just didn’t deserve to get scrapped. I have seen cars that look much worse still thriving.

Man, oh man. Like many already pointed out, your post brings back lot of memories, good ones. Whoever owned an Ikon, it holds a special place in their heart.

The Ikon 1.6, city vtec, baleno 1.6, lancer sfxi, those cars are legendary! Completely irrelevant in today's time and market, but I am glad I got a chance to enjoy cars from that era.

When I turned 18, dad gave the keys to his ikon and for an 18 year old, it was a dream come true. I was over the moon! Unfortunately things changed, started travelling a lot on highways, needed a safer car. Let's face it, poor brakes were the achilles heel of this car. Ford really messed up on that department, gave a powerful engine and crappy brakes were not able to stop where you wanted it to stop, gave zero confident and in an emergency only God was there to save you Then there were no safety options, like ABS, Airbags, for a car did not even have good brakes, asking for more safety features would be a joke. So, basically, even though we loved the car, it forced us to chose something better. And our car was not that reliable either, it frequently gave us trouble.

Moved on to Elantra in 2006 and I still have that car. And in 2004 when I was about to purchase a bike, for me it was the Definitely Male pulsar, and dad said, in your dreams, he said, "Car, I want you to have a powerful one with good safety features, but for bike, I don't want you riding something powerful." He was being protective, dad got me a Yahama Libero, I still have that bike too

In the end, does the good overcome the bad? Heck, yeah! God, that car was fun to drive, I had the 1.6, duratec multiport fuel injection model. My friends were jealous, they were not jealous when I got Elantra, a much better upgrade, they said, it is an uncles car! Probably true, but on the other hand, the ikon was...a true "Josh Machine."

I will always miss that 1.6 engine



Will surely miss that steering and how well it handled



Thank you, Sanidhya, for finding the time to pen down something about this forgotten legend.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Got a new Antenna fitted after the previous one lost a brief war with a monkey. Bought it from Amazon for 550 Rs. quality seems to be good as of now:



Have also sent the car for getting the front bumper repaired in order to fit the towing eye cover properly. Will also get the bumper painted to remove a few minor gashes.

[Sanidhya mukund]

So just received the car from the bumper repair and repaint. They used body filler to fix the crack and then painted over it. Not the sort of job you should get done on your Rolls Royce, but looks presentable enough for a 20 year old car.
Finishing is average, they managed to get paint on the lower edges of the headlight, and the orange peel effect is also highly evident, but it still looks much neater than before.

Before:


After:


The overall front view. The missing tow cover used to look like a broken tooth. The face looks complete now.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Found some interesting content from the time the Ikon was launched:

https://youtu.be/Pa1dR4UM4tw

https://youtu.be/yVfdEgywtpc

[Sanidhya mukund]

Noticed that the PS fluid is a little low, so just added a little as a DIY. Also crossed 66k kilometers:

[giri1.8]

In an era of mindless consumption, where people change their phones every six months and cars every three or four years, its amazing to see this car being taken care for so long.

Ikon had very good image when it was launched and Ford's marketing was actually good. Though later batch of Ford cars were a nightmare to maintain until Ecosport/Figo were launched. Fusion was probably an exception, but didn't sell in good numbers.

Hope the Gov let's you keep this car as long as it runs

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by giri1.8

In an era of mindless consumption, where people change their phones every six months and cars every three or four years, its amazing to see this car being taken care for so long.

Ikon had very good image when it was launched and Ford's marketing was actually good. Though later batch of Ford cars were a nightmare to maintain until Ecosport/Figo were launched. Fusion was probably an exception, but didn't sell in good numbers.

Hope the Gov let's you keep this car as long as it runs

Thank you for the appreciation! I am one of those who don’t believe in mindlessly dumping money into new products every few years. If a car costs so much, it better run for at least 15 years!

However, as far the government is concerned, they don’t seem to believe in logical thought. NGT has banned older cars from running in Delhi, using an arbitrarily chosen age limit to ban them.
Just imagine: a 2009 BMW 730LD I knew of had to be scrapped just because it had hit the cut off age and the owner wasn’t able to sell it in another city! This was a 1 crore plus car, single owner and driven for merely 40k kms!

[Sanidhya mukund]

The weather was nice today, and the Ikon had been asking for a wash for quite a while now.
The car has been running beautifully. I also calculated the fuel efficiency since the time I wrote this review. I have driven about 70 Km since then and the car had consumed 8 litres of petrol, so the fuel efficiency works out to be nearly 9 KMPL. Might not seem like much, but considering the fact that these 70 Km were basically covered by taking rounds at barely 30KM/H in the 2nd gear in an area that has a speed breaker every 100 metres, it is indeed impressive.

[Sanidhya mukund]

The Ikon was treated with a nice detailing session. I am very, very happy with the way it has turned out. A dark coloured car looks best when it is glossy. I used the services of ‘Reliable Auto wash’, which is a doorstep detailing service in Delhi-NCR. More details here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/delhi...ml#post5044507 (Doorstep Car Wash & Wax - Reliable Auto Wash, Delhi)

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

The Ikon was treated with a nice detailing session. I am very, very happy with the way it has turned out. A dark coloured car looks best when it is glossy.

I would recommend on getting the headlights restored as well, to complete the look.

I did it myself for my car, read here:
Link (DIY: Restoring the Headlights)

[Restart]

Ford iKon, definitely brought back my childhood memories when I saw the interior. We had Ford iKon 1.8D NXT from 2005 to 2012, my dad sold it as it was repeatedly breaking down despite several attempts to restore the car and lost hope. We bought a Skoda Laura in 2010 that is still running in our small fleet.

But iKon, would have liked it to stay atleast for a while so I could have driven it.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Got a few new parts:

1. Wiper Bolt cover:

Before:


After:


2. New Glovebox lock- fitted as a DIY:



3. New wiper washer tank (yet to fit):


Other than the above, nothing much to report. As usual, the car gets pulled out of its garage every week and gets driven around the block, followed by a session of cleaning.
I also happened to come across a video recording of the car on the day of its delivery. A screenshot from the same:

[Sanidhya mukund]

So I recently got a call from Ford India asking me if they could borrow my Ikon for an ad shoot. Since it normally stays under closed storage and doesn’t need to be driven all the time, I agreed. The car has been stored away for about a month or so. I opened the garage, and connected the battery and the car fired up in a single crank, just like it does.

I had placed a few bricks under the car to prevent it from sagging:



Removed the bricks and had my driver give it a quick once over:





After ensuring that the car is running fine, it struck me that the car cannot be driven down to their location. When I told them this, they were more than happy to send a flatbed truck to pick it up from my residence:



Very pleased to see my Ikon getting featured on Ford India’s official YouTube channel! The background music indeed made me shed a tear or two, as it perfectly sums up the emotions associated with this car:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hiDtmXl-NeM

[arun1100]

Nice gesture from Ford India! Happy to see the Ikon in great shape and still being loved so much!

May be someday Ford might ask my Fiesta for some similar ad.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

So I recently got a call from Ford India asking me if they could borrow my Ikon for an ad shoot.

Very pleased to see my Ikon getting featured on Ford India’s official YouTube channel!

That is really cool. I always had a feeling that Ford India should take your car for their official factory/office collection.

Ford's marketing team is trying hard by even throwing in "1947" in the registration plate but I wonder how much of this will really help.