[Sanidhya mukund]

Make: Ford
Model: Ikon
Year: 2000
Month: September
Variant: EXI
Engine: Ford 1.3 Endura-E
colour: Tourmaline Green metallic

Likes:
- Simple, mechanical nature of things.
- Timeless design (to my eyes).
- Ride and handling balance.
- Light Clutch, with a short travel range and smooth gear shifts.
- Lovely Steering feel (A typical Ford characteristic).
- Reasonable cabin space and decently sized boot.

Dislikes:
- Poor braking. Does not inspire confidence at all.
- Really cheap plastics. A sea of hard, grey plastics everywhere inside the cabin.
- Rubbish quality of headlights. Barely lights up the roads.
- Cabin Ergonomics aren’t great.
- No bottle holders whatsoever.

Introduction:

Just a few days more, and we would find ourselves in 2021. So a Ford Ikon review, especially of one that is 20 years old might seem a bit out of place.
This car is no longer relevant to the market in any way. You cannot possibly buy a new one, and even those who look for used cars of this vintage, would most probably ignore this one in favour of a far more easy to maintain Esteem or Accent.
But I still have plenty of reasons to write this. Firstly, this is my 100th post on the forum, so it ought to be special and I thought that the best way to make it special was to write something about a car that is special to me, and I am sure is also to many of you. Secondly, this car recently completed 2 decades of existence, and hence deserves a tribute.
So put on your seat-belts, as the time machine blasts into the past, a bygone era which many still remember very fondly.


Why Ford Ikon?

The year is 2000. The last few years have seen a considerable amount of change. Indians no longer have to buy the caveman equivalents of cars (Ambassador, Premier Padmini). It’s already been 9 years since the economy opened up. In the last 5 years, most auto-majors have tried their hand at the Indian Market. Also, we have recently made the transition from those old carbureted engines to modern MPFIs.



A cover page of ‘Auto India’ shows the buzz taking place in the market. (image source: Team-BHP)

The Indian consumer is now spoilt for choices.
Want a small car? You can buy the cute Matiz, the economical Alto and 800, the spacious WagonR and the Tall boy Santro, the fun to drive Palio or the Zen. Want a diesel hatchback? Go ahead and buy the Indica.




The hatchbacks with their bright colours made car showrooms look like candy stores. (Image source: Autocar India, Bsmotoring)

Want to transport people? You have the Omni at one end of the market, and at the other, the Bolero, Sumo and Qualis are stepping on each other’s feet.




Image sources: respective Team-BHP threads.

Want a sedan? You can pick any one of the Luxurious Honda city, The status symbol Lancer, The VFM Daewoo Cielo or even the Opel Astra.
You even had the Ikon, Accent or Esteem, in case you wanted something smaller.





Image source: Team-BHP

At this point, there were broadly 3 categories of buyers. Some people still believed that modern cars cannot survive Indian roads, and thus it is best to stick to Ambassadors and Fiats.
The other group, whole heartedly adopted the modern metal. The third category that we belonged to, wanted to buy modern cars, but only from brands we had heard of.
Please note that this was the pre-Internet era, so brands that were very well established in their own countries did not really have much brand recall in India.



(Image source: Google Images)



We did not really research too many options. We did not buy the Esteem since we already had one.
We were also not keen to go for brands that we didn’t really know much about.
Now, Ford as a brand has a really rich heritage. If you know what a car is, you also most probably know what a Ford is. Indians had been buying Fords since times immemorial.
So when Ford launched the Ikon, we immediately decided that this would be the car to buy. No options considered.



The smashing new “Josh Machine”. Image source: Team-BHP


Choosing the Variant:

Ford had launched the Ikon in late 1999, with two engine options. One was the awesome 1.6 petrol and the other was a 1.8 litre diesel. At a later stage, Ford also introduced the old Escorts 1.3 Endura petrol, to compete with the Esteems pricing.
Since the car would have been fully chauffeur driven, there was no point going for the 1.6. Also, our running wasn’t high enough to justify a diesel. Thus, we chose to buy the 1.3, in the EXI variant.
Neither do I have the price break-up, nor is it relevant today. But just as an indicative figure, we paid nearly 5.8 lakhs for this car.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Exterior, build and quality-

The Ikon is a derivative of the 4th generation of the Ford Fiesta hatchback, which was a pretty popular car in the European Market. The front fascia is pretty similar, and even some engine options are shared.
The differences start beyond the B-pillar. The rear door is completely different, and so is the rear quarter panel. I must say that the boot integration has been done really well, and compared to the modern compact sedans with their stubby boots, the Ikon looks far more proportionate.
It doesn’t have the design flair of a Lamborghini, but those who like cars from the 90s, will really like it.
As far as build quality is concerned, this car has pretty thick sheet metal, and the doors close with a solid ‘thud’. Panel gaps are also even for the most part, except for the region around the boot lid.
The bumpers protrude out of the body and do their job really well. On many instances, they have saved us from expensive body repairs.
Once the car had dashed into the back of a Swift, and the Swift’s rear had gotten obliterated. The ikon on the other hand, Did not suffer much more than a broken headlight bracket.
Even after 20 years of facing the rain and sun, there is almost no corrosion on the body work, except for a little rust at the bottom edge of the drivers door. Also, thanks to the thick sheet metal, there are no major dents as such.
The paint on the other hand, started looking knackered after 10 years, mostly due to bird droppings, children vandalising it and NCR traffic, so in 2010, we got it over-coated at a local garage.
But since even that was 10 years ago, it does have some battle scars.




The 4th gen Ford Fiesta, the car on which it is based.(image source: Google images)


Love the colour. Very unique.


The front end. Many people get their headlights changed to the clear lenses. I personally like the orange side indicators much better. Also notice the missing tow cover. I have it with me, but the mounting brackets are broken.


The rear end. Notice the tail lights. It has orange indicators, amber reverse lights and red brake lights. Most people get them changed to the latest clear lenses, but I retained them for the classic look.


The side profile. Looks well balanced, and the boot is integrated pretty well.



The only bit of corrosion on the entire car, at the lower edge of the drivers side door.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Interiors, space and comfort-

The doors open pretty wide and it is pretty easy to get into and out of, both at the front and the rear, for my height that is. People who are taller than 5’10” will definitely have trouble getting in, and even after they manage to get in, the roof liner is going to brush with their hair.

Ergonomics-

The seats have a reasonable travel range, so it is easy for most people to find their driving position. The 3 pedals are spaced decently and all other controls are within easy reach.
But one thing that really plays spoilsport is the way the power window controls have been placed. They are really low and difficult to reach while driving.
Also, there are absolutely no bottle holders, and storage bins are not of much use either.

Visibility-

The view out is really good, thanks to the ultra thin A-pillars. The bonnet is also visible from the drivers seat, and it is a breeze to judge the car’s corners.
Reversing is also not that difficult, but the C-pillars are really thick, and the rear parcel tray is placed quite high, so it can become tricky at times.

Space and comfort-

The front seats are really wide and accommodating. The sides are well bolstered and keep the occupant in place. The seatbelts, though not height adjustable, have never caused any problems. The scoped out dashboard ensures brilliant legroom for the co-driver seat.
The rear seats are also good enough for a car of this size. Legroom is good and headroom is more than enough. The seats aren’t entirely flat, but aren't that well bolstered either. The Esteem has much better rear seats, in terms of actual seat comfort.



The dashboard. Typical Ford design of that era. Low rent plastics, so no premium feel.


The driver side door. Opens quite wide; the faux leather finishing is aftermarket.


The rear door. Feels much heavier than the door of a Ciaz, for instance.


A view of the cockpit. That’s 15 years of wear and tear on the driver seat cover.


The rear seats. Quite spacious for a car of this size.


The steering wheel. It’s a very well sized wheel, and l love the grip it offers. It is from an era when the only thing a steering wheel did, was steer the car.


The instrument binnacle. This is the 1.3, so instead of a tachometer, it just gets an outline of a car.


The gear lever. The top gets a piano black finish(cracked). Also notice the useless storage bins.
Also visible are the manual AC controls.


The simple door knob. Push it inwards to lock, and simply pull outwards to open.


The weirdly placed power window controls.


The only usable storage bin in the entire cabin. Placed right above the glove box.



The decently sized IRVM and ORVM.


The slightly restricted rear visibility.


The aftermarket stereo. It originally came with a cassette player that stopped working, so was replaced with this one.


The well spaced pedals. Sorry for the dangling wires, recently had the dashboard opened after the car got flooded, and the refitting was not done too well.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Engine and Gearbox-

The engine used in this car is a 1299 cc Petrol engine. It is probably one of the simplest MPFI petrol engines.
This engine was called the 1.3 Endura-E , and belongs to Ford’s Kent series of engines, which were first seen in 1976.
The engine in this car, was first introduced in 1995, and was the last of the Kent series. It was also used on the 4th gen Ford Fiesta hatchback, the Ford Ka and the Ford escort. It was introduced on the Ikon in the year 2000, to lower the starting price.
It produced 59 BHP of power and 104 N/m of torque.
It was replaced by the 1.3 Rocam in 2003.

Start it up, and you immediately notice how harsh and noisy it is. It has an almost diesel like clatter. You also notice excessive vibrations on the pedals, gear knob and the steering wheel. Once the engine heats up a bit, the RPM settles and the harshness also reduces, but it is always audible.
As far as performance is concerned, it is nothing too special. Will get you from point A to point B reliably, nothing more, nothing less. Overtaking requires a significant amount of planning. If you have your AC on, then it starts feeling like flogging a dead horse. Its clearly not meant for the highway. It’s just a normal point A to B engine, nothing that sets your pulse racing.
However, on the positive side, thanks to its simple mechanical nature, it has been a very reliable car. The engine is still in good health, and I am confident that it is still good for many more kilometers.

The gearbox is really smooth. All the gears slot very easily and without any fuss. The way the gearshifts feel, makes the car enjoyable to drive, despite the engines behaviour. It actually gives you that feel of a manual car. The clutch is also light, and doesn’t have a very long travel range. This was the first car I drove after I learnt on a driving school Santro, and it immediately struck me that this car isn’t that easy to stall, and in fact is a great car for a new driver.


The heart of the matter: The 1.3L Endura-E.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Suspension, steering, brakes and tyres.

1. Suspension-

One thing that I really appreciate about this car, is the suspension. It is a very well tuned suspension, with a decent balance between ride and handling. The car feels nice and tight around the corners, and behaves very predictably. Even at high speeds, the stability is really good. It doesn’t really feel like a small car at all, and doesn’t get affected by cross winds.
You also wouldn’t complain about the ride quality. Of course the larger bumps make their presence felt, but it never makes you feel unsettled. Even if you drive over broken roads, it doesn’t make you aware about the kind of surface you are driving over.
No complaints about the ground clearance either. Clears most speed breakers without any fuss, and very rarely do you experience any underbody hits.

2. Steering-

The steering is a hydraulic power steering unit, and is a joy to use. No unnecessary buttons, and a perfect size make the wheel very comfortable to use. It’s not an adjustable one, but the position generally suits people of most heights. The return to centre action is also predictable, not too aggressive.
It is pretty nippy, and makes you feel very connected to the road. I find the steering to be much better than the Merc, which feels quite disconnected in comparison.

3. Brakes-

The biggest sore point of the Ikon is its braking performance. Whenever the situation has demanded immediate braking, the car has failed to stop in time, and as a result, has destroyed the derrière of many a car. It’s best to maintain more than average distance, and drive as slowly as possible. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to rely on these brakes.

4. Tyres-

Now, this car was developed with the Indian market in mind, so obviously, it has economy tyres. I being a new driver, have never driven all that fast, so I never found them to be inadequate.
Another thing to note is that this car came with 13 inch wheels, as compared to the 14 inchers of the newer Ikons.


The 13 inch steel wheels shod with 175/70 R13 tyres. It originally came with Bridgestones, but we replaced them around the 60k kilometres mark with these apollos.


The full size spare wheel. It sits in a recessed compartment below the boot, so doesn’t eat into luggage space.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Issues faced and work done till date-

Issues

1. When the car was barely one month old, the clutch plate gave away. It wasn’t due to a manufacturing defect, but was more to do with the driving style of our Driver Sahab, who had worked with our family for 60 years, and was used to driving older cars. He worked with us till the time he could drive, and even after age caught up with him, he used to come to our house everyday. He was a gem of a person, and had driven every single car owned by us, right from the 1950s. He sadly passed away in 2009, but will forever be in our hearts.

2. Fuel leakage- Once while driving on the highway, the fuel tank started leaking. By gods grace, a Good Samaritan pointed this out, and the car was subsequently towed to the nearest Ford dealership where this was fixed. This was probably around 2005.

3. Idling issues- When the car was around 14 years old, we faced a very strange issue, wherein the car used to stall whenever we used to drive it with AC on. This was not only highly frustrating, but also very dangerous. The issue was diagnosed to a faulty IAC valve. This being a very old model, that too with the Endura engine, it had become virtually impossible to find this part. Our drivers and mechanics looked at various scrap yards, but to no avail. Even the non OEMs had stopped making these long ago. But to my utter shock and surprise, Delhi Ford were able to source this part for us, Brand new from the Ford factory!
Talk about supporting older models. When the New IAC valve was fitted, the fuel pump was also found to be defective, so we got both replaced at the FASS:




4. ECM failure- in 2018, the car suddenly refused to start. The mechanic inspected everything, but everything seemed to be in order. After 2 days of investigation, he called me to deliver the devastating news that the ECM has failed. We tried to repair it, but to no avail. We frantically hunted for this part in almost every scrap yard in NCR, but could not find a working ECM. We even looked in Meerut, but that also didn’t prove fruitful. The car remained idle for 15-20 days, and I was almost certain that this was the end of it. A new ECM would have costed 60k and it wasn’t even certain that the Ford dealers could source one. When all hope was lost, this one car suddenly popped up. It was a 2001 Ikon with the Endura-E engine, and was about to be broken for parts.
We immediately got in touch with the scrap dealer, from whom my mechanic collected the ECM.
I can’t explain how happy I was when the car finally started after the installation of the new ECM.

Other than the above, the car has generally been very reliable. It has had other part replacements, but nothing that was out of the ordinary.
Here is a brief list of part replacements that I can recall:

1. The entire suspension twice. Once at a local mechanic, and once at the Ford dealership.
2.All 4 tyres.
3.The entire lock set.
4.Fuel pump.
5.The IAC valve.
6.Steering rack repaired at an FNG.
7. Both front axles repaired.
8.The alternator.
9.The timing belt and pulleys.
10.Rear power window motors serviced.
11.The clutch plate, master cylinder and release bearing.
12.Gear shifter assembly.
13.All brake pads and shoes.
14. The ECM from a scrapped car.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Some interesting stuff-
Whenever one buys a new car, you get a lot of paperwork and brochures along with it. In most cases, these are discarded or lost. But in my case, I have not only retained the entire service history, but also a couple of brochures and manuals:


The owners manual.



A couple of pictures of the quick start guide.



The instruction manual of the original cassette player.





The sales brochure of the dealership.



The accessories brochure and price list. Even includes the visiting card of the sales guy.


A service bill from the year 2001. Notice how everything was done just for 1400 rupees!

[Sanidhya mukund]

Conclusion-

The Ikon has been with us for the past two decades, and has now become a very integral part of the garage. When you see a car in your driveway for those many years, you automatically become emotionally attached to it.
When it turned 14 in the year 2014, it was in pretty bad shape. Also, it felt terribly dated as compared to the cars that everyone else on the road had. An upgrade had become necessary. This was when we brought home this car:






It was a huge upgrade when compared to the Ikon, and with the condition the Ikon was in, it was almost certain that it would sooner or later lead to the Ikon getting scrapped.
But the exact opposite happened. We soon realised that if the Brand new Merc has to be preserved in this condition, it would have to be saved from wild NCR traffic. So what we did was, we got the Ikon mechanically reconditioned. The above list of parts replaced only happened because the Merc was bought.
Now, my garage became pretty balanced. The Merc saved the Ikon from the scrap yard, and the Ikon saved the Merc from traffic. You could tell that they both became best friends:


The sad part is that in 2019, the NGT rule that was implemented in Delhi NCR stated that all petrol cars older than 15 years can no longer ply on Delhi roads. This rule left many people with no option but to scrap their beloved cars.
Since my car is no longer road legal, it now spends its days parked in a corner. We crank it up every once in a while, and take it for a spin around the colony, but for the most part, it has become virtually unusable. However, this does not mean that we have plans to sell it or scrap it anytime soon. I now consider it to be a classic car, and even if it cannot run on the public roads, there is nothing stopping me from keeping it parked at home.
This is it from my end. Hope you guys enjoyed the story of my Ikon.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[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.

I had bought a 1.6 ZXI in 2000 for my parents to drive. First four years they put a total of 5k km as I was not in the country and it was being driven only on weekends. When I got back I started driving it daily and and added around 30k km in a little over two and a half years till 2007 when it was sold. Mechanically the engine was fine but I was having very bad back and leg pain from driving it in traffic and wanted to move to a car with a more upright position.
Your posts took me back down memory lane. I loved the 1.6(and its engine note on hard acceleration) and had kept it in really good shape. I sometimes wish I had retained it but oh well.

[vigsom]

Thank You for a wonderful ownership account, @Sanidhya mukund. This car was an icon, and the first muscular sedan in India. I also remember this as the first car with 175/70R13 radials which became the logical tyre upgrade for Esteems then. Wasn't the Ikon also launched as a 1.3CLxi with the old pushrod engine of the Escort?

I've travelled in the diesel Ikon once; not refined but quite a comfortable ride. Three of my bosses had petrol 1.6 Ikons - one in the same shade as yours, and two in a silver shade which seemed to have some pink and purple thrown in.

1. Where is the ECM in this car located?
2. How high up was the flooding?

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Wasn't the Ikon also launched as a 1.3CLxi with the old pushrod engine of the Escort?

1. Where is the ECM in this car located?
2. How high up was the flooding?

Hello Vigsom, thanks for the reply!

Yes, this is the same pushrod engine that came in the Escort before this. The name of the engine is “Endura-E”. When they introduced it on the Ikon, they launched it with two variants, the 1.3 CLXI and the 1.3 EXI. The CLXI did not have central locking, power windows, wheel covers and door beading. The EXI is the one that I own.

The ECM is located in the co-drivers footwell, quite low. However, my ECM failure and flooding were not linked with each other. The ECM failed two years ago, and the Flooding had happened quite recently. It wasn’t very deep, but had caused the carpet to get completely drenched.
They had to loosen a couple of screws of the dashboard to be able to properly remove the carpet to dry it.
In fact, you were one of those who had advised me about this when I had posted it on this thread:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-flood-37.html (Help! Car submerged in flood)

[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.

[dr.aviansh]

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

LIKES -

1.) TDCi mill : A very much reliable oil burner, built to take abuse.

2.) AC - Actually a chiller.

3.) Compact Dimensions : The width was a measly 1634 mm and hence nimble and easy to cut through traffic.

4.) Looks muscular. I loved the 2008 facelift. Ours was black and we had a spoiler fitted onto it.

5.) Amazing ride quality. Riding on those 13 inchers and a mature suspension meant it was far from being bone jarring, yet at the same time it handled pretty well despite the smaller wheels.

6.) Body Roll - Pretty much yes. BUT she kept her grip which was decently assuring.

7.) Braking - Our 2009 had decent brakes. Never felt inadequate. One thing was weird though, the brake pedal was slightly higher than the accelerator, translating to taking a second more to reach the brakes incase of an emergency.

8.) Rotatory knobs for front seat angle adjust helped you find the best seating position with utmost ease.

9.) Smaller Gear Lever : You didn’t have to raise your hand everytime to reach the lever. Just keep it on your lap and you’re good to go.

10.) Ground Clearance : 170 mm.

DISLIKES :

1.) The engine feels underpowered and has a very less useable range. It has a lag up till 2k RPM and beyond 3k RPM, she starts to run out of breath.

2.) Cramped Cabin.

3.) When you stalled her, the Air Con used to vent hot air inside the cabin. You had to turn her off and then start her again.

4.) Steering: Feels a little heavy at parking speeds.

5.) Smaller ORVM’s.

6.) Higher placed boot meant reversing wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Silver shade which seemed to have some pink and purple thrown in.

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!


Picture taken from the net of the Micastone colour.

The story behind our Ikon was that, previously my dad had an old 800 which was just 3 years old when he had joined a new company. This company gave some incentives for buying a new car. Almost all employees had 800s back then and they switched to bigger cars. The higher ups in the company didn’t want employees to be driving 800s because of safety reasons of a small car. Since my dad had recently bought the 800 he told his boss that he won’t be buying a new car. To which his boss agreed but then a few months later in Hyderabad an employee was driving his 800 on the highway and he met with an accident, and passed away. From then on all employees were strictly told to sell their 800s immediately. This resulted in my dad picking up the Micastone 1.6L Ford Ikon in 1999. Service was a mixed bag and few dealerships were left in the country we sold the car in 2005 to buy a larger car. The EcoSport rekindled our Ford experience and we bought one in 2014.

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