[Jaggu]

Have you ever noticed how time flies; yeah it really did zoooom in my case with the iKON! Still can’t come to terms with the fact that she is going to celebrate her fifth anniversary with me (one also wonders how many anniversary models Ford brought for the same model).

Ladies and Gentlemen: here is my affair with the one female I can never say NO to.

Presenting Ford iKON 1.6 L, Zxi Mica Silver

Front LT.


Front.


Rear.


Ironically it all started with a crush for another lady, yeah you heard it correct.
Finishing college, part time HR assignments and too much time in hand can affect your perspective to relations. Saw a yellow Mitsubishi Lancer SFX poster in one of the magazine and Oh oh AM IN LOVE (at least thought so), anyways the old Zen was four years and showing its age.

No disrespect to her she (Zen passion yellow in color) initiated me to my real life affair with the beautiful damsel but at times the space constrains were irritating (naughty arnt we!) and yes the rattling also was getting to nerves, when the occasional silent drives (after the fights) happened.

So it was decided (yup when you are not in your “completely independent” phase of life, you better use your listening and negotiation skills) to go for a new car, Love is blind and so it was to HM dealer for a test drive and lucky or unlucky they couldn’t get a car to us for the next one week. Meanwhile Ford with its newly launched iKON had a road show in Trivandrum to make up for its lack of dealership at that time there.

Somebody offer you a test drive and how can a motor freak say NO? so started the 1.3 L car and went out for a spin, first thing that hit the grey cells was the TIGHT and SOLID feel the car had, damn it was quite impressive (next best thing to the W124 and Escort which I had driven extensively before that time). Went back home confused, but made sure to show the interest and left the home address to the guys at the road show.

Next day the guy calls up and asks if a test drive at door step can be arranged, just to clear the confusion in head, went ahead and said yes. Two hours later our man lands with a 1.6 L car, just to keep things under control pulled out dad along. Dad started the car and took for a spin in one of the twisty hilly section around the Golf course. Could notice a subtle Grin on dads face (now I am DOUBLLY CONFUSED). Well he stopped the car and handed me the wheels, and then ALL HELL BROKE OUT!!!!!

MAN WHAT A CAR, A REAL B**** WITH ATTITUDE!!!!

GRINNN!!

FT RT.


RR Left.


Kicked some dirt while taking downhill turns, shift down, power up, brake and watch the tail wanting to break loose, yeeeeehaaaaaaawwwwwwww… and yes I was being careful with dad and the ford rep as passenger. Twenty minutes of Nirvana, parked the car in front of the gate and got out.

To be honest didn’t like the shape and especially the golden color of the test car. But you know when you vroooooooommmmmmm in love, all that doesn’t matter. If love making is good who cares if it’s Aishwarya instead of Sushmitha, and read the pervious love making as WILD SEX

Task in hand, make her mine, thanks to the very eureka forbs attitude the Ford sales guy had and also thanks to dads small grin when taking the test drive, decision was fast. Paid up and waited with dreams of the car for 2 weeks, and trust me it was worth it. Had placed an order for Zxi 1.6 L, it so happened Ford released an upgrade without announcing for the same and hence the car got delivered with the added goodies of rear seat belts, remote dickey door opening (if I forgot to mention anything FORD motor co please forgive me).

Delivery was to happen in Cochin 225 km from my hometown, caught the train in the morning landed up at the showroom, car ready and the sales gal insists on explaining the gizmos. Hello NOT INTERESTED, just hand me the keys, temporary registration papers and owners manual. Took her to the gas station filled her up, went to the accessory shop ripped off the plastic covers, got some foot mats (two pairs actually, one fabric and other transparent plastic).

New car, don’t want to rip it right, yeah right! First 80 Kms to Alleppey 80 kmph is the mental limit, reality 20 km it was 80 kph then 100 Kph and when the road opened up went to 120 kph he he, hope you guys heard of Moto tune usa running in procedure.

So the relation started, service days were always well awaited thanks to the excuse of dealer ship being at least 150 kms away from you lol. Matter of one year she had done 12,000 kms on the odo. During this time had the privilege of driving through out the mallu land. And then reality bites, had to leave her parked and head for Bangalore for salary issues, yup emi are expensive.

Rewind for driving experience:
Tested her attitude on highways and the hills, memories that are still stuck to the mind are the trip to hills, especially the trip to munnar. Trust me guys and gals the iKON is a FUN FUN FUN car with a very bad TEMPER on the twisties (you are more lucky if its raining). No disrespect to Hondas and the Balenos, but to me they are well behaved, neutral handling machines, very boooooring and not my cup of tea.

RR RT.


You guessed it correct, kiss my behinds for all those who disagree to above paragraph. Yes the very corner and the rear door that got bruised by a stupid bus guy while dad was driving. Damn the car is tough, car was pushed in tangential direction for about 2 foot coz of the impact, but no internal damages apart from a torn rear door (replaced) and scratched and dented rear fender, thanks to Ford she was restored back to normal.

Another incident that proves the same, car jumps a wall 4 foot high, lands nose onto beach sand, (don’t blame me, its my dad, he has this thing for living dangerously). Can’t lift her up with the help in hand, so decided to push her completely onto the sand so that she can be driven on the sand and back, on to the road access. Couple of helping hands pushing her and damn she lands her tail on the kerb yeah the bulge for the spare tire resting on kerb and rest of the car onto sand. Thanks to tail being lighter somehow the guys raised her and rested the rear also on the sand, pushing along with driving the car gets back to the road.

Taken to dealership, alignment and other check ups done. Report no damages coz the front sub-frame took the impact, so small dent on the under body about a foot long and the spare wheel area raised by couple of inches. One of my trips back to kerala, took her to the friendly neighborhood garage guy for a re-survey of damages (for my personal mental satisfaction) removes the spare tire, the chokra boy climbs in starts jumping and presto the wheel well is back to normal (one area ford can be made stronger :P ).

Wondering why no mention of the engine lol, well couldn’t figure out the right words to explain it.

Engine bay.


Its all about torque sweet torque, it kicks in by 1200 rpm and then its up to the driver how to make her sing, all this torque n bhp thing gets carried over till 6500 k rpm, when the brick wall of rev limiter cuts in. Oh yeah at 3000 + rpm, there is that added pleasure of a growwwwwllllllllll.

Back to my story, Bangalore along with a Gypsy and Esteem went by for a year and a half, and then got a call from home saying the cars coughing badly. Could guess so much, injector clogged due to low running (kms clocked in 1.5 years after I left 500 km, including the 300 kms I had put in during my visits). One injector (imported stuff from Brazil) 5 k cost and 2 weeks of waiting in mallu land for it to arrive. That did it, decided to risk the wrath of RTO n get her to Bangalore.

Meter console.


Its been two years now in Bangalore and she has put 25000+ kms on the odo, meanwhile managed to crash n sell the esteem in big fan fair and iKON took the center stage of my attention and paid up tax to keep RTO happy.

Maintenance, well its dirt cheap if you ask me. Regular service 1.5 to 2 K INR max with oil change and interior dry foam cleaning. Another problem as I perceive it, don’t have the feel good factor of going to garages quite often coz service intervals are 10 k apart, still takes her there ones in 3-6 months for just routine check up costing say 600 odd bucks.

Failure and the most major expense till date, AC recirculation going kaput. Reason one bad solder at the control unit, cost 500 bucks for removal and fixing.

New Stereo.


And I forgot, thanks to an enterprising guy, had my 15 years of cassette collection and 4 years of CD covers (cds were inside the changer in the boot) and two Pioneer stereo front panel (one from the esteem) and a Front door glass broken to facilitate the entry to the car which had autocop, but was in impact sensor silent mode thanks to stupid me. Front door glass replacement cost 2 K INR.

Upholstery.


Other care, personally wash/vacuum the car once a week (regular days driver washes).
Wax every 3 months.
Complete water wash, including engine bay under body once in a month or 1.5 months.

Door Rust.


Dickey Rust (invisible to Sony cyber shot)


Recent happening, noticed a small speck of rust formation starting on the LT FT door top edge, guess due to water locking in the show beading. Should attend to next week and yes a small paint deformation (again bubbles due to rust) on the lip of dickey door (started when car was parked with regular washing and not much running in kerala for a year and half) which is there for the last 2 years, didn’t want to damage the original paint coz its not worsened and hence left it at that.

So next month she complete her five years with me, time to renew insurance, a gift service to her and also to attend to some small rattle from the dash. Yeah one of my drunken lady friends managed to remove the glove box handle also :P



AND YES AM VERY MUCH STILL IN LOVE WITH HER!!!

[Stratos]

Excellent writeup! The ikon really has matured over the years. I just love the new SXi with those multispoke alloys!!

[normally_crazy]

jaggu

thats a damn long passionate love affair u have going on still !!

great review of an awesome car. u cant help but smile when u revvv the ikon and the torque flows unabated.

Its all about torque sweet torque, it kicks in by 1200 rpm and then its up to the diver how to make her sing, all this torque n bhp thing gets carried over till 6500 k rpm, when the brick wall of rev limiter cuts in. Oh yeah at 3000 + rpm, there is that added pleasure of a growwwwwllllllllll.

spot on ....and with the free flow on my sxi the sound after 2000 RPM is nirvana to the ears.

guess this review should put to rest the doubting thomases who think that the ikon is a maintanence heavy car ! just take care of ur baby and she takes care of you.

great review pal ......

and yeah have one on me at TGIF tonite !

[Dippy]

Hey Jaggu

Excellent report on the Ikon and great pictures too. The 1.6 is truly a Josh machine which I realised after driving NCs car.

The review proves that both of you have enjoyed your stay with each other so far

Dippy

[drifter]

Hey thats a really good report.

Ikon is such a good car...wonder why its resale is so low.

i've driven NCs ikon....and man its great. I'd kill for that free flow alone.
Sometimes words cannot describe how much a person can love his/her car.

Keep up the good work ...

Drifter

[revtech]

hey dude
nice write up and pics.ikon is indeed a good car but some people dont realize it
keep it up dude

Rev

[Shan2nu]

Yeah the 1.6 Zxi. Uncle has one, i drove it once. Pretty peppy and yes, that torque diff is evident, especially on long drives.

Saw a yellow Mitsubishi Lancer SFX poster in one of the magazine and Oh oh AM IN LOVE (at least thought so),

Same here, loved it when i saw it. Still feel it's the best looking C segment car but sadly, that alone isn't enuf.

Shan2nu

[Rudra Sen]

Great stuff mate. Often I ask myself a question.Why didn't I pick up an Ikon instead of...? Especially after driving N_C's car one late night.
Jaggu, I firmly believe that Ikon's spirited handling needs wider footwear. This confirmation came after driving two different Ikons. One, my friend's car on the expressway (Lonavala section) and the second, N_C's car with his Eagle F1.
If you're planning to keep her (shouldn't say these things about your love though), change the front grill to a mesh one. I feel that's one of the most sexy touch of Ikon design. Get 195 Wider rubber. Alloys are purely a personal choice so I'm not saying anything about that.

P.S. How come you've never given me your car to drive

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

P.S. How come you've never given me your car to drive

One does not want to insult you by deblinging an old man !

[lamborghini]

Hey Jaggu,
excellent write up.
Just sold my 4 year ols beauty to make way for the car you were planning on.
Yes a red lancer.
Though i still prefer my ikon.
Maybe when there is new look Ikon out and i have to sell my Palio.
Until then i will keep reccomending the ikon 1.3 (if the guy wants performance too, there is the Petra) to most guys with a limited budget and wanting a good sedan with good average .. (i prefer Baleno over ikon 1.6 unless it is supposed to be kept stock)

[ported_head]

Fantasatic write up Jaggu. Definitely a love affair, as if you hadn't emphasised that enough. By the way, was the review before or after the happy hours at TGIF?

I've always read too much about the IKON's peppy drive characterisitics, but never really got a chance to open her up on my couple of drives. Maybe, NC can do me a favour, one last time please pal. I'm smitten by NCs IKON too, it's Spanish red, gorgeous alloys and a loud exhaust. Sounds as good as it goes.

My favourite cosmetic changes for the IKON, mesh grille and that new headlamp cluster with the frosted indicators.

Good luck with the rest of the ownership time.

[islero]

Awesome write up man, even I have experienced the joy an early Ikon from '99 can give, theres very little on indian raods that can beat that!!!

Always on my top list of indian cars!!!

[Vulken Auto]

Originally Posted by ported_head

By the way, was the review before or after the happy hours at TGIF?

. . .

[Samurai]

Nice write up. It is funny how cars bring out the writers and poets in us.

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

P.S. How come you've never given me your car to drive

Kabab mein Haddi? After all that car is the love of his life. Hopefully his wife/G.F is not reading this...

[vinsanity]

Jaggu man,
Too good.. Very very nice writeup.. Seriouly luv her, dont u??!! When is u'r next drive to tvm?? May be have a stop over here at Cochin too.. hehehee...
Take care of her buddy..