Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

Saw the Ecosport in Planet ford on SB road Pune.
Excellent styling & very aggressive pricing by Ford India.

I did not get the test drive. Test drive will start from Monday.
The car feels very congested to me. I will prefer I20 and Maruti Ertiga any day.

I did not feel comfortable in the front driver seat. Very small seat (mainly width). I found i20 seats are excellent in under thigh & back support. Even Ertiga Seats are far comfortable.

O.T : Conclusion :- Now I need to choose between i20 Asta Diesel & Ertiga ZXi Petrol.

Had a conversation with dealer here. They are getting more than 40% petrol bookings and that is more than what they expected (They expected a 70-30 break down) and another big surprise for them is the ecoboost. They were expecting it to below 5%, but the actual number is around 10 % . Can any one of you share if you get to know the details from your cities of the trend of the people when they book the car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sup? (Post 3162053)

I had a bad experience at Elite Ford in Bangalore. I booked a Diesel Trend Mars Red color. And after booking I casually mentioned I am going to take my own insurance. The SA said they would not give me priority of delivery if I did not go with their insurance. I said that is not legal and asked to talk to the manager. This oily haired typical thug of a manager said it is a management decision and book if only if you are ok with it. Such typical dastardly attitude. I was about to blow a fuse, but then thought better of it as I had already given the cheque. I am going to mail Ford India about this and will create as much stink as possible about this. These thugs cannot get away with this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sknair (Post 3162022)

how can they have insurance cost variation for the same car in the same city from 31 to 37 to 39 thousand? I guess these guys are just taking advantage of the demand?

It is normal for dealers to scam on the insurance. When I was getting my car, I was quoted 21K insurance by the showroom. And they knew I desperately wanted delivery the next day, so said the car cannot leave the yard for showroom for delivery as it is illegal to ply a car on the road without insurance. I found a responsive agent of Royal Sundaram got my insurance done overnight for 14K (comprehensive 3rd party) or whereabouts - saved 7 to 8K in the process.

The showroom expects to pocket a cool 5 to 6K typically on premium.

@Sup, You can mail Ford and they might compel the dealer to take your booking, but that wont stop them from skipping your turn and making you wait. Or what you can do is play dirty to match them - tell them you will go for insurance and then last minute show them the finger when they say the car has arrived and to make full payment.

-R

Booked 1.5 Ecosport Dsl Tit (o) at Metro Ford St. Marks road, Bangalore.

On road price quoted 11271383.00

Ex Show room : 915989.00
Road tax : 142595.00
Insurance : 39667.00
Service Charges : 8000.00
Esst. Pack : 4500.00
Additional warranty: 14990.00
Additional roadside
assistance : 1442.00

Clearly the dealers are making a lot of money through various additions.

The Service agent was trying hard to make me choose titanium and not titanium optional pack. He says option variant will take 6 to 9 months to deliver! Any case I put my foot down and insisted on Titanium (o). Not sure what is their motive in making customer choose a lower variant.

For getting proper Ex-Showroom prices for Mumbai/ Navi Mumbai Members.

For Mumbai:
Add Octroi @4.5% to ex-showroom to get prices at Mumbai. The Bhavna Ford pricelist shared earlier has the ex-showroom @4.9%. Looks inflated.

For Navi Mumbai:
As per the Bhavna Ford price list for Mumbai. LBT as applicable.
LBT @ 1.5% for Motor Cars to be added to get proper Ex-Showroom Prices.
The Price shown as per the FORD pricelist as Rs.797574/- for Navi Mumbai is based on 1% Cess. This would no longer be valid I suppose since LBT is applicable the correct values are as illustrated below

For Ecosport Ecoboost Titanium :
Mumbai : 789990 + 35549 (@4.5% ) = 825539/-
Navi Mumbai : 789990 + 11849 @ 1.5%) = 801839/-

Hope it helps.

The Road side assistance, Depot Charges and Essential pack are unnecessary overheads apart from about 7-10K inflated insurance premium.

Cheers
MKP

So they would be charging Rs.7200 for Mud flaps, Floor Mats & Boot Mats with External paint protection ? Blatant looting.

Looking at other threads Rs.4500 for essential pack i.e. Mud flaps, Floor Mats & Boot Mats and Rs.2700 for Paint protection ?

Are they giving 3D Kagu mats or what ? Why are the they so pricey ?

Disappointed with Ford launching Ecosport at attractive prices and then dealers engaging in such unfair activities to make maximum out of the demand. Sad

Just saw Temp Registration Charges @ 6500/- in Chennai ? It is called 5000 (Depot Charges) + 1000 (Temp Reg) In Mumbai ..

So dealers all across India have come up with Innovative ways to charge the Customer under different Headings.

Cheers,
MKP

Quote:

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki (Post 3161419)

It loses grab handles because of curtain airbags. The side airbags are present in the seat while the curtain airbags are present in the roof lining. That's why

In this case how does it work in the Yeti.
Te Yeti too comes with side curtain airbags and does not lose the roof mounted grab handles in the bargain. Indeed, unlike most cars, the Yeti has one grab handle for each of the four passengers who sit next to the door.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anumod (Post 3162210)

The petrol numbers will show up thanks to aggressive pricing. Many Swift/Ritz VXI/ZXI and Polo people would shift to the Ecosport. And thats where petrol sales come from.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarthikK (Post 3161918)

Even if petrol and diesel are priced at the same cost, diesel will deliver more efficiency per litre than its petrol counterpart. This alone is reason enough for people to continue to stick to diesels than try experimenting with petrols and their famed gas-guzzling abilities. Take a rough example of Ecosport Ecoboost 1.0 and 1.5TDCi:

I agree. Being a compression combustion engine diesels are inherently more efficient. CC per CC equivalent diesels will give around 20% advantage in FE. For me I would opt for diesel variant even if both fuels were available at the same cost.

Another advantage of diesels is higher torque which translates into better drivability. I am more comfortable with my 68 bhp Fusion TDCi than my 90 bhp Petrol i20 in city driving.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkpiyengar (Post 3162265)

I have decided to step away from this frenzy. I did pre-book but that was probably a fall back option for the dealers; they don't seem to be in the mood to honor that as they are not transparent about booking process or delivery timelines. I am not willing to be suckered into buying accessories and other distress purchase just because it is a good car and I like it. It will remain a mode of transport but to be cheated for that is not the feeling I would like to carry every day. I may reconsider this once the euphoria settles down, sanity prevails and other manufacturers up the ante.
It does leave a bad impression about Ford and its dealer networks though.

TD'ed both TDCi Titanium+ and Ecoboost Titanium+ today . My impressions -

1)Found that the drivability of Diesel is far better than eco boost because of higher torque. Engine is very responsive and NVH levels are low.

2)The grunt ecoboost makes after 5000rpm is addictive. The only fun I had driving this vehicle was above 4000 rpm. At lower revs/sedate driving the car feels dud as compared to TDCi

3)Spirited driving returned 9.5kmpl on ecoboost , 15kmpl on TDCi

4)Sedate driving - 13 kmpl and 18/19 kmpl respectively.Its not really fuel efficient if I get 13-14 kmpl from my 7 yr old baleno,driving in similar style and conditions.

5)Good commanding view and driver feels in control.

6)Steering is dud. Really don't like the EPS as it doesn't provide feedback while driving.wonder why only TBHP/GTO reported this where as everyone(other publications/forums) loved the the EPS

7)No matter what auto magz and the likes said , its handling is not even close to sedans. But yes it drives better than hatchbacks and SUV's

8)Diesel still a better option than eco-boost in terms of higher mileage and better drivability , even if the fuel cost becomes the same in next 2 years.

9)Engine vibes are felt on the clutch in TDCi.

10)Car is solidly built.

11)seats are pretty comfortable both at the front and back with better/at-par leg room compared to vento/verna/duster etc.

12)Long list of gadgets and features. Engine start/stop button with keyless entry is chic.

13)At 10.56 OTR pune TDCi Titanium+ , looks like the best deal out there. I didn't find any other car/manufacturer which provides a better all round package than Ford.