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MR JOGINDER SINGH the head of Ford India had stated during the launch the factory is all set and loaded for as much as ecosports needed by our customers.What happened to that statement?all dealers are quoting minimum 4 months waiting for the ecosport any variant,and for the automatic petrol even the test drive car is expected to arrive after 6 months.

Today I had a look at Ford dealership at Nigdi, PCMC. There was a huge crowd and everyone interested on EcoSport. If Ford manages to cope up with demand then company can repeat the story of Figo.

This used to be the exact same scene at M&M dealerships when XUV5OO was launched and look where they are now!

That was marketing speak by Mr Singh. Every auto factory has a maximum capacity - Moreover, it takes time to build the capacity as the supply chain has also got to be geared up as per the demand. I'm sure that the Ford India plants will be producing at their max output now. However, the capacity must be around 4500 to 5000 vehicles per month so if they get bookings of say 15,000, that translates into 2 to 3 months wait for the end customer and the dealers in turn might inflate that and say 4 to 5 months just to be on the safer side.

The Standard Accessories Pack is kind off OK for about 6K but as a matter of ethics should not have been made compulsory. It includes Mats, Mudflaps, a keychain, a Document Holder (now they charge for the keychain and document holders also?)

Yet todays experience at Shreeji Ford Thane was better and they had a proper accessories list and were managing things much better. So credit where it is due. All the guys were more polite and better equipped today. Have informed them that I will definitely take insurance from outside though I might pick up a fair bit of accessories from them on my own accord.

TBHP moderators cannot give any guarantee. He is merely giving his opinion about the car, based on his intensive test drive experience. So it is subjective, but having driven with him on other drives, I can trust his word. You however have to confirm it by driving it yourself.

Since you've owned a polo, can you compare the polo and ecosport as far as interior quality, space and driving dynamics is considered. I'm currently confused between the polo GT and the ecoboost.

I was a first hand witness to this incident. And incidentally I along with my friend were there to get assurance regarding this same Stability thing.

My friend is on the the lookout for a replacement for his Manza which he has driven close to a Lac Km till date in 2.5 years of his ownership. Now Manza has served him very well but there was one incident which negated the goodness of this car in his mind. One fine afternoon he was driving on NH-8 at around 120 and there is suddenly this man on a bike rushing to cross the highway, my friend tried to brake and to avoid hitting the bike swerved towards right resulting in his car going over the small divider and hitting the bike with the biker going over his car after hitting the windshield. Luckily there was no topple and no serious injury. His was Manza Elan so the airbags did their part.

Now the above story because of this: After this incident he has been a very cautious driver and each and every test drive of his included this high speed stability under braking test mandatory. After lot of research and my help he had finally decided on New Ford Fiesta. He was happy with the dynamics and braking after all the road tests of the comparable cars.

I did tell him to wait for a couple of days and check out EcoSport before finalizing.

Now we did check out the ES together but could not get test drive on day 1 due to the huge rush. Next day afternoon he went with his family to get the final nod from his wife. They liked everything and then went on the test drive. As soon as he finished his test drive he called me up and told me that he is not happy with the braking under high speed and he sensed instability. He requested me to check it out again. I along with one of my other friend went for the ES test drive in the evening (we both own Punto). Frankly we both were happy with the dynamics and braking. I called my friend and told him lets have a final drive next day to clear his doubts.

So today morning we went to the dealership and after haggling against the depot charges/45K mandatory accessories we decided to take a final test drive first and then continue our discussion (although the dealership had given us the final word that if you do not take the 45K Acc then we will not book the car).

Now we are waiting outside the dealership for the car to return from the test drive and discussing the pricing angle when I hear a loud bang and when I look towards the sound I see the ES flying in the air vertically with its nose down and finally coming to rest on the roof as shown in the pictures already shared. I shouted inside the dealership the warning and along with my friend ran towards the car. There were three people in the car. Two in front were the prospective buyers and the SA was sitting in the back. By the time we reached the car the SA had come out unhurt from the rear glass area and the other two persons also got out from broken rear glass area. The airbags had deployed (it was the Titanium+ model), the car was leaking what looked like coolant from front, one of the tyres had flown to the other road lane and had landed just infront of an autorickshaw. The autorickshaw driver was unable to believe his luck. By this time huge crowd had gathered so no detailed analysis could be done.

I and my friend did try to check out the reason. Now the accident has happened on a Eight lane National highway wherein two lanes on each side are reserved as service roads and the centre two as one way highway. The centre two lanes are nearly finished but not opened to public and the test drive was happening on one of this road albeit on the wrong side. But since its empyt stretch as of now so that fine. We went a further down the road from where the car had come and about 50 feet ahead we could see the impact point on the RCC median. Now as per the person driving the car (who is a friend of one of my friends) the accident happened when he tried hard braking at a speed of 120. This is verified by on the spot highway workers who confirmed that the car was in high speed and it suddenly skidded and then hit the median head on and then toppled over. We looked at the highway and we could clearly see the tyre marks leading from right side lane of the road towards the left side in a soft curve and directly leading to the impact location. Mind you these marks looked like hard braking marks and not skid marks so I am pretty sure the ABS was working here. The entire accident happened within 100-150ft length. Driver applying the brakes at 120, the vehicle swerving towards the median hitting the median on its left front side and then literally standing up in the air and then toppling and finally coming to rest on its roof. In the meelee we even were not able to check whether the side doors were openable or not.

Now even if I leave this unfortunate accident to drivers error I cannot discount the fact that we were present there and awaiting our turn to actually check out this stability factor of which my friend was not at all happy with(he is a Mech. Engineer so not exactly a noob and with 1Lac Km behind his belt he sure knows how a Manza drives). One thing is sure God has given my friend a clear indication not to buy ES(he even would have felt vindicated). For the rest of us it sure makes sense to once again request the experts to specifically check out this aspect once again in detail.

In hindsight I remember myself and my other punto owning friend discussing within ourselves that the steering of the ES does not get properly weighted at high speeds unlike our Punto (this was factor which we didnt like). What I mean is even at high speeds the steering of ES felt very nimble. Could this be the one factor responsible....? My Dad too drives a Manza and we were contemplating replacing it with ES so I surely look forward to answers/expert comments in this case. But till the Dealerships stop their fleecing through various "Mandatory charges" we are not proceeding any further....

I don't know if it helps or not, but I took a td of trend diesel model and took it upto 120ish speeds and then slammed the brakes.

The car was very stable and brakes felt very reassuring. The stability at those speeds were far far better then my previous car, which was accent. I will be surprised, if one is able to topple the ecosport. The car feels confident at 3 digit speeds.

We had a short visit to Elite Ford around lunch time today, surprisingly the accessory part was missing in the price list. This looks like a reasonably good sign.

Same was the case with two display vehicles at Elite Ford. The SE also gave the reason that the battery is out of change and they can not start the vehicle inside a closed room. This, the non opening of boot, could potentially be a problem and more over a design flow.

One more thing we noticed is the huge body panel gaps for the back door, especially on the right side. This is not visible in the picks posted in the TBHP test drive, so not sure whether it is sort of related to the boot not opening.

Few things which would have been there
1. The 'EBA + ESC + TCS + HLA' being absent even in MT Titanium+, do not understand the logic, could be for a upgrade in an years time
2. Cruise Control -
3. Heated ORVM - Many a times I struggle during rain. This could be a very helpful feature
4. An all wheel drive version

Well, Ford showrooms are like M&M and Renault showrooms when XUV and Duster was launched, looks like Duster would struggle without a proper facelift especially for the interior.

I have been a fencesitter till now and have been eagerly following the launch of the XUV, the Duster, and now the Ecosport. The time is ripe for me to buy a new car and I was totally going for the ES for these reasons:

seats four (I don't need anything bigger)
ground clearance
overall visual appeal
proven engine (ok not so zippy maybe, but will serve my purpose)
safety features (although from two "toppling" incidents it seems the ABS is suspect)

we decided to go for the 1.5 petrol titanium because the EMI for the same variant in diesel would be 3K more, and I don't think I will use it that much anyway.

We were totally serious about buying till this morning, but there were certain things that put us off. The test drive of the diesel vehicle offered by Lathangi Ford was very short through narrow streets, where I could not really test the power of the engine. Anyway there was no point driving the diesel because we were gonna buy the petrol anyway. I kept telling myself that the petrol will be faster. The steering is really light, but I am graduating from a Bolero and an Alto, so can't really tell if that is good or bad.
The two things that put me off were the lack of price protection even if you book your vehicle now and all the mandatory charges, like even taking the insurance from the dealer, which surprised me.

Am holding on to my booking amount and will go check out the Linea T-jet petrol tomorrow, which has 185 mm of ground clearance. Plus the toppling incidents are scary to say the least. One guy managed to do that in Goa and now another incident even before the deliveries have started. Not very confidence inspiring, is it?

Am back to being a fence sitter now. Will keep reading posts and watching what people say.

Test driven the ecoboost ecosport today.
Impressions-

-Good looks. Has presence.
-Power felt adequete and the ride firm but good, body roll well controlled.
-Engine felt relaxed at high revvs.
-Packed with features. A very modern car.
-The high dashboard and thick A pillars might have a visibility issue particularly in the hills.
-Rear seat space is good for two full sized persons. Three will be a problem.But legroom is great. I'm 6.1 and my knees didnt touch the front seat (adjusted for my driving).
-Good range of seat and steering adjustments.
-Average sized boot. But folded rear seats release huge space.
-Light steering. Specially if compared to the ones on its stablemates (fiesta/figo).

The overall experience at Himatsinka ford was very good even though a lot of people were looking at the car. I was promptly attended to and didnt have to wait for the TD as well.

The brochure says that the boot is 346 liters.

This review played a critical role in moving my mind from a Polo TSI to the Ecosport. Many thanks.

I booked the AT at Metro Ford today. The Service Consultant told me that Ford has instructed the dealers to say that the AT may take 9 months to a year for delivery. The showroom was buzzing with people of all hues checking out the car. They already had 50 bookings for the day and the request for TDs was so long that they were issuing tokens and the TD was restricted to a circle around Museum Road and St Marks Road.

Cheers,

Interior quality - if Polo were 9 on 10, I would give Ecosport a 7 on 10, the duster a 5 on 10 (scores relative only)
Space - if I give the Duster say an 8 on 10, I would give Ecosport a 7 on 10 and the Polo a 5 on 10
Driving Dynamics - this is not so simple, since Driving dynamivs involves multiple things.

If the ABS was working, then swerving could be blamed only on the driver. He didn't keep the steering straight while panic braking. Toppling happened because of hitting the median. How much is driver error here? How much can be blamed on the car?