Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecosport (Post 3231068)

Ok, but hike is from sep 5, not sep 1.

One, ford loses too much on profits, 40k per car in the backlog. To cover that up, they would have to hike the prices at least by 10% for bookings after sep 5.

Above that, trust the dealers to make some hay by squeezing in a few surrogate bookings with sep4 date. It is easier this way, invoice date being the cut off.

The hike though announced on Sept 5th or 6th is with effect from 1st September, so if the car is invoiced after 1st Sep you have to pay the new price,this is what I've understood from posts on the forum and from a member sharing his experience on another forum.

Yes,you can trust the dealers to engage in all sort of malpractices even now since they have a free hand.

Will leave the numbers out since we're discussing gross revenue with actual profits,both of which are unknown and will be way too OT on this thread :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by niks_devil666 (Post 3231083)

Does the car lock itself if we go out of 1.5 meter range or we have to lock it with key only. What exactly is this keyless entry

The car doesn't lock itself automatically

When you are close to the car
Once you get out of the car, press the tiny black button on the driver or passenger door handle. This will lock the car without pressing the lock button of the key as long as you have the key in your pocket/purse/bag.

When you are at some distance
If you forget to lock when you were close to the car, you need to press the lock button on the key to lock the vehicle.

I have found keyless entry to be a very useful feature :). I rarely need to take the key out of my pocket/laptop bag.

Quote:

Originally Posted by niks_devil666 (Post 3231083)

Does the car lock itself if we go out of 1.5 meter range or we have to lock it with key only. What exactly is this keyless entry

With Keyless entry option, you get near your with your car key and remote and press a small button in car door and your car opens.

Once you are inside cabin, You have your remote and key in your pocket, you can start your car with push button start. You don't need to take your keys out of your pocket and insert it, twist it for your car to start.

And once you are out you can lock your car with remote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shashank.nk (Post 3231075)

Announced on 5th effective from 6th. They can't call back customers who got delivery between 1 and 5 and ask to pay the difference right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecosport (Post 3231103)

Announced on 5th effective from 6th. They can't call back customers who got delivery between 1 and 5 and ask to pay the difference right?

Certainly not. But, we were discussing price protection to those who booked prior to the announcement of this hike, which should have been done.

EDIT: It seems I had understood wrong, the price hike is with effect from 5th and not 1st September like I had initially posted.

I feel they should have given price protection to those who booked before launch at least.

On the other hand feel the price rise is quite justified considering the USD rise. The entire ecoboost engine, the AT gearbox, the Music system and quite a bit of the electronics is 100% imported. That said they will not drop prices if USD again goes down so that is the unfair bit.

The cancellation charges for those who pre booked is nil and for others is Rs. 3000 as declared by ford.

Insurance can be taken from outside I officially too Royal Sunder am for Rs. 32608, But got a cash discount of Rs. 12608 which I adjusted against accessories that I purchased. Effectively the insurance was for Rs. 20,000 for the AT. This was zero dep.

Accessories purchase is not compulsory and you can back out later too after they allocate your vehicle.

I can understand many wishing to cancel out of anger, frustration, a feeling of betrayal and due to the vehicle going beyond budget and all this is quite fine, but one must take the decision after considering the alternate options.

I too would probably have cancelled but that would be due to a mix of anger and the fact that I had good preowned options in the price range that were acceptable to me.

My friend was planning to upgrade from Chevy Spark. So we decided to test drive prospective vehicles. Eco sport being one among them. We test drove the same 2 days back and below were the observations by me as well as my 2 other friends(Spark and Amaze owner). We drove top end diesel version.

Pros:
* Engine is responsive and everyone liked it.
* Looks bigger from outside and good looking too.
* Front passenger seats are fine, dashboard is superb for the price.
* Bigger boot for a sub-4 meter vehicle.

Cons:
* Rear seat. Seriously a shocker, we were expecting it to be little cramped going by the reviews. But sorry, this is a 2 seater, 3 ppl cant rest their back at the same time. No-way.
* Suspension was too stiff for city drive, it is bumpy. All 3 felt the same.
* Blind spots are too big to ignore.

Rear seat not accomodating 3 is enough for my friend to reject eco-sport right away.
Whats the point in upgrading from Spark to a vehicle which can't accomodate 5 ppl.
I know lot of ppl will bash me for writing a negative review for eco-sport. I just wanted to warn potential buyers to buy eco-sport only if your requirement is for 4 ppl. It is indeed and good car for 4 ppl given the price of the vehicle.

Week before we did a TD of punto. We all loved the vehicle. Except for little GC and little more boot(actually very little practically) eco-sport falls flat on all aspects when compared to punto.

Disclaimer: Im a duster owner. im not here to say my duster is better, just gave me and my friends observation on eco-sport.

Ecosport was on top of my list since I was considering an upgrade from my petrol car. Pricing of the Ecosport was the main factor which tipped the scales in its favor compared to Renault Duster.

But as many BHPians pointed out, it is not just about money - it is about ethics. Rupee being devalued is a common factor for all car manufacturers.

Ford should have at least protected the customers who had already booked and paid an advance. What they have done is legal, but not eithical.

Even if rupee recovers in coming months, Ford does not plan to roll back the price change. Ford, is just losing prospective customers - not out of anger or emotion, but due to lack of confidence in Ford. What if (when) rupee value falls further ? It would be chasing a moving target.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACM (Post 3231117)

I feel they should have given price protection to those who booked before launch at least.

Now this is getting funny. Why ford will give price protection? Do you say the same thing - if ford had dropped the price? No-one from ford forced people to sign the booking form where it is clearly written that the price is subject to change. Why are they crying now? I sometimes feel that Indian customers are not matured yet.
:deadhorse

Ford should have given price protection atleast to customers who had pre booked the Ecosport. Those customers had booked the car even without physically seeing an Ecosport. If I am right I think Renault had offered price protection to its customers who had pre-booked the Duster even after a couple of price increases.
The backlog of the pre-bookings should be negligible by now, and Ford could have easily won the customers confidence by offering a lesser hike to them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mohandas (Post 3231142)

It isn't funny because price protection has happened in the case of duster and also because the hike is a whopping 5%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mohandas (Post 3231142)

Now this is getting funny. Why ford will give priceprotection? Do you say the same thing - if ford had dropped the price? No-one from ford forced people to sign the booking form where it is clearly written that the price is subject to change. Why are they crying now? I sometimes feel that Indian customers are not matured yet.

Which is why I mention the words "I feel". This is at some level also about a relationship
between ford and Indian customers. Pre booking is when the customer has booked without even knowing the price point, the customer is trusting ford, and is also waiting it out for a decent period. Hence I feel that those who had pre booked should actually have received delivery by now and hence would have automatically been protected on the price front.

Sadly some who have pre booked have not yet received the vehicle, and have cancelled or are contemplating it. I feel rightly so.

By the way am not personally affected as I already have taken delivery of my vehicle.

When advts are about emotions and faith then it has to go both ways. But ford is yet not in connect mode or doesn't see the need for it right now. But in a country like India emotions matter. I for example would have been OK with the vehicle being priced even 1L higher when launched but would have cancelled right now if the vehicle was not delivered let alone accept a price rise.

Each person is different and companies do need to maintain a connect and show a humane side.

Similarly from the point of view of those booking early a price drop too is not fair and other companies who have done it have not really fared well for those products. But then that is why they dropped prices in the first case. Best thing is to get the pricing right at the first go. Honda Jazz, Ford First, Tata Aria are disasters that could have been avoided by correct first up pricing. Reading the ENTIRE previous post would have not raised the question.

Anyway as they say to each his own.

Some may feel that hike is justified because the value of their vehicle has appreciated. Personally this maybe great but on a social and ethical level totally in bad taste.

Honda has just hiked prices by Rs. 10000. Ford went all the way up to Rs. 50000. Also Ecosports launch happened after 1.5 years of unveiling due to content localisation. It was to keep costs down. What happened to all that?

Ford is busy exporting cars to earn profits from dollar appreciation. Local demand has swelled and Ford doesn't care. Ford is acting as if our money has no value. We are taken for granted. It is strange to see people supporting Ford make profits by cheating loyal customers.

We have to take action against this. After all our money is also hard earned money.lol: