Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajneeesh (Post 3327748)

Approximately 15 years after it set up shop in India, Ford is selling less than 10 K cars per month. In the same time companies like MSIL, Hyundai and Mahindra have increased their sales many fold. This performance ( or lack of it) speaks volumes about how well Ford Motors has understood Indian Market. At the time of ES launch, the MD of Ford India said that they will produce as many ES as the market demands. Well I am yet to see that happen. I am a satisfied Ford Figo owner and was one of the first to book the ES. The delay in delivery ad the price increase made me cancel the booking. I am sure that I am one of the many who have done so. I may not be working for Ford. This lets me take an objective view unlike an employee who will justify the company's decision as he works there and has to toe the official line. The forum members are avid followers of the Auto industry and though they make not work for any manufacturer, they sure can tell what is working in the market and what is not.

It is their company. If they don't want to catch up with Maruti, it is their prerogative. When they plan their strategy they take a lot of things into account, things that only they have a proper view of. What we are advocating is based on certain guesses we make, and then feel enraged that they are not acting according to what we wish. Better not to get into things we don't understand. And should definitely not let bad personal experience could our judgements.

BTW, You still didn't tell me why you think they are not increasing production while they could.

Here all are assuming that higher number of cars means higher profits which is not always the case. They might have come across an optimum number that could be produced so as to maximize profits by meeting all their current quality and safety standards. Hence Ford must have a logic on why they can’t manufacture more than a fixed number in a month and they are not increasing the same month after month (I only see them reducing the local sales).
So the only logical explanation is that they can only service a fixed no of cars on road in a month unless they increase their existing facilities exponentially. Hence they are only selling in limited numbers.
These are my assumptions in a perfect world this could be true.stupid:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajneeesh (Post 3327748)

Well I feel Ford worldwide (and obviously Ford India) do not want highly satisfied Indian customers. Well I have good points to prove that:
1. The first point is that Ford never had any CRM system for dealers, where dealers should have entered each and every booking from the customer, thereby giving Ford a clear visibility fo what is going on in the booking at the dealers and how and in which order cars are getting delivered at the dealerships.
2. Moreover, unlike other brands, an email to Ford customer is read with least interest by the company. In this cutting edge competition, today the other brands are very receptive of any emails sent to them directly by the customer. Majority of customers like me will plung into a new brand if we know that the company is listening. Well this is what the Japanese brands and successfully mastered and hence their best in class products along with a very "listening" customer care departments, have the best faith trusted upon them by the customers. Ford clearly fails in this. Getting to a high level manager for any concern is close to impossible. Even if you get through they do not feel interested in replying in an agile manner.
3. They have completely have not been receptive to what customer wants. A simple and the most basic principle a company should work. May those be MayBachs or the Audis, once you stop delivering to customers and stop listening to them, you cannot survive. Ford is exactly on this track.

Hope ford listens and opens up channels where customer care talk and get things resolved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3327931)

The last I'd heard about it was in Overdrive's test where the ABS failed & the LHS brake caliper jammed.

Ford should take this seriously and check the vehicles by way of a recall. I have been driving for 3 months mostly within the city and have had no chance to test out the ABS. Request other owners to comment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by harpreetsubhi (Post 3327964)

2. Moreover, unlike other brands, an email to Ford customer is read with least interest by the company. In this cutting edge competition, today the other brands are very receptive of any emails sent to them directly by the customer. Majority of customers like me will plung into a new brand if we know that the company is listening. Well this is what the Japanese brands and successfully mastered and hence their best in class products along with a very "listening" customer care departments, have the best faith trusted upon them by the customers. Ford clearly fails in this. Getting to a high level manager for any concern is close to impossible. Even if you get through they do not feel interested in replying in an agile manner.

Let me tell you, I had shot 2 emails to Ford during my wait for the Ecosport. Both emails were acknowledged (auto reply + the customary reply of "shall look into it") within 1-2 day's time. Within 3-4 day's time received call from their Chennai office with some reply either the dealer will get in touch you or something like that and then a followup call to confirm that the dealer spoke to me. So they do have a mechanism to receive, monitor and respond to customer calls which is on par with other manufacturers. Its a case of not being able to manage the crowd, its a first time for them. Had they known the Ecosport would be a success they would have probably managed it better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3327931)

Saw some chatter on Twitter about a high number of ABS failures in the EcoSport.

BHPian EcoSport owners faced any issues at all?

The last I'd heard about it was in Overdrive's test where the ABS failed & the LHS brake caliper jammed.

I was concerned about the same and enquired at Mody Ford who have delivered close to 400 cars till date.

They're said they haven't got a single complaint.

I have done around 11000 kms on highways and touchwood no issues so far.

Mody ford service manager said there was one ABS failure complaint in Mumbai till date

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3327931)

Overdrive had reported it in their Annual Issue. (pls see pg 294/post 4401 of this thread).
Overdrive had written that they were told that it was due to wrong connection of hydraulic lines to the ABS control module. Now my knowledge of the piping systems makes me feel that this is not the likely cause, as pipes are bent to exacting 3D shapes & pulling a pipe connector to fit another port is very difficult. My surmise is that there had been some
wire interchange in the connector to the ABS module. So a wrong series of signals (as seen by the controller) at some point made its software go into a tizzy & lock up the ABS.

If this problem is cropping up again now it means Ford's diagnosis & corrective action plan have been barking up the wrong tree. Very very disturbing news indeed.

To all those who want to know about the highway behaviour of ecosport i had a short trip to hyderabad a 650km round trip. We are fortunate to have an excellent toll road from vijayawada to hyderabad and being relatively free of traffic on account of christmas holiday i pushed the car to its max. I was surprised by it calm and composed behaviour at close to its top speeds, very stress free and relaxing. This is the first time that i have pushed the vehicle to its max and the steering weighed beautifully although the feel and feedback is not like hydraulic steering of my earlier car punto. But overall for an EPS unit on of the best steering you can get nowadays.
Got a mileage of 14.5kmpl for the entire trip because the vehicle was never below 110-120 most of the times.The breakup of the trip is 620km highway and 25km city. If kept the speed at around 110kmph i got 19 kmpl on earlier trips.
The passengers never knew the speeds i was doing unless i mentioned it to them:D.

Mod Note : Please do NOT use acronyms (e.g. ANHC, T-Fort, ES) when referring to cars. You are ONLY permitted to use the full Make & Model name for cars.

Any further usage of acronyms will invite severe Moderator action on your account.

Hi,

I took my EcoSport for wheel alignment this morning as it had clocked 5k Kms. To my complete surprise, the spare wheel couldn't be removed with the lock nut provided in the vehicle. I called up my dealer who sent a mechanic with a spare lock nut. Even that didn't work. I am now told to take the vehicle to the dealer who will apparently use some special tools. I have written to Ford, though, I doubt if they would ever bother to respond. I had written previously regarding fitting a radio in the car, which is clearly mentioned/ allowed in the User manual, but they haven't bothered to respond till date.

Are there other Ecosport owners who have faced issues with the lock nut on spare wheel?

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by vu2pmc (Post 3328562)

Hi,

Are there other Ecosport owners who have faced issues with the lock nut on spare wheel?

Cheers

I have experience removing the spare wheel that too during the first week of delivery. The lock nut got a base which needs to be pushed or pulled so that the groove will be pushed out. Only when this groove is out, it will fit perfectly onto the bolt. I had a tough time figuring this out. I guess this wasnt done in your case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3327931)

I have 2 months old 1.5D Titanium. About a month back, when I was on my way to office, one pedestrian suddenly came on to road. Even though vehicle speed was only about 50-60 kmph, I had to really brake hard to stop the vehicle. As soon as I did that, I heard a loud sound kkrrrddddd...krrrrdddddd (don't really know how else I can describe it). It was something like some metal was grinding along with tyre/disk brake. But good thing that vehicle stopped.

I was very surprised by that sound (and forgot to rant on pedestrian who quickly ran away). Further, I tried 3 times to recreate the problem by accelerating and applying the brake but didn't hear that sound again (Yes, I was cautious that no one was behind me during that time). Perhaps I wasn't slamming the brake with enough force???

GTO's post makes me feel I should retest my brakes and ABS. Only thing, I don't know how I can do that other than just accelerating and braking. Any suggestions?

Tried my level best to push /pull to no luck. It did rotate a bit, when I tried real hard. But that didnt help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveen.raju (Post 3328580)

Quote:

Originally Posted by hemmmer (Post 3328581)

What you are describing is the classical sound of the ABS kicking in. Its actually very scary or alarming to hear it the first time as you feel there is something wrong in the car. You won't be able to replicate it easily as however hard you try, you probably won't be able to replicate the force during panic braking intentionally. Nevertheless don't worry about that sound. Be happy that the ABS is working fine in your car clap:.