Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

Hi Everyone,

I booked my ecosport - AT (Sear Grey/Black) during the first week of June and kept calling the SA once in 15 days to get a "No Info as yet" response everytime. Last week on Wednesday I made one of the regular calls and then he says I can get a White AT if I want it - I said ok; and after making a few calls he said, I could take it the next day if I wanted. clap:

I was out of station so I said i'll do a Pre-Delivery Inspection on Saturday, and eventually i went to the showroom today. I was a bit suprised that my Ecosport was in the showroom itself ( think it was the photo area ) and not the stock yard.

The Odometer did read only 12Kms and the 11th and 12th character of VIN being E and P (which means Aug 2014 manufactured vehicle)

Probably stupid: , but is the vehicle not being in the stockyard and the showroom a concern? Anything I need to look out for? or am i reading too much into it?

Thanks all for giving me valuable suggestions on how to deal with my dealer. As suggested, if my dealer continues insisting that these accessories and insurance are compulsory, I'll ask him to specify this on letter-head and then raise the topic further with Ford India. For now, I've told my SA that we'll discuss the final accessories and services list only when my car arrives at the dealer and will make my final payment accordingly.

Now, I need suggestion regarding another issue which has popped up. I received a phone call from dealer last Thursday and an official letter yesterday from my dealer requesting me to deposit the balance payment by 24th August 2014. Else, they will be "offering the vehicle to the next customer in priority." I find this very amusing given the fact that my car hasn't reached the dealership yet and the letter itself states that delivery is expected in September-2014 "tentatively".

The on-road price is about 9.35 lakhs (excluding all accessories). Anyways, I've already given my dealer a cheque of Rs. 4 lakhs (which he encashed 3 days ago) and filed papers through the dealer for car financing for Rs. 3 lakhs. I've told him that I'll pay the remaining amount once the car reaches the dealer and I do a pre-delivery inspection.

I'm really surprised that the dealer is asking for full payment of the car just against VIN No. and even though the car hasn't reached dealer shop yet... with a threat to allocate the car to someone else. We have bought more than 6 cars in my lifetime and never have we encountered such a situation. Thoughts and suggestions please.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsunn (Post 3513255)

These are just plain and simple harrasment practices adopted by ford. Don't know when these guys are going to learn. Cant suggest anything specific (as I have never been in a position like this myself) but if the dealer is willing to commit to a specific date then you can probably look at paying some part of the balance left, not the whole balance for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsunn (Post 3513255)

I'm really surprised that the dealer is asking for full payment of the car just against VIN No. and even though the car hasn't reached dealer shop yet... with a threat to allocate the car to someone else. We have bought more than 6 cars in my lifetime and never have we encountered such a situation. Thoughts and suggestions please.

Why don't you send an email to Ford mentioning all these details and see what they have to say about it. Honda also insists of paying full amount beforehand but not till car has reached the stock yard and definitely not by using threatening words like if you won't pay now it will be given to another customer.
On the other hand if you need the car urgently take the delivery date in writing and pay the rest of the amount.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsunn (Post 3513255)

Try this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...recorder&hl=en

Believe me, it would work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsunn (Post 3513255)

This is quite a normal process these days:

Car arrives at stockyard
You get allocated the VIN/Engine no.
You release the full payment
Car comes to the dealer in usually less than a week
You do a PDI if required
Car goes for registration
Gets delivered after a couple of days

At least this has been my experience with the Chevy Aveo, Maruti Wagon-R & Vespa that we have bought in our extended family in the last 5 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsurya (Post 3513367)

This is quite a normal process these days:

Car arrives at stockyard
You get allocated the VIN/Engine no.
You release the full payment
Car comes to the dealer in usually less than a week
You do a PDI if required
Car goes for registration
Gets delivered after a couple of days

At least this has been my experience with the Chevy Aveo, Maruti Wagon-R & Vespa that we have bought in our extended family in the last 5 years.

There is no denying the fact that balance payment has to be made before the car is actually delivered. But, I clearly remember that for our 2006 Mahindra Scorpio, 2011 Wagon-R and 2012 Honda City AT, we made the full payment after pre-delivery inspection.

As per Ford India the car left their Chennai plant on 14th Aug and my dealer says that it won't arrive at its work-shop till 28th (two weeks to get from Chennai to Gurgaon?! :Shockked:)

What infuriated me was the fact the dealer won't give me the delivery date in writing but was still demanding full payment. Anyways, I clearly told my dealer's manager that I've made half of the payment which is good enough for now and I'll make the final payment only after pre-delivery inspection. After a lengthy discussion, the dealer accepted my side of the argument.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsunn (Post 3513255)

T I received a phone call from dealer last Thursday and an official letter yesterday from my dealer requesting me to deposit the balance payment by 24th August 2014. Else, they will be "offering the vehicle to the next customer in priority." I find this very amusing given the fact that my car hasn't reached the dealership yet and the letter itself states that delivery is expected in September-2014 "tentatively"

I faced a similar situation with my ford dealer. The SA had told me that he would inform me at least a week before once a vehicle was available. The suddenly out of the blue i got a call from him on the 14th saying there was a cancellation and a White Ecosport was available. The catch was i had to confirm by 15th evening or else they would offer the vehicle to the next customer. Since i was taking a loan from a nationalized bank, it was next to impossible to get the loan sanctioned (Also 15th was friday,16th a saturday...so long weekend). Then they tried to force me to take the finance option through the dealership. Told them i would rather wait than rush through it. So still waiting .

Quote:

Originally Posted by jojoinassi (Post 3515137)

30000km service bill details
Any comments?

For the Fiesta(2011-), they changed only the filter element inside the diesel filter assembly. It costed around 1k. But now for ecosport, they are changing the entire assembly itself(which includes the water in fuel sensor), price:3k.

This happened for naveen.raju's ecosport also for his 30k service, i guess.

This might sound a bit silly, but why does Ford have the left hand drive aligned interior in India, i,e, with respect to the placement of the hand brake, indicators on the left of the steering etc, when they have a different (right hand drive aligned) version already in production for the UK and other right hand drive markets.

The engineers at Ford must be thinking that we really don't think Indians are smart enough to notice these.

Quote:

Originally Posted by autotranny (Post 3516636)

The engineers at Ford must be thinking that we really don't think Indians are smart enough to notice these.

Well a lot of global manufacturers (VW, Fiat etc) does this in India spec models. In Fiat cars you will even find the tachometer on the right side. In Ecosport the boot door open on the wrong side which may cause inconvenience to some. The manufacturers just want to make the car compatible with both the markets without changing the design too much in order to keep the costs down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by autotranny (Post 3516636)

I believe the Ford models in right-hand drive markets follow the same setup (e.g.; indicator stalk on the left), whether it is UK, India or Australia.