Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlvl (Post 3150865)

Here is the data I could collect from my visit yesterday to the Ford Showroom in Bangalore.
1) Ecoboost is sold out for the rest of the year apparently. They had a limited quota due to nonavailability of the engine. I suppose Ford is having a tough keeping up with demand from other markets.
2) Limited color variants ! I was quite surprised by this. He gave me 2 color options for Trend and four for ambiente, The red one being the common one and Black totally missing. I was enquiring about the 1.5L petrol, perhaps other variants may have the colors available.
3) The launch will happen on 20th/21st this month ,cars are presently in their secret underground hideout (just kidding, they are there in their stock yard apparently, waiting for the launch.)
4) While the dealer was extremely reluctant to say a price, he did eventually indicate that the car price will be 5.99lakhs ex-showroom delhi for the ambiente. Upon further probing, he told that I should be able to get my hands on the petrol Trend model for about 8lakhs on-road.

Ford India MD has said that "Factory is ready to produce as much as the customer wants". See this video @ 2:56. So, dealer saying that it's soldout for the year is crap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vT126dUxXo

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 3150835)

If I were now in the market, I would push for and buy the top spec EcoSport Petrol EcoBoost Titanium provided it comes super specced. Else the AT if that is the real super spec. Would not even bother with the second level.

agree: I second this opinion. Biggest attraction and USP for EcoSport is the configuration with 1.0L Ecoboost engine. To substantiate: " Ford Motor Company's 1.0 litre EcoBoost petrol engine today was named 2013 International Engine of the Year, marking the second straight year Ford's three-cylinder engine has captured the award. " [Article: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/20573889.cms] But the caveat is that with the engine being completely imported at the moment, pricing of this variant will be towards the top segment (which is pretty much already said on this thread).

Elite Ford says the press (& price) release is slated on either 20th or 21st. However, they would be receiving the vehicles from early next week and may allow some "sneak peak" before official d-day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vineetg84 (Post 3151010)

it is just a marketing gimmick.This same situation i have faced when i was interested in buying the fiesta when it was launched but the price turned me away.The sales guy had said during the launch of fiesta that we have achieved our targets for the current year for diesel fiesta,we can give you only petrol.And after a week or so they kept calling me continuously to buy the diesel car with immediate delivery as the pricing ruined the product.The sales guy are just creating hype about the vehicle being sold out,put hard cash on the table and speak directly to the senior in charge and you will get what you want.Sales guys are just interested in talking big and nothing else

I completely agree, its time we get a regulatory body for automobiles as well, similar to what the government introduced recently for the real estate sector. Hopefully that will reduce all this nonsense that we have to put up with. We are also partly to be blamed as people are not willing to wait and are ready to bite the bullet without even a test ride. BTW i visited Chennai Ford and had a similar experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlvl (Post 3150865)

Just try a different dealer. Even Dzire was not so much sold out at launch. This is Ford.

IMO ecosport may have waiting during the initial hype period, but i don't see any waiting periods after an year or so. Unless priced very agressively.

PS: No offence to the company neither the ecosport , just per the market situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlvl (Post 3151001)

Ford is definitely launching it. The dealer told that he had taken 30 odd bookings

After joining this forum, first thing i realised is we know much more news and rumors about these cars than these dealers.

This engine is going to be imported and lets accept it, we won't see many of ecoboost on road because its only on high end trim and people will end up buying diesel. So question of sold out can only mean either he is bluffing or there is huge global demand.

Anyways we don't want anything which is not having sold out or huge waiting time. And people like to create hype.

Btw ford claims ecoboost is 20% more fuel efficient than contentional petrol. Lets assume 1.5 petrol gives us 8-9 kmpl in city conditions and ecoboost will only give 9-10 kmpl. So Milage crazy people won't see much value add and how many of us end up buying turbo charged petrol anyway?

I would say ford has nicely maintained the hype :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by k2max6 (Post 3151073)

Yeah, but then again, I wasn't looking for the ecoboost. 1.5L petrol serves me well enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksaurabh21 (Post 3151052)

Probably, dealers are prone over hyping stuff! But then again MD are prone to exaggeration too ;)

Booked a diesel ecosport titanium moon dust silver yesterday at rajshree ford,coimbatore.as per the sales guy,the display vehicle will reach the showroom by Monday or Tuesday 17.06.2013.test vehicle within a weeks time.80 vehicles booked so far.they will be getting 100 vehicles in the first lot.hope to get it by this month end.few accessories are tempting

Today is 17th June and there is not even a hint of communication from Ford. Going by their history of launches/facelifts (Figo and Endeavor), they generally start communicating atleast a week before the launch date and one would think they would do the same , if not better, for their most awaited product which might make or break Ford's future in India atleast. All this makes me suspicious about the "declared" launch dates of 20th or 21st. It is difficult to understand the strategy behind delaying the launch and makes me wonder, if there is indeed a problem with their Ecoboost engine (also could be a reason behind limiting the number of ecoboost vehicles to be delivered).

We have a better understanding of the accessories and the prices than we have about car which we need in the first place to put these accessories in lol:

C'mon Ford , its high time now :Frustrati

I don't have any clue why we all make such fuzz about the launch. I don't think launching it couple of weeks late will make people shift away and buy other cars. IMHO shifting will happen when they launch the car @ a reasonable price, and they don't have enough cars to meet the booking, creating waiting period.

When the car is launched and people enquire showroom guys will have to tell em that car has a waiting time of 2 months, there you lost a customer. He may not wait. Its better to have enough cars to meet the initial booking, that way more EcoSport will be running on the road. Making people think that its a hot cake and booking again goes up (Price also goes up). On the other hand, if they don't have enough cars to meet the booking, people won't see much cars on-road, making them think that the car is a failure.

If I was about to buy a car, and I know that EcoSport is gonna get launched and knowing that it may be competitively priced, I am gonna wait for a couple of weeks or even a month. But thats just me, Your case may be different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayD (Post 3151762)

I'm surprised to see that yellow has not been launched here!! The yellow test cars looked smashing!

Same case with the beige interiors. I spotted a yellow one wit beige interiors, and it looked much better than the dull interiors of the current one:Frustrati

Fords probably thinking that they will take the Beigification route (relaunch)if this car is an epic fail like the Fiesta. The Fiesta too was launched with much fanfare and priced all wrong. Do not put it past Ford to mess up pricing. Also please remember many people will get turned off by this vehicle when they see the size of it in person. Its not Duster! It will find many buyers at a lower price point though.