Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by nik_kapur (Post 3151788)

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.

When you say many, you probably meant 'many' of enthusiasts - team-bhpians etc, which is a very small percentage of car buying public in our country. And most of them, if not all, haven't yet heard about the car, let alone having any expectations. When Ford start/step-up their mainstream marketing/advertisements, such as newspaper, TV etc., it will be interesting to see how they position the Ecosport. Ford can simply call the car what it is and let the customers perceive it the way they want. It's up to the buyers to make comparisons with duster, swift, Amaze or whatever they can think of.

In my opinion, even though there is a lot of interest and activity on this forum and others online, the fact of the matter is that the car has just been announced and there's a perceived delay of only about a month for the prices to be announced.

Quote:

Originally Posted by limited-edition (Post 3151766)

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.

I think this is exactly what GM did with Sail sedan. They did a soft launch without even building the inventory(May be they knew the fate of this car) People who went to showrooms were told about 1-2 month waiting period but there were hardly any cars on the road to make people notice a new car lol:

Coming out with clarifications regarding pre-booking and cancellations on the Ford Ecosport facebook page, Ford is claiming that cancellations would be applicable only on the bookings done after price announcement. Pre-bookings would be refunded with entire 50K on cancellation.

Here is the link : https://www.facebook.com/FordEcoSport?fref=ts

Word just came in : EcoSports are rolling off the production line in Chennai and being shipped to Ford dealers throughout India.

Car has been reviewed
Bookings have officially opened
Showrooms are waiting & ready
Factory -> dealer shipments have begun
Customer cheque books getting warm
Competition / Duster laughing all the way to the bank

No launch date yet? :Frustrati:Frustrati

Ford is keeping the launch and prices under wraps like a state secret. Come on guys bring it on else a lot many customers tired of the wait will move on to competition and even to other segments like entry sedans etc.

Now Maruti and Renault must be on a over drive to churn out as many Dzires and Dusters as possible before the Amaze and Ecosport come to full steam since they all compete in similar price brackets.

I was asked 1 Lac as a booking amount by Talera Ford. :Shockked:
The Sales guy added 3 months waiting period to it. Are they driving people away from booking the ecosport?
No way I am handing over my money before I get to drive the car and knowing the price.

Just got off the phone with a lady at Metro Ford Palace Cross,this is what she told me:

If i book the car now, I'll get it within 3 months of booking if its a diesel variant
Ecoboost engine has a 9 month wait apparently :Shockked:
Booking amount is 50k and no cancellation charges if its a pre-launch booking
Pricing and official launch MAY happen in 2 days

Ecosport's pricing is probably Ford's best kept secret since inception!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3151978)

I guess they are confused about the pricing. I am sure, they are working really hard to keep the prices down. They don't want to make same mistake they did with New Fiesta. One way its good. Better late than launching car in a hurry at wrong price. I guess they will launch at very attractive price for the base model. Top end model will be costly & will give Ford more profits. They will see the market response and then increase the price as others did. Not a bad idea IMO :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by shashank.nk (Post 3152020)

Just got off the phone with a lady at Metro Ford Palace Cross,this is what she told me:

If i book the car now, I'll get it within 3 months of booking if its a diesel variant
Ecoboost engine has a 9 month wait apparently :Shockked:
Booking amount is 50k and no cancellation charges if its a pre-launch booking
Pricing and official launch MAY happen in 2 days

Ecosport's pricing is probably Ford's best kept secret since inception!

With such a waiting period for ecoboost, people are definitely going to look away from Ecosport (all those who have been waiting for engine of the year). For diesel variants, we already have duster outperforming others, and people would consider it as an option, of course at an additional cost. in between all this, if Ford messes up the pricing even marginally, they would have to pay bigtime and from being the most successful car , Ecosport would end up being a bigger dud than Fiesta. This might be a blessing in disguise for the die hard ecosport fans as they would be able to leverage this and ask for huge discounts :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by aniketi (Post 3152025)

Since the shipments have begun, Ford will have decided on the price, else, they will not be able to ship the cars.

I hope Ford India does not do a Fiesta out of the Ecosport. The Ecosport has all the right things going for it now. I hope they have priced it right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shashank.nk (Post 3152020)

[*]Ecoboost engine has a 9 month wait apparently :Shockked:

Hope they really understood what they were saying. 9 month waiting period is sheer madness. Add to that the time the public have waited for the launch. Seriously suspect whether this would be the case as Ford has been on a overdrive mode to promote the ecoboost in particular and a 9 month waiting period would be a definite problem. I'm not sure whether anybody leave alone TBHPians would be ready to wait for that long.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thiagust (Post 3152053)

With my conversation with folks from Ford, what I could deduce is that, because ecoboost Engine is an imported engine, they can't able to price it very aggressively. SO I am expecting the price to go above diesel. Secondly because of these pricing issue, they are not expecting the ecoboost to find many takers. So now itself, they are limiting the production of ecoboost variants to minimum. As with the lesser supply, the waiting period is getting prolonged to 9 months with the current demand. With the prices getting announced the demand may go down. As of now only 5% of the total cars are ecoboost ones.

Went to Kairali Ford this evening to have a look at the Ecosport. Was expecting only three orange Ecosport vehicles which were part of the Urban Discoveries Campaign.
However, I was pleasantly surprise by a white vehicle and that too diesel. The salesman said that the vehicle was the test drive vehicle and will be provided for test drives after some RTO clearances (and definitely only after the launch)

Ford EcoSport : Official Review-img_4602.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3151978)

You missed one thing GTO. Ford CEO Mulally has reached Chennai. Since the main man is in India (and they were waiting for him to unveil the car) the official launch can't be too far away. My guess is the launch is in a few days, definitely this week.