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Saturday afternoon, in Ghaziabad, was a bit of an unfortunate time for our Ecosport. We saw a sudden weather disturbance that led to Cyclonic winds, which in turn, uprooted lots of trees and hoardings. Our Ecosport was in our complex parking and a tree got uprooted and fell on it. The entire trunk was resting on the Ecosport.
Here are the pics:




Anyway, my Gurkha came to the rescue by pulling away the uprooted tree.

Here is the damage to the Ecosport:




All in all, not too bad, considering that the entire trunk was resting on the car.
The Ford Bodyshop, in it's assessment, did not find any structural damage or crack apart from these metal deformation.
The Honda owner remarked that his car got saved by the Ecosport, since a branch that fell on his car, crushed the car's bonnet!

I think I have adequate reason to be very happy with the Ecosport's build quality. It lives to run another day. :)

Hi Roy, sorry for the unfortunate event. Very happy to know that the damage was not structural.

Thank fully, no major body work as I assume its only the same part of the roof above the doors that has been damaged. Also I assume the roof rails are not metal. So thats again a relief and would have made the impact a lot smoother for the car. Another thing to note is the wind shield and the windows.

All should go well with min depr + cash less policy covering your car.

As you rightly said, thanks to the build quality. The heavy doors always needed some effort to close, but our confidence on the strength of the body work always got a boost then.

Wish your car some good time at the body shop. Hope to see it back in action soon.

Cheers

Its very sad to read about the damage to your car :(

Please find out from Ford how they plan to fix the damage above the driver's door. I'm asking because when selling cars, people check the beading around the doors to check if the can detect signs of any other welding other than the factory welding (due do different techniques used, apparently). I wouldn't want them to repair it in a way that gives an indication that such non-factory welding has occurred, which might affect resale.

Given the cosmetic appearance of the damage (combined with the assessment you received that its not structural damage), I'd hope they are able to just tinker and buff it back to shape.

Thanks Gentlemen. :)

Yes Peter. The Roof Rail is not Metal, but it has ZERO damage. The trunk fell on the metal roof, over the RHS doors.
All Glasses were intact, which means that the shock didn't transfer to the same.
Zero Dep indeed it is. Vehicle Survey has happened, although I don't know the result yet. ETA Today evening. Fingers crossed.

I did enquire of the procedure, and the Body Shop Manager told me specifically, that this job would not entail any Cutting, Drilling or Welding. They will pull the Metal up using some Tool (I don't know which), and repaint. He also said, that it is likely that the Windshield may need to be replaced, because it is very likely to break, when being dismantled, for the repair job. I don't see why the Glass has to break, but then (you know how profits are maximized)... ;)
Anyway, the Body shop is 1.5 km away from my home, so I intend to drop in every day to keep a close eye on the progress and modus operandi.

Wow, now i went to your pics and details and have found that the roof rails werent even touched. Wish you good luck and do update the pics once done, since you are walking in every day, on the go pics would be great.

Do check with these guys on the Windshield side, and I hope they wont break the Windshield.

Saddened to see the damage caused; but moved by your enthusiasm to take pictures and share it in the forum. Hope and wish that the cost to rectify the damage is minimal. All the best. Keep us posted.

Thanks Sir. The estimated cost is in the ballpark of 20-25k inclusive of the Windshield replacement.
However, the damage to my pocket would be in the range of the Standard Deductible and the Ensuing NCB loss, adding up to approximately 5k INR.

I doubt that they will pull the metal up as the sheet metal will be quite thick at these areas of car.
Please keep us updated on the way it's done.

Sad to see those pictures. Did you try approaching Non Ford Body shops? I think repair might not cost more than 10K. If you have maximum percentage discount on insurance(because of NCB), then I would suggest you have it checked outside Ford as well.

Just remembered the plight of Nissan Sunny here in Team BHP. While The Sunny got crushed, the Ecosport stood strong. While I know the impact depends on weight of the tree, the force with it falls, the build quality of Ecosport is something outstanding.

It sure would have been comforting to hear that the expense is limited to 5K. We too have a open Parking lot in our office and we used to cut the branches that are extending over the parking area to avoid such damages that might occur if the branches fall down.

Another idea would be to place Solid Iron Rails that would prevent the trees from falling in the parking area.

No Sir, I did not approach any FNG Body Shops. I intended to get this work done via Ford only, irrespective, of what it meant financially, because I didn't want them to come up with any wishy washy reasons later, for exclusions or limitations of warranty etc.
In any case, my previous experience with FNG Body shops suggests that the cost would not have been anything lesser than 10-15k INR for the extent of damage. So, right now, it is indeed cheaper too.

Oh, the immediate damage is just 1k. The NCB loss would kick in a few months down the line, but the passage of time dilutes the hit. :)

Your Gurkha mast have saved you some money here. Otherwise it would have been another expense to move such heavy tree form there.

The damage seems to be negligible as compared to the size of the tree. I can not imagine the damage on any other car like my Swift.

Sad to see the car being hit like this but am very very pleased to see the solid build quality of this Ford. The compact suv has taken the impact so well, the tree is quite big and the fat kerb weight of 1290 kgs shows its presence here. It would be better to claim insurance and get the repair done at an authorised workshop.

The damage is negligible and am sure the car would be back in shape very soon, this tree falling on many other best selling cars would have crushed them very badly :D

Sorry to see the incident happen on your car though nothing is in your hands but I am happy the damage isn't much to both your pocket and your car (read Structurally).

The Honda City owner would be thanking his stars inside for your EcoSport being beside else that car would have to be scrapped!

Hope you get the car back on shape ASAP and all formalities process faster. What is Ford's asking time to leave the car at their ASC for repair?

When I viewed the accident from my 8th floor balcony, I feared the worst for my car, however, when I reached the Parking, I was actually quite relieved, because the damage seemed minimal.
I am now, very happy, with this Ford's build quality and structural strength, but wouldn't prefer to get into the hypothetical territory of what could have happened to X, Y or Z vehicle.
But, don't forget, we also crib, when we report the Mileage figures since the car has a lot more KGs to haul. :)

The Honda owner, in fact, after viewing the damage caused by the branch on his bonnet, was profuse in his admission and acknowledgement of the favor that this Ford did to his Honda. :D
I couldn't take any more pics that day, since it started raining heavily and we got too involved in extricating the vehicles.

The Service Center has given me an ETA of 21 June. The Survey happened yesterday afternoon, but don't know of the Report yet. My insurer is a relatively new player - Liberty Videocon.