[amohan78]

Originally Posted by NaXal

Couple of words to sum it up, cost cutting.

Thanks for the clear and crisp clarification. Reading this, I had the feeling of

Ford has indeed thought that the Indian mass market car purchasers would not understand the difference between Remote Keyless Entry vis-a-vis Keyless Entry. It is egregious to think us as fools in this way.

Anyways, this is quite a thing that they have reserved all the modern facilities for Ford Eco Sport. But, they could also create an after market eco system by giving such add-ons of premium cars on mass market models at an extra added cost. That will be a source of revenue for them.

Regards
Anish

[amohan78]

Hi Frankmehta

Have you installed the Ford owners App and mapped your VIN to it ? If you click on the "service checklist" icon in that App, are you able to see the data points related to your car in that menu ?

In my case, it is coming as Oops - No data found. The dealer has no clue what to do on the same.

I think the new Aspire is not configured on the App.

[frankmehta]

Originally Posted by amohan78

Hi Frankmehta

Have you installed the Ford owners App and mapped your VIN to it ? If you click on the "service checklist" icon in that App, are you able to see the data points related to your car in that menu ?

In my case, it is coming as Oops - No data found. The dealer has no clue what to do on the same.

I think the new Aspire is not configured on the App.

Works fine for me.

[amohan78]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

Works fine for me.

Thanks Buddy. Your screenshot did the trick. In the vehicle name, I had written only Aspire and hence the software was not picking up.

I saw that, you had left the string as Ford Aspire (the default one).

I remapped the VIN with the default value and voila !!! it works !!!

Thanks again buddy for the help.

[amohan78]

Hi All

Again I come with a question. This time, my query is on one of the functionality of the car called "Tilt Steering".

I presumed it meant that I can tilt the steering wheel as per my convenience. The movement will be in terms of up and down as opposed to backward and forward.

The tilt steering is present in all the variants of Ford Aspire. But I have not been able to understand on how to operate the Tilt Steering as i could not locate any level on the steering column.

Apologies on asking such a silly question, but can anyone help me ?

[NaXal]

Originally Posted by amohan78

Again I come with a question. This time, my query is on one of the functionality of the car called "Tilt Steering".

I presumed it meant that I can tilt the steering wheel as per my convenience. The movement will be in terms of up and down as opposed to backward and forward.

The tilt steering is present in all the variants of Ford Aspire. But I have not been able to understand on how to operate the Tilt Steering as i could not locate any level on the steering column.

I think you should watch this video of Over Drive with partnership of Ford India.

This should answer your question in details.

https://youtu.be/k3qZudsAz94

Thanks.

[amohan78]

Originally Posted by NaXal

I think you should watch this video of Over Drive with partnership of Ford India.

This should answer your question in details.

Thanks. I have seen this video earlier before posting.

But I did not find the lever as shown in this video. This seems to be on the left hand side of the steering column and kind of a push lever. I reached out there but do not see a lever that I can push so easily. All the mechanical parts are so stiff, it did not seem to move so easily as shown in the video.

[amohan78]

Waiting for the December sales data in Team BHP.

Ford in the meanwhile has made a 16% YoY sales improvement as per Economic Times today.

Hopefully Ford will feature in the list.

[amohan78]

The December Car Sales are out. And Ford has not made it to the list. There is no mind share for its cars , Eco Sport is down.

On the first page at the end, comments by Strawhat has been quite intriguing and I share the same concern too ?

The Aspire is unable to even elicit any interest among the prospective buyers of Dzire. Not sure why is Ford India unable to bring out good sales numbers.

The 15% YoY increase is due to low base effect and has very little substance to write home about.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by amohan78

....

But I did not find the lever as shown in this video. This seems to be on the left hand side of the steering column and kind of a push lever. I reached out there but do not see a lever that I can push so easily. All the mechanical parts are so stiff, it did not seem to move so easily as shown in the video.

You're looking for the bit highlighted in red in the below picture. It's a pull-down type lever. You pull it down & away from the steering towards the footwell to free up the tilt movement, adjust steering height to your liking and push the lever back up firmly into its original position. These levers are firm by design, esp. when locked into place. You don't want them to shake loose on a bad patch of road and surprise you.

[NaXal]

Originally Posted by amohan78

Not sure why is Ford India unable to bring out good sales numbers.

Billion dollar question for all other brands except the big two, Maruti and Hyundai.

I can't judge the whole India but here in Kolkata at-least, Ford Sales treat walk-ins or enquirers in two simple category. Either we are just window shopping or we are already in for purchasing a Ford. There is really no conversion attempt. I feel the lack of hunger on follow ups or usual sales related tasks.

I am sharing a very recent encounter with one of the Ford Dealer of Kolkata. My cousin is looking to replace his 6 year old Honda with something new.

I walked into a Car Mela (temporary extension counter) organised by this dealer from which I have purchased my own car. There was no enthusiasm towards my walk-in approach, no offer for test drive, even they simply didn't even offer to show the car with proper demonstration. Sales Agent casually gave his business card, noted my name/number and verbally informed the price. He didn't even offer any brochure or price list, not even a simple photocopy. Dealership people were seen busy clicking pictures of the event. Felt like they were only there to please their top boss.

The same event also had a True Value dealership. I walked up there for asking about a pre-owned Petrol Etriga. They didn't have anything in stock at that time. But the sales agent did ask me about the use and tried to switch me to a different car. They offered me test drive of any of their car present there. Couple of days back I received a callback from this True Value dealership about a pre-owned Etriga coming into their stock and that sales agent wanted to know if I was still looking to purchase.

Just think about it. Ford dealer didn't even bother to give a call back to an existing customer of their own dealership, no test drive offered, even they were so lazy with demonstrating what they are selling.

How on earth Ford expect to see their numbers climbing. Automotive news portal or website like Team Bhp have a really limited reach. On top, my dealership ended up selling my personal information to Club Mahindra for extra income.

Someone attached with Maruti dealership once told me, Maruti isn't a company, it's an institution. Indians aren't fool, there are some solid reason behind Maruti's market domination, decade after decade. Ford needs to put more effort with their sales people. They lack the hunger, they lack the enthusiasm. TV/News paper ads have vanished. They have seen a turn around with their previous advertisement series on service/maintenance. I wonder why they simply stopped running such or follow that up with a new series along side this new launch cycle of EcoSports/FreeStyle/Aspire?

[amohan78]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

You're looking for the bit highlighted in red in the below picture. It's a pull-down type lever. You pull it down & away from the steering towards the footwell to free up the tilt movement, adjust steering height to your liking and push the lever back up firmly into its original position. These levers are firm by design, esp. when locked into place. You don't want them to shake loose on a bad patch of road and surprise you.

Attachment 1834720

Thanks you so very much ! I indeed see this lever and it is very very tight !! In fact I am so nervous that it will break if I press too much.

I agree 200% with your point that I would desist from fiddling with this as I do not need any adjustment of the steering wheel at all. Why to loosen the lever unnecessarily when I do not need it and run the risk of steering wheel falling down. That will be scary as hell !

Thanks !!

[hillsnrains]

Originally Posted by amohan78

Thanks you so very much ! I indeed see this level and it is very very tight !! In fact I am so nervous that it will break if I press too much.

I agree 200% with your point that I would desist from fiddling with this as I do not need any adjustment of the steering wheel at all. Why to loosen the lever unnecessarily when I do not need it and run the risk of steering wheel falling down. That will be scary as hell !

Thanks !!

Mate you should not worry at all about damaging the lever. As Chetan rightly pointed lever is quite sturdy and will not damage with normal usage. This has been designed to adjust steering as per once convenience, so you should make use of a feature. After all you paid for it
If you see clearly there is a recess (groove) in the panel below steering. You can pull down the lever until it touches the groove without any worry.

[Kuldeep31]

Managed to drive the new 1.5 TDCi of a friend yesterday. The first thing that had my attention was the beautiful front grille. The Aspire looks much better in person and IMO the chrome application is the best stock version presently available in the C1 category. After driving it I think MB’s claim of 9.72 sec 0-100 sprint is not exaggerated. The Aspire has an addictive pull well after the 120 mark that may be only equalled by the Ameo (CI segment). The ride quality within the city was quite good and I think that will keep users satisfied 80 % of the time. Only if there was the option to pick a darker cabin shade!! A true all-rounder in every sense of the word, the success of the Aspire depends on how well Ford can reach out to the customers the MSIL way.

Originally Posted by NaXal

Someone attached with Maruti dealership once told me, Maruti isn't a company, it's an institution. Indians aren't fool, there are some solid reason behind Maruti's market domination, decade after decade. Ford needs to put more effort with their sales people. They lack the hunger, they lack the enthusiasm.

Absolutely. IMO, 50% of Maruti's fan following is because of how they treat their customers. Maruti's success recipe is there for every company to see but disappointingly very few of them are reluctant to pursue it whole-heartedly . BTW, which Ford-dealership did you visit?

[Maverick Avi]

I took delivery of my Aspire Petrol Trend Plus in White Gold color on Jan 9th, 2019. And guess what, its Jan 2019 manufactured!!! I plan to write a somewhat detailed ownership review after it logs in some miles. Some observations and questions below.

1. My car doesn't have the insulation under bonnet lid. Its mentioned in review that petrol also gets that so was wondering if its specific to some variants such as Titanium etc. The engine is super silent without it too so again not too worried about it but it would have been surly better with it. Saw a 2018 Aspire(Trend Plus) in showroom and that was without it too.

2. The rubber lip below front bumper is not there too. Not sure if Ford has stopped providing it on 2019 manufactured Aspires or its a miss on my car. I anyways was never a fan of it but just wondering why its not there.

3. Temp gauge for engine temperature is not there in MID. The owner's manual reflects 2 instrument panels. One with an RPM going upto 8K and other till 6K. The one with 6K has temp gauge. So am wondering if its limited to Diesel Aspire or its something which comes up only on higher variants. I always prefer a real time temp gauge so this was a bit of a disappointment.

4. Autofold ORVMs have to be manually folded inwards when you are parking your car. If you forget then its not recommended to manually push them inwards. So you would have to unlock the car, insert the key and then fold them inwards using the lever. What the heck. Can't they autofold when the car is locked. Ford Ecosport Trend Plus has this option. I guess it must be possible through a software update?