[jaideepshinh]

Originally Posted by Catalyst_delhi

It does look like a lower ball joint failure at driving speeds. I wonder if the part is shared with the Figo or the fiesta. This kinds of failure does not happen till 150 K kms or more, not expected on a brand new car.

As you've mentioned, in the photos is visible that the ball joint is what has sheared off from the lower arm. This happening at a reasonable speed results in massive damage as the wheel assembly (knuckle+caliper+wheel hub) is no longer constrained to the vehicle.

I've had this happen to me in the past, but luckily at very low speeds resulting in almost no damage to the car (i was at approx 10 kmph). That was a good old contessa with 70k on the odo.

[MunnabhaiMBBS]

Originally Posted by GTO

Poornima Krishnan shares this horrific story with us.

Post analysis of events, it seems to be an attempt of covering up the manufacturing defect. IMHO,Ford should assume the responsibility and repair the vehicle sans any cost.

If Ford does not agree :

1. She should get the vehicle assessed by an independent assessor to ascertain the root cause of the incident. No point in being 100% dependent on Ford's ASC to know the same as chances are very thin that they will own their shortcomings, if any.

2. If the independent assessment report indicates the manufacturing defect, then she might want to bring in the ministry of road transport through the Grievance portal before going to the consumer court.

All the best

[roby.thomas]

Just posting a possibility. What if before reaching this stretch, the vehicle plummeted into some rough patch and took the damage. When on reaching perfect tarmac and picked up speeds, then it snapped ? I don't think the pictures can prove that it was damaged while on perfect road.

If the alloy developed cracks first (before reaching here), and when on picking up speed it sheared off, would that cause further damages as we see ?

[Higgs_Boson_i]

Shocked!! Shocked!! Shocked!!

Firstly relieved to note that nobody has been hurt/injured.

I myself have been recommending the EcoSport to my friends on the basis that it is a good quality vehicle, good safety features, handles well etc...but this incident has simply taken the wind out of the argument for this car..

Originally Posted by GTO

Poornima Krishnan shares this horrific story with us.

The axle of the car simply gave away :

This seems to be a major manufacturing defect. I'm just glad that no one was injured. If it had to happen in the middle of an overtaking manouveur or fast corner, it would have disastrous consequences.

Worse still, forget any investigation from Ford or the dealership, the service center coolly sends an estimate of Rs. 3.4 lakh across!

In other news, Ford just announced a recall today...but for the EcoSport's rear end:

I am also very disappointed with the way the dealership and Ford India have responded. I thought Ford India was one of the more Scrupulous companies around (we have all see how bad VW turned out, and how Hyundai treats its grand i10 customers -- 0 NCAP rating ..).

The least the company can do in this case is to take care of all the repairs with a BIG Apology and possibly add something like free service, insurance for next 5 years.

[i74js]

Originally Posted by roby.thomas

Just posting a possibility. What if before reaching this stretch, the vehicle plummeted into some rough patch and took the damage. When on reaching perfect tarmac and picked up speeds, then it snapped ? I don't think the pictures can prove that it was damaged while on perfect road.

If the alloy developed cracks first (before reaching here), and when on picking up speed it sheared off, would that cause further damages as we see ?

Have you driven your car at insane speeds on rough roads when the car is in running in period? I am sure like every other good driver, who understand that the car has to run in and she/ he has to be extra cautious on rough patches, the driver of this car would have done the same.

Do not get into speculations please !

[roby.thomas]

Originally Posted by i74js

Do not get into speculations please !

That equally holds good for speculating on Ford quality too. I didn't mean the driver was rash or anything, you can get into a poth hole unexpectedly. You may not even remember it if this happened a while back. I was just asking if that was a possibility.

[4nd3r50n]

Do not get into speculations please !

I think we are all speculating here- as we try and diagnose what could be the cause of this horrible accident. Thankfully, no one got hurt physically, but I am sure as hell, the psychological scars will run deep- even after the car is back to it's original form. As a potential Ecosport buyer, I am deeply disturbed by this incident and will wait for an outcome to see what caused this before plonking 10+ lakhs to buy the car- if I buy the car.

[i74js]

Originally Posted by roby.thomas

That equally holds good for speculating on Ford quality too. I didn't mean the driver was rash or anything, you can get into a poth hole unexpectedly. You may not even remember it if this happened a while back. I was just asking if that was a possibility.

Originally Posted by 4nd3r50n

I think we are all speculating here- as we try and diagnose what could be the cause of this horrible accident. Thankfully, no one got hurt physically, but I am sure as hell, the psychological scars will run deep- even after the car is back to it's original form. As a potential Ecosport buyer, I am deeply disturbed by this incident and will wait for an outcome to see what caused this before plonking 10+ lakhs to buy the car- if I buy the car.

I beg to slightly differ, I have been with the forum for past 6 years now and have seen people coming forward and accepting in case the machine has shown symptoms before failure or if there was an incident just before the actual mishap.

The recent being a Punto's failure immediately after 60k servicing, and before that 2 cases of Skoda Fabia (oil sump leakage) another case where in a fellow purchased a 2nd hand Skoda SuperB and was in the workshop for several repairs.

All in all, I along with many others are of the opinion that it is difficult to attribute this failure to the car owner and requires Ford to take it up immediately.

Our country unfortunately has no lemon laws and I do not see any possibility in distant future; it is the masses, that make or break a perception and believe me, I own a Ford Escort and can say that the quality I received in the original product is nowhere in the replacements that I have bought during the past 18 years (All from Talera and Harpreet Ford). This could be true for other manufacturers too.

Ford should reach out to the customer and address the issue. In this case, if this is not a manufacturing defect, Ford will have to prove otherwise and not the customer.

Peace.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by roby.thomas

Just posting a possibility. What if before reaching this stretch, the vehicle plummeted into some rough patch and took the damage. When on reaching perfect tarmac and picked up speeds, then it snapped ?

If this is true, then Ford needs to make its parts & cars more robust.

1. Since this EcoSport was a brand new car, we can safely rule out suspension wear & tear.

2. In my 5+ lakh kms of driving experience, I have put everything from a Premier Padmini to a Mercedes through innumerable rough patches, potholes and what have you. On two occasions, I've ended up with a bent wheel and / or ruptured tyre due to the sheer force of impact. But NEVER has my car's front end collapsed.

We have thousands of BHPian cars on the forum and they too encounter the rough roads of India. How many times have BHPians reported axle failure on a car with <1,000 kms on the odo?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by GTO

We have thousands of BHPian cars on the forum and they too encounter the rough roads of India. How many times have BHPians reported axle failure on a car with <1,000 kms on the odo?

Unfortunately, just because something is rare or has a statistically very low chance of happening, it can't be ruled out either. I certainly know of several people who had a very substantial crash with (near) brand new cars with even less kms on the odo. Might be rare, but it does happen.

I still think that unless the broken parts get examined and tested properly there is simply no way of proving anything one way or the other. It would be interesting to see some sort of formal statement from Ford on this, but it looks as if that might not be forth coming at any time soon.

Jeroen

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by GTO

Since this EcoSport was a brand new car

Do you know if Ford India has picked up this issue, after its been featured/discussed here, or is the issue still with the ASC?

We see the ASC are doing what they do best (replace everything in sight), but we're curious to hear what Ford has to say.

Also, is there an independent third party an average customer can approach in India, to analyse broken parts?

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I still think that unless the broken parts get examined and tested properly there is simply no way of proving anything one way or the other. It would be interesting to see some sort of formal statement from Ford on this

[mpksuhas]

A scary incident no doubt, glad that everyone got out fine.

Reminds me of another incident which was reported last year. Link

[nitheeshsreeram]

Originally Posted by GTO

Poornima Krishnan shares this horrific story with us.

Brand new Ford EcoSport Titanium Petrol
Delivery date: 14th October, 2015.

This happened when they were travelling from Bangalore to Sringeri on 31st October, 2015. The axle of the car simply gave away ! The front end collapsed with such force that the alloy was completely fractured.

Prima facie, there appears to be no impact, accident or driver error which caused this. Moderator Jaggu agrees. It was a clean stretch of tarmac (no potholes).

This seems to be a major manufacturing defect. I'm just glad that no one was injured. If it had to happen in the middle of an overtaking manouveur or fast corner, it would have disastrous consequences.

Thats scary, I also own a 1.5 petrol bought on 21st October and had driven almost 2000 km in highway speeds, lucky that nobody got injured. Does look like a manufacturing defect but surprising considering the quality checks in todays world.

[aerohit]

I believe this is a classic case of Tie Rod failure

Chain of events-
1) Left side Tie Rod snaps!
2) As a result wheel twists outwards
3) As a result lower arm sheers off
4) As a result cv axle also pops out
5) As a result suspension collapses, rim drags and cracks

Being a new car its possible that someone worked on wheel alignment and forgot to tighten the Tie Rods properly.

Its also possible that Tie Rod was defective from the factory itself.

I hope the owner has taken pics of Tie Rod End and Tie Rod Joint also.

[born_free]

Both Ecosport and Vento were on my radar as next possible purchase, due to nature of their automatic transmission.

First it was VW and now its Ford in news for wrong reasons.

Sadly my options for automatic transmission have been severely limited.

I would need to re-consider my decision and probably go for Manual Transmission, as other automatic cars do not excite me enough.

I am keenly watching this space for Ford's response, before I change my mind.