[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by MAS

Your avatar shows that you love the camera. How did you miss it?

Ha ha ha...now this completely blew me away...what a paradox and how comes I did not pick it.

This thread is full of surprizes and twists - pretty much like the life that Force One is going to live, I think. Looks like a very proportionate and sensible SUV. I registred for a TD online. Let's see when they call me and how the Force One feels compared to my Tucson.

[harimakesh]

If Force One is given ABS, DUAL air bags, 10" roof mount DVD + 5 years unlimited warranty including AMC at revised price of Rs. 8.9L then it will sell in decent volumes PULLING significant XYLO E8/ scorpio SLE/safari EX prospects

[Archish]

@ Autofreak : The girl in your pic who looking nervous and biting her nails is the salesgirl whom I am talking about. Her name is Maheshwari, if I remember correctly. If any one is going to MPC ask for her.

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Is this called "BACK WITH A BANG?" Away from the forum for some time [yeah, the "edit" mode] & what a RE-ENTRY !!

Thanks man. Yes, its a good reentry of sorts.

0. A comparo pic of the Force 1 along side your Innova for us to get a feel of the size.

* Will surely do that man.

1. Could you point out how was the ride comfort compared to Innova [all rows] - since this is the benchmark here for comfort & since you own one, comparing it should be easy.

* With Innova one get a feel of being in a Volvo bus if u know what I mean, its good, its ok. But with force one, there is space all around.

2. How easy / difficult is to get into the 3rd row?
* Same as Innova. My wife who is not on the taller side got in and out with ease.

3. Do you have to climb into the car making ingress / egress difficult to elderly people?
* Yeah, one has to climb in. No walking or sliding in here.

4. Any squeaks / rattles?
* None.

5. How is the seat material ?
* Good. Art leather. But gave a good feel. Not upmarket, middle marker. lol.

6. Did you mentioned that the space is much better than Innova in 1st, 2nd, 3rd rows & also in the boot?
* There is much better room than Innova in all 3 rows and the boot has double the space.

7. Noise inside the cabin while cruising / up shifting - with windows down & rolled up?
* No cabin noise with windows rolled up. I never rolled down the windows, it was 100% Ac on.

8. Howz the vibration on gear lever / steering while idling / starting the car?
* There is acceptable amount of vibration on gear lever. No Steering vibe. It does not shake while starting

9. Steering feedback at various speeds?
* Was good. Dint feel it was too light at high speeds or too heavy at low speeds. It was correct

10. And yeah, PICS, PICS & LOTS OF PICS.
* Sure. Coming up... Coming up....

11. Did you by any chance get to know the usual service interval & service costs per service? Also anything like road-assistance etc is offered?
* No. Dint enquire. Will surely do next time.

12. If possible, please do TD Safari & Aria & give us a comparo between all these cars. Trust me, you will be considered a SUPER-HERO after that.
* Safari, I have already driven and I have already compared Force One and Safari. Will surely try the Aria. Atleast, I will do it to become a SUPER-HERO.

[amitg79]

Great review, Archish. But why, oh why did you not click pictures??
I was walking past a parked Force One the other day and found its presence quite impressive, particularly the wheel size to vehicle height ratio. Gave it a planted look. Interiors looked a bit iffy, though.

[ankurvirmani19]

Great review, however missing the pictures.
Did you TD Tata Aria, I believe it is a good vehicle with lots of space and power? The interiors, safety features and controls are better, plus an image probably better than Force Motors.

BTW how is the A.S.S of Force motors?

[honeybee]

Thanks for the last row pic, even though it's reclined, I can now get some idea of the boot space behind the third row. This is by far the best people mover I have come across which can really carry a big family in comfort.

Now I don't have money to buy one new, so I shall mark it for my 'pre-worshipped' list for when I have to upgrade from my existing pre-owned cars to a bigger vehicle. And the lack of ABS, EBS or Airbags doesn't disturb me, as being driven at insane speeds is not what this vehicle is meant for.

[srishiva]

Space after 3rd row looks adequate. Thanks for the review. Surprising you don't have a camera phone (or a phone)
The front bonnet doesn't gel with the stance of the rest of it. Looks puny.

[andromeda]

Great review Archish. The Re-entry post is very crisp and humorous !!


Force One (with it being a 'proper' 7-seater) does have the potential to get the numbers. Looks like they've got the interior layout (if not a very high quality dashboard) correct. Force is going all out to convince it's potential customers by putting the chassis on display. Hope they get the ABS/Airbag variant soon. Is the cargo bay fully flat when the 2nd & 3rd row seats are folded ?

[Sudan_NFS]

I had a look at this car in Amabattur. At first in the long distance I mistook this vehicle for Lincoln Navigator/Ford expedition from its tail lights and back/Side view then I saw the logo it's Force. I will say this vehicle has much similarity with Lincoln Navigator/Ford expedition, which has good road presence and good space inside. These SUVs falls under full size/large SUV which is the largest you can get.
I am happy that at least we have one fullsize SUV in our market which is priced okay.
They have made a mistake by leaving Airbags and ABS, EBD and EPS which has become a must in the safety list for a vehicle above 8L these days. I believe that this vehicle will be a good option for the Taxi segment, might give tough competition for Innova taxi segment.

[roy_libran]

Force, Again, seems to have a great product at hand; one that will suit customer Needs to the 'T', though not all that the customer Wants.
Again, the packaging, pricing, marketing and sales machinery seem to be a bit off.

It's sad to see that the Competition almost never does, or can do anything to beat / kill a Force Product. They themselves take care of the same!

Having had seen the XUV in detail, I actually like the Force One way more. But they (Force) MUST do something for the Pricing. They are just trying to re-enter the retail market, and no one knows of them (rightly so!), so they need to sacrifice on their margins for some time while they rebuild their brand image.

They have done this earlier with the Gurkha, and now they are doing the same mistakes over and over again. Why, Force, why?

[noopster]

One major concern for me with any vehicle is the corporate entity backing it. The "About Us" section of Force's website doesn't say much except something about starting off as Firodia Tempo in the 50s and now being a leading manufacturer of offroaders, tractors and the like. So googled a bit and this is what I found out:

• This is the company behind the ubiquitous (back then) Matador
• The company was briefly called Bajaj Tempo due to a partial acquisition by Bajaj Auto at some point. This is what I remember them as.
• Trax Gurkha from their stable has been the closest they have come to a non-commercial vehicle
• They have tie-ups with MAN AG for trucks, which they manufacture in Pithampur, MP, and now Daimler for the Force One. Some of their older vehicles, notably the (Tempo) Traveller also feature Mercedes engines.

Sorry if this is common knowledge, but it was news to me and thought it was relevant, so I thought I'd post!

I've seen the Force One in the flesh and it looks formidable! Didn't have much of a bone to pick with the interiors and trim either. The price isn't too bad either: the only thing that bugs me is that they have skipped on essential safety features to keep prices low!

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by noopster

One major concern for me with any vehicle is the corporate entity backing it. The "About Us" section of Force's website doesn't say much except something about starting off as Firodia Tempo in the 50s and now being a leading manufacturer of offroaders, tractors and the like. So googled a bit and this is what I found out:

• This is the company behind the ubiquitous (back then) Matador
• The company was briefly called Bajaj Tempo due to a partial acquisition by Bajaj Auto at some point. This is what I remember them as.
• Trax Gurkha from their stable has been the closest they have come to a non-commercial vehicle
• They have tie-ups with MAN AG for trucks, which they manufacture in Pithampur, MP, and now Daimler for the Force One. Some of their older vehicles, notably the (Tempo) Traveller also feature Mercedes engines.

Sorry if this is common knowledge, but it was news to me and thought it was relevant, so I thought I'd post!

I've seen the Force One in the flesh and it looks formidable! Didn't have much of a bone to pick with the interiors and trim either. The price isn't only too bad either: the only thing that bugs me is that they have skipped on essential safety features to keep prices low!

Yeah noopster, its common knowledge
Infact the Matador, was a licensed copy of a very popular VW van.

The Tempo/Force Traveller, is one of the most popular people movers around us, and though decade old, has kept the Tata Winger at bay. It's latest version is quite ugly, and they had to roll it out since the license reached it's end probably, for the original design. The original Traveller with rectangular headlamps is a direct 1:1 copy of a popular Mercedes van. (You can see it in Arnold Schwarznegger's TRUE LIES in one of the early night chase sequences.)

The Force made MAN trucks are regularly seen on Pune's NH4 bypass, and so are Force branded heavy trucks. And don't forget the 3 wheeler Minidor . It gives as much hard time on the highway to us hatchbackers as a Scorpio.

Force is a company with plenty history and expertise. They just lost their way after the Trax-Judo-GAMA. I hope the Force One turns things around!

[abhi_k007]

congrts dude, did u check out the cost of service and the general maintenance of the car? please update

[splitsecond]

Thanks to Archish for this rare first hand review! and to Auto freak for posting pictures. I never thought force one looks this good. It looks very good in black and dark colors, just checked the zigwheels photos the suv looks well proportioned , all three rows are very good one space and height, unlike endevour which has good space but seats are low.Rear and side profile are well designed but the head light and grill could have been better. We need more suv's like this at 1million rupee mark.

And this thread is awesome! its has everything humor, paradox, coincidence

[sajo]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Yeah noopster, its common knowledge
Infact the Matador, was a licensed copy of a very popular VW van.

I dont think so, the Matador was perhaps based on the Hanomag F20 D, but experts can confirm. No relation to the VW Microbus.

EDIT : I dont know why the Airbags/ABS versions need till 2012 to make an appearance. A vehicle capable of acceleration like this one does need ABS, its like a basic necessity, especially if they arent exactly selling it cheap.
Reinhard sir, you seem to be very active on this thread, planning to buy kya ? If so, you sould wait for Merlin too!