Cars considered :
Swift : High on resale value but for me, It’s an overpriced tin can. Doesn’t handle well, no rear leg room, small boot and looks sad (I like the exterior of the prev gen swift). Dad ruled it out as he hates Japanese cars now. (Honda is an exception though)
Polo & Fabia: Linear power delivery, price on the higher side, 3 cylinder engine. Did a road trip on the fabia last year from Faridabad till rohtang pass. Loved it but even that’s on the higher side of the price window.
Punto : the 90 bhp horse, handles well, give good FE, But scary A.S.S by TATA. Experienced sad service on my friend’s car.
Beat : Underpowered so ruled out. It’s small for me.
Deciding session :
Me : Dad, I think I’ll get a diesel. My first diesel car.
Dad : you mad? You just bought a nano some 4-5 months ago.
Me : Yeah but I’ll sell the nano and get a diesel.
Dad : But why? You said some XYZ story before buying the nano. What about all that? I told you nano just isn’t for you, but you never listen!
Me : Nano is a great car dad, I like it, I’m selling it because we are two people who drive at home and why do we need 3 cars?
Discussion went on for a week or so,
A week later,
Dad : Which car do you have in mind?
Me : Figo!
Dad : Why do you want to get a hatch again? We already have 2 hatches at home, Let’s get a sedan instead.
Me : I like hatches dad, Sedans are not in my mind at all. I want a hatch.
Dad : Will you growup?
Me : I will, but after I get my hatch :D
Dad : I was thinking about a sedan soon.
Me : Let’s wait for some time and then pick a sedan, There are many sedans coming in.
Dad : Hmm.. Ok.
Me : So when shall we get it.
Dad : we’ll see.
Me: See when?
Dad : Arrggghhhh!!! Stop pestering me!!! I know you like cars but obsession just isn’t it!!
Me : I’m in love with cars dad, I want it ASAP! You know how much I love cars right?
Dad : Fine let’s book it sometime this week. Meanwhile, go to the showroom n get me the details.
Me : Everything is done dad, All I need now is your signature as a guarantor. The booking form and everything has been taken care of, just your autograph and we’ll have the car in a day’s time.
Dad : What?! Are you serious?
Me : Yes, All done. I booked a Black titanium with a black dash.
Dad : Black? No, It should either be white or no car.
Me : But dad, It’s my first diesel and I want it in black. My bike’s black, my phone’s black, my wallet is black so should my car be black. It just doesn’t match if I take a white car :P
Dad : LOL, fine. Let’s go tomorrow and get it.
Me : The showroom guys are ready to do it today, so let’s go today?
Dad : (gave me the “looks”)
Me : Tomorrow first thing in the morning, Done deal .
Following night was the longest night for me. I already started search for the audio, wheels, and other things I had in mind for the car. Kept reading through reviews and feedbacks to see if there are any common issues which keep occurring in every car. Downloaded some pictures and did some photoshop work to see if my imaginations would look good on the car or not and soon it was 10 in the morning.
Me and dad left to Mody ford and did the payment, and the delivery was scheduled the following day. The booking day was also my dad’s birthday. The wait continued for the next day. Sleepless night later, rushed to the showroom before the sales guy arrived and I started looking out if my car was there or not, but could not find it anywhere.
A couple of hours later, the sales guy arrived and to his surprise, the person who was supposed to drive my car from the stockyard did not get my car. I give him an evil look and he promised that the car would arrive in a couple of hours max. The guy who drove my car from the stock yard is as slow as a 80 year old guy behind the wheel. It took 3 hours for him to travel 8 kilometers. Isn’t that a pain to wait!
The delivery process was started as priority and the so called Teflon coating was offered as complimentary. (yeah right!)
The car was delivered with DTE at 0. That was the saddest part. The sales guy said there will be 5 liters of fuel for sure so with that I drove it to shell for a refill. It was the biggest shocker for me when I filled the tank and the bill was close to what I use to pay for my petrol cars. Diesel was priced at 63rs per liter!! :O
I dint know shell diesel was so expensive. Petrol was a couple of rupees expensive than other outlets but diesel was 10+ rupees more! That’s way too much.
Got back home, parked the car and drove back to work in my good old maruti 800. Nano was lying just beside the figo and I almost ignored it that day. I was in my office but my heart was at home, in the figo. Couldn’t stay long at work so took half a day off and rushed back home. Puja was already done by mom n dad so took the car for a spin and clocked 130 kms on day one. The next day, My best pals dropped by and we went to replace the wheels.
Common man’s take on the figo :
Pros :
1. Runs smooth.
2. Gives me a good 16kmpl with ac on always.
3. Spacious.
4. Huge boot to fill it with subs
5. Quality interiors.
6. Amazing pull in2-5 gears.
7. Handling like a sedan.
8. Minimal body roll.
9. It sticks on highspeeds!
10. AC is best in class with a HUGE compressor.
11. Bluetooth works flawlessly.
Cons :
1. Sad first gear acceleration.
2. Noisy.
3. Sad looking audio player.
4. Not a tall boy. (Not exactly a con)
5. So called height adjustable seat.
6. Basic instrument cluster.
Wheels dilemma!
It always becomes complicated when I want to change my wheels. It happened with all my cars before. With the figo, I took a different call. It was expensive but I liked that way. Fors was pretty serious about warranty terms. So picked a set of 14” alloys (not many interesting designs to choose from) and 185/60/R14 yoko A drives. The reason behind choosing yokos instead of XM1+ was that they are silent (not as much as XM1+ though) enough for me. I dint need super silent rubber as my audio will be running in full swing most of the time and the rubber was not as expensive as the XM1+. And top of it, I will not be using them often. (reason will be revealed later)
Got saddles art leather covers the same day in black. A perfume and a couple more tiny bits here and there. The same day, I dropped my phone in the car and it was midnight, It was hard to find my phone with the stock cabin light which a was of no good at all. The urge to upgrade started. Found a couple of multiple LED strips, joined them to work the stock cabin light socket and voila! It’s a super bright cabin light. My friends call it flood lights. :D
10 days after I bought the car, The Mil light started blinking and the car never use to cross 100 KMPH/2.5k RPM when the MIL light was on. My heart broke and sadness + anger struck me like crazy!. Called the sales guy and informed him about the same. He asked to come over the next day and I can drive the car for now. A couple of minutes later, the MIL stopped blinking and the car was revving freely. Went to the service place next day and the person who attended me was much in interested in talking on the phone than attending my problem. It was mody ford mudford branch. The worst service I should say. He checked and said no such error code was recorded. I drove back and again the MIL light came on some time later. This time I wanted to go for a different dealer. It was fortune ford this time. Heard good reviews about them. Reached fortune ford the next morning and the OBDII scan was intiated instantly and it was found that the heater plug relay was the part which is causing this. They checked and informed that it’s a loose connection and it was fixed. It was fine for a couple of days but later, it popped up again. Drove back and they said it’s the same error code once again. He kept the car for a day and diagnosed it and it was handed over to me only after a 140 kms test drive with me behind the wheel and the service guy as passenger. The problem dint come up. I was satisfied with it and took the delivery. A week later, this problem appeared once again, but only for a couple of seconds. This kept happening for a day or two and after that nothing of that sort came up in the last 45 days. Did a couple of high speed road trips after that and nothing unusual. So I guess the problem has been fixed. Got it checked by ford and it was a normal feedback.
The service guy was ok with me upgrading the tires to 185/60 after I explained it to him that the upsize was only for good and to ford’s specifications. I had to show him some online tire upgrade calculation, rim size, speed ratings etc etc. He said that would not affect my warranty. I was a happy chap.
Audio was next in my list. As it was my first ford, I dint know fords were weird when it comes to audio. For a change, ford gives you a good audio, should place it at the top when it comes to quality OEM audio. But the down side is that the speakers are 5x7/6x8 so upgrade options are limited to non-existent in indian market. My car accessories store friend tried his best to source these speakers but could not find any. So I had to order them online from the US of A and wait for someone to come down to india.
I choose things only after I experience them, Everything else just backfires at me. I heard the infinity kappas and I was very much impressed so ordered the same in 5/7. Ordered 2 sets of Kappa 680.9cs. Headunit was pioneer 4390DVD (used it earlier and it was pretty good with a 4V 3 pre outs.).
My current audio config.
Pioneer 4390 DVD,
2x infinity kappa 680.9cs
JBL 1004 (yes, it is the benchmark 1004)
Rockford fosgate R500-1
JBL sub – will replace this with a Rockford punch P2 soon. Waiting for vitamin M :D
2x Dynamat extreme door kit
2x Scosche wiring kit
Tsunami distribution block
Total hole in the pocket : A 6 digit number.
The final outcome was amazing. Just the way I wanted. The install was done at my friend’s store by the best installer he had and it took close the 10 hours for the install. I was in short of time as I had to leave the next morning on a road trip so a lil work is left and will be worked on soon.
Oh, And BTW, Just a couple of days before the Ice install, I picked a 15” 195/55/R15s for my pocket rocket.
Registration done and it was time to install sun film. 3M sun films these days are sad, Utterly useless I should say. They glare a lot and it’s a tough job to drive with those tints. The quality has gone down these days. So opted for Johnson sun films. I must say, the quality is way superior than 3M. The colors were easily identifiable when you look through Johnson, compared to 3M. It was 5% on the sides and 35% on the front.
2 months down the line and the odo is at 5000+kms. No issues apart from the MIL indicator coming in once in a while during the starting days. Everything works absolutely fine now.
More to come. Keep watching this space. More goodies are in store for the pocket rocket.
Some pics for now.
Congratulations! I've a white Figo. I wanted black one but I can't clean it regularly so I had to settle for a white one. Whenever a black Figo passes me, I watch it with envy. Black Figo looks more expensive than a Figo in another colour.
I'm a bit confused looking at your pics. Your alloys are different in different pics. The colour of number plates are also different in different pics.
I would love it if you could post pics of your 'floodlights' in action. Can you also please give a detailed list of all mods/accessories added along with their prices? I'll be really thankful of you if you do same. A lot of guys, me included, are looking for adding mods/accessories in their Figo's.
Good to see that your initial issue is resolved at last. Hope it doesn't come back or another issue crops up. Happy revving!
