[Arch-Angel]

Originally Posted by EagleEye

Personally I like the Figo without any visual mods and normally don't do anything to any of my cars. Maybe I'll stick a team bhp sticker one day..

I just stuck the stickers on mine last week! Will upload a picture here. I guess ill need a new set of stickers as well since one of the guys in my apartments wanted a team-bhp sticker for his cycle and he took the "got bhp ?" sticker and stuck it somewhere underneath the seat (Now we all know where the engine for a cycle is)

[Arch-Angel]

Had taken her out for a spin with my cousins. My cousin was constantly commenting on how good her handling was even in speeds which could unsettle other cars. The stock audio system, the ac played a big role in keeping her occupants happy. That aside, the suspension has really been tweaked! No more scraping! She accelerates like a big car too. Overall, she really has bought a big smile to everyone in my family

[Arch-Angel]

The emotional part of owning a car:

Hello Bhpians,

I decided to pen down my thoughts and opinions on what i felt during the process of buying and bringing the figo to where she belongs now. I haven't had any sort of emotional connects with any car so far. As in, no car i have travelled in, gave me this sort of a fuzzy feeling and warmth (no words to explain the feeling, but i am sure you might have experienced it the first time you touched your car). Since the first time i had gone close to a figo and even got to travel in a colleague's one, the figo somehow captivated me: Her dimunitive dimensions but nevertheless, great space inside, the soothing air conditioner which is a godsend for the scorching chennai sun which can cause thermometers to go kaput, the nice sounding stock audio system are all major contributors for this wonderful machine which i see as a wonderful woman ( Aren't all women wonderful? I do feel so, the way they sometimes bear us and support us, just like this lovely maiden in grey did). The first time i went to the showroom to see her(i mean the figo i have now!), there is this charm this little car has, the way she will call out to you, make you feel at home inside and this sense of "i'll protect you, master" kind of feeling is something i haven't felt anywhere so far.

The time i took the keys in my hands during delivery was one of the best moments in life. Moments that i'll cherish till the day i shall sleep forever. The love and possessiveness, the bond that you forge with her(A machine maybe, but i felt otherwise), the beaming smiles from your family members, the amount of pride you feel. The moment I took her out for a ride is something i'll never forget, when i opened the door and sat inside, it was just like the car responded, i don't know how to tell it as it is something that i cannot put in words: felt like she was hugging me! (Ever been hugged from behind?). So, maybe a really cheesy question could be answered: Do you love your car like a person? Its a resounding yes from my side.

To all those who have felt emotions similar to me, remember guys, our vehicles love us back and we have a very strange connection with our cars, which many others may never have felt in their entire life!

Signing off for now,

Arch-Angel

[Arch-Angel]

Hello everyone,

From herein, i shall post incremental experiences and updates as and when i experience them or end up modifying something for the same.

The figo's handling and cornering:

Absolutely great! Took a corner at 80 Kmph with no sweat. This was during a trip to the ECR and i absolutely enjoyed driving her through the stretch. Most of the time my brother was on the wheel. The AC coped up very well with Chennai's sun just frying everything. Absolutely love her manners and for some reason, my figo feels real quick off the line compared to the puntos and manzas i have test driven. Maybe the twin scroll turbo here helps in the initial acceleration. I always had felt that the first gear was short on the figo and i felt if the gearing could be stretched out a little for the first two gears and then a 6th gear be added to aid in cruising, The car hit about a 100 Kmph at 2.1k rpm (if i remember right). The 6th gear will do wonders to the figo's mileage and definitely will put lesser stress than that of the existing 5th gear.

Another interesting behaviour was the ability to swerve and change lanes whenever required. My cousin demonstrated this when the road was free. The suspension and tires did a good job of soaking up stuff. Fully loaded (75+82+88+65+80=390 Kgs) in passengers, she didnt bottom out anywhere.

Question: I had experienced a strange noise when i pressed the clutch and the brake together. Is this actually the H.pump working overtime? Is this wrong? I didnt experience this while moving but only during controlling her during parking.

As of now, she has 260 Km on the ODO. Will be driving her more since the next service is 2.5 months away.

Overall, I am impressed with the car. Definitely recommended for people who love to drive a fun car and at the same time, cruise about in a lazy pace.

Mods in the pipeline:

1. Better Seat Covers.
2. Illuminated Scuff plates.
3. Gear Knob/Steering Leather wrap (Figuring out a good color combo)
4. Alloy wheel painting.
5. Pressure Washer (SKIL one incoming).

[Arch-Angel]

A trip with my cousins to tirupati city-20 April 2013:

After consultation with fellow forum members, i decided to take her out on a drive to tirupati city(not Tirumala but the city below). My brother decided to drive the tough stretches while i do the highways(drove 30Km out of 320 ). We started off from chennai at 6 and reached Tirupati at 9:45/10:00Am. One must commend the AP/TN government for the decent stretches of highways they have laid.

Route choice:

There are three routes possible.

1. From Sriperembutur->Kanchipuram highway->Tirupati.(Common cabbie route #3)
2. Proceed to Tada and take AH45/NH5 proceed toward renigunta and continue on tirupati. Will take you through small cities/settlements in between.
3. Take the route from NH205. This is what the cabbies use usually.(Common cabbie route #1)



We decided to proceed on our planned route. The trip took us 4 Hours 1-way because we had kept the speed at 80 Max and decided to take it easy. Took 10 minutes break for every 1 hour to let the engine cool down optimally and then started off again.

The vehicle by now, seemed to be very happy on the highways and she was eager to please. 68 BHP might seem less. but believe me, she is right up there with the puntos and other big cars in terms of performance of 0-100. The td car performed decently but this figo seems different. This is something i am unable to explain.

Minor Annoyances:

Decided to use google maps on the iphone as our navigation aid since my Mapmyindia gps device's touchscreen decided to become a huge pain in the hineys at the last minute. Now, we had connected a pen-drive to play our music and here is the issue.
There is no form of caching of the music playing from the pen drive. It will resume alright but if your phone decides to "communicate" ex: The google maps voice aid dude decided to speak in his quirky english accent, the music would stop. Once the guy was done, the HU would begin reading the pen drive again and then after 1 minute, the music would play. In my cousin's manza the music would immediately resume once the phone finished its "communication".

Road Experiences:

Chennai and AP are known for their sweltering summer temperatures and this time it was no different. However, the figo's AC as we all know, was quite a chiller. She kept us cool even in the heat and in my vehicle, we don't have any sunfilm at all. We had my cousin's father in law who accompanied us along with my bhabhi. 4 passengers, lots of luggage.

Here are a few pointers given by my cousin and a few experienced folks who i had a chat with for a perfect run in.

1. Speed at a maximum of 80 for a stretch. Then vary your speed slowly between 70-80.(Dont go at top speed in a section for too long).
2. Avoid too many gear changes. Try and vary your RPM at each shift. Even minor variations count.
3. Don't step on the brakes. rather, pump them and then slow down so that you don't work up the brakes too much.
4. After an hour of travelling, take a break of 5-10 minutes.
5. At each shutdown, follow the idling rule. Give a minute here instead of the 30s most recommend.
6. I was told to maintain 32Psi all round for my tires. Going with that for now.

Overall, got to experience the vehicles dynamics on the highways.

Here is something i screwed up on. During a shift down from 5th gear to 4th, i inadvertently changed to gear 2 twice. The vehicle had a sudden engine braking. Got scared but instinct made me to press the clutch and pop the next gear. Hope i didn't stress up those CV joints much. I was told very specifically not to do this ever. So i hope i haven't caused much harm to my beloved figo.

Further experiences and pictures will follow. In case anyone out here looked at this writeup, do leave a few comments on how i can improve my driving skill in general because i get nervous at times and commit errors. Irony being that i know how to drive but still i don't have confidence.

ODO: 600 Km as of 20th April 2013

General word of caution:

The people in tirupati drive like maniacs, all of them! The traffic police just stood there and watched, doing nothing to help resolve the confusion occuring right in front of their eyes. All 1 way roads also had other cars/bikes coming from opposite directions. Beginner drivers should avoid driving in the city.

[EFF-EIGHT-BEE]

What were the FE figures that you got through the trip buddy?

[Arch-Angel]

Originally Posted by EFF-EIGHT-BEE

What were the FE figures that you got through the trip buddy?

Odo before trip= 302
Fuel Qty before trip= 35 Lts

Odo after = 625
Fuel Qty after trip= ~15 Lts

Mileage= (625-302)/(35-15)
=16.15 point to point. with 100% AC.

[icyspikey]

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

The search for my car: The indian "Khoj"

Excellent Review Arch-Angel

1.> The stalks are interchanged in position. Wipers on perfect days?
I have got so used to the left positioning .


To all the viewers/readers: What is your opinion about this car? Wan't to share something regarding the car or feedback regarding this thread? Go ahead and fill up those textboxes with your thoughts! Waiting to hear from each and everyone of you!
The END !

Excellent Car until warranty .
Back then My 1.4 titanium didn't have the Alloys,Spoilers,Steering Mounted Audio ,USB. Glad that Ford has added alot.My car has done 49k now and is turning 3 this may .
It has been a roller coaster ride . It is the first car I've driven after learning to drive . It has a lot of sentimental value attached to it . YES the 68 BHP is a bit sluggish so you might tend to revv it hard in 2 nd gear ( her sweet spot ) .
The driving DNA of the car is impeccable [ Segment best if you ask me ]
My Advice to you from what i learned through T-BHP :

1) Don't upsize tires for figo . [ Bling Conscious ? ]
2) The HU is of good quality so all you need is a good Sub-Woofer and an Amp .
3) Go For good alloys ( Every car deserves much more than the OEM ones )
4) Try Sourcing SPARCO Steering covers . Trust me It's Lovely to drive the Figo with it .

Hoping to see alot of updates and mods . Cheers !

[rajeev k]

Saw this thread only today and it made interesting and very informative reading. I wish I had seen it earlier as I got delivery of my Figo last week and I am penning my report.

Also, i got the celebration edition covers for the seats. Pretty good. I paid a total of 16k for the pack after giving away the accessory bonus and my old seat covers.

I have some queries.
Is it that the OE seat covers were removed and exchanged for the celebration ones.
You got those floor mats as freebee.

[Arch-Angel]

Originally Posted by icyspikey

Excellent Car until warranty .
Back then My 1.4 titanium didn't have the Alloys,Spoilers,Steering Mounted Audio ,USB. Glad that Ford has added alot.My car has done 49k now and is turning 3 this may ....
.
Hoping to see alot of updates and mods . Cheers !

I agree with everything you have mentioned Icy! This car is the first car i have driven after learning to drive. Though i find the 68BHP figure less, in reality, while driving her, you will never know this flaw. She pulls like crazy atleast in my case. Driven a manza and a punto a little so i know how she compares. Overall, i am in love . That aside, i will have to try sourcing the sparco steering wheel covers if possible and also, though i had a plan of upsizing, vidyutji and a few others suggested otherwise. So the upsizing plan has been stowed away. Alloys are something i will have to see a few months down the line since i feel the OEM alloys look quite good, but i am open to suggestions for the same and if i can pick a good set, i will definitely change them. That aside, i feel ford could have done a little more on this facelift. The rear non-powerwindows have proved to be a pain with my relatives.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Saw this thread only today and it made interesting and very informative reading. I wish I had seen it earlier as I got delivery of my Figo last week and I am penning my report.
I have some queries.
Is it that the OE seat covers were removed and exchanged for the celebration ones.
You got those floor mats as freebee.

Thanks for your kind words Rajeev sir. Regarding your queries,

1. The OE covers were exchanged and i got a discount of 3K on the pack.
2. The floor mats are nothing special, these are the rubber mats like the ones we have in latrines. I found them irritating and am planning on getting the 3d kagu mats this weekend. Waiting for your report (FIR as i call it)

[Arch-Angel]

A generic question for Bhpians in general:

Where do i get myself a reversing camera like the one found in the Hyundai i20?
Since my apartment's parking space is quite narrow and one needs to frequently reverse to get to the designated spot, i feel the reversing camera as an aid would be wonderful. I would like options suggested with the IRVM display just like the one in the i20 or if the same is available, i would like to know where to source it from.

My figo is doing good but she is on the "bench" for now . Will begin taking her on more drives soon. So nothing major in the way of changes.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

A generic question for Bhpians in general:

Where do i get myself a reversing camera like the one found in the Hyundai i20?
Since my apartment's parking space is quite narrow and one needs to frequently reverse to get to the designated spot, i feel the reversing camera as an aid would be wonderful. I would like options suggested with the IRVM display just like the one in the i20 or if the same is available, i would like to know where to source it from.

Reverse cameras are a pretty simple and common accessory to install. You can get it done at practically any accessory store. Just make sure they know what they are doing when they make the hole in the rear bumper for the camera to look through. The ideal location for the camera would be the 'sheltered' area above the number plate, which should enable it to work in rains as well. I suggest you get the job done from the same showroom where you bought your car. They would be experts at this job, from doing it regularly on brand new cars, plus you can bargain for a good deal too.

For the display you have several options. You could couple it to your LCD screen or GPS screen if you already have one in your ICE unit. The other cleanest option would be to opt for the clip-on type mirrors which sit on your existing mirrors, and will look like the i20's mirrors then. Slotting into reverse gear would activate that screen.


P.S - with clip-on type mirror displays, note that you will lose the Day / Night switch functionality of the IRVM.

[Arch-Angel]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Reverse cameras are a pretty simple and common accessory to install. ....
The other cleanest option would be to opt for the clip-on type mirrors which sit on your existing mirrors, and will look like the i20's mirrors then. Slotting into reverse gear would activate that screen.
P.S - with clip-on type mirror displays, note that you will lose the Day / Night switch functionality of the IRVM.

Thanks a lot for your answer Karthik. I wish i was in bagalore so that i could take your guidance and maybe request your help with the purchase . I am looking at the clip on type since my RVM doesn't have the day/night functionality as far as i am aware of.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

I am looking at the clip on type since my RVM doesn't have the day/night functionality as far as i am aware of.

Are you sure it doesn't have it? It is that lever which tilts the mirror glass and provides a tinted version of the IRVM for night time (when headlamps from vehicles behind don't cause glare). Once you install an additional mirror layer over the existing one, tilting that lever won't give the same view as the day mode view.

It is not a deal-breaker anyway since the clip-on type displays will be slightly tinted mirrors themselves .

[arvind71181]

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

A generic question for Bhpians in general:

Where do i get myself a reversing camera like the one found in the Hyundai i20?
Since my apartment's parking space is quite narrow and one needs to frequently reverse to get to the designated spot, i feel the reversing camera as an aid would be wonderful. I would like options suggested with the IRVM display just like the one in the i20 or if the same is available, i would like to know where to source it from.

My figo is doing good but she is on the "bench" for now . Will begin taking her on more drives soon. So nothing major in the way of changes.

I think the reverse sensors by themselves (without the video feed) would do a good enough job. I have the rev cam on my car and I somehow am still uncomfortable depending on them completely and so resort to turning my head to make sure the reversing is done fine. So you can probably try putting in the sensors first and then if required, put in the cam (if at all that is possible )