Likes :
1.) Engine driveability, efficiency and performance
2.) 6 Airbags
3.) Value for money
4.) Comfort and space for a hatch
5.) Decent feature list (SYNC, climate control)
6.) Looks
Dislikes :
1.) Build is not the greatest, not as solid as a Polo
2.) Few plastics are of poor quality
3.) Gearshift is not upto the mark
2016 saw me move jobs, cities and cars! I relocated from Chennai to Gurgaon at the end of Feb 2016. My wife's CVT city was sold, and my turbo civic was getting done up, requiring me to buy a car in Gurgaon. I had tabs of carwale and property websites open whenever I had free time. After all, for us petrolheads a car is as important as a roof over our heads, right!
Alternatives Considered :
I really had no particular class, fuel, style of car in mind except that it had to be fun to drive, and fairly reliable, as it would be a fallback car to the heavily modded civic. I was looking at second hand cars, V6 accords, 330i's and the likes for between 7-15 Lakhs. I gave an offer for a mint 330i for 15 lakhs, but the seller found a buyer for his asking price of 16, ah well. I found a few mint 3.5 V6 accords, but since this car would primarily be driven by my wife, decided to drop the accord, as it is too long and parking in NCR is painful, to say the least. The slightly sluggish auto transmission on the accord also worked against it, if only Honda launched it with a 6-speed manual, like in the U.S, I would have bought it blindfolded. I evaluated importing the transmission down, but then so much MOD work etc, would have defeated the purpose of it being a reliable runabout. In around 20 days I had finalized the house bit, so now all focus was on the car. My wife had come over one weekend, and we started to head towards the VW showroom on MG road in Gurgaon to check out the GT TSi. Small, fun to drive and with the convenience of an auto, the GT TSi was kinda the obvious choice. On the way we crossed Harpreet Ford, and I remembered quite liking the Aspire, when I test drove it in Chennai, when it was launched. So we dropped in to see the figo.
The Figo:
I do not like the category of compact sedans, so the Figo was what I was interested in. The display car was a silver figo with a gloss black roof, and my wife instantly took a liking to it, and said it looks better than the Polo. Took a short TD of the TDCi, and remembered the nice , linear torque of the engine, decent handling, and good brakes. Wife liked the looks of the car too, and I really did not see why a polo for 2 Lakhs more would be better. My sales person Naveen, was a newbie, and he really wanted this deal, as it would be his first. I bargained hard, and they gave me some good discounts of almost 80k and 10k of accessories, this is before the recent price cut. I paid around 7.6 Lakhs OTR. There was no question of which variant, the 6 airbags in the Titanium plus had me sold. Engine wise, it had to be the diesel. Why? Quickest 0-100 ! Simple. Also, I had spent a month in Gurgaon, and my daily commute was fairly congestion free, so did not feel that much of a need for an automatic. I quickly arranged for address proofs (remember I just moved in), and gave the cheque to them in a weeks time. I did a short TD of the car in the showroom yard before confirmation and giving the cheque. Since I was travelling I could not take delivery in march and took it on April 1st(will never forget the date). They had only silver and black in titanium plus, and since silver is easier to maintain I settled for the silver. Plus, the fact that the silver with the gloss black roof looked deadly, was instrumental in silver being the colour of choice. I did take the 3rd year extended warranty for around 7k but I doubt its going to be valid, given the things I'm doing to the car. I hope nobody from ford reads this. :D
Car in the showroom, awaiting my confirmation
Features:
I am not at all a features kind of guy, and have barely explored the SYNC feature in the car. All I do is connect my bluetooth to it for voice calls, and a USB for music. The audio quality is average, bass gets boomy at certain frequencies, and door panels do vibrate at above medium audio levels. If you spend considerable time in traffic and like your music, I would suggest getting a 4 channel amp, better speakers and damping. There have been a few threads on TBHP which have painstakingly explained the SYNC and other features, so I shall not delve into the same.
Slightly messy fascia.
Build is not the best, but I can live with it. Make no mistake the suspension, steering and drive feel, is good and solid, its the door panels flex while closing, and while being pressed that is not upto the mark. Hopefully some padding and damping helps, which I plan on getting done next month. The showroom threw in the ambient light for free. It is gimmicky and can be controlled via an APP, through which you can select the colour and intensity. It is set on the lowest intensity, the camera ISO below makes it seem brighter. The knurled climate controls knob are a nice touch, though nowhere near as premium as those that we find on Audi's. The headlamp switch and adjuster feels premium, and it actually looks identical to the one I saw on the mustang. The car did a trip to Nainital in May, peak summer, and with the automatic climate control on 22C, 4 of us were absolutely comfortable in the car. The AC usually when I am alone in the car is at fan level 2 and temp 24 (22 for the summer), and it is more than sufficient.
Nice looking climate control display and knobs.
98% air flow is stopped with the vents shut.
The aux and USB input. Lower models have this elsewhere.
Another reason for not even considering the Aspire was the beige interiors and seats. In the dusty confines of Gurgaon it would have been painful to maintain, and I feel the black looks better. Since I have seat airbags I cannot add seat covers, and I don't really feel the need to. The black fabric upholstery is quite nice and the black and silver touches on the dash go well with the overall colour scheme inside. Black leather seats as an option would have been lovely, but that is just me expecting too much from a 7 Lakh hatch.
Quite like the black fabric with contrast white stitching.
No grab handles in the front as the curtain airbags take up the space. Larger cars manage both though.
Creaky door pads. Damping is required. Good storage though.
Nice, easy on the eyes blue lighting all-around
The front seats are very comfortable. More so than a polo, and as good as the swift, which has very comfortable seats in my opinion. I am 6 feet and after a few adjustments, I am very comfortable, even after 4-5 hours behind the wheel. Usually in all cars, I put the height adjust to the lowest setting and drive, but not in this Figo, as it goes really low. My wife who is 5 feet 4" also finds her driving position very easily, and incidentally we are quite happy with the same height adjust position(I obviously push the seat way more back). Which is helpful, as we keep sharing the car till my Civic gets here. I have sat at the back once, and found the headroom to be a tad low, nonetheless other, shorter people have found it comfortable and the legroom more than sufficient. My father really liked the rear seat(or maybe he was just being polite), adjustable head rests would have been nice, but it is not a deal breaker. Height adjust seat belts are available at the front, again something which my wife and I keep using to the core, as she likes the lowest setting and me the highest.
Visibility is good, not great. People used to old school car's like the baleno, Old honda city will prefer those, but compared to any modern design, it is quite good. The bonnet is relatively flatter compared to most other modern cars, the door mirrors are the same as the ecosport ones, and are decently big. Rear visibility is average, but it being a hatch, parking it is quite easy as there is no boot to worry about. The Aspire/Figo were the first cars in India, for which Ford got the indicator stalk on the right and wiper stalk on the left. This is great, as I have only been used to Jap cars, and hence, would have kept turning the wipers on, if it was like earlier fords.
More than sufficient view angles from the mirrors.
Nifty touch - cover for the mirror prevents dust. Used to see this only on expensive German's till a few years ago.
Nice slot for the rear seat-belts, to prevent them from making a racket.
I am lost with all this storage space. Not used to it. Old Honda city owners will understand. :)
I clean and detail the car myself, much to the amusement of all the cleaners and fellow residents. A waterless wash once a week, and a Jopasu duster wipe every other day. I have a pressure washer, but that is meant only for when the car and wheel wells are filthy, like say after a long road trip. The car shines like nothing else. Silver isn't the most flashy shade, but the paint finish is quite good and since it does not go through the daily damp cloth cleaning ritual, the shine remains and swirl marks are non-existent, even after 9 months and 9000km.
The car mostly does my office commute which is 5km one way in low to medium city traffic, and does Gurgaon- Delhi round trips 2-3 times a week. I have clocked around 9000km in 9 months, which included a trip to Nainital and a trip to Agra. First service was at 3000km, and even though Ford doesn't recommend an oil change, I got it done and paid for it, total came to around 2k. Next service is at 10000km. It visited the service centre once additionally to get the software for the airbags updated which was a 5 minute affair.
Driving Experience:
I have mostly driven manual petrols, Honda's and Suzuki's. While the clutch is slightly heavy compared to say a Brio, it is fine even in the worst of traffic. The car pulls as soon as the clutch is left and chugs along. One has to depress the accelerator a fair bit in first gear to up the tempo, which is very un-petrol like and took me some getting used to. Lag is minimal, and after 1500rpm one gets a linear surge, which gets stronger till around 3600-4000RPM. There is not point in revving it beyond 4000RPM even though the redline is 5000 RPM, the drop in power is very evident. The engine is rev-happy for a diesel, though the 1.6 VW diesel engine is rev-happier in my opinion, especially post 2000RPM. The gearbox is not great to be frank. It is slightly rubbery, notchy with relatively long throws and has play when slotted in a particular gear. It is fine 95% of the time, but you cannot drive and shift slickly, especially 1st to 2nd. One does get used to it, but if there is one thing I'd tell ford to improve, it would be this.
The performance of this figo has been praised, and rightly so. Karan has done a video review and it is on par with the 1.6 GT TDI's. I have out-dragged a few GT TSI's at red light drags. I have a gtech-pro, and timed the car, since auto magazines have quoted varying figures from 9.7 to 11.5s.
I got a 0-100 time of 10.2s. clap: Car with full tank of fuel, all accessories, and which was running 6k KM oil oil and oil filter. I'm sure post the service I can crack the 9.xx barrier, and this is all with the shift from 1st to 2nd not being as perfect as I'd like it to be.
The engine is fairly driveable, and I have been stuck in some bad NCR traffic, and managed quite well. Refinement, is ok for the diesel class it is in. I come from smooth petrols so the cold clatter on a winter morning is not music to my ears, but once warmed up, it is not so bad. It again, isn't something I would rev just to hear. Let us leave it at that. Vibes are fairly controlled and on-par with the rest of the class. Nothing like a silky smooth, high revving petrol. The car is quite high, I park beside an X1, and the both are the same height, the 1-series looks very low parked alongside this figo. Body roll, despite this height is controlled and ground clearance is excellent, haven't scraped anywhere. As a civic owner, this is comes as a breath of fresh air, as I no longer need to tiptoe over big speed-breakers.
Steering Feel:
Steering feel is decent, it is not on par with the old Ford's in terms of outright feedback, but I don't see a reason for anyone to complain, because it is fairly heavy and direct, with almost no play. I am used to direct and hydraulic steering's like the Old Honda city and my Civic, and if I am happy with this then I feel 99.9% of people will be. I would rate this slightly better than the swift/Ritz unit which in all fairness is quite good too. All our cars at home have genuine leather wrapped steering wheels, this does not. I feel a leather wrap, will make it too thick, as the wheel is fairly chunky as is. Like the Civic, this wheel too has extra padding at the 10 and 2 position to get a good, solid grip and feel.
Tyres and Wheels:
One thing I would suggest all owners to do is to upgrade their tyres and wheel. Right out of the showroom I got 195/55 R 15 Continental MC5 tyres on 15" HRS alloys, from Star Wheel, Gurgaon. Deepak Kataria is the owner, and was great to interact and deal with him. The handling is quite good in my opinion and ride does not suffer. Car feels very surefooted, and looks brilliant too. Braking feel and performance is excellent. I slammed the brakes when a biker broke the signal and landed up in front of me, ABS kicked in and I could steer and avoid the biker, no drama. Highway cruising at 100-120 Km/h is child's play, there is no nervous bobbing, and lane changes are effortless and not perceptible to passengers.
I barely drove the car for 10km on the stock tyres + alloys, and that was very mundane city driving, so I really cannot do a before/after. I can compare the feel with the TD car feel, and obviously the steering feel and confidence of my car is way better than the TD car, but that could also be because of other reasons as it is the TD car.
Few pics below.
The car is a looker from all angles, except maybe when viewed from the rear, in my opinion. Still, I like the fact that there aren't too many on the road, that little exclusivity remains.
The MID shows a fuel efficiency between 17-18Km/l, I always do tank to tank refuels, and I get around 16.5 - 17 Km/l, for almost 100% NCR driving, and got 18-19 Km/l on the high speed highway runs. The long term MID average is around 18km/l.
Boot space is average, airport runs will be tricky. You will need a car with a proper boot at home, for airport runs.
My wife loves driving the car whenever she goes to Delhi on work, and says the pickup is so good, compared to her old CVT city, where she would have to wait for the power to come.
Other than the wheels and tyres, I got the roof wrapped in gloss black, at the 3M outlet on MG road. Great bunch of guys there, Tushar and Akshay. Akshay, also runs GT Tunerz, and the figo will soon get a remap from Quantum Tuning, UK, fingers crossed!!
This car was meant to be a reliable, efficient and value for money purchase. It is all the above three definitely, but I never expected to have so much fun behind the wheel. I am even toying with the idea of taking it for a track day. I mean, if the GT twins can keep lapping the BIC, why not this Figo. :)
A parting shot :
Nice aston martin. I can see all of your choices had one thing in common - power. this doesn't come with mud flaps?
Nice and crisp review there. Loved how you conveyed everything in so few words - obvious that you are enjoying the car.
That TDCI is one stonker of an engine, and I can deduce from the mileage figures that you like pushing her limits. :D
PS: How much was the roof wrap?
- Sam
Congrats on the car. Really like the second last picture as far as angles go. Just realized how uncanny the proportions of swift dzire are (top left in the picture). Can't wait to read up on things you have planned including the BIC day. I'm sure you won't be trying destroy the brakes and what not but would still be interesting to see what sort of times it can pull post remap. :D
Agree on the gearbox bit. Left much to be desired when I had it for 20-25 km's.
Awesome alloys and choice.
Enjoy the Hothatch ride.
Maybe a projector with Hid's?
Nice car. Good photography as well to capture the interior. I quite like the ambient lighting. I'll take your word for it that its not as bright as the photos make it out to be.
How do you find the MC5s?
Good going... but lets be honest, this Figo thread is like the papad they serve at a restaurant before they bring out the full meals.....
We're waiting for the main course.... It's probably being prepared as we speak! :)
Any day time pictures of the car with the roof wrap. I have a silver Aspire and would like to see how it looks.
