Ford Fiesta Test Driven I am a new entrant to the T-BHP club and in my introduction I had mentioned that I was planning to upgrade to a sedan from my existing Santro. I have identified 4 sedans a) Ford Fiesta, b) Chevrolet Aveo c) I20 and d) Mahindra Logan which I will test driving and looking forward to useful comments from all the exp BHPians. The main criteria for selection for a sedan are 1) Space 2) Good ride and handling 3) Good FE 4) Nearby Showroom/service. I stay in Thane, Mumbai and hence decided on the 4 sedans as listed above since they all were within Thane city limits.
Visited Wasan Ford, Thane on 19th for a test drive of Ford Fiesta. Was interested in 1.6 ZXi (petrol) which satisfies most of my reqmts. Called up Mr Nair of Ford and he confirmed the availability of demo car. Reached Wasan and Mr Nair cordially took me to the demo vehicle which was 1.6 SXi. The following were my observations.
Exterior: Smooth finish lines, nice looking grill with FORD logo. Rear spoiler, boot space was huge (after looking at Santro boot space). Good gnd clearance although doubted whether it would sustain bumpy Thane roads.
Interior: Good dash, great seat adjusment although I did not like the height adjuster since it adjusted my thigh inclination and was difficult to handle the steering with me being a 6ft+ guy. The steering was adjustable. The music sounded good with 6 speakers. Other plus features like ele OVRM's, a couple of cubby holes, nice glove box but plastic quality was not upto expectations.
Now for the test drive. Mr Nair accompanied me, I asked my wife to sit at the back to review the rear handling. Started the engine, nice vroom start, revved it a bit to listen to the exhaust. Now it was time to move on. To my surprise found the left right indicators to the right of the steering and the washers to the left. Took some time to adjust to this arrangment. Took off on the busy Ghodbunder Road, nice accelaration, touched 80 KMPL in 15-20 secs. The gear throw is very short after driving Santro for so long. Had to adjust the gear on couple of occasions. Mr Nair meanwhile was trying to explain me the features, requested him to do after we complete the test drive and he obliged. Took the car to a stretch notorious for potholes, speed breakers. Nice handling, even wife complemented on the rear ride was smooth over the potholes, good feel, a little body roll but that was OK. Came back on the highway and on the return to showroom applied sudden brakes, found braking to be superb, car came to a stand still within no time. Checked the reverse parking and found a good view of the back.
Ingress & egress out of the car was a bit of problem and felt can get used to. Mr Nair took time to explain all the features. He gave me the price list.
1.6 ZXi costs me 752333/- OTR. Checked the break up, found 5000/- depot handling charges. What was that??? There was an offer for zero insurance but no dealer discount, no corporate discount, no exchange discount. Even the buy back for my Santro would be done by a dealer and not FORD. Also the freebies offered were only mudflap, door mats and dicky mat and absolutely nothing else.
Mr Nair promised that if booked in a couple of days he would ensure that car would be ready fro Diwali delivery. Also the colours available in the stock yard are Morello and Platinum. Was more interested for Acquaris Blue.
Hope my review was useful, would welcome any suggestions. Can anyone provide information regarding the Wasan Ford Dealer. I checked their workshop, personally felt was not upto mark with cars spread all across the workshop in haphazard manner. |