Team-BHP - Review: 1st-gen Ford Figo (2010)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530 (Post 3306279)

This rekindles an old doubt of mine. My reasoning.
At 1500 rpm or less, the turbo will not be spooling. So the engine will not be efficient.
At 2000 rpm or more, the turbo will be spooling.
In other words, from a fuel efficiency point of view, which is most economical, an engine running at the highest revs below the turbo, or at lowest revs with the turbo?
Experts opine.

Ideally, keeping the engine in the rpm range where turbo is engaged gives the best FE. However, it is situation based I.e. if you are in thick traffic, revving up and braking often will only be detrimental.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530 (Post 3306279)

In other words, from a fuel efficiency point of view, which is most economical, an engine running at the highest revs below the turbo, or at lowest revs with the turbo?
Experts opine.

I start with a disclaimer that i am no expert but have lived with the 1.4 tdci for a while.

In this motor, the effect of the turbo is felt as low as 1500 rpm; so the 1500-2000 rpm is the efficient range, where the turbo effect is 'felt'. Beyond this range, i don't get any better FE.

In highway driving, one can maintain 70-80-90 kmph in 5th gear(~1800-2000-2200 rpm), as adjusting according to the traffic.

As Venkyhere says, this engine has a very narrow efficiency range; 20+ kmpl is only possible below 100 kmph speeds. The moment i take it to 2500+ rpms, FE drops to 18 kmpl.

Another factor is the AC. It puts a heavy load on the engine; such amount of power loss with AC was not felt when i drove the Logan D and the Ritz D.

I have managed to get some phenomenal(for tdci standards) 24 kmpl without AC and at constant 80 kmph speeds.

Also the BS3 version of this engine(imported) that came in the Fusion and Fiesta is more fuel efficient than the BS4 version(made in Chennai plant).

Ford India gives us awesome chassis with useless diesel engines; with Hyundai it is vice versa.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EFF-EIGHT-BEE (Post 3306248)

Will driving in 5th at 1500 rpm lug the engine? What should be the minimum rpm for 5th?

You exactly won't be lugging the engine at 1.5k rpm, as the turbo starts spooling. Now a days I am upshifting at 1.8k rpm and keeping speeds under check. I am getting this phenomenal fe of 18 in city. My 50 kms drive daily, includes struggling at snail's pace in 1st gear for some 20 kms, rest all is moderate traffic.

I agree with everyone here, the moment you cross 100 on highway the drop in fe is steep. On one of those trip where I kept doing 120 brake 80, accelerate to 120 again types and got 16.7 on that trip. On next I kept it at max 110, I got 18.5

You can also see awesome results by keeping the Speed limited at 80, I have got as high as 28 on one of those drives too. But it gets pretty boring after that :)

Had a TD of diesel Figo yesterday. The noise inside the cabin was way too less than the Figo I had driven some 2 yrs back. Ford has surely done something to the NVH levels of the new Figo. Took the car on broken roads. Ride quality was very good. Took the car to 100 kmph on highways with absolute ease. With discounts, the top end Figo diesel's on-road price is around 6.5 lacs. For the price, I feel this the best diesel hatch in the country today. The driver seat was less comfy, AC was a chiller & felt turbo action is on around 1200/1300 rpm. So at 1500 rpm & 5th gear, the car should not log at all as has been apprehended by fellow bhpians. Boot space was impressive. Rear leg space is ok too. The TD car had done 22k & must have done through lots of abuse. Still I could here only faint rattles from the door while TDing on that broken road.

The SA informed me that though Fiesta classic has the same engine, it has been tuned for better efficiency, which I could not digest. Is it true? Some Figo-D owners must have driven Classic- diesel. Is there any difference at all between these two cars from drivers perspective such as power, NVH, FE, ride & handling characters, high speed abilities etc. Figo-D did a effortless 100 kmph. Traffic did not allow me to speed further, though I was willing to test the car at higher speeds. Just guess that 120 kmph could be as effortless after which the progress should come down. Have driven Swift-D, Ritz Petrol & my current car ( Verna 1.6 CRDI ) extensively. IMO, progress of Swift is ok till 130 kmph, Verna till 150 kmph. Why I stress on this figure ( speed upto which the car will pull clean) is not that we require that kind of speed every day, but because it gives confidence in highway overtakings & make the drive less tiresome. Also it is a nice feeling to have adequate reserve power even while cruising at 100-120 kmph.

IMO Verna D-150kmph= Swift D-130kmph= Figo D-120 kmph = Pulse/Micra D- 120 kmph = Swift/Ritz Petrol-120 kmph= i20 diesel-140 kmph=i-20 petrol-100kmph= eon-75 kmph= Alto 800-85 kmph= Santro 1.1-100 kmph= Wagon-R (old model-4 cylinder-my earlier car)-90 kmph. I have considered engine power only & not ride & handling . No offense to any one. Above are just my views after driving the cars.

Welcome your thoughts & further inputs on that particular speed point ( speed upto which the car can go easily) of other cars you have experienced.

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by auto_enthusiast (Post 3307964)

Ya definitely. By the way, is your car petrol powered or a diesel one? coz I didn't receive a recall regarding the PS hose, though the there was a recall for my car w.r.t the RTB.

Mine is Petrol one, I think PS hose is only for some petrol batches (correct me) and RTB is a general one.
I just feel Ford should have shot out a mail to all its affected customers or at least call and inform them. The way its planned out currently is to inform the customers when they go in for a service or if the customer checks it online and decides to get it corrected.

I am having a peculiar problem with my Ford Figo Petrol (2010). Suddenly, the car loses power and stops pulling. When I look at the dash, I find an 'exclamation inside a circle' flashing there. I stop the car, restart it and its works fine as if there was no problem to start with.

This has happened 3-4 times in the last 1 month. This issue started after I got a 4-channel Sony amplifier installed. Not sure if it has to do with a wrong installation of the amplifier as I also get a whistling sound on accelerating.

Look forward to inputs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by civic-dk (Post 3311226)

Thats the engine check light flashing, checkout manual for the same. The loss of power you see is termed as limp mode.

You can check my ownership thread for same, I too am suffering from this issue on my 5 months old figo diesel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by satan's_valet (Post 3306272)

Guys, have a quick query.

I am seeing some weird results with the FE for my figo TDCi. On the recent highway trip, the car gave a FE of 19.6 kmpl with 100% AC and some spirited driving on hill roads. But my city FE has come down to 13 kmpl. I drive mostly in 2nd and 3rd gears for about an hour and half a day on my to and fro commute. Could that be the only reason or am I missing something here?

Not sure what is the reason for surprise here :). Consistent highway driving with the turbo spooling will give very good mileage. Higher gears also means you are covering more distance for the same amount of fuel spent. In bumper to bumper city driving the situation is opposite and efficiency is bound to drop a big chunk. 13kmpl for your kind of driving situation is normal for 1.4L TDCi. This is the same no i get on my Figo in Bangalore traffic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MorePower (Post 3307686)

That's a really nice colour for the Figo. How i wish I had this option while buying mine a year ago. One of my biggest grouse with Ford has been the lack of decent colour options for Figo.

Couldnt agree more. The color offering 2 yrs ago was even worse. Only White, Black and red were the decent options to consider.

I recently went to ford saying my pedal travels a little further than it should before the brake works effectively.

the usual nitwits in the showroom picked their noses, till one of them came up and said that adjusting the handbrake cable would solve my problem.

he adjusted it to a point where the handbrake was so tight, it would lock at one click. but the feel at the brake pedal was sharp, and satisfactory.

I drove around for half a day and went back to get the handbrake adjusted to the correct 2-3 clicks pull-to-engage and brakes were still working good.

Now after 1000 or so kms i feel the pedal travels a little more than it should before the brakes bite, plus the handbrake works at 4-6 clicks to engage.

Does anyone else have a clue on how handbrake cable adjustment is affecting the rest of my brake system?