[chaudhrysan]

Hi:

Have been reading a lot on on this forum. Have posted very little (did not feel the need to post much because whenever I needed an answer, a good search would give me the necesssary information that was needed). Thanks to all of you for making this forum a very highly informative one.

Finally thought I would start my own thread, as the title suggests, of booking and buying my Fi-go.

I have always been very partial towards Ford. Drove Ford Cortina's in Africa whent my parents were posted there in late 70's/early 80's. Went to US in early 80's for post graduation. As luck would have it, bunch of us roomies ended up buying a 2nd hand Mustang there. That one was good car - after the first six months of ownership, i.e. (we realised after six months that the car was running on only 5 of the 6 cylinders!! does give you an indication of the calibre of us engineers in that group). Since returning from the US, we have purchased 2 Ford Ikons in the family (2000 and 2005) and still have them.

Come March 2010, decided that I wanted to buy a hatch for city driving.

Requirements -
1. Comfortable drive in the city
2. Good A/C
3. Good handling and steering feedback
4. Should be airy and roomy inside (I am claustrophobic, often drive with A/C on and window down)
5. Purchase has to be made before 31st March (depreciation, etc.)

I was also more inclined towards diesel since my monthly running would be around 2k or more.

Cosiderations -
1. Honda Jazz (out of budget since I intend to purchase an SUV later this year) - so out.
2. Tata Vista (not sure of Tata *** since we had a very bad time with our company Sumo with them) - so out.
3. Fiat Punto - had read a lot of good things about this car here on tBHP. Fiat/Tata *** a question mark, but then Fiat has also remained close to heart. All our cars in the family from 1965 to 1978 have been Fiats/Premiere Padminis.
4. Hyundai i20 - Got 2 Santros, very satisfied with the car and ***. Besides, a very close friend is a Hyundai dealer.
5. VW Polo - read good things here on tBHP, but no possibility of delivery before 31st March, and diesel was not even an option before May, so out.

Then came March 9th (was it?)
6. Ford Figo launch officially announced - went to the dealership and was told that TD would be available after the 15th of March.

Meawhile TD'ed the i20 diesel. Not quite impressed with city driveability. Also, the steering didn't feel that great.

Next was Punto 1.3 MJD. Great car, but slow traffic driveability not great. Also, seemed a bit not spacious from inside.

Come 17th of March, went to South City Ford, NOIDA, to TD the Figo 1.4 TDCi (as per reviews here, it seemed to be the one to go for).

Impressions:

1. Looks- Simple and neat, more conventional and maybe orthodox, but to my taste anyways.
2. Driveability - I think pretty good for city driving. Driving in slow traffic was a lot simpler than in the i20 or the Punto.
3. A/C - better than expectations, it chilled me quite quickly.
4. Inside Roominess - very good.
5. Inside fit and finish - not excellent but very decent.

The car fulfilled my requirements very well and the pricing was, well icing on the cake.

19th March:
Went to the dealer and booked a White 1.4 TDCi Titanium.
Booking amount - Rs. 10,000.00
Delivery - "Sir, for ebony interiors, it will take 10 days."
I asked "Are you sure it will be before the 31st?"
"Definitely sir."

23rd March:
"Sir, we seem to be having some problems with delivery. No White Titanium available before 31st. Will you consider another colour?"
I said "No."

Next 4 days, phone call exchaged every day but no concrete answer. Read here on tBHP how the deliveries were getting messed up, so didn't escalate the issue too much.

28th March:
Got a call from the dealer:
"Sir, We will have a White Titanium TDCi in transit tomorrrow, but it is in Coral dashboard. Will you accept it?"
Delivery?
"The container will arrive only by the 2nd or 3rd of April. So, after that."
Invoicing?
"Sir, since we have the VIN no. of the vehicle, we can do the invoicing on the 31st of March provided you make full payment before that."
I said "Go ahead."

Completed all the formalities, and after a few hiccups finally got the delivery on the 6th of April.

Total On Road Price, Delhi: 5,80,300.00 (incl. 3rd yr warranty).

I will not go into other details and features as these have been discussed enough here.

Things not so good -

1. Engine boot release - wrong side, duh!
2. A/C controls - The ON/OFF and level control on the far side, is this normal??
3. Seat height control is all crap, it just seems to adjust the angle of the botton of the seat. Still, I have been able to find a comfortable seating position. However, this has created another problem. The top part of the speedo is being blanked out by the steering wheel. Any one face this problem?
4. The OEM audio may be good by OEM standards, but the audio quality is not that crisp. Somehow it feels subdued. Can changing speakers to better ones resolve this issue?

Things done so far -

1. Rims changed to Prestige alloys
2. 4 tyres changed from GoodYear GT3 (stock) to Yoko A Drives.

No upsize of Rim size or Tyre size as this would null the warranty. Have done 400 odd km to date and enjoying it. Have got to re-learn driving a diesel a bit. I often forget to idle the engine for 30 sec prior to shutting down. I am sure diesel cars can have the feature that when you turn the ignition OFF, the engine idles for 30 sec (or whatever) before shutting down. I think it could be easily done by incorporating a timer and a relay in the ignition circuit (or maybe I am thinking wrong).

Finally, I am trying to attach a couple of pictures of the car (phew, this is the longest draft I have written since graduation!).

[scorpio07]

Congrats on your white figo, awesome car she is take care

[Mustang.101]

Congratulations Chaudhrysan ! Great choice of color!

2 Things i want to tell you

1) whenever you mention 'After sales service', Type it as A.S.S. <----- Notice the dots, Otherwise you will always end up with 3 stars like '***' as the meaning gets changed.

2) Can I know your sales person name at south city ford? Did you also interact with the AGM there?

[Gilead]

Originally Posted by chaudhrysan

I have always been very partial towards Ford. Drove Ford Cortina's in Africa whent my parents were posted there in late 70's/early 80's. Went to US in early 80's for post graduation. As luck would have it, bunch of us roomies ended up buying a 2nd hand Mustang there. That one was good car - after the first six months of ownership, i.e. (we realised after six months that the car was running on only 5 of the 6 cylinders!! does give you an indication of the calibre of us engineers in that group). Since returning from the US, we have purchased 2 Ford Ikons in the family (2000 and 2005) and still have them.

Congrats. With a background like that, I am surprised you even took a look at the other cars.

Your car looks smashing. White with alloys makes the car look bigger. It seems to be the exact opposite for Red. I am not surprised you got the coral dash. A colleague of mine has finally agreed to take a coral dash as well after a long delay.

Here's another tip to maximize diesel FE. Don't stomp on the pedal before the turbo comes on.

[sanjayc]

Congrats. Those alloys look fantastic.

[diesel_head]

kon'nichiwa chaudhry-san!!
congrats on your new ride and that was one well worded report!! she looks swell.....happy and safe driving!

D

[joethomasv]

Congrats on the Figo.The white alloys look neat!

[theragingbull]

Congratulations! Alloys compliment the car very well and your car looks stunning in white. It'd have been better if you didn't get the coral dashboard.
Anyways, it's raining Figos on TeamBHP these days!

[Utopian]

Congrats chaudhrysan for the FIGO. The TDCi is definitely a VFM. The alloys go very well with the overall stance of the car.
Happy mile crunching with the oil burner.

[Schoudhury]

congrats chaudhrysan !
The car looks awesome with those alloys and also abit bigger .

Cheers mate .

[Ricky_63]

Originally Posted by joethomasv

Congrats on the Figo.The white alloys look neat!

Are they white ? I think they are Silver , maybe my eyes playing tricks or maybe they are a combination of both !

Look nice none the less !!!

Congrats to the owner on the BRILLIANT car total VFM.




Cheers

[cLJ]

Congrats! The alloy looks very good. By the way, how much the alloy cost you.

CLJ

[gemithomas]

Wow! Great looking alloys. Really changes the way the car looks. How much sis it cost for the tyres and alloy separately.

About the music system. Did you change the settings for loudness and equalizer? I personally thought the system sounded awesome. It is very clear and has a very good stereo effect. Decent bass also (something you never see on OEM systems)

Try doing a custom setting on the system as to your liking. There are preset equalizers or you can adjust bass and treble to your liking. You can also turn on/of loudness.

[tj123]

congrats chaudhrysan ! Figo looks Cool with those alloys, do share keep updating your tread about your new experiences. Thanks

[xingamazon]

Congrats Chaudhrysan, the car is definetly a looker, tha alloys are an amazing match to the car, it surely compliments the look of the car.
Great choice, keep updatng the post when you cross milestones such as 1500, 3000 odd kms.