[Thunderbird77]

We decided to sell our 5 year old Santro Xing XS to go for a new hatch back. As it is going to be my wife's car she was calling the shots. We checked i10, Vista, Beat and Figo. i10 was ruled out as we didn’t want to go for a third Hyundai on the row (our other car is Accent). Beat was eliminated as my wife felt it is too masculine. Finally, the remaining ones were Vista and Figo. After I test drove Vista (QJ Aura) I was really surprized by the list of features and it’s italian heart. I thought this is the car and tried convincing my wife but she wanted to see Figo before taking her pick.

We visited both MPL Nandanam and Taramani showrooms. Did TD. Petrol was a put off straight away, as it lacked steam but Diesel impressed me. Pick-up was good. But overall, it didn’t appeal to me as much as Vista did. But my wife fell flat for Figo. She screamed ‘this is my car’.

Booked a diesel ZXI at MPL Nandanam by paying 10k in second week of March. Our choice was Chill with black dash. ETD was end March.

After a week of booking, sales rep called me and said chill with black dash is not available for ZXI variants presently and may get delayed by 15 days. He also said they have a sea grey with red clay dash available. With the horror stories of unexpected delays in the back of my mind I decided to give up my choice of colours and to take this sea grey. I convinced my wife and went to showroom on 29th March and paid the full amount. I was told that the car would be ready on 31st.

The car was indeed ready on 31st but without boot mats. Checked the equipment and did the rituals (a muslim guy did the pooja!). Somehow managed to drive the car home with the rear wiper running all the way.

So far I have driven 1.3k KMs with two highway trips. I have mixed feelings about this car.

Good ones:

1. Interior is classy with predominantly blackish theme
2. Smokey head lamps look modern
3. Indicator lights are unique and powerful
4. Reverse lights are as bright as head lamps!
5. Light steering
6. Rear leg room and spacier boot.
7. Chunky doors
8. Pick up in 4th and 5th gears. Really helpful in high ways overtaking
9. IP though not very informative looks good with reddish glow
10. Music system is not badfor a factory fitted one
11. electric side view mirrors and hatch release
12. Good mileage (16-17 KM/L Avg)

Bad ones

1. Not a head turner like Beat. People mistake it for Ikon or Getz
2. Poor sound proofing. Engine noise is annoying at low speeds. Horn sounds as if it is placed inside the cabin.
3. No rear power windows
4. US style indicator/wiper arms. Cumbersome when you need to adjust light beam while your left hand is on the gear shift
5. The much hyped A/C is not as effective as my Accent.
6. Suspension is not that great. I feel like the tyres wobble when you go over pot holes.
7. Head room is poor. The sun visors hit your head whenever you adjust them
8. Key with remote controls is ridiculous. Key is bulky and pokes your pocket. There is no audible acknowledgement when locking/un-locking. Simply useless.
9. Practically no bumpers
10. No dummy pedal. Problem while long driving.
11. Hood release in the left side (again US Style? When they will Indianize their cars?)
12. Music system refused to spit out the CD. After my complaints they replaced the system. But I am still waiting for my CD which got stuck inside
13. Nobody in Ford seems to have thorough knowledge about this car. They keep giving me blank faces when ask questions.
14. The manual is a junk. It doesn’t comply with the car’s features. E.g. the manual talks about glow-plug indicator, but there is no such indicator
15. The USB feature is another confusion. The system manual says the port is in the glove box but there is nothing

I still can’t get the feeling off my mind that Vista could have been a better choice. Fellow ‘Figowners’ share your thought.

I will upload the photos in my next post.

[quadmaniac]

Dude, can you please edit your post? There are these [COLOR] and [FONT] tags everywhere, making it almost impossible to read. Did you copy paste from Outlook or somewhere else?

Originally Posted by Thunderbird77

Checked the equipment and did the rituals (a muslim guy did the pooja!).

I like that!

Overall, honest opinion about the car. What do you think of the red dash?

[scorpio07]

Its a good car and a good buy, i guess you are more for Indica and hence its hard to get used to this one. Your heart is for Indica and so the problems too.

I will give my opinion on the bad bits you mentioned:
1. Looks, it varies from person to person. Beauty lies in the hand of the beer holder :P
2. When cold engine is noisy, as it gets heated up, Its not at all noisy. have tried it . Own a diesel Zxi figo.
3.Rear power windows, i find them not a necessity. 90% of the people drive with AC On.
4. Wiper stalks you will get used to it.
5.AC not sure why the case is so, i took the car on a hot sunday afternoon with 6 adults, no sweat.
6.did you check the air pressure, threads suggests 34 on the front and 32 for the rear, try it.
7 for the rest there are many threads answering the points.

These are my personal opinion, my only question is that why figo when your heart lies at indica. Now that you have got it start loving it, makes things easier.

[shankar.balan]

while the Vista with Drive Tech and all that is a great car in its own way, I still feel the Ford Figo is a very good deal at the price.

However, feature for feature Tata always manages to pack in a great deal into their cars.

[nkrishnap]

Its difficult to read, but finally made it through.

Congrats on the Figo.

Vista is a very understated car.

[Utopian]

Congrats Thunderbird77 for the purchase. You seem to be quite unsatisfied with the car. You are driving a diesel. The engine noise would definitely on the higher side. I am surprised about the tire wobbling thing, never heard about that in a Ford.
Agree completely with you for points #3,4,9,10 and 11(bad ones)

[tj123]

Congrats Thunderbird77
Figo is a decent value for money car, I think even all the critics also agree to it.
Diesels are always noisier than petrol don’t expect too much in that department.

Figo has some obvious irritants like lack of Power windows & positioning of the control stalks. We had lot of discussion on the main thread .
One more point to note that if you are traveling with a kids (naughty fellows) then bonnet opener needs to definitely go on to the driver side as they might try to fiddle with it. Thought of operating the bonnet opener at high speed scares me, I know that a secondary lock is there to open the bonnet , but if that fails , results can be disastrous.

Agree to pt 15 there is still some doubts on it.

[RajaTaurus]

That goes to prove the ad campaign is a grand success. Ford just did not have a car for the feminine segment and this has done them real good. I10s and I20s will sure take the beating. And I liked the honest opinion of your wife on Beat - too masculine.!
Congratulations on the new addition. Post pictures soon please.

[chaudhrysan]

@thunderbird77
1. Looks are personal, so cant comment. Mistake it for Fusion, but Ikon?
2. Endine noise is there (diesel hai na) but not overly intrusive when the engine warms up. Iprefer some engine noise to be heard because I change gears using that as a guide. For me, tyre/road noise intrusion over 90 kph is more of an issue.
3. Issue with some, not an issue with others.
4. Cost cutting, but no justification. However, you will get used to it in no time.
5. No experience with Accent, but I found it quite effective in Figo.
6. Suspension is on stiffer side, not soft. Both advantages and disadvantages of this. Tyre wobbling - please get this checked as this not a typical Ford issue.
11. Cost cutting, but ridiculous. You need to have a helper in the car a la truck style.
12. Boy, this is the second incident of this happening on this Forum. Ford needs to pull up their audio vendor.
13. True to some extent.
14. Need to check out.
15. You have to purchase the USB cable seperately.

Honestly, with the way your heart lies with Vista, I don't know whether I should but congratulations and best wishes. Hope your experience over time improves and you enjoy your new drive to the fullest.

Vista may be an underrated car with features packed in, but I don't have full confidence in Tata A.S.S. Overall, for me the Figo package was better.

[Speed Pujari]

My personal opinion, Figo is a hurriedly launched vehicle which lacks many modifications from its nearly twin bro fusion(with a different heart).

The interior dashboard, the bonnet lever placements etc. are some of the basic modification which WAS required from fusion. Face uplift and placing smaller engine does not require high investement in R&D.

Lack of rear power windows is totally idiotic.

In cabin Engine noise is one major problem to be addressed. I dont know why they ignore these areas. In cabin engine noise was heavy in fusion+ petrol as well. It use to be a killer in long rides.

I still am trying to understand whats that it hyped up the figo so much other than the diesel engine? Its everything fusion !.

[arnabchak]

Dear Thunder

Congrats about the new car.

It certainly feels that you are pretty dissatisfied with the buy.

How would you comment living with the Red Dash though?

Figo has been an acclaimed car though honestly, I did not like a few things about the car namely:

1) Lack of PW in the rear.
2) The over all look of the car. I found that the looks are pretty bland here.
3) The IP is not at all informative and the lack of the temperature gauge(which is sort of becoming a trend) was not appreciated.
4) The bonet release on the co-drivers seat.

[chaudhrysan]

@ speed pujari

Its price .vs. fusion

@ arnabchak
3. This has been debated a lot and yes I agree. If cost cutting was the issue, I would have preferred they provide a regular temperature gauge and incorporate the fuel gauge in a digital format (like the battery indicator in a mobile) in the digital display.

[abhinav.s]

Very honest and to the point review Thunderbird.

Your heart is still with the Vista and hence this disappointment with the Figo.

But still, congrats on your purchase. Drive for some more kms and you will see that most of the irritants will be not so with time.

Cheer up and munch those miles

[joe1980]

Congratulations on your new car. I'm sure as you get used to the car, you will appreciate your decision to buy a Ford Figo.

[musicmanaman]

I too feel the Vista is better than the Figo, or atleast in my view it is that way, just wished the Vista had a better AC, and yes, the Figo AC is not that effective in my opinion.