[drkritik]

@ milecruncher: this is not the first car for me but yes it is the first car with which I was emotionally involved. I have sent an Email to fortune ford customer care with scanned bill copies, awaiting a reply(thanks for the suggestion)

@ vnabhi, shajufx thanks for replying. Your ownership reviews helped me in the buying stage.(I never Regret buying it. Experience is something which you can never gain without loosing anything !! ) Your present comments are again invaluable, will definitely consider them. (waiting for a reply from unni.a.k. for completion sake)

@ landcruiser do you have any info (reference) as to clutch can be damaged as regards to poor tyre choices ? I am just curious. Because the same engine and chassis is sold with 205 caliber tyres in Sports version, many of fiesta owners, i know have up-sized to 195 caliber without much issues ! This was the same argument put forward by the tyre sales guy when i went for changing the tyres in 4days.

@multiple car drivers.. I can't help it. it is going to be same with Ritz, as it has been same with my Honda Shine, Swift VDi, Indica (@ home). Never i had problem with them !

Our Indica toppled twice upside down , bad dents, needed to be towed was repaired in less than 25k !

as far as Ritz is concerned I have been bit reluctant to pamper her , probably I am afraid of falling in love once again..
yesterday , I called up my nephew (8yr old) told "I sold Fordy (it was more of family member when he used to stay with us)" He was quite upset, and has refused to talk to me..

@ Guna & AlokSriva Wise words...

[drkritik]

@Yogi1771: You might be partly right. the previous cars have made me feel like this about ford spares. On a second thought, had these expenses occurred over period of three years(instead of 6 months), I guess ; I might not have sold the car ! I anyway planned to keep the car for 4 years when I bought it.

@Suman thanks, Even Ritz will teach me few lessons(I will definitely share) , hope they might not be as painful as these were. (The second time clutch failed just before we had to reach for yearly mahapuja at Mantralayam, all of us couldn't attend it)

[rajeev k]

I read all your posts in one go. The story is touching. Moreover the experience I got by reading the thread is equivalent to cruising 12K in a year in the Fiesta
Now wishing many many happy smiling miles in Ritz till you upgrade.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by yogi1771

The problem with spare parts being costly as quoted by many guys I have seen is that they will compare the spare parts with either a car which is one segment down for that matter even a car which is two segments down( personal experience with my building member).If you need to compare spare parts then the comparison should be with a SX4,Verna etc.

Well said. Comparing across segments will only result in us feeling greater disappointment, and is far from reality.

@drkritik : There is no way i can justify the spares and repair costs of our Alto at home with my Ikon or even something from the higher segment. For that matter, even comparing the spares cost of the Alto with another hatch such as the i10 would not make sense.

Hope i was able to get my point across.

As regarding the lessons which you learnt from this ownership, as they say life always teaches us something new everyday.

Hope you have a pleasing ownership experience with the Ritz.

[puneet8796]

Doc, this was a very interesting post which kept me glued till the very end.

As many people have already said it, the points you have mentioned are all correct and relevant. Regarding service center charging higher than the market - the bigger challenge people face is - for which level of problem should one go to the service center and for which problem can one rely on the local mechanic. I mean, there are numerous examples, where really seemingly complex problems have got very easy and cheap "jugaad-style" solutions. But can you rely on those quick fix solutions for long term (and that too especially for cars - one's life depends on the reliability).

Once my laptop screen conked, when I took it to the HP service center, they gave me a quote of 17K for replacing the entire LCD panel. I took it to a local repair guy, he opened the laptop, and said the problem was in fixing of motherboard as one screw had come loose, he fixed the thing and charged me just 100 bucks. Therefore, I believe your point is true for all things machines.

And as everyone already mentioned, if you have multiple drivers for any car, you are gonna end up with problems. It is not that they are bad drivers - it is just that everyone has a different style of driving. One can draw a parallel to how one rides a horse - not all horses are made for all riders and vice-versa. Because of the style one rides.

I am sure Ritz is gonna give you thousands of happy miles! Waiting for the ownership review of the same!

[deepfusion]

Originally Posted by ACM

Nice opening post.

2.9 buy was a great deal
2.7 sell was an ever better deal. If any buyer had known all that the car went through under your ownership the quoted price would have been much lower.
Ford spares though expensive, most of the cost / expense incurred by you seem to be due to driver error, so ford can't really be blamed.
In this price band there is no better driver car, yet the deal that you got was great.
The snap of the rear of the car was a touching throught.
What car next?

+1 to that view.

Ford makes great cars.

Ford service spoils what Ford tries to give to customers.

I would like to add that the price segment you are in, the cost of spares is fair.

Plus the factor that you have to pay a cost plus 50%/more if you buy from ford outlets.

[Brix]

I'm glad you're happy with Ford. People have a biased mindset in India about American cars. If only Ford could make their spares more cheap OR do some repair, they would sell more vehicles than they can make.

Reading your report, I think my next car would be a Fiesta 1.6. I love the Aquarius Blue(Gilead's influence). Lets see if Ford comes with a super discount scheme.

[PearlYamaha]

Lesson 8 comes a surprise to me. Ford gives a six month warranty on all its parts. Or I would say that is what I am given to understand by their brochures and Ford Quality promise boards kept at the A.S.S.?

[unni.ak]

Originally Posted by drkritik

@ vnabhi, shajufx thanks for replying. Your ownership reviews helped me in the buying stage.(I never Regret buying it. Experience is something which you can never gain without loosing anything !! ) Your present comments are again invaluable, will definitely consider them. (waiting for a reply from unni.a.k. for completion sake)

I had seen the thread (on the day you had posted it) and was really not sure what value I could add to the whole scene with my comments. You did have a bad experience, overall. Like you very rightly said, all these are lessons learned. Next time when you buy a vehicle in a higher segment, do keep in mind that maintenance expenses will be on the higher side.

I appreciate the trust you have on others who handle your car, and I'm sure they are good drivers as well. However, maybe, you should try curbing that instinct to share the car as much, with the new car you are buying. It may not be easy, but everybody has different driving styles. I'm not perfect or an expert, so I wont be able to comment on whether the clutch wear was because of multiple users, but chances are yes. The second time clutch failed was after the accident, maybe a off shoot of the accident, something getting misaligned or such.

You mentioned that the first service that you had, was expensive. But then, a regular service will be around Rs3000 mark, add to it the change of brake pads (part and labor would be around ~Rs2000), and interior cleaning. The last service I had, which included brake rotor and brake pad change, with regular service was around the Rs7000 mark, which I felt was perfectly normal.

All things said and done, I love the 1.6, and thanks to Shaju, I've driven his car for more than a few hundred kms. And, on this forum, I consider SumanDa's 1.6 as the epitome, more than a lac already and going stronger than ever. It is always dicey buying a second hand.

Wishing you all the luck with your new car. Let it give you much more peace of mind.

[~~h]

Originally Posted by drkritik

Our Indica toppled twice upside down , bad dents, needed to be towed was repaired in less than 25k !

Toppled twice ? means this was the 3rd toppling.. man that's a lot of topplings.

that apart it was some great lessons learnt.

Are Fiesta parts must cheaper now, with Figo sharing a lot of them ?

[niranjanrvce]

Originally Posted by drkritik

Because the same engine and chassis is sold with 205 caliber tyres in Sports version, many of fiesta owners, i know have up-sized to 195 caliber without much issues ! This was the same argument put forward by the tyre sales guy when i went for changing the tyres in 4days.

The S is sold with 195 and not 205 mm tyres. But you said you upgraded to 185/65 R 14s: that shouldn't have caused a problem at all. I run the same size on my 1.6 and they have behaved exceptionally well so far. I run Michelin XMI+ though and I am not sure if Yokos create some issues although that seems unlikely to me. Most of the problems you have had (except the clutch) seem to have been driver mistakes so I wouldn't really blame the reliability of the car.
My own 2 cents on Ford service: I had taken my car out on a trip to coastal Karnataka and on the stretch from Murdeshwar to Udupi was happily cruising alone at about 100 when the road was abruptly replaced by deep wells (ya those were too big to be called potholes!); checked my rear view mirror to see if I am clear, braked hard and tried my level best to keep at least one side of the car on whatever little plain (relatively) part of the road was left. Nevertheless, the car's bottom was scraped on the right side and I felt the suspension take a hard hit. The horrible stretch continued for a good 10 kms (if not more) so was able to check the car only after the entire stretch was over; there wasn't even a patch of road plain enough to park the car evenly for that entire distance! Everything seemed fine when checked the car there but later that night, on the drive back to Bangalore, I started hearing a very weird noise from the left front suspension. It was as if there was a stone bouncing around somewhere in the suspension and that thought seemed ridiculous to me then.
Took it to the Ford service center on St. Marks road and the service engineer was stumped with the noise; he said he has never heard anything like that before. They oiled the entire suspension system and called me to come take the car. I took a test drive before delivery and was able to reproduce the sound for them: it usually was only heard when I take a hard left. They duly apologized, took the car back in for a through a check up and called up in the evening: there was a stone in the suspension!! They were as amazed as I was and the stone was found only after the dis-assembled the entire suspension assembly. This took them a day and half to figure out and fix: the total cost - some 300 rupees in labour. The service manager was repentant that they couldn't fix it right the first time but I did not mind that at all as long as they fixed it right!
When I went in for 1.6, everyone drove me up the wall for buying a car with supposedly such poor A.S.S. This incident though, left me feeling vindicated: I am a long time Maruti owner and the Ford A.S.S was in no way inferior to the experiences I have had with Maruti! Maybe my share of Ford nightmares are yet to come; maybe they won't. But this incident reinforces my theory that A.S.S is more directly dependent on the service center/dealer/service manager than on the whole brand itself.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by Brix

Reading your report, I think my next car would be a Fiesta 1.6. I love the Aquarius Blue(Gilead's influence). Lets see if Ford comes with a super discount scheme.

+5 to that ! Fiesta 1.6 is growing on me since the time I saw the Aquarius Blue. But I dont think we are that lucky -- As far as I know, they have discontinued this color.

@drKarthik -- sorry to fume you one more time -- but you should try and restrict the number of guys driving your car. Everybody will have a different driving style and would add to the dynamics of your car.

To quote an example, a friend of mine who had a petrol car drove my car 2-3 times. Since my Swift being a diesel, he ended up using a lot of clutch. I gave the car to him just because 1). I knew he is a very slow and safe driver 2). He owned a car for 3+ years.

But the way he used the clutch -- i felt the car lost its smoothness after that. Took a week for the car to get back to the smoothness I used to have. This incident taught me a lesson and I dont hand over my car to anyone now [the only exception is my bro who is again a sedate driver who actually run-in my car after I bought it and my bro-in-law who is again a much sedate driver]. I asked even my dad not to drive this car [he drives a Wagon R and is just as careless and rash as it can get].

Again its a matter of personal choice and I just provided you with my 2 cents.

Secondly, everytime your car went thru a bad incident, there could hv been some factors which added to the maintenance of the car -- which could have been overlooked by the mechanics -- possibility.

I am happy that all of the travellers in your car is safe without a scratch -- else would have been a nightmare.

I wish you miles and miles of happy and safe motoring.

My Swift's brake pads cost nearly 4000/-. So I think 6000/- for a Fiesta is pretty nominal considering the premium that Ford commands [Or is it even lower as you mentioned some interior cleaning also was done?].

[(Alok)]

Very balanced and unbiased article kritik.

Your write up clearly shows that there is no irritation/ frustration about ford product but the costly spares & poor service are the issues.

You are the man like my type. I also do not treat my bikes & car as just iron pieces but they are our family members.

As you owned a FORD car for almost 1 year, please tell us (me) one thing….

Every one knows that ford service is costly & poor but why all ford owners always goes to ASS? I had rarely seen ford products in multiple car workshops. Even you didn’t did the clutch work outside for 6k and paid double amount at ASS?

[suman]

Originally Posted by (Alok)

Every one knows that ford service is costly & poor but why all ford owners always goes to ASS?

I had rarely seen ford products in multiple car workshops. Even you didn’t did the clutch work outside for 6k and paid double amount at ASS?

Guess you've answered your own question haven't you? Spares are not available in the open market for Fiestas (they're available to a certain extent for the older Ikons).

I've scoured the market when my Fiesta went out of EW but didn't find a single garage who were willing to undertake any work.

[rohing]

Great post! Very well written. All I can tell is that I feel what you feel my friend. Eight years back, I had a Ford escort and suffered nightmares due to the expensive spare parts and bad A.S.S. One day the A.C knob came off and Ford asked 600Rs to give me a new one. This is just the tip of the iceberg - many many more experience like this and much much more expensive. We loved the car, the comfort, but it spoilt our peace of mind. Finally, we sold it and bought a Honda City. We only perform regular service and it just such a wonderful experience (6 years).

I heard from many forum members that all this has changed now and with the Figo it is a totally new story. I have been debating on getting a Figo inspite of my family being totally against a Ford. Now with your post, I am all the more skeptical!!!