I have been reading car reviews on mouthshut close to a year now on choosing a car for my overall needs.
Was I a bachelor the choice would have been easier, now that you need to keep ur family and your needs in minds. All started with upgrading from our Zen sometime last year beginning as the repairs kept increasing and the car was also old.
For our nerw car. Maruti cars was my top choice for obvious reason, started from alto to the new estillo and then froze on the swift. My brother brought a swift vdi in 2009 and I was really impressed with the power and smoothness of the car.
My budget was limited then so stuck to Swift petrol plan. As my research and using the swift progressed, I realized that swift has drivers visibility issue and has very limited space. When I and my wife enquired some last mid year with the Maruti dealer the wait in period of 3+ months and no music system and accessories changed my decision to look at i20 magna. We test drove the i20 magna, liked the interiors and the design of the car very much, but what it lacked was power. I compromised on the power and had almost decided to book it.
My Plans got a delayed bit further due budget constraints but my research continued. During this time I saw a grey Figo TDCI test drive car outside my office. I took the car for the test drive and was really impressed. Post this I started doing a lot research especially reading the reviews on Mouthshut . Finally booked moondust silver –ZXI- TDCI in last week of December ’10& got the delivery on 01-01-11 J. Now lets get to the ownership and driving experience of ZXI-TDCi.
The first thing I realized only after getting the car was the rear windows come down only 60% and the USB connectivity cable needs to be brought additionally at Rs.1, 500. Looked at the accessory list and the ford figo music system with Bluetooth costs 17k.
Super high price but no USB cable? The sound quality is pretty decent when CD and MP3 are played.but the radio quality is not that great even when the clip feature is on. I like to listen to radio indigo but not so happy in my ford figo. I was getting rattling noise in the front right especially during turns.
The mileage was impressive for a new car was getting 18-19 KMPL with 50% AC on. After completing around 500kms the squeaking noise started coming from rear right. Did one long drive to Channarayapatna approx 300kms and gave my car for first service when I had done around 1400KMS and asked for a door moulding to be done outside. I highlighted all the problems which was promptly written down in the sheet.
When I picked up the car in the evening all the problems were attended to except the front Rattling noise. The service centre told me that a MODIFIED caliper rings needs to replaced and will call me back when they have the stock. Took the car home and realized that the door moulding was fixed incorrectly.
I called up the service centre and they said that they will send a service centre personnel home to fix it. The person called me the evening and said that he will come in the morning. But this guy could not fix it but rather spoilt it more. It is very clear once the door moulding are fixed they need to be done right the first time, else the gum will be of no use again. I got a call from the service center to get the caliper ring fixed.
Took it on Saturday and they had it fixed in 4-5 hrs along with a free body wash(saw the bill it was 8.5k but covered in warranty- now that is scary stuff). I highlighted the door moulding issue, they inspected the same and said that they will replace it for free.again there is no stock and will call me once they have it.
Eventually they had door moulding replaced for free. All going well but I feel the Fuel Efficiency had dropped by 1-1.5 KMPL and squeaking noise re appears again from the rear but this time it is more louder and my front right mudflap had broken going over a road speed breaker with 4 persons in the car. We did a long drive to Mangalore and back covering about 900kms in total.
This is where the car impressed me a lot. We drove mostly in rains and the car handled really well. I was impressed with road handling capabilities in the GHAT section it was really good. The mileage I got during this drive was around 21kms, but all that driving in the rains increased the squeaking noise in the car. Got it washed& fixed by Metro ford Bangalore also got the under car anti rust treatment done for Rs.2850+ taxes. Did not replace the front mud flaps as the service centre guy says that I need to buy a set of all four which will cost Rs.450. planning to buy a different pair of mud flaps outside which are flexible type. I think if the length of the mud flaps of the existing available are reduced they should work.
But ford is not looking at issues/complaints raised by customers. Overall the experience with my ford Figo has been good. No car is perfect its all about individual preferences. Additional note: Did a trip to Dornahalli trip near mysore on Sunday 26th June 2011. You wont belive this I did a speed of 155 kmph on the NECE road and if felt amazing. the car is smooth upto speeds of 130kms.at 150+kmph I could hear a little noise from the engine and it sounded like rally engine noise. super excited about the way the car handled. very well in terms of road grip and control. Earlier when I did speed of 140kmph in swift VDI it was very shaky. the Fuel efficiency was great around 20+kmpl it would have been better.but the bangalore-mysore highway nowadays has a lot traffic and speed breakers.due to which the drive/speed is not constant. will keep updating with further reviews. way to go figo.
