Ford Ikon - total disappointment. Review on Ford Ikon 1.6 ZXi

I have been using my Ikon 1.6 Sxi  for about 4 years now. I am terribly disappointed by product quality and customer support. I paid about 7.5 lakhs for a fully loaded car in 2004. In spite of my light usage( 25000 km  in 4 years), I have been facing the following problems ever since I bought it.

1. Airconditioning valve keeps failing every six months. Suddenly your car a/c starts heating while you have set the thermostat for cooling. Very hot air comes out of the a/c vents that in a few minutes, the cabin gets very hot. We have to switch off the a/c & roll down the windows quicky if you want to get hurt. I have not been bold enough to keep it running to see if it gets very hot and see if the car catches fire. I complained to the dealer and company itself. They have not been able to fix it permanently. It reoccurs every six months and regularly wastes my two days at the dealer, checking and replacing the faulty valve.

I have also not been able to keep the car running on its own even if I get out for a few minutes to buy a candy for my son or to buy a packet of milk, for the fear of catching fire.

1. Glove box is made of worst quality Plastic. The glove box gets scrated so  easily and there is no way to clean it or remove scrates. It is made of such a poor quality plastic material. I tried to scratch many plastic items at home( phone, computer speaker cabinet, monitor cabinet, computer cabinet, plastic spoon etc) with my fingers and I can't easily put scratch marks on them with my hand nails. On the ikon glove box, it is so easy to scratch it with your hand nails.

Anyone who joins me for a ride, always asks me why the glove box is full of scratches. I will tell them that my four year son scrated  it with his finger nails.

1. Service from Dealer( Fortune ford, Hyderabad) is pathetic.Everytime I send my car for service, they will mess up something. Once they fitted the seat belt in reverse. My CD changer stopped working after the previous service and they say that CD changer is damaged. It was working the day I sent it for service and when they returned the car after servicing the CD changer is damaged and I have to repair/replace it at my cost.

Once they kept the service book with them after servicing and returned it after a week on followup.

Break down service from the dealer was also poor. Once my battery was down due to batter fault. I asked them to replace it at my location. They didn't replace it, instead insisted that they have to take the car to their service station and observe it for a few days. I get the battery replaced by somebody else, so as not to waste my time at their service station.

In all, I am extremely dissatisfied by my Ford Ikon. I will not recommend it to anybody else, even to my enimies. Please stay away from Ford and Ikon.

TrueVoice88

23/Feb/2008