Ford's All-New Competitor of Honda City Codenamed B500


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Ford B500 project will be the new Honda City competitor.

Ford will be investing INR 5,000 crores in its existing Chennai R&D centre to develop new products on the B500 project.

This will be the first major project where majority of the work will be done by the Indian R&D centre. The sedan will be competing with the Honda City and will be launched in 2018 and this will also have another MPV too.

Ford B500 project will be the new Honda City competitor – MotorOctane
 
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Re: Ford's competitor to Honda's City -2018

Ford B500 project will be the new Honda City competitor.
Well VM2011, I thought Fiesta was the Honda City competitor from the Ford stable. The pricing (at least the initial one) indicates the same. Does this mean that B500 will replace Fiesta or will both co-exist?? Any clues on that??
 
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Re: Ford's competitor to Honda's City -2018

Well VM2011, I thought Fiesta was the Honda City competitor from the Ford stable. The pricing (at least the initial one) indicates the same. Does this mean that B500 will replace Fiesta or will both co-exist?? Any clues on that??
In 2018, which is more than 2 years from now, new segments could evolve and not sure how the Sedan market will hold against the booming CUV's and SUV's in India.

IMO, Fiesta will be replaced by the B500 project.
 
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This will be a great move by Ford and knowing the fact that they now have sophisticated and sufficient manufacturing facilities in India, they will be able to compete in this segment too. The Fiesta was born with a big confusion and didnt really meet the segment expectations.

I wonder why Ford didn't attempt to bring in their new Escort instead of designing an all new model? Check out the video below of the new Ford Escort 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjX6iwO3ha8
 
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Re: Ford Figo Aspire Launched in India (Coverage: Pg.21)

Ford b500. What can we expect from it ? Would it have ford dna or just another mass market car ?
 
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Re: Ford Figo Aspire Launched in India (Coverage: Pg.21)

Ford b500. What can we expect from it ? Would it have ford dna or just another mass market car ?
I too dont have much info on it,only things we know so far are that B 500 will have the chassis of 2017 Global Fiesta thats undergoing testing in Europe, the chassis itself will get wider and longer by 2-3 inches, so we can expect more space inside the cabin,
Safety and strength of chassis will be very high as its same for Europe and other regions as well,
The sheet metal body and engines will vary from market to market, mostly India,Brazil,Thailand,etc will get a toned down body built and more focus will be paid for space and comfort festures, ride quality too will have high priority and possibly at expense of handling.

Car will most certainly feature SYNC 3, at top end variants, exterior design of car and even interior will have significant contribution by Engineers from India,Brazil,Thailand,China etc for our markets

Its petrol cars wil feature new line of ecoboost engines with cylinder deactivation tech ad well to possibly break the 20+ kmpl ARAI mark, Ford will focus on petrol model for B500 Fiesta,

All in all I see a slightly better built,longer wider and more feature rich Aspire as B500, it will be priced very cheap as well to fight likes of new Vento,new City and Verna.
I am have no hope in B500 Fiesta as a drivers car,
So the current gen Global Fiesta owners are keeping the last pieces of Fords legendary machines.
 
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Here is the official 2018 Fiesta for Europe
New 2017 Ford Fiesta: pictures, specs and release date | Auto Express
ford-fiesta-mule-001.jpg
Between 1 and 2 we see the widening of chassis
ford-fiesta-mule-003.jpg
Here we see the 1 points to the width and 2 points to the wheel arch which is getting pushed outward due to widening of chassis
ford-fiesta-mule-005.jpg
Here we see the rear cross beam that will be the part of chassis that acts as the crumble zone for rear collision also the wide bar is protruding outward meaning longer and wider chassis the 2 points out to the length extra added and 1 points the rear wheel arch that will be getting pushed back ward
 
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If the build quality is strong enough , that's fine for me. As far as driving dynamics is concerned, if they set up stiff suspension and work on high speed stability that would be raising the bar in this segment.

Fiat linea feels indestructible on highways, if the new ford sedan does 70% of that, they have a winner in hand.
 
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If the build quality is strong enough , that's fine for me. As far as driving dynamics is concerned, if they set up stiff suspension and work on high speed stability that would be raising the bar in this segment.

Fiat linea feels indestructible on highways, if the new ford sedan does 70% of that, they have a winner in hand.
I feel it will be at least as good as 75% of current Linea or current global Fiesta in terms of handling,ride comfort and dynamics,
Most probably Ford will opt for a stiffer front and lighter rear end for focus on back seat comfort,
Ford will price the car at least 25k to 50k cheaper than Honda City variant to variant as well,

Interior and exterior will be stylish yet practical, safety wise sure I dont think Ford will skimp on that part it will be at least as safe as Ecosport. I think the up coming 2017 Ecosport will give a small idea on how the 2018 Fiesta will look like inside as well,

Fords Aspire and Figo are no nonsense Fords more than drivers cars, the new Fiesta too will have a more no nonsense approach .
 
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2018 is too long. Will this City remain same until 2018?! Or at least I feel that the City category might not exist by then. Probably Ford is planning(or at least should plan) something different to expand dealer base to tier II and III cities and become reachable to it's customers. IMO this is the reason why Figo twins didn't do well as expected.
 
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2018 is too long. Will this City remain same until 2018?! Or at least I feel that the City category might not exist by then. Probably Ford is planning(or at least should plan) something different to expand dealer base to tier II and III cities and become reachable to it's customers. IMO this is the reason why Figo twins didn't do well as expected.
Not just in tier II but even in tier I cities Ford aint doing well with Figo and Aspire, the reason is simple, too much competition, see the 4-8 lakhs ex showroom segment is too complicated, we have sub 4m hatch backs like Figo, Swift,Bolt,Brio,etc
Then another segment the premium hatch back segment the Baleno,i20 elite, Jazz, Polo, and the suv segment like Tata Safari,tuv300,tuv100,
Then the compact sedan segment, the Aspire,Amaze,Dzire,etc

Its all totally jumbled up, inbetween that if a product has to shine, either it should have the vast servicr back up or at least a name, like that brands that car is extremely reliable, which is not entirely true in case of old Fords like Ikon,Fusion,Mondeo etc, those memories still haunt lot of potential buyers,

So this time Fords effort was solid, and they arr doing fine by the numbers I see,

Back in 2010 Figo had to fight just 2 cars, Swift and i10, no other cars were there in market and prominently Figo and Swift only had diesels whereas nowadays all brands have diesel and petrol with insane mileage srickers,cheap price tags,lot of showrooms,so obviously a good product like Ford cannot shine as it needs to.

Regarding the B500 Fiesta its true Ford is too late to party, 2018 is too long and by then mostly the compact suvs will be the star of the market, but Ford already has one, so no need for improvisation there but a company is established in India only if it has a C sedan, the market leaders all have 1 and they do pretty good numbers and the sedan is a classic styling, wont die off, it will relmain,i suspect the 2018 Fiesta to be a market average seller, like maybe 1000-1500 units a month maximum, and that will do just fine for Ford,

Ford is focusing more on exports from India, we see Ford sold just 5.7k cars domestic and exports were 11.5k, so India will remain a small market for Ford even after 2020 but ots importsnt to them as the export from here is pretty good and strategically gives them lot of gain,

So even though I like Ford, the hard fact is, the brand wont flourish in India, it will stay and satisfy a small bunch of people who like their styling,features,value,performance etc
 
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I seriously wish they bring the b-max (atleast if not fiesta successor) with ecoboost engine as soon as possible
Fords European cars are not going to reach India
The only other European car I think that India has a faint chance to see is the Ford Kuga with the new 1.5l 120 HP 320 NM ecoblue diesel engine, and that too is at least 2 years away
The B500 will land a little earlier probably by early 2018 itself as petrol cars are getting a push now and Ford already has developed a new 1.5l i3 DI NA engine for markets like India,China,Thailand etc
It will probably debut in the 2017 Ecosport facelift as well, it will make around 130 HP and 146 NM @4500 rpm, the big advantage is its DI so lot of power and mid range torque, and it will have good mileage
The new 1.2 and 1.5l i3 Dragon range of petrol engines will be made in India so probably will be cheap
 
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New Fiesta spied again
ford-fiesta-002.jpg

ford-fiesta-003.jpg

ford-fiesta-006.jpg

ford-fiesta-009.jpg

ford-fiesta-011.jpg
2018 Ford Fiesta 5-Door spy shots

The biggest points to note are the car has grown wider and longer by 2-3 inches
The car will have a high quality interior compared to current gen Fiesta
The car will be loaded with lots of features including SYNC 3 which can be seen in the test car
The bones and mechanical of the new Fiesta remains same which means it will be fun to drive as usual and will have one of the best suspension of any car in its class
The car seemed to have lot of noise cancelling materials used inside cabin,door sills etc

The car will come in 3 door, 5 door and a sedan form

I really wish Ford releases this Fiestas sedan form in India rather than a big Aspire

The hatch back seems extremely stylish and if launched in India as a premium sedan will definitely sell for its looks alone

Come on Ford, the new Fiesta could crack a hole in the i20 Elites,Baleno freeway
 
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The fiesta and b-max are good for premium hatchbacks.

The b-max is a perfect competitor for the jazz.

If it has the ford handling dna, it will be a blast to drive.

The puny 1.2 petrol will not justify this and they need to give 1.0 ecoboost for this to maintain the premium tag
 

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