Thread Starter
#1
Hi all,
Please do note that I will not be covering what features the car comes with in comprehensive detail. I would advise you to go through test drive reports of various publications and reviewers. They cover it better. The following lines reflect only what I look for and think of the car.
I am open for healthy discussions and different point of views from other members of the forum. After all its more fun learning this way.
So, whats a nanny?
According to wikipedia: A nanny, childminder, child care provider, or a mother's helper is an individual person who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service.
A car and nanny? Whats the relation?
Whenever I drive this car, I am only reminded of my nanny. (Yes, yes, I had one for 5 years when we had moved to bombay). She pampered me and my brother a lot. This resulted in us facing a lot of difficulties when we went to the hostels for further studies. Really.. a lot of difficulties. No, I seriously mean it.
I had just finished my studies for the day and was heading out for a walk. Today morning's times of india had a huge ad from ford announcing some freebie festival offer. I had a hunch that I'll be hearing from my dad soon.
6.30 pm and the phone rings
Dad: Have booked the fiesta dct
Me (why am I not surprised): Which model and color?
Dad: Hang on, talk to your brother.
Bro: Hey, wassup?
Me (now at full volume): ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY? DID YOU EVEN CHECK OUT OTHER CARS?
Bro: Woah, woah, calm down. We test drove the city manual. They didn't have the A/T one at linkway
Me: WHAT ABOUT THE VENTO, RAPID, VERNA? DID YOU EVEN CONSIDER THOSE?
Bro: Nah. Have decided this one. Its nice. The DCT one is fast and has great handling.
Me: What color?
Bro: White
Me: Why not the blue one? It looks nice in pics at least.
Bro: I saw it here. It doesn't look nice in real world. Trust me on this. You won't like it. I had my heart set on sea grey color, which looks awesome, but for all practical purposes it will be a pain to maintain one.
I hung up, very unhappy.
The car would be a replacement of our 2nd hand hyundai getz. The getz was now giving us a lot of trouble with steering failures, radiator replacements and the likes. It had served us well for 5 years. So, dad decided to replace it.
It had to be A/T since it will be mom's car, and she loves A/T's a lot for their convenience. The fact that we had fired our driver a few months back and were currently driver-less was another contributory factor.
Yearly running would be 5k kms at max, so petrol made sense. What didn't make sense was the cars price tag. It was insane. Just not worth the price. And the dealer had thrown in a measly 15k discount only just p****d me off. This, at a time when the car wasn't selling at all. Great, just great!
Not only will I get to drive a car which I don't like, it'll be expensive, and depreciate like hell. Why can't dad listen to me just once and get the city. Its so much better, reliable, relatively cheap to maintain, and will have a good resale as well at the end of 5 years when I am sure dad will change it.
A week passes by, and I am in bombay for a few days.
The car was booked at sc ford (we were a repeat customer). We had booked 2 cars, one figo (under company name) and fiesta dct (personal use). The entire deal included the exchange for our getz. The fiesta was promised in 15 days since it was ordered from the factory. The car had arrived early and me, dad, and my brother headed out in our getz to make final payments and do a PDI. I also wanted a few accessories, which we were going to finalize that day.
So, I asked for the price list of accessories and was not given stating some stupid reason. I only wanted one accessory. The armrest. I knew the price for the same on ebay was 8k landing cost. But, the catch here was it would take 2 weeks delivery time (else I will have to pay more for faster delivery). The salesman attending to us quoted 15k for the same. After negotiations, he was not budging from 13k. I asked to see the supervisor. The supervisor says 15k!
I ask them to please arrive at one figure and talk. This kind of double talk doesn't bode well to their reputation. The supervisor refused to budge from 15k. I told dad that if he gives it for 9k, then I am fine, otherwise forget it.
Dad: Fine, cancel the booking.
Supervisor: Sir, I am telling you, this is the official pricelist from ford.
Dad: Yet you refuse to share it with us. Clearly, the fact that I booked 3 cars from you in past year doesn't mean anything to you. I wish to cancel my booking. Either you give us aa reasonable quote or I would like to meet the g.m. of the showroom and talk to him.
Supervisor: Fine. Who am I anyways. Meri "Aukaat" hi kya hai? (What's my value anyways?)
Me to myself: Ouch! This guy just lost our business. He shouldn't have mentioned that word in front of dad without knowing him. (you see, my dad is a self made man. He doesn't believe in this "aukaat" stuff)
Dad (still calm): We are not talking about "aukaat" here. I just want to meet your g.m.
Supervisor (now at top of his voice): Oh yeah. Why? Is it because I don't have 3 cars and you do, you don't want to speak to me? Huh? Huh?
Dad leaves him, while his juniors try to calm him down. We enter the g.m.'s cabin without permission and appraise him of the situation. It turns out the g.m. is out of town and his deputy is sitting in front of us. He apologizes, and brings the situation to control. We tell him that we want a reasonable price on accessories, that's all. The deputy promises us that he'll give a good price below 13k; he just wanted a moment to talk the supervisor. We leave the cabin and wait out, while the deputy, supervisor and salesman are talking inside.
Salesman: Sir, the final price is 15k.
5 mins later, we walk out with our refund.
We book the car at wasan ford chembur, who gave us a 25k discount, and quoted 10k for the armrest. Car was delivered to us exactly 1 week later with 3/4 tank of petrol, 32 psi tyre pressure all round and a home delivery!
Other cars considered:
None actually. I am the only petrolhead at home and nobody listens to me. We usually know which car we want.
Why do I hate this car?
Topmost reason. Price!
At 12.4 lac on road, just not worth it. Sadly, it fits almost all criteria we look out in a car. For other reasons, read on.
So what was your criteria?
1. Petrol
2. A/T
3. Good steering (yeah, we actually look for this in our cars)
4. Good handling (this can be a deal breaker while choosing. We look out for good/neutral handlers)
5. Safety features: airbags, abs is a must. Esp is desirable.
6. Reasonable service costs (not cheap, but not expensive in the range of germans either)
What was not your criteria?
1. Rear leg room. Me and my brother are rarely in town. Only 2 people will be present in the car most of the time
2. Boot
3. Interior quality
4. Resale value (dad does not look at a resale value when buying a car)
So why didn't you buy the civic?
You know what, I will never know this. Would have been my pick.
Likes
1. The steering and handling:
Hands down, beats all its competitors. Wish it could beat its predecessor figo. Steering has to be experienced to believe it. The best EPS till date.
2. Robust build:
Feels like it will remain rattle free. Plastics are hard, but durable. Their quality is equal to the ones used in city (except for the dashboard in the city which feels much better). The boron steel (as ford calls it) takes abuse very well. The paint quality is outstanding. The best I have seen.
3. ORVM's:
Huh??
yup, love it in this car. Love the way the glass becomes extra convex after the dotted line. Love the shape.
4. The gadgetry
Although I didn't think much of it before, I now use all of it. Voice control, cruise control, the bluetooth audio and phone. Makes me feel like I am playing a videogame.
5. Safety features
ABS, ESP, Airbags, Traction control. Also has hill hold function and hill descent control which work flawlessly. Cars designed keeping Europeans in mind are generally more safer. The way they are built, the many small things which we will never come to know, just gives me a better feeling of safety psychologically.
6. The seats and the leather
We have the titanium plus version which gets the awesome leather seats. I love the lateral support a lot, and miss the lumbar support. This version's seat has better under thigh support than all other models in the range. The leather quality is outstanding, better than my expectations.
7. NVH (noise vibration and harshness)
The car was marketed as best NVH in class. Its true. The cabin insulates you from outside world very well.
8. A/C
Best in class. Keeps the cabin cool even in hot humid summers. Just put the auto climate control on and set the temperature. Enjoy a peaceful and cool ride home.
Dislikes
1. The engine and gearbox combo
What! but the reviews all over the net just praise this gearbox. You must be a nut. You must not have driven any other autobox.
Nope. I stand by my words. My reference points: Honda city a/t, cielo a/t, merc c class with 7 speed dsg, toyota cvt gearbox (I forget the car name)
Let me explain. The gearbox had a lot of juddering initially. The shifts for the first 4-5k kms were felt quite prominently. I researched the net world over, and found out that this box has this issue for first few thousand kms after which it settles down. Sure it did settle in my case as well, but still its shifts are not as good as I expect from a dsg gearbox.
Scenario 1: Stop-go traffic
I have driven this car only in stop go traffic of bombay 90% of the time. It is overeager to shift from 1st to 2nd gear. In stop - go conditions, when I don't require a shift to 2nd gear, it still does, and when I brake, it judders while going to 1st gear.
Scenario 2: Heavy traffic but can manage in 2nd-3rd gears
This kind of traffic is encountered on western express highway during peak hours. So I am driving along in 2nd gear. I see a gap. I press the accelerator. Here's what happens:
1. A seconds delay, since this engine has a slight lag (in interests of fuel efficiency)
2. A faint but audible grinding noise of the gearbox.
3. Nice whoosh of power
But wait!
The auto has already taken advantage of the time delay and has moved onto your lane.
BRAKE!
Wait!
The auto's passenger suddenly realizes that he has to take the left service lane to reach his destination. The auto swerves back into its original lane
AHA!
The gap is open. The engine revs are in its torque zone. What better situation can I ask?
Press acclerator!
Judder, judder..
What the?
Whoosh...and the car accelerates nicely to close the gap
This is the scenario most likely to be faced by owners. Yes the gearbox 'grinding noise and judder at low speeds only' is a know issue with this box globally.
Scenario 3: Nice open highway
Ah! Here I am all praises for this car. It outclasses everything else. Smooth shifts, good power (Note: power is good, but the city's vtec is better. The combo of the fiesta is better though in this scenario). The downshifts are reported to be slow by many reviewers. This, you needn't worry about, it's not a bother at all. This is the car's home. If anyone would have asked which car would I pick, no doubts, the fiesta dct!
2. Looks
I hate the looks of this car. The derriere reminds me of my nanny.
3. The armrest
What! Are you nuts? You fought for the damn thing, cancelled your booking at a dealership just to get this thing, and now you say you hate it?
What can I say? I hate it. Quality is downright pathetic. It interferes with handbrake use. But its useful during long drives. Not worth 10k. Scout out for local options (which I didn't do)
Please do note that I will not be covering what features the car comes with in comprehensive detail. I would advise you to go through test drive reports of various publications and reviewers. They cover it better. The following lines reflect only what I look for and think of the car.
I am open for healthy discussions and different point of views from other members of the forum. After all its more fun learning this way.
So, whats a nanny?
According to wikipedia: A nanny, childminder, child care provider, or a mother's helper is an individual person who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service.
A car and nanny? Whats the relation?
Whenever I drive this car, I am only reminded of my nanny. (Yes, yes, I had one for 5 years when we had moved to bombay). She pampered me and my brother a lot. This resulted in us facing a lot of difficulties when we went to the hostels for further studies. Really.. a lot of difficulties. No, I seriously mean it.
Not so long ago, in the year 2012
I had just finished my studies for the day and was heading out for a walk. Today morning's times of india had a huge ad from ford announcing some freebie festival offer. I had a hunch that I'll be hearing from my dad soon.
6.30 pm and the phone rings
Dad: Have booked the fiesta dct
Me (why am I not surprised): Which model and color?
Dad: Hang on, talk to your brother.
Bro: Hey, wassup?
Me (now at full volume): ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY? DID YOU EVEN CHECK OUT OTHER CARS?
Bro: Woah, woah, calm down. We test drove the city manual. They didn't have the A/T one at linkway
Me: WHAT ABOUT THE VENTO, RAPID, VERNA? DID YOU EVEN CONSIDER THOSE?
Bro: Nah. Have decided this one. Its nice. The DCT one is fast and has great handling.
Me: What color?
Bro: White
Me: Why not the blue one? It looks nice in pics at least.
Bro: I saw it here. It doesn't look nice in real world. Trust me on this. You won't like it. I had my heart set on sea grey color, which looks awesome, but for all practical purposes it will be a pain to maintain one.
I hung up, very unhappy.
The car would be a replacement of our 2nd hand hyundai getz. The getz was now giving us a lot of trouble with steering failures, radiator replacements and the likes. It had served us well for 5 years. So, dad decided to replace it.
It had to be A/T since it will be mom's car, and she loves A/T's a lot for their convenience. The fact that we had fired our driver a few months back and were currently driver-less was another contributory factor.
Yearly running would be 5k kms at max, so petrol made sense. What didn't make sense was the cars price tag. It was insane. Just not worth the price. And the dealer had thrown in a measly 15k discount only just p****d me off. This, at a time when the car wasn't selling at all. Great, just great!
Not only will I get to drive a car which I don't like, it'll be expensive, and depreciate like hell. Why can't dad listen to me just once and get the city. Its so much better, reliable, relatively cheap to maintain, and will have a good resale as well at the end of 5 years when I am sure dad will change it.
A week passes by, and I am in bombay for a few days.
The car was booked at sc ford (we were a repeat customer). We had booked 2 cars, one figo (under company name) and fiesta dct (personal use). The entire deal included the exchange for our getz. The fiesta was promised in 15 days since it was ordered from the factory. The car had arrived early and me, dad, and my brother headed out in our getz to make final payments and do a PDI. I also wanted a few accessories, which we were going to finalize that day.
So, I asked for the price list of accessories and was not given stating some stupid reason. I only wanted one accessory. The armrest. I knew the price for the same on ebay was 8k landing cost. But, the catch here was it would take 2 weeks delivery time (else I will have to pay more for faster delivery). The salesman attending to us quoted 15k for the same. After negotiations, he was not budging from 13k. I asked to see the supervisor. The supervisor says 15k!
I ask them to please arrive at one figure and talk. This kind of double talk doesn't bode well to their reputation. The supervisor refused to budge from 15k. I told dad that if he gives it for 9k, then I am fine, otherwise forget it.
Dad: Fine, cancel the booking.
Supervisor: Sir, I am telling you, this is the official pricelist from ford.
Dad: Yet you refuse to share it with us. Clearly, the fact that I booked 3 cars from you in past year doesn't mean anything to you. I wish to cancel my booking. Either you give us aa reasonable quote or I would like to meet the g.m. of the showroom and talk to him.
Supervisor: Fine. Who am I anyways. Meri "Aukaat" hi kya hai? (What's my value anyways?)
Me to myself: Ouch! This guy just lost our business. He shouldn't have mentioned that word in front of dad without knowing him. (you see, my dad is a self made man. He doesn't believe in this "aukaat" stuff)
Dad (still calm): We are not talking about "aukaat" here. I just want to meet your g.m.
Supervisor (now at top of his voice): Oh yeah. Why? Is it because I don't have 3 cars and you do, you don't want to speak to me? Huh? Huh?
Dad leaves him, while his juniors try to calm him down. We enter the g.m.'s cabin without permission and appraise him of the situation. It turns out the g.m. is out of town and his deputy is sitting in front of us. He apologizes, and brings the situation to control. We tell him that we want a reasonable price on accessories, that's all. The deputy promises us that he'll give a good price below 13k; he just wanted a moment to talk the supervisor. We leave the cabin and wait out, while the deputy, supervisor and salesman are talking inside.
Salesman: Sir, the final price is 15k.
5 mins later, we walk out with our refund.
We book the car at wasan ford chembur, who gave us a 25k discount, and quoted 10k for the armrest. Car was delivered to us exactly 1 week later with 3/4 tank of petrol, 32 psi tyre pressure all round and a home delivery!
Other cars considered:
None actually. I am the only petrolhead at home and nobody listens to me. We usually know which car we want.
Why do I hate this car?
Topmost reason. Price!
At 12.4 lac on road, just not worth it. Sadly, it fits almost all criteria we look out in a car. For other reasons, read on.
So what was your criteria?
1. Petrol
2. A/T
3. Good steering (yeah, we actually look for this in our cars)
4. Good handling (this can be a deal breaker while choosing. We look out for good/neutral handlers)
5. Safety features: airbags, abs is a must. Esp is desirable.
6. Reasonable service costs (not cheap, but not expensive in the range of germans either)
What was not your criteria?
1. Rear leg room. Me and my brother are rarely in town. Only 2 people will be present in the car most of the time
2. Boot
3. Interior quality
4. Resale value (dad does not look at a resale value when buying a car)
So why didn't you buy the civic?
You know what, I will never know this. Would have been my pick.
Likes
1. The steering and handling:
Hands down, beats all its competitors. Wish it could beat its predecessor figo. Steering has to be experienced to believe it. The best EPS till date.
2. Robust build:
Feels like it will remain rattle free. Plastics are hard, but durable. Their quality is equal to the ones used in city (except for the dashboard in the city which feels much better). The boron steel (as ford calls it) takes abuse very well. The paint quality is outstanding. The best I have seen.
3. ORVM's:
Huh??
yup, love it in this car. Love the way the glass becomes extra convex after the dotted line. Love the shape.
4. The gadgetry
Although I didn't think much of it before, I now use all of it. Voice control, cruise control, the bluetooth audio and phone. Makes me feel like I am playing a videogame.
5. Safety features
ABS, ESP, Airbags, Traction control. Also has hill hold function and hill descent control which work flawlessly. Cars designed keeping Europeans in mind are generally more safer. The way they are built, the many small things which we will never come to know, just gives me a better feeling of safety psychologically.
6. The seats and the leather
We have the titanium plus version which gets the awesome leather seats. I love the lateral support a lot, and miss the lumbar support. This version's seat has better under thigh support than all other models in the range. The leather quality is outstanding, better than my expectations.
7. NVH (noise vibration and harshness)
The car was marketed as best NVH in class. Its true. The cabin insulates you from outside world very well.
8. A/C
Best in class. Keeps the cabin cool even in hot humid summers. Just put the auto climate control on and set the temperature. Enjoy a peaceful and cool ride home.
Dislikes
1. The engine and gearbox combo
What! but the reviews all over the net just praise this gearbox. You must be a nut. You must not have driven any other autobox.
Nope. I stand by my words. My reference points: Honda city a/t, cielo a/t, merc c class with 7 speed dsg, toyota cvt gearbox (I forget the car name)
Let me explain. The gearbox had a lot of juddering initially. The shifts for the first 4-5k kms were felt quite prominently. I researched the net world over, and found out that this box has this issue for first few thousand kms after which it settles down. Sure it did settle in my case as well, but still its shifts are not as good as I expect from a dsg gearbox.
Scenario 1: Stop-go traffic
I have driven this car only in stop go traffic of bombay 90% of the time. It is overeager to shift from 1st to 2nd gear. In stop - go conditions, when I don't require a shift to 2nd gear, it still does, and when I brake, it judders while going to 1st gear.
Scenario 2: Heavy traffic but can manage in 2nd-3rd gears
This kind of traffic is encountered on western express highway during peak hours. So I am driving along in 2nd gear. I see a gap. I press the accelerator. Here's what happens:
1. A seconds delay, since this engine has a slight lag (in interests of fuel efficiency)
2. A faint but audible grinding noise of the gearbox.
3. Nice whoosh of power
But wait!
The auto has already taken advantage of the time delay and has moved onto your lane.
BRAKE!
Wait!
The auto's passenger suddenly realizes that he has to take the left service lane to reach his destination. The auto swerves back into its original lane
AHA!
The gap is open. The engine revs are in its torque zone. What better situation can I ask?
Press acclerator!
Judder, judder..
What the?
Whoosh...and the car accelerates nicely to close the gap
This is the scenario most likely to be faced by owners. Yes the gearbox 'grinding noise and judder at low speeds only' is a know issue with this box globally.
Scenario 3: Nice open highway
Ah! Here I am all praises for this car. It outclasses everything else. Smooth shifts, good power (Note: power is good, but the city's vtec is better. The combo of the fiesta is better though in this scenario). The downshifts are reported to be slow by many reviewers. This, you needn't worry about, it's not a bother at all. This is the car's home. If anyone would have asked which car would I pick, no doubts, the fiesta dct!
2. Looks
I hate the looks of this car. The derriere reminds me of my nanny.
3. The armrest
What! Are you nuts? You fought for the damn thing, cancelled your booking at a dealership just to get this thing, and now you say you hate it?
What can I say? I hate it. Quality is downright pathetic. It interferes with handbrake use. But its useful during long drives. Not worth 10k. Scout out for local options (which I didn't do)
![[frustration]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Frustration.gif "Frustration [frustration]")
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