Long Term with My Ford Ikon 1.4 TDCi


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There is was sitting in Haryana roadways bus going to my hometown. Sitting in the seat half in daze thinking about what she would look like in purple.

The bus made a right to enter the bus stand and thats the time i saw her.
it looked stunning. Finally my fears of being seen in a crappy color car were dispersed in one go like a cool breeze after it rains.

The Buying decision: It was an easy one. we wanted an entry level car with a boot reason being we were upgrading from an m800 and wanted to graduate slowly.
The contenders were-Swift dzire, Indigo/Manza.
we were contemplating on which car to buy. our earlier estimate was that the car would not clock high mileage so it can be a petrol as well.
Dzire-i did TD it. Stunning engine loved it. looks-hated them.
it just looks like a cheap glue job done by maruti without thinking about what the final product would look like.

Indigo/Manza- well we had an indigo in the family and it gave trouble service.
it was a diesel. in winters it just would start. and if it did it made a racket.
anyway its engine went kaput after around 90k kms. so never really considered a tata.

Among all this mind numbing chaos the ford launched ikon with 1.4 tdci.
i say chaos because we had already sold our car and were travelling in buses and bikes.

i told my father about this and in the same line i told him its a bad idea.
reason being we had an ikon 1.8d in the family too(we are a large and close knit family[clap]). i drove it multiple times. it was sluggish, made angry sounds all the time and did not go anywhere. And the upkeep was a pain in you know where.

well the decision was not made and off i go to delhi for my exams.
Now one day while studying(who am i kidding) i got a call from pop. he said they are in faridabad and are going to buy ford tommorow.
[shock] did not argue with pop as we did not really had a choice.

i told him many a precautions to take while taking delivery and what to notice in the td.

some hours later got call again. He said what accessories do i want in the car. I thought he might asking to check my mood or if was happy with the decision or not. i told him a nice stereo and thats all. i will tell details later when you buy the car and take it for accessorizing.

Here comes another shocker. He told me he has already bought the car and is getting things done on it right now. it was a shock and a pleasant surprise as well. i was slated to go home 2 days later. He did not even TDed the car.

Anyway i was slated to go home 2 days later.

There she was gleaming in the sun. I got down from the bus and walked towards the car. Pop was waiting.

got the keys fro him and started the engine. I tell you one thing. There is some sort of sophistication the way a common rail diesel engine starts.

i slot in first and the car moved. AND i could not remove the grin from my face the whole 15 kms journey to my village. The car was powerful.
I was expecting same sort slug performance as is in the ikon 1.8d. But boy i was in for a huge surprise. The car was/is quick.

The in gear accelaration is god send. This is what happens when you slot a 1.4 turbo diesel in a car thats just 1000 kgs heavy.

one more thing about the driving position. its spot on.

Thats the buying part.
i will be mentioning other aspect of this car in my later posts.
 
Thread Starter #2
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Re: Long Term With Ikon 1.4 Tdci

Driving experience.
Next morning i took the car out for a short drive.
Now remember it's a 30 months old memo. so dont blast me when i say the i took the car all the upto 150. I know we should keep the running in period in mind. But i am human and when given an opportunity i put pedal to the metal.

This engine is well known for its missing turbo lag and frugality. And both these are true to every sense of the word. I have been driving this car for this long and never once i feel its underpowered for the money that was paid for it. Or i was short changed in any sense.

Gearing-Love it. period.

Brakes- Nothing great to write about. In fact i have complaints. They are very wooden. when you brake the car seems to be stopping but once you are past a point after which you have to give it all you have the tires lock up. I have had One hair raising experience so far that too was barely a month ago.

Seating/comfort- The a/c is an absolute chiller and does not strain the engine. How ever the rear seat comfort is missing and the front seats too are not great. I have done 700 kms/day drives in the car and by back and legs were cursing me at the end of the day.

steering- Its a ford so the steering aspect is taken care of. In fact i like a little heavy steering that gives decent feedback and lets you know what front tires are upto. And that the reason i bought A-star. Steering is simply superb.

Head lights-They have grown week over the time and are at a juncture where i am unable to see more than a 100 feet away in the night.
 
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Thread Starter #3
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Now we all think that ford cars are heavy on the pocket on maintenance front.
Well i think its true. But it is at par with every other manufacturer.
My point is why these companies charge us 1000 bucks for labour?
Why they do not sell parts over the counter?
In this age and time who would like to pay happily for an unexpected expense?

Servicing the car is at par with other manufacturers. Atleast until some part malfunctions.
Below are the costs i incurred in maintaining the car.

Regular servicing at every 10000 kms at ford.
A/C conked off twice. 600 rs twice for gas and 300 for welding the pipe for a leak.
Now the second time it happened i went to ncr ford and they quoted 4500 rs for some pipe which had a leak as they wanted to replace it and another 900 bucks or so for gas.

6 tires over the time. Now the car is running on A-drives but i want to upsize to 185 or 195 as the 175 tend to loose grip under heavy braking.

Suspesion arm for front and shock absorbers for rear. done outside for around 7000 rs.

Wheel bearing failure at the rear as there was a humming noise from the rear.
cost-3000 rs. I was quoted rs 6000 for each side at ncr ford.

I a running on synthetic oil for now and would like to know the changing intervals.

Brakes shoes. front and rear. front-KBX, rear-TVS Girling.

All these repairs cost are for jobs done outside.

apart from these the car is running like a dream.
 
Thread Starter #4
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Now i would like to invoke the experts and ford ikon owners here for the following:
Headlight upgrade
Tires upgrade
Timing belt change(mentioned at 80k in manual, not sure though)
Brakes upgrade.
I plan to keep this car till the time it falls apart as we all know that this car has been discontinued and resale would not fetch any satisfactory amount.
 

350Z

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Nice review. Welcome back to the forum. You were missing after posting review of A-Star without uploading the snaps. Hopefully you won't forget that in this thread. :smile:

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
Thread Starter #7
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Hi,
No i have not got any of the upgrades as of yet as i am not in delhi right now.
will get them sorted.
about the timing belt SA says it lasts over 1 lac kms. need to check on that.
The car completed 80,000 kms today. It will be celebrating its 3rd birthday in june.[clap]

still goes like new. suspension setup needs a complete overhaul but is a costly affair at Ford. quoted 45k.
the car's carpet has gone dirty over the time so will be looking for a solution to that as well.
and yes the car still gives more than 19 kmpl.
will be posting pics soon and cant apologize enough for the delay.
Thanks.
 

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