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This is a test drive review of Ford Figo, the newly launched beauty from Ford which is expected to change the fortunes for Ford. The views and reviews expressed in this post are solely personal and is no way an official report by TAI.
Both the petrol version and the diesel version were tried for this purpose. While majority of the parameters and their values are same, there are few significant differences like pick up, etc. These are pointed out as and when we cross that bridge.
Cars being TD: 1.2 petrol Titanium and 1.4 diesel Titanium.
Pros:
- Good decent looks.
- Nice ride comfort with good seating and excellent visibility.
- Great suspension ready to devour humps/potholes.
- Good body roll even at higher speeds. Pretty stable with car staying sticking to the ground at fast corners.
- Diesel variant is a flier with excellent pickup and stability.
- Higher end comes with ABS and Airbags, essential safety features.
- Factory fitted immobilizer safeguards against theft and remote boot opener is pretty useful when you are back from that heavy grocery shopping.
- Excellent braking with ABS-EBD being the icing on the cake.
Cons:
- Petrol variant is sluggish at lower RPM.
- Humps should be taken at very low speeds. More probability of brushing the under body or the exhaust pipe if run faster (also depends on the height of the hump).
- Front suspension gives a thud when riding over the humps now and then. A little careful driving can handle this easily though.
- Color options could have been better with a Focus Grey or a Fiesta paprika red not available.
- No power windows for the back seat and it goes only 60% down. May not be a major one.
- The inside plastic do not look to be of great quality, especially on the doors.
- Engine noise in the Diesel variant is a bit on the louder side when idling. Not much when the car is revving above 2000 mark.
- Engine HUD opener on the left side of the car. Not a point of bother since we do not open the HUD too often.
- Diesel variant seems a bit sluggish at lower RPM with AC on but picks up daringly after 1400 RPM.
I have tried to put up my views of the car in a bit more detail below:
Exterior:
Though it is not as appealing as the current trend, its looks are pretty decent. It looks really good from all sides without unnecessary bulges.
The paint quality is superb, touch it to feel it.
If you look closely, you might find that there are gaps here and there, like the one above the glass that stands between tail lamps and a back door. But it is neither a threat to the security nor is injurious to the car.
The bumpers are, may be, not really hard. It could have been made better. I guess it is made so for efficient functioning of the airbags, at least the ones in the front.
The front view gives a feel of sloping toward your feet and this kind of gives a sporty look.
Interior:
Sit inside the car and you get a big car feel. The upholstery is of good quality and the console looks fabulous, especially with the music system in between in contrasting silver finish. The dash comes in two colors, ebony (black) and coral (reddish). I kind of liked the coral, its different and not disturbing. Also coral keeps the dash cooler than the black one.
Leg room is enormous in the front and pretty good in the back. There are no head rests for the back seat. This is done to provide a better rear visibility for the drivers when looking through the rear view mirrors. Head room is sufficient and should not bother majority of the crowd.
The OEM Music system is quite amazing with superior sound quality and the blue tooth connectivity is just fabulous. Pair your mobile (blue tooth enabled) with the system and you can receive calls, make calls, stream music and get SMS notifications on the music system.
Best way of doing a hands free calls with voice quality being great.
Steering is very responsive with good feedback and pretty light for a hydraulic power steering. Very easy to gauge a turn at any speeds since the car turns as we expect it to. I don't think there will be any under steer at higher speeds though I have not tried it and probably will never try it.![[:)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Smile.gif "Smile [:)]")
Gear shifting is good too with short throw and smooth shifts. They have used a similar mechanism to i10 and i20 where strings have replaced the rods.
No adjustable steering but you wont feel the need for it. The driving position is very comfortable with wonderful visibility. Driver seat is height adjustable but in reality it is a see saw mechanism. This will still offer variable height though.
Being a hatchback, you won't have any problems with reversing, thanks to good visibility.
Boot is enormous with 280L being the highest in its segment. It can easily fit in two big suitcases and a couple of small bags. You could fit in more if you can plan well.
AC is again pretty chilling with a 150 cc compressor doing the duty. Other cars in the same segment have around 90 cc. This can also be a con since it puts more load on the engine.
Engine:
The petrol variant is a 1.2 and the diesel is a 1.4. Should say Petrol was a kind of let down with lower RPM being very sluggish. Once over 2K, the car is a really fun to drive. Diesel on the other had is really good. There is no lag what so ever with lower RPM still providing good torque. Once near the 1500 RPM, turbo kicks in the you just fly. Even in this case, it is not at all tough to control it since the rate of acceleration is in manageable range.
The engine noise in case of Diesel is on the higher side. When idle in neutral or lower RPMs, you hear it in the cabin. But at higher RPMs, it changes a smooth runner. If you have AC on or music on (which is usually the case), you don't hear the sound.
I won't mention the specs here as it is available in lot of places on the internet.
Tires:
There can be either Goodyear, Apollo or MRF. Out of the three, Goodyear seems to be the best with good road grip. There are a few complaints about cars with Apollo steering to the left with the steering is left unattended.
Price:
This is another area where Figo scores dearly. The Diesel higher end comes at 6.45L on road in Bangalore. I am sure it is lesser than this in many other states. Around 1.2L difference between its Petrol sibling which still makes it VFM.
Overall, a splendid car with great features and priced non-aggressively.
NOTE: I might have missed a lot of things but will keep appending to this post as and when I remember.
A different post will be created in the ownership thread where I will put forth my ownership experience.
Both the petrol version and the diesel version were tried for this purpose. While majority of the parameters and their values are same, there are few significant differences like pick up, etc. These are pointed out as and when we cross that bridge.
Cars being TD: 1.2 petrol Titanium and 1.4 diesel Titanium.
Pros:
- Good decent looks.
- Nice ride comfort with good seating and excellent visibility.
- Great suspension ready to devour humps/potholes.
- Good body roll even at higher speeds. Pretty stable with car staying sticking to the ground at fast corners.
- Diesel variant is a flier with excellent pickup and stability.
- Higher end comes with ABS and Airbags, essential safety features.
- Factory fitted immobilizer safeguards against theft and remote boot opener is pretty useful when you are back from that heavy grocery shopping.
- Excellent braking with ABS-EBD being the icing on the cake.
Cons:
- Petrol variant is sluggish at lower RPM.
- Humps should be taken at very low speeds. More probability of brushing the under body or the exhaust pipe if run faster (also depends on the height of the hump).
- Front suspension gives a thud when riding over the humps now and then. A little careful driving can handle this easily though.
- Color options could have been better with a Focus Grey or a Fiesta paprika red not available.
- No power windows for the back seat and it goes only 60% down. May not be a major one.
- The inside plastic do not look to be of great quality, especially on the doors.
- Engine noise in the Diesel variant is a bit on the louder side when idling. Not much when the car is revving above 2000 mark.
- Engine HUD opener on the left side of the car. Not a point of bother since we do not open the HUD too often.
- Diesel variant seems a bit sluggish at lower RPM with AC on but picks up daringly after 1400 RPM.
I have tried to put up my views of the car in a bit more detail below:
Exterior:
Though it is not as appealing as the current trend, its looks are pretty decent. It looks really good from all sides without unnecessary bulges.
The paint quality is superb, touch it to feel it.
If you look closely, you might find that there are gaps here and there, like the one above the glass that stands between tail lamps and a back door. But it is neither a threat to the security nor is injurious to the car.
The bumpers are, may be, not really hard. It could have been made better. I guess it is made so for efficient functioning of the airbags, at least the ones in the front.
The front view gives a feel of sloping toward your feet and this kind of gives a sporty look.
Interior:
Sit inside the car and you get a big car feel. The upholstery is of good quality and the console looks fabulous, especially with the music system in between in contrasting silver finish. The dash comes in two colors, ebony (black) and coral (reddish). I kind of liked the coral, its different and not disturbing. Also coral keeps the dash cooler than the black one.
Leg room is enormous in the front and pretty good in the back. There are no head rests for the back seat. This is done to provide a better rear visibility for the drivers when looking through the rear view mirrors. Head room is sufficient and should not bother majority of the crowd.
The OEM Music system is quite amazing with superior sound quality and the blue tooth connectivity is just fabulous. Pair your mobile (blue tooth enabled) with the system and you can receive calls, make calls, stream music and get SMS notifications on the music system.
Best way of doing a hands free calls with voice quality being great.
Steering is very responsive with good feedback and pretty light for a hydraulic power steering. Very easy to gauge a turn at any speeds since the car turns as we expect it to. I don't think there will be any under steer at higher speeds though I have not tried it and probably will never try it.
Gear shifting is good too with short throw and smooth shifts. They have used a similar mechanism to i10 and i20 where strings have replaced the rods.
No adjustable steering but you wont feel the need for it. The driving position is very comfortable with wonderful visibility. Driver seat is height adjustable but in reality it is a see saw mechanism. This will still offer variable height though.
Being a hatchback, you won't have any problems with reversing, thanks to good visibility.
Boot is enormous with 280L being the highest in its segment. It can easily fit in two big suitcases and a couple of small bags. You could fit in more if you can plan well.
AC is again pretty chilling with a 150 cc compressor doing the duty. Other cars in the same segment have around 90 cc. This can also be a con since it puts more load on the engine.
Engine:
The petrol variant is a 1.2 and the diesel is a 1.4. Should say Petrol was a kind of let down with lower RPM being very sluggish. Once over 2K, the car is a really fun to drive. Diesel on the other had is really good. There is no lag what so ever with lower RPM still providing good torque. Once near the 1500 RPM, turbo kicks in the you just fly. Even in this case, it is not at all tough to control it since the rate of acceleration is in manageable range.
The engine noise in case of Diesel is on the higher side. When idle in neutral or lower RPMs, you hear it in the cabin. But at higher RPMs, it changes a smooth runner. If you have AC on or music on (which is usually the case), you don't hear the sound.
I won't mention the specs here as it is available in lot of places on the internet.
Tires:
There can be either Goodyear, Apollo or MRF. Out of the three, Goodyear seems to be the best with good road grip. There are a few complaints about cars with Apollo steering to the left with the steering is left unattended.
Price:
This is another area where Figo scores dearly. The Diesel higher end comes at 6.45L on road in Bangalore. I am sure it is lesser than this in many other states. Around 1.2L difference between its Petrol sibling which still makes it VFM.
Overall, a splendid car with great features and priced non-aggressively.
NOTE: I might have missed a lot of things but will keep appending to this post as and when I remember.
A different post will be created in the ownership thread where I will put forth my ownership experience.
![[thumbsup]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Thumbs%20Up.png "Thumbs Up [thumbsup]")
About 60% roll down of rear windows, We had discussion on it earlier, Do check this thread for more: 
![[cheers]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Cheers.gif "Cheers [cheers]")
![[lol]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Laugh.gif "Laugh [lol]")
Yes, I too remember one of the guys mention it that way, I think it was the guy at the time of delivery. We have a canning nack of potraying any negative as deliberate negative hence as positive.