Ford Figo Test Drive Review


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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.[:)]

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.
 
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Great review Jammy.[thumbsup]

Yes the Ford's steering has always been great for drivers. The diesel seems pretty powerful too.

I feel they should have given Tilt steering and rear power windows in top end variants at-least. But for the price, its an exceptional buy.
 
Thread Starter #3
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Great review Jammy.[thumbsup]

Yes the Ford's steering has always been great for drivers. The diesel seems pretty powerful too.

I feel they should have given Tilt steering and rear power windows in top end variants at-least. But for the price, its an exceptional buy.
Rear power windows should have been considered but till now have not felt it as a necessity. The reason they have not opted for it should be the restricted movement of the glass. It can go down only upto 60% of the height, making it 40% movable. A power window would have been a waste and also the motors would have been in the danger of damage as people will, for sure, try to press the button for longer time than required.

A tilt steering might not be necessary in the car as the position of the column is good enough to fit in quite a good range of heights and the steering is not blocking the view either. If they had it, it would have been a good marketing point though.
 
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Excellent writeup jammyd.
I too feel FIGO should have been equiped with tilt steering.
 

350Z

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Good and precise review Jammy, You've highlighted a few nice and new points the car. However, without pictures any review is in-complete. Also, I'd be more interested to read your experience as an owner of Ford Figo. :smile: About 60% roll down of rear windows, We had discussion on it earlier, Do check this thread for more: http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...-few-cars-windows-doesnt-fully-roll-down.html

EDIT: Received this via Mail today from Ford India:

tai_figo.PNG

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
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Hey excellent report Jammy but where are the pictures!! Figo is surely a VFM product and i have been telling some of my friends to buy it in case they are looking for new car!

And yeah looking for the ownership report of your car soon!!
 
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@Akash, @Cooldhaya, @350Z - Guys, My appologies for not having come up with my ownership report yet and also for not posting any pics here.

I shall definitely put up pics in my ownership report. Since this was a general test drive, I opted not to put up any pics.

I am finally done with the main hurdle of taking the pics. [cheers]

Now, I just need to start the wordings part. :-)

@350Z - As for the read window not able to go down completely, I read the other post and should say you are absolutely correct with the explanation of the reason. In Figo too, the design of the door and the wheel arch is such that it restricts the movement of the glass. I did ask a few guys at the showroom and all of them said the same thing you have mentioned.
 

350Z

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Jammy, Good that they atleast they told you the actual reason, otherwise some showroom guys were presenting this as a "child safety" features to our some other members.

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
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Jammy, Good that they atleast they told you the actual reason, otherwise some showroom guys were presenting this as a "child safety" features to our some other members.

Drive Safe,
350Z
[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.
1. No child is left unattended in the back seat.
2. Even if the kid operates the power window, it takes a good 5 seconds to come down immediately.
3. It is not that the kid is going to jump the moment it comes down and hence that adds anothere 4 seconds.

So there is ample time to prevent any accidents. :-)

Actually this is not even a point worth discussing, isn't it?
 
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My take on FIGO

Been to my native last weekend, had plenty of time to spare so just went to ford showroom for a test drive of the figo.
Had the chance to drive the petrol and the diesel versions for quite few kilometers in highway and mild traffic.
Ill not get into details as its already been discussed and ill tell you my take on the figo as a buyer who is considering a new car in the coming months.

FIRST: Interiors and exteriors of figo
pros:
1.car has respectable plastics if you are a maruti customer or a first time buyer you will find the plastics good.
2.I am 5'11 and have a pretty long legs. adjusting the front seat i had good space at the back.
3.Seats are comfortable feels and cabin feels airy.
4.Very good music systems considering a OEM unit.
5.Suspension is good and handling is great.
6.Will talk about the engine later.

cons:
1.Design not so applealing. In the age of good looking hatch backs like i20,punto,polo,beat this sticks as a sore thumb.(ya i know they are different segment but its a new age hatchback).
2.the driver position is tat low. and the rear seating is also low making ingress and egress a bit difficult.
3.No alloys,acc in top variant(cost cutting).
4.No rear power windows(i know it goes down only 60%) still its a feel good factor in new age cars.atleast top end variant would have had it.

Engine
ill compare the diesels and petrol at one go..

Diesel is definetly better compared to petrol.But why?
Diesel has a more torquey engine and its minimal turbo lag makes it even better.
diesel ac is more effective than petrol couterpart.
diesel ac cooled the cabin in 1 position effectively. but the same in petrol i had set to 3rd position.
Diesel is a lakh costlier on road than its petrol.
Handling is great and feel like pushing the car more.

Whats the verdict on the car as a buyer.
can i recommend to anyone who is looking a car in 6 lakh range.

I wholeheartedly say YES if anyone considering the car at that range .
If you can spare the extra money then definitely go for the diesel because of the fuel efficiency and extra resale value..

For me : i am yet to drive other cars ill post the verdict as and when i drive.

P.S : i have driven swift diesel and and indica dls
 

350Z

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Thanks for sharing the short and sweet review v_ram. I'd have to agree with you on the design part but if we look overall, it surely makes a worth considering package. Are you planning to get one by any chance?

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
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v_ram, nice review. The comparison between the diesel and petrol was crisp and to the point. I am a bit surprised about the cooling you mentioned since the compressor is exactly the same in both the variants. It could be that the temperature control knob was away from cold (?)

BTW, What is the current waiting period for a new Figo?

You said that you have driven swift and Indica. It might be a good idea to compare the three and post it here or in a separate thread. Think about it.
 
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Thanks for sharing the short and sweet review v_ram. I'd have to agree with you on the design part but if we look overall, it surely makes a worth considering package. Are you planning to get one by any chance?

Drive Safe,
350Z
>Yes considering as a package it superb value for money. no second thoughts
I am planning on getting a car but waiting for punto sports .
Just cant take that out of my list..

@JammyD
Thanks, i am not a good writer so made it small..[:)]

No i myself checked the knob same route same distance same knob position but i felt that.. Anfd the power loss is more noticeable in petrol than diesel.

The waiting perion he mentioned was 1 month for ebony dash with my color.
coral red was 2 weeks (i suppose he had ordered a stock of coral red dashboards)


I have long list of cars before deciding on my car so will post a whole review once i complete it..

PS thanks guys i am enjoying every moment in TAI[cheers]
 

350Z

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So Ford Figos have started raining at TAI, and glad to know that you are enjoying the stay. :smile:

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
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Hey V ram thats a very nice and crisp review of Figo! But is the Petrol engine very sluggish? Everybody keeps telling the same and regarding the AC this is new to me.
 

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