FORD IKON AT MPL DEALERSHIP
Years ago I wrote a review of the New Indica V2 – a sarcastic note to the nagging issues on the Indica titled, More noise per car than any other car. A befitting epilogue to those periods of annoyance was never appended and so …The car ran and ran well before I sold her off to a fat merchant as I moved back to my home state of TN. The Indica was only mildly problematic more like a nagging sick wife – noisy and annoying wherever we went. There were never any major problems with her - all this in comparison with the next car I was to buy the FORD IKON!
It is only poetic justice that I have decided to borrow Shri. Rattan Tata’s phrase to call it “ an apology of a car”. I wanted a car with a strong A/c and good performance not too heavy on the pocket as well. I went for the Ford IKON 1.6 Nxt. I fell for her as she rode well, responded well in traffic and made feel light and tipsy on the highway like cheap booze. With time my fancy for her wore off. She was high maintenance and fragile. With in months I had to replace her A/c coil and valve. Now after three years of having her I have to spend 10 – 15k on her every other month. She has become an expensive concubine that I want to get rid off.
The car started to fall apart after 2 years, first the A/c cooling coil had to be replaced. The next month, I had to replace the Wiring harness and ignition coil. A couple of months later, I have to replace the rear suspension, power windows switch, and a lot more of parts. A car that has run barely 40 K needs a new suspension I can’t believe this. The power windows switch is completely malfunctional after 3 years of careful use. This was probably a deliberate feature of Ford design so that the wails and moans of their customers are not heard outside.
When contacted their customer care reviewed the history of my car and mentioned that this sort of maintenance was normal for a car. Not all cars but for Ford cars may be. Another appalling feature of Ford is that they refuse to escalate the complaints with their superiors. I have serious doubts whether their senior management knows that their vehicles have serious problems.
Looking at the pattern of faults and malfunction, as a quality management analyst I can deduce that low quality material was used and there is poor or no quality assurance in their manufacturing process.
Apart from all this the fog lamps of this car had always, since the first year always been in a state of disrepair.
Ford cars don’t run on gas, they run on hype. Believe me you are better of with the Logan or the Maruti. These cars are crap and cannot withstand the rigors of Indian roads. They are made of cheap substandard material and have a high failure rate. I advise every body not buy these Ford cars unless you have a lot of time, money to spare. It is your choice after all.
I have already written a review for Ford Ikon here. How ever this also a review for their dealers MPL ford. The misery of owning a ford is compounded by MPL. In the last three years I have witnessed progressive deterioration of service quality to downright cheating now. It would take a while for new MPL ford owners to notice the crap between the hype and show.
The last few services have not been carried out to completion. Even worse some bolts have been left loose and my muffler was left un fastened after the service. No recent service in the last year has been complete without at least 3 trips to their service center.
I have a strong suspicion based on facts and some sound reasoning that you will be asked to replace parts even before they become necessary.
The worst part is yet to come. With something or the other going wrong in my Ford every often it is not practical for me to remove all the belongings from my car every time I hand it over for service. After the last service I lost my CD in the CD player.
This time it was my perfumed deodorant spray. When pointed out Mr Phillips started throwing things out of my glove box in an animated fashion. Mr Phillip was kind to point to me that he did a big favour to me by servicing my car and that was a big deal.
Complaints to the service head Mr Rajiv Menon has been of no avail in the past and it is the same now. There is not even the courtesy of an apology. Buy a Ford car at your own risk. Sudarsan