I have purchased the Ford Ikon Flair on August-2006. Previously I had a Maruti Esteem, and I have lots of issues with that. Now after driving the Ikon for more than one year, I can say that this is the best car in the 5-6 lacs segment.
The best part is the driving comfort which Ikon offers. The driver seat provides a good view, where as in Esteem, you can’t have a good view, because seat position is much lower and you will feel like the driver seat should have more height to view the road better. I have seen the same issue with Fiat Palio as well. But Ikon seat position is best suited for to have the maximum view at all angles.
I mainly use the car for long drives, from Bangalore to Kerala and back. I had very long drives, upto 650 Km in one stretch. Will start from morning 5 AM and some times drive up to late night, once till 11:30 PM(because now a days, there is no good roads in kerala, so you will end up going at 20-30 Km/ hr, using all your driving skills to avoid the countless potholes in the highway), driving almost 18 Hours in a single stretch, alone. But I never got tired with driving, and even when I finally reach home, I feel stil I can drive, more.! This is biggest advantage of Ikon, you will never feel tired with driving as the handling is extremely good and the steering is very precise.
Now regarding the very few issues which I have faced, the first one was the noise from the brakes. This was a strange issue, as whenever I start driving, there will not be any noise, but after driving for some 50-100 kms, there is a high noise coming from the brakes, whenever I apply the brakes. It was like some Bus/ Truck brakes making noise with the heavy load. So I naturally thought this will be an issue with duct going inside the break liners. I have given the car for servicing as soon as I am back and the Service center people had informed that they have checked and fixed the issue. Again within two weeks, I started getting the same issue. So I waited for next two months and for the 2nd free service, I have raises the same issue again with the dealer. This time also I have got the assurance that it is fixed, but again on my next trip to kerala, I had the issue back within the 150 Km of drive. So this time I have taken the car to a Ford Service center at Kerala(Kottayam) and told that I am facing the issue even after two services. So they told they will check the break linings and will fix it. They took around 3 Hours for the compete cleaning of the brakes, and this time it worked fine. Still even after 9 months, I have no issue with the brakes.
Second issue was with the Fog Lamps. This issue started during this raining season, with water getting logged inside the Fog lamps, and then one of the Fog lamp will stop working. Again I have got this repaired two times, but finally I have found that this is a know issue, and there is a fix for it. Again from the same technician at Kottayam(now we have become friends anyway!), and he told that there is a water proofing kit available and will be installed free of cost if the car is under warranty. So now I have got it done and no issues with Fog lamps now.
So except these issues, the car is very much fine. Finally this depends on your driving as well, as you have to take care very well in bad roads. I have seen people driving their cars at 50-60 Kmph, even at very bad roads with very big potholes, where I am trying to keep at least 15 Kmph average speed. I had one of my friend who had gone the same way and got the power steering system and the suspension got damaged. So better to drive with care so that you don’t have issues for years.
So in conclusion, Ford Ikon is a very good car, very much value for money, and offers very much comfortable drive.