I bought 2003 Ford ikon 1.6 NXT for 1.25 lac and i wish to express my thoughts and my experience with it. A used car will always look awesome if you buy it from a dealer since its cleanly wax (hiding all scratches) and has shine using the car polish we get. But bosss "Dikhawe pe met jaao and apni akal ladao". What makes difference is its performance and reliability. Lets discuss some problems first : -
Ford is a make of GM and till date GM spare parts are expensive compared to maruti in india so any maintenance for Ford is obvious to be costly. The Ford till today has only handful of service stations which is a pain.
Secondly they charge you nearly 200 to 300% more than a normal mechanic would since the parts they use are original(so called) and they charge premium for being their service centre. The first problem I faced was with the battery. The battery dealer had provided was of 4th hand quality and therefore it wasn’t charging. Second problem I faced was with the Power windows, the winder was not working properly. We can discount this due to wear and tear of the car for 6 years.
Third problem was with the Power steering Rack which failed and I lost nearly 3ltr of power window fluid. The fourth problem was with the Electrical. There was some short wiring and because of which my fuse used blow off and car used to stop. This problem was worst since whenever I drove my car, it was back of my mind that the car might stop once I start my headlight in the eve because it happened twice that my car stopped once I start my headlights and the fuse use to blow off. Ford has very complicated electrical installed so its not that easy for any layman to fix the issue related to it. So ford needs a specialist mechanic who knows ford in and out otherwise your car can get screwed up. Small problems due to wear and tear are due to happen and we should not blow them out of proportion and blame ford for it.
Positives for this car is the comfort both while driving and while seating in this car is awesome and you can’t get so much comfort in any of the maruti car. The car I have is so powerful that the speed lovers will love to drive this car on roads. The fuel efficiency depends on how we look and how much we expect, we should look at the power and also decide the fuel efficiency. My car gives a decent fuel efficiency of 10-11 km in city and nearly 13-15 on highway.
This review is purely for used cars and people buying new ford should prohibit themselves from reading this article. I would recommend everyone that if you want to buy car for 5 years period then buy ford ikon or fiesta. These 2 beauties are best in their segment.