It is not a review of ford ikon but a nightmare faced by my friend, Awinash Dulip.
Ford India is in the business of selling only spare parts and not CARS. Request forward to ford owners in India. I have tried to address my experience with CEO Ford micheal.boneham@ford.com but have not got any positive response. I am left with the only option to share my personnel experience and forward to as many friends as possible and general public who should be made aware of FORD INDIA products.
I have a ford Ikon car done 52000 km and find that the ford car manufactured in India are substandard in design. I have used Fords cars in USA / Africa and my friends in Middle East have had no complain about FORD cars., why only in India FORD INDIA has deliberately designed cars so that spare parts sells is the only business. Just to give you 4 examples.
- I have replace two fuel pumps within 38500 Km run as the design does not have a safety lock to switch of the fuel pump when tank is empty and fuel pump gets damaged / burnt. One way the Ford India cars are designed so that first time owners in India who do not know about safety lock end up pay for fuel pumps. Normally when there is no fuel in tank there should be automatic lock to signal fuel pump to stop pumping and protect it. FORD India has deliberately got this design so that fuel pumps can be replaced as often as possible. Cost of fuel pump is Rs 18, 000 or so.
2..I have replaced electric coil within 24000 km run costing me Rs 15, 000. There was no reason why the electric coil is damaged. Customer care of Ford India say it is just wear and tear of car
Within 38000 km the front shock absorbers had to be replaced. I am surprised that for roads in Mumbai shock absorbers need to be replaced. The FORD franchise outlets say that shock absorbers life is only 20, 000KM. Actually the design of the shock absorbers is not designed for the weight of the car engine. I am sure out of my experience of driving in Africa where roads are really bad and shock absorbers need not be changes after 20000km run. What a shame for FORD product.
Within 50000km I spend another Rs 80, 000 because ....The coolant system / engine block have a plastic manifold connection that regulates the AC cooling motor. This plastic manifold cracked and the coolant leaked. The plastic manifold cost Rs 5, 800. But this caused engine to overheat and all major components of the coolant system and the engine block were damaged. Why should FORD INDIA have such wrong designs without cut off and safety switch off? Because of plastic manifold crack I have to replace a lot of parts associated due to over heating. This has happen within 52000 Km run. I have driven cars in Africa and had not faced such issue. The critical part is made of plastic manifold (substandard part) with wear and tear will give way like in my case
With the above experience the INDIAN FORD cars have a life of just about 50, 000 KM only. I have paid over Rs 1.50, 000 (Rs 1.5lakh) rupees for service / spare parts and maintenance.
Awinash Dulip
adulip@yahoo.com
Some old communications with Ford franchise is given below.
The custmail@ford.com, customer phone / help line (did not give me any contact of FORD INDIA). So poor is customer relation that I had to go to North American Ford customer help line to get address of FORD INDIA Address: S.P. Koil Post, Chengalpattu .Pin - 603204, India Public Telephone Number: +91 (0) 44 27454375.