My last car was an Esteem which I drove for 7-8 years. I was looking for a fuel efficient 3-box car because the separate boot was necessary, plus thought that safety features are better in sedan.
I was almost compelled to settle for this car because I was looking for a car not wider than 1625 cm, given my parking space. Since Esteem had stopped production, I had to choose this despite everyone telling me, that buying an ikon is suicide: fuel guzzler, costly to maintain. But then I chose the IKON flair, which is 1.3L engine with ROCAM technology.
Ride quality is good, it handles Bombay’s bad roads with remarkable ease, and compares well even with the Honda City that we own.
However, the best 2 things were:
1) pick up
2) fuel efficiency
Quite a responsive engine(though you have to take each gear to its peak to see the desired results) - ROCAM, whatever that means. The car has been returning 13 km with AC on a regular basis. I bought the car in April 2008 and have completed 11, 000 km. On highways, this improves by 4 km. This is much beyond the expectations I had set from the car. Additionally I like the strong body of the car.
Car’s side mirros are small and poor, but are covered with a rubber channel, which gives it advantage over many other cars in Bombay Monsoon. Car did not come with an automatic boot release and I had to get it fitted later by paying Rs 6, 000. All parts of this car seem costly.
The dealer seems average. They seem straight-forward on what they promise and deliver. The problem is that they can’t set right some things and are handling too many cars - Ford doesn’t seem to be addressing this. A small problem, windshield waterjet malfunction has made me visit the showroom thrice, without permanent results. In contrast, some bigger complaints of mine, like noise from rear left, were identified and set right promptly. Again, the fuel indicator is faulty and got me stranded on a dark dusty road one evening. But the dealer’s emergency number was able to identify the problem on phone itself and a can of petrol was all it needed. Now I plan to set it alright the next time I go. Funnily, the car takes in 12 litres after the fuel tank shows full or after auto-shut cut-off. And attendants at petrol pumps are aware about this problem.
Will have to see what happens as the car gets older.
I would recommend this car to others.