Ford EcoSport Facelift 2018 Launched in India (Coverage Pg: 34)

[adivik]

This has been a problem for me every since I got my Ecosport in October 2014, my children were 4 and 1 and now 6 and 3. The only upside is Doors are too heavy for children to open easily, it takes them a lot of effort, they do it easily in the other car Brio.

It seems the Door lock should be always opened from inside is some European standard, so that in attempted Kidnappings people are able to escape and it apparently helps in Door unlock in accidents. But it should have feature where it can't open from inside above say 40kmph.

 

[Amedius]

Just read in the papers today. Ecosport wheel problem is now solved almost.

NEWS

Instead of playing the blame game and directing its customers to get in touch with Bridgestone to claim any sort of warranty on tires, the company has initiated a free-of-cost replacement of all the affected tires. Here is what the company told a blog on being asked for comments on this issue –

"We have been made aware of concerns related to the R17 Wheel. Please note that as part of the durability run, our engineering team have extensively tested the new Ford EcoSport across all Indian terrain for 280,000kms. The R17 wheel has also been tested on some of the most treacherous terrains for over 30,000kms. Given the recent feedback, we are working with our tyre vendor and have carried out a Free-of-Cost replacement of the Tyres in each of the reported cases. We have also requested our PD team who is evaluating each & every incident and guiding customers. At Ford, we remain committed to delivering quality products and do everything that is in the best interest of the brand and our customers."

We are really happy that the company has taken notice of the situation and has already taken steps to help the aggrieved customers. We really hope that other car manufacturers will follow this example and work towards offering a higher customer satisfaction. What’s your view on this?

 

[1989rs500]

Just read in the papers today. Ecosport wheel problem is now solved almost.

NEWS

Instead of playing the blame game and directing its customers to get in touch with Bridgestone to claim any sort of warranty on tires, the company has initiated a free-of-cost replacement of all the affected tires. Here is what the company told a blog on being asked for comments on this issue –

"We have been made aware of concerns related to the R17 Wheel. Please note that as part of the durability run, our engineering team have extensively tested the new Ford EcoSport across all Indian terrain for 280,000kms. The R17 wheel has also been tested on some of the most treacherous terrains for over 30,000kms. Given the recent feedback, we are working with our tyre vendor and have carried out a Free-of-Cost replacement of the Tyres in each of the reported cases. We have also requested our PD team who is evaluating each & every incident and guiding customers. At Ford, we remain committed to delivering quality products and do everything that is in the best interest of the brand and our customers."

We are really happy that the company has taken notice of the situation and has already taken steps to help the aggrieved customers. We really hope that other car manufacturers will follow this example and work towards offering a higher customer satisfaction. What’s your view on this?

The trouble here is Ford is replacing problematic wheels with another 17" ones which too has potential of breakage in our pathetic roads, so what they should have done is give customer an option to switch to lower profile tire abd alloys with same cost, probably Mischellin or Continentals with 16" diamond cut alloys or something, this would have been a permenent solution, as of now the TPMS has been caliberated to work with certain tire sizes and if we change that the TPMs wont work, thats why they had to say that we will devoid warranty if tire is changed etc.
Anyway a positive move but not a permanent solution to the problem.

 

[ankathil.arjun]

The trouble here is Ford is replacing problematic wheels with another 17" ones which too has potential of breakage in our pathetic roads, so what they should have done is give customer an option to switch to lower profile tire abd alloys with same cost, probably Mischellin or Continentals with 16" diamond cut alloys or something, this would have been a permenent solution, as of now the TPMS has been caliberated to work with certain tire sizes and if we change that the TPMs wont work, thats why they had to say that we will devoid warranty if tire is changed etc.
Anyway a positive move but not a permanent solution to the problem.

Are you sure that the TPMS would not work with the upgraded tyres? I have seen many TPMS systems, and they have never been dependent on the tyre size. Only the speedo and odo errors, and in some cases suspension setup suffers due to the upgraded tyres.

I understand that with upgraded tyres, the optimal tyre pressure may change, and you may need to change that setting, but I do not think that the TPMS system should have any problem with the tyre size upgrade.

 

[1989rs500]

Are you sure that the TPMS would not work with the upgraded tyres? I have seen many TPMS systems, and they have never been dependent on the tyre size. Only the speedo and odo errors, and in some cases suspension setup suffers due to the upgraded tyres.

I understand that with upgraded tyres, the optimal tyre pressure may change, and you may need to change that setting, but I do not think that the TPMS system should have any problem with the tyre size upgrade.

https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/sele...ure-monitoring-systems-on-after-market-wheels

The alloys are the issue, not the tire size, the alloys are larger and they need specific sized tires, and thats why the issue of TPMS malfunction with different tire and alloy

 

[A.G.]

Having upsized the tyres on the Ford Endeavour, there are no issues I have faced with the TPMS. My understanding is that tyre size does not make a difference to the TPMS as it is only checking for pressure and nothing else.

 

[1989rs500]

Having upsized the tyres on the Ford Endeavour, there are no issues I have faced with the TPMS. My understanding is that tyre size does not make a difference to the TPMS as it is only checking for pressure and nothing else.

Buddy the issue with Ecosport I feel is not the tire size, its the wheels, the alloys are low profile ones, so they scratch easily to rocks etc, so when we upgrade the whole assembly ie from 17" to 16", the TPMS might malfunction

 

[A.G.]

The function of TPMS is independent of rim or tyre size irrespective of whether you are upsizing or downsizing the wheel or tyre or both. Having seen the as-built data using FORScan for the Endeavour, the TPMS warning light functions by checking for 20% decrease in tyre pressure from the tyre pressure programmed in the BCM. Both the front and rear tyre pressures are programmed separately in the BCM.

It is a different matter that while downsizing from 17" to 16" rim whether the TPMS sensor would be transferred undamaged or not. Having seen the sensor of the Endeavour (picture is there in my review), I am skeptical about it being transferred from one rim to another without damaging the sensor which can lead to TPMS malfunction.

 

[1989rs500]

The function of TPMS is independent of rim or tyre size irrespective of whether you are upsizing or downsizing the wheel or tyre or both. Having seen the as-built data using FORScan for the Endeavour, the TPMS warning light functions by checking for 20% decrease in tyre pressure from the tyre pressure programmed in the BCM. Both the front and rear tyre pressures are programmed separately in the BCM.

It is a different matter that while downsizing from 17" to 16" rim whether the TPMS sensor would be transferred undamaged or not. Having seen the sensor of the Endeavour (picture is there in my review), I am skeptical about it being transferred from one rim to another without damaging the sensor which can lead to TPMS malfunction.

This is exactly what I too have mentioned above, Ford said they will devoid warranty if they see a 17" Ecosport have a 16" one by user, its simple, most of this will be done after market by a 3rd party tire technician who might not give any importance to TPMS sensor,
Thats why they say they will void warranty etc. If Ford itself had the provision to switch from 17_16 there is problem here, but they are not willing to do that, they are just replacing burst 17" ones with a new 17" one which still has potential of getting damaged .
They could have made the Titanium+ variant owners choose 2 tire options, this would have easily solved the problem.

 

[Tarik Arora]

Last few posts have been on TPMS and thus could not resist myself from posting. I have an aftermarket TPMS (Steelmate TPMS85) in my car which i installed 2 years back. Those are internal sensors where the whole valve was replaced with sensors instead of the external ones where only the valve gap acts as a sensor. In my opinion, tyre size plays no role in the functioning of a TPMS sensor. TPMS only measures the actual pressure and alerts the user if there is any variant beyond the defined limit. I upsised tyres on my car post installation of the sensors and there was no difference in the way they were functioning. Ford will devoid warranty because as someone rightly pointed out, a 3rd party tyre shoppe may or may not be careful with the sensors while changing tyres/alloys. This is considering the fact that OEM TPMS sensors are generally average in quality and if you try to remove them from the rim, you may end up damaging them. My steelmate TPMS is very sturdy (and very steeply priced as well) as i recently got it removed from my car while selling the car and the tyre shoppe was easily able to take them off. They are now ready for their next stint in my new car.

 

[Amedius]

Ford is now the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title-holder for the largest billboard in the world after unveiling a 5,265 m2 advertisement – equivalent to 20 tennis courts – for the new Ford EcoSport sports utility vehicle (SUV) on the iconic Espana Building in central Madrid, Spain.

A Guinness World Records official adjudicator inspected the 2,000 kg installation and verified that the largest billboard Guinness World Records official attempt was successful – exceeding the previous record established in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, by 241.93 m2.

 

[1989rs500]

Ford is now the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title-holder for the largest billboard in the world after unveiling a 5,265 m2 advertisement – equivalent to 20 tennis courts – for the new Ford EcoSport sports utility vehicle (SUV) on the iconic Espana Building in central Madrid, Spain.

A Guinness World Records official adjudicator inspected the 2,000 kg installation and verified that the largest billboard Guinness World Records official attempt was successful – exceeding the previous record established in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, by 241.93 m2.

OMG, this much promotion for Ecopsort, so is Ford Ecosport that important product for Ford outside India?
From what I know, Ecosport is a success only in India and norther Brazil, else where its just on the verge of break in point of success,

 

[Amedius]

OMG, this much promotion for Ecopsort, so is Ford Ecosport that important product for Ford outside India?
From what I know, Ecosport is a success only in India and norther Brazil, else where its just on the verge of break in point of success,

In other western countries where most people are filthy rich, they have lot many choices of luxury cars. Why they will opt for Ford Ecosport even though the looks and safety are the best. But its good to see such a massive advert there.

 

[Amedius]

UPDATE FROM FORD :

The prices of Ford cars will be hiked from March 1, 2018

Ford India announced that it sold 23,965 vehicles in February 2018 as compared to 24,026 in the same month last year. This figure takes into account both domestic sales and exports. The company showed a marginal de-growth in wholesale figures, however, that is majorly due to the drop in exports. Exports were at 14,924 units compared to 15,688 vehicles in February 20, 2018
The company's domestic wholesales grew to 9,041 vehicles in February from 8,338 vehicles in the same month last year and that growth can be attributed to the EcoSport facelift that the company launched in 2017.

"Improvements in GDP growth and other industry indicators continue to support the year on year growth of the auto industry," said Anurag Mehrotra, president and managing director, Ford India. "However, there are headwinds in terms of impending increase in interest rates, crude prices, and inflation. We also believe the increase in customs duty and the cess of exports will drive up prices, with a potential of impacting demand."

The company also announced its decision to raise prices of all its vehicles by up to 4 per cent from March 1, 2018, after the Indian government's decision to increase import duty on auto components.

 

[A.G.]

For all those considering the Ford EcoSport having SYNC3 with Android Auto as standard fitment, it opens up a lot of possibilities for running aftermarket apps. Have been using the ELM327 adapter with OBD2AA app to see some relevant real-time engine data on the SYNC3 display of my Endeavour. There is even an app to play YouTube video or those stored on phone among other apps. Had tried out both these apps on the EcoSport Titanium recently and they work flawlessly.