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


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Congrads @amedius
True Ecosports lightning vlue looks fantastic, almost like BMWs blue and it matches the car so well and makes it an eye catcher, compared to this the Nexons Blue felt uninspiring, part of the appeal is alsoa because of Ecosports styling that greatly complements the colour.
Today later in a day Ill try to click some pics and post it. By the way audio is quite good with the bass port right in middle front.
 
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Seems there have been quite a few updates in the Ecosport with a 4.5k to 10k increase in price with 9 inch Touchscreen without Android auto in all but T+ variants, T+ in all 3 variants gets 8.5 inch variant with Andriod Auto and Sync3.
 
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I think this is a good move by Ford
They added some key missing features like auto door lock and rear view cam and parking sensors to majority of variants
And I feel the 9" screen is the one from previous gen Ecosports Platinum trim, I didnt like that one a lot as it felt like an unprofessional take on the highly professional SYNC 3
The addition of Passenger seat belt reminder too is a good safety feature, but it might annoy a lot of people .
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allhyundaicars

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The updates are really good. I just hope they don't remove it after some time. There are always lots of re-shuffling of features and prices in Ford cars.

. but it might annoy a lot of people
It's surely better this way. I have made my mother and my gf habitual of wearing seat belts as soon as they sit in the car.passenger seatbelt reminder was me [lol] yet to make my dad habitual of wearing the seatbelts though.
 
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I think this is a good move by Ford
They added some key missing features like auto door lock and rear view cam and parking sensors to majority of variants
And I feel the 9" screen is the one from previous gen Ecosports Platinum trim, I didnt like that one a lot as it felt like an unprofessional take on the highly professional SYNC 3
The addition of Passenger seat belt reminder too is a good safety feature, but it might annoy a lot of people .
I agree it will annoy a few people, but it would be really helpful for the driver who wants to ensure the safety of co-passengers. For those who do not care, there are stupid fake seat belt hooks available in the market, which many luxury car users are using to fool the seat belt reminder system. I am sure no one would not buy the car due to the reminder.
 
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Looks like Ford is on a roll with the EcoSport - shuffling of features and now the S variant with Sunroof and 6 speed MT with some other changes. Maybe they can redefine the segment itself by launching the AWD as well [:D]
 
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Looks like Ford is on a roll with the EcoSport - shuffling of features and now the S variant with Sunroof and 6 speed MT with some other changes. Maybe they can redefine the segment itself by launching the AWD as well [:D]
As rumors have come that Aspire and Figo production has been stopped, and would be resumed with the facelift, and with the Freestyle launch delayed by another week, for the time being, Ecosport is the only product the Ford Dealers would be depending on for good profits. As they are already focusing on clearing stocks on the Figo and Aspire, I think they would find it little difficult to sell the Freestyle side by side, when the very similar products are being sold at heavy discounts. Endeavour is also being sold at heavy discounts.

Ecosport is one product, where Ford is getting good sales without offering much discounts, which would be the cash cow for the dealers too. They need to work on the features for it to make it more attractive and keep the dealers happy, till they update the Figo lineup.
 
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As rumors have come that Aspire and Figo production has been stopped, and would be resumed with the facelift, and with the Freestyle launch delayed by another week, for the time being, Ecosport is the only product the Ford Dealers would be depending on for good profits. As they are already focusing on clearing stocks on the Figo and Aspire, I think they would find it little difficult to sell the Freestyle side by side, when the very similar products are being sold at heavy discounts. Endeavour is also being sold at heavy discounts.

Ecosport is one product, where Ford is getting good sales without offering much discounts, which would be the cash cow for the dealers too. They need to work on the features for it to make it more attractive and keep the dealers happy, till they update the Figo lineup.
Totally agree with that, but as far as I see, we cannot totally say Ford India isnt working enough, they have done enough to make a mark, the Indian car buyer is so much bent on Maruti and Hyundia that they are not willing to give alother brands a try, eg: Kwid it had a tremendous start and now its going downhill, Hexa from Tata is another product I hoped that it will give Innova a big surprise but on the contrary its almost like a flop which is disappointing considering how good it is.
Its difficult to survive India , so even if Ford launches Freestyle or global Fiesta or Kuga or Escape it wont be a significant player in India. What it can be is the best of the rest, like Ford is closing in on Honda and Toyota, so the real competition is between Ford,Honda and Toyota nowadays in sales charts.
 
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Totally agree with that, but as far as I see, we cannot totally say Ford India isnt working enough, they have done enough to make a mark, the Indian car buyer is so much bent on Maruti and Hyundia that they are not willing to give alother brands a try, eg: Kwid it had a tremendous start and now its going downhill, Hexa from Tata is another product I hoped that it will give Innova a big surprise but on the contrary its almost like a flop which is disappointing considering how good it is.
Its difficult to survive India , so even if Ford launches Freestyle or global Fiesta or Kuga or Escape it wont be a significant player in India. What it can be is the best of the rest, like Ford is closing in on Honda and Toyota, so the real competition is between Ford,Honda and Toyota nowadays in sales charts.
I agree with you. I realized now that it seems that I was saying that Ford isn't working hard. However, that was not what I meant, I was instead trying to justify them working on updating the features on the Ecosport.


I agree that it is difficult to survive in India, especially to compete with the products already there by the major players. Ecosport did get a good head start as it was almost a segment starter (considering the Premier Rio never got noticed) and it took some time for the competition to bring in cars in the segment. Kwid also had gained a good market share as it went into a new segment, and gained market attention.
I don't think it would be easy to Ford to bring in their global hits and expect them to gain a good market in India. Ford has taken some effort to understand the market , and we can see that in the Aspire and Figo. The earlier cars were purely enthusiasts choices, and did not do well with the public in general. Most of the time Ford has got dead on arrival cars in India due to bad pricing. The Global Fiesta for example came with a very high pricing, and though Ford did a correction later, it did not get enough market. Similarly, with the Endeavour, the price correction can be made into a stock chart looking at the frequent corrections and addition and removal of versions.

I feel they need to work more on their pricing and marketing now, and get more visibility in our market. The brand awareness needs to be improved, if Ford wants to really change its sales numbers. I am seeing the change with the Ford Freestyle, in terms of marketing, but I hope they do a good job with the pricing.
 
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I agree with you. I realized now that it seems that I was saying that Ford isn't working hard. However, that was not what I meant, I was instead trying to justify them working on updating the features on the Ecosport.


I agree that it is difficult to survive in India, especially to compete with the products already there by the major players. Ecosport did get a good head start as it was almost a segment starter (considering the Premier Rio never got noticed) and it took some time for the competition to bring in cars in the segment. Kwid also had gained a good market share as it went into a new segment, and gained market attention.
I don't think it would be easy to Ford to bring in their global hits and expect them to gain a good market in India. Ford has taken some effort to understand the market , and we can see that in the Aspire and Figo. The earlier cars were purely enthusiasts choices, and did not do well with the public in general. Most of the time Ford has got dead on arrival cars in India due to bad pricing. The Global Fiesta for example came with a very high pricing, and though Ford did a correction later, it did not get enough market. Similarly, with the Endeavour, the price correction can be made into a stock chart looking at the frequent corrections and addition and removal of versions.

I feel they need to work more on their pricing and marketing now, and get more visibility in our market. The brand awareness needs to be improved, if Ford wants to really change its sales numbers. I am seeing the change with the Ford Freestyle, in terms of marketing, but I hope they do a good job with the pricing.
Still I dont think bringing in Global Fiesta or even pricing a car right will give Ford the required numbers,
The biggest example is the 2011-2017 SWift
The Ford Figo hatch launched in 2010 is in any way far better car than the SWift
It has more space inside, bigger boot, better ride quality and handling, built better, has a better audios system, better diesel engine and in reality there wasnt much that was done wrong in the Gen I Figo and yet its sales was just a spike for 2 years and again it came down to regular numbers of sub 2000 cars by 2015, then they launched the 2016 Figo with way better engine, more space, slightly smaller boot yet larger than 2011-2017 SWift and more features and space and comfort and cheaper price tag than SWift and yet it couldnt do anything to the SWift which despite being an inferior car right from 2011 -2017 consistently made 10,000-18000 cars per month without even knowing the Figo was in market
This shows my reasoning, ie whether it be Ford,or any European brand it is not going to sell here in India
If anything it should have a Suzuki or a Hyundai badge to make decent numbers
The Ecosport started the compact SUV segment and since Maruti didnt have any car in the 10+ lakh range it didnt have any competition so it was a success and even today we see the Brezza is outselling Ecosport in 2-3:1 ratio , so I feel Ford should stop fighting Maruti and Hyundai in India and just keep on building unique products and Freestyle is one such product , thats why I feel even though it wont be a sales hit, it will remain for a long time giving the brands B500 platform life for another 5 years.
 
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This is probably OT, but only as a reply to the earlier post![:)]
The message that Maruti - and most other Far East mfrs - are sending out is reliability & relative absence of niggles after a launch. Plus of course Maruti's nearly unblemished ASS & M record.
I am not a Maruti admirer (tho' I have an EECO - for the very good reason that it is the only offering with RWD in the market at the price, and I am firmly in the RWD corner). But I can see that the above mentioned virtues and the deeply embedded belief (in the Indian hinterland) that Maruti is synonymous with "peace of mind" has contributed to Maruti's position today.
 
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This is probably OT, but only as a reply to the earlier post![:)]
The message that Maruti - and most other Far East mfrs - are sending out is reliability & relative absence of niggles after a launch. Plus of course Maruti's nearly unblemished ASS & M record.
I am not a Maruti admirer (tho' I have an EECO - for the very good reason that it is the only offering with RWD in the market at the price, and I am firmly in the RWD corner). But I can see that the above mentioned virtues and the deeply embedded belief (in the Indian hinterland) that Maruti is synonymous with "peace of mind" has contributed to Maruti's position today.
Of couese I agree with this. This is why I also wrote the post that Ford will never be able to figjt Maruti and Hyundiai, in fact they should never try to beat Maruti and Hyundai in sales but just focus on imrpoving the current strong ASS and the ownerr costs and reliability factor, as of now Ford has some repuation fir its ownership cost which is good and well under Hyundai,Maruti radar but reliability wise its still not up to the mark, so if they can improve that, there will be more gradual flow of customers, also more products in the sub 10 lakhs car market is a good thing, the relevance of product like a Freestyle might seem meak for an average buyer,but in reality Ford I feel is the only brand that bas has done enough to differentiate a Freestyle from a Figo unlike Elite i20 Acrive,Polo Cross, Liva Cross and even WRV , but the sad part is majority wont identify how much different a Freestyle is, I just wish that Ford finds some way to convey the actual prowess of Freestyle to average customer.
 
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The Ford Figo hatch launched in 2010 is in any way far better car than the SWift
It has more space inside, bigger boot, better ride quality and handling, built better, has a better audios system, better diesel engine and in reality there wasnt much that was done wrong in the Gen I Figo and yet its sales was just a spike for 2 years and again it came down to regular numbers of sub 2000 cars by 2015, then they launched the 2016 Figo with way better engine, more space, slightly smaller boot yet larger than 2011-2017 SWift and more features and space and comfort and cheaper price tag than SWift and yet it couldnt do anything to the SWift which despite being an inferior car right from 2011 -2017 consistently made 10,000-18000 cars per month without even knowing the Figo was in market
This shows my reasoning, ie whether it be Ford,or any European brand it is not going to sell here in India
.
Maruti has a hold in all areas of India due to its wide dealership network, Ford will be contained till it sells big volumes. Ford Sales comes mostly from the top 20 cities in India. What did the Figo twins was the launch of the Baleno with more space and touch screen at the same time. This took away many of the Figo's potential buyers. If Figo had been launched 6 months before it would have had good sales.
 
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Marketing and after sales ,Ford should learn from Maruti and Hyundai.
How many of the ford owners know that each month (atleast once in 2 months),ford conducts free Service camps ,and i usually take my friend's ecosport for the same ,and get it washed[:)]
I will say these Service camps are way beneficial both for dealer ,brand,as well as customer.
Those customer who have done all service up to date ,can just have a check up and you can ask to get it a wash done.(If at all spares needs change ,you are given a discount-15%-25%).
Another thing most ford owners can relate is the service bill-Each part's health is quoted in form of a index-(Red,Yellow,Green)-Even a layman can get an idea regarding the health of the vehicle.

Unless Ford does a great deal of publicity in terms of explaining ASS facilities to the customer (A video description will do),Ford can't create a positive image in mind of customers.Only enthusiasts know what Ford is .To the layman ,Ford is an expensive affair (Image of Ford ikon1.8)
 
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