Ford Figo ZXi 2013 Review
This post is a quick review of Ford Figo, which got a
facelift last year.
Changes on the exterior:
On the rear, tail lamp locations are swapped. Reverse
gear light and indicator was on top earlier, now moved to bottom. The intricate
lines on the indicator look great. I’ve one concern here though- the white
light- used for reverse gear- is good enough only to warn people/vehicles in the
rear- due to the forward inclined design, white light doesn’t directly fall on
ground to illuminate the ground. A solution to this could be moving the white
light to rear bumper- like in Fiat Punto
The bright blue colour on our car was quite an eye catcher
Dashboard is simple and easy on the eyes. Digital
display can show only one info at a time (Distance to Empty OR ODO OR TRIP
Meter). Making it a bigger to show all of these together would have been nice. I
tried resetting the trip meter by holding the button in pressed down position,
but it didn’t rest (was moving to next display option). May be there’s some
other way to do it. I tried google, as soon as I typed “How to reset trip meter”
one of the top suggestions was “How to reset trip meter in Ford Figo”, which
implies more users are also affected by this and Ford should either simplify the
process or explain to customers clearly how to reset it
No cup holders anywhere in the car. (I realize hand brake occupies lots of real estate in all cars between the two front seats. Modifying this design to something that takes less space but doesn’t compromise on safety, convenience and performance should be evaluated- Tavera has a pull and rotate kind of hand bakes fixed parallel to steering column)
However, sadly, following hasn’t changed:
Engine is same as earlier, 1.4 SOHC diesel that offers 68bhp, a tad less than Swift but at par with Etios Liva. Managed to touch 140kmph, couldn’t go faster due to non availability of suitable road. Given some straight road, Figo is capable of touching 160+. Drivability is good like any other ford. I found gearshifts too short, which I wasn’t expecting in the beginning and started enjoying in the end. In my previous drive of safari I had to make long moves to change from one gear to another- in Figo it was short and swift. Like the Fiesta we’d taken to Ooty, Ford Figo also struggled to pull 4 people uphill in second gear and we’d to constantly downshift to 1st. But this aspect is pretty common to many cars, so I’d add it to “wish list” and not “Complaint book”
My previous review of Ford Figo is listed here. In this
post I’ll focus on the changes Ford added to Figo during its refresh, October
2012
I hadn’t got a chance to drive the refreshed figo so
far. Recently managed to drive it out for a day, covering some 400kms, as
Zoomcars in Bangalore had them on self drive rentals.
What I drove was ZXI variant, not the top end Titanium.
It had run about 660kms only when I took it for a drive. 
On the rear, tail lamp locations are swapped. Reverse
gear light and indicator was on top earlier, now moved to bottom. The intricate
lines on the indicator look great. I’ve one concern here though- the white
light- used for reverse gear- is good enough only to warn people/vehicles in the
rear- due to the forward inclined design, white light doesn’t directly fall on
ground to illuminate the ground. A solution to this could be moving the white
light to rear bumper- like in Fiat Punto
Front also is changed considerably- now looks similar to
new alto800 from Maruti. Some clues from i10 also seem to have been adapted.
Inscribing the term Figo on the side of headlamps- like one done in Ssangyong
Rexton would have added a premium feel.
The bright blue colour on our car was quite an eye catcher
Changes inside:
On the inside, a stalk that has audio controls is a new
addition. I personally prefer to have these controls directly on the steering
wheel, but don’t have a complaint as such with what Figo offers. If it is
cheaper this way and works for many users, it should be fine. (Even Fluence
adopts same approach- having an additional stick to handle these, however on the
right side of the wheel)
Dashboard is simple and easy on the eyes. Digital
display can show only one info at a time (Distance to Empty OR ODO OR TRIP
Meter). Making it a bigger to show all of these together would have been nice. I
tried resetting the trip meter by holding the button in pressed down position,
but it didn’t rest (was moving to next display option). May be there’s some
other way to do it. I tried google, as soon as I typed “How to reset trip meter”
one of the top suggestions was “How to reset trip meter in Ford Figo”, which
implies more users are also affected by this and Ford should either simplify the
process or explain to customers clearly how to reset itNo cup holders anywhere in the car. (I realize hand brake occupies lots of real estate in all cars between the two front seats. Modifying this design to something that takes less space but doesn’t compromise on safety, convenience and performance should be evaluated- Tavera has a pull and rotate kind of hand bakes fixed parallel to steering column)
A/C was pretty cool and fast, compared to my previous
experience in Tata Safari where AC was taking considerable time to cool the
passengers (note: this may not be an apple to apple comparison- Safari was 4
years old, big in size and had 8 people, while Figo is a small car, very new and
had 4 people)
Space is good, best in class to be
precise.
However, sadly, following hasn’t changed:
· Rear door
gets no power windows and they don’t scroll down completely. Not sure why Ford
decided to continue with this partial scroll window glasses- no one complained
about it? (reducing the glass width by few mm would have enabled this complete
scroll. But compared to Swift, Figo has large windows, which means more air and
light
· No headrest
for second row passengers. For tall person, sitting for long hours without
support for head will be a pain. Swift, Vista and many cars offer this, at least
in expensive variants. Ford should offer this as an option at
least.
· I felt having
a clock on the dashboard somewhere would have been nice. To know the time, one
needs to look at his wrist watch or mobile. Of course music system can be made
to display time or you can always attach an external clock for 100
Rs.
Engine is same as earlier, 1.4 SOHC diesel that offers 68bhp, a tad less than Swift but at par with Etios Liva. Managed to touch 140kmph, couldn’t go faster due to non availability of suitable road. Given some straight road, Figo is capable of touching 160+. Drivability is good like any other ford. I found gearshifts too short, which I wasn’t expecting in the beginning and started enjoying in the end. In my previous drive of safari I had to make long moves to change from one gear to another- in Figo it was short and swift. Like the Fiesta we’d taken to Ooty, Ford Figo also struggled to pull 4 people uphill in second gear and we’d to constantly downshift to 1st. But this aspect is pretty common to many cars, so I’d add it to “wish list” and not “Complaint book”
I didn’t test the mileage numbers, since I didn’t have
to worry about fuel during my rental and had to worry about kms
alone.
Figo is priced well below Swift, Liva etc. Hence despite
couple of missing features, Figo has been a huge success for Ford India and is a
great value for money car. Its celebration edition was launched recently with
some cosmetic additions to mark its 3rd
anniversary.
Nice car and Nice review
ReplyDeleteTravel India
Ford Figo India carries a kinetic design theme like the fiesta with the prominent change the red on top of the dash. It is carrying te same smoth shifting gearbox with no difference.
ReplyDeleteOnly figo. My love
ReplyDelete