Why you should not buy a Ford EcoSport!

Let’s see, just what are the things you can do before your Ford EcoSport gets delivered – have a baby, build a house, grow paddy or wheat and reap a bountiful harvest, and plenty more. Face it, the waiting period of 13 months (yes, more than a year) is just NOT worth it.

And that’s not all. Even if you are a die-hard fan of the Ford EcoSport, there are a number of other issues to contend with as you are waiting for your elusive Ford EcoSport. Here are more reasons not to buy the Ford EcoSport:

Two steep price hikes

First, the price hikes. There was one in September 2013, where Ford hiked prices of the EcoSport by Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 depending on the variant. And buyers who had booked the Ford EcoSport in July and August were not protected against this hike. The hike in prices was applicable to all Ford EcoSports – so if you had not got delivery before early September, you had to pay the refreshed prices. There was no price protection for those who booked early.

And now, there’s one more price hike. In the latest round of price hikes, effective January 2014, Ford has hiked the price of the EcoSport further by another Rs. 46,000 depending on the model. So if you were buying the top-end Titanium Option diesel or Ecoboost Titanium Option petrol variants, within a span of the last four months you would have ended up paying an additional Rs. 96,000 or almost Rs. 1 lakh more for the model, over and above the amount you had budgeted for it at the time of booking! That would put the top-end Ford EcoSport at nearly Rs. 10 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi and nearly Rs. 11.5 lakh on road!

With these two price hikes the Ford EcoSport has lost its one big advantage over its competition, and is just not worth it anymore.

Uncertain waiting periods

One would have thought that Ford India would have come to grips with the phenomenal demand it had for the Ford EcoSport. One would have also thought that the number crunchers at Ford would have been able to forecast demand and read the market right. But they have apparently got it wrong and are struggling to come to terms. To illustrate this, let’s use the experience one of our CarToq members, Jay1303. He booked an EcoSport Titanium EcoBoost at the beginning of August 2013. He was promised delivery in December. Come December, Ford promised him delivery in January. When he again enquired in January, the dealer told him the car could only be delivered to him in September 2014! That’s a waiting period of 13 months! A quick run through some other posts in CarToq also reveal similar stories of long waiting periods for those who had booked the EcoSport.

There are other cars available off the shelf, and coupled with the recent price hikes, you really won’t be saving much cash waiting that long for an EcoSport. The waiting period is maximum on the Ford EcoSport Titanium diesel and the Ecoboost Titanium variants. Ford dealers have, in fact, stopped taking bookings for these models, after it clocked over 60,000 bookings overall. Till now, it has apparently managed to deliver only about 30,000 Ford EcoSports.

To try and please those who cannot wait, Ford is also offering a modest Rs. 10,000 discount to buyers who have booked the Ford EcoSport, encouraging them to switch to other Ford cars. Would you?

Cutting down of features

A third reason for not buying the Ford EcoSport would the deletion of features from some of the variants. You will not get what you expect anymore, as Ford has removed a couple of features from the Titanium variant, although there is no drop in price (but instead there is a steep hike as explained above). Ford has removed the push-button ignition and full keyless entry feature from the Titanium EcoBoost, Titanium automatic and Titanium diesel variants of the Ford EcoSport. These features are only available in the Ford EcoSport Titanium Option variant now (only two models – the diesel and Ecoboost petrol). The reason Ford has removed these features is to differentiate the Titanium Option model even more from the Titanium. That’s just poor product planning.

Still want to buy the Ford EcoSport? We would love to hear why.

Click here to view our Ford EcoSport Ecoboost video review

Click here to view our Ford EcoSport diesel video review