[Resolved]  Ford India / Ford Figo — No proper ground clearance

need to taken seriously

I too agress with you.. I too have a figo petrol. and it will hit the groud if three adults sits in the car. Have to go very slowly in cross way to overcome any little big speed braker or hup.

Ford India(FIGO) — ground clearance

I have purchased a Ford FIGO in the month of August 2010, the delaer promished that the ground clearanc is 168mm and for other company it is 170mm,as the difference is only 2mm, there will not any problem in driving. However I really regret for this car as even on small bumps it is dshed. The company should recall the vehicles if it was in abroad. I think we should file cheating case against the company and its sales people for misrepresenting the fact.

I sent a mail to ford MD at [protected]@ford.com. See the email below and waiting for the reply...

[protected]-----
Dear Madam,

I am sorry to differ you here. Even a small speed breaker scrap the underbody of the car when more than 3 occupants are there.

We also tested all to avoid underdoby scraping at speed breaker. No one will really want to get their car scraped with this speed breakers, bad roads and pot holes.. i drove other cars like Swift, Spark, Micra, Santro, Palio. I did not find this problem on the same route. Micra has only 154 ground clearance and did not scrap underbody even at a bigger uneven speed breaker.. i have taken the test drive of Micra to only test the ground clearance.

There is something to do with suspension to fix the issue. I would like to bring this to MD directly to look into this issue seriously. It seems MD did not aware of this issue as middle man take care of this email. There will not be any value add if you send the same reply even in the mail which we already have in facebook from FORD FIGO user.

The customers would not expect this kind of response from such good reputed company. I am really disappointed with your same old reply instead looking at the issue. What is the real problem to engage some engineers directly from Ford India at major cities to check this issue so that they will get direct experience.

I understand that the engineers tested vehicle at the plant's test track. However, failed to give a good ground clearance in spite of claiming 168mm. I agree that this is class leading ground clearance, but has suspension issue which causing the underbody scrap. It is very sad that we have this problem for a great car like Figo.

Thanks & Regards,
Siva Prasad P
[protected].

- Hide quoted text -
On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 4:24 PM, President's desk, From (.) <[protected]@ford.com> wrote:
Dear Mr.Siva Prasad P,

Thank you for contacting Ford India.Firstup we thank you for patronising our product.

We would also like to inform you that, certain external factors which such as uneven speed breakers, bad roads, pot holes etc.. may cause the underbody scraping in the Figo. To reiterate, our product has the best ground clearance which has already been tested and recorded by us in all our product promotional brochures and in our website.

We would also like to reiterate we do value your feedback. We take all feedback posted here very seriously and constantly endeavour to use the same from such forums to learn more from our customers.

Request your understanding on this.

Assuring you of our best services and continuous support at all times.

Thanks & Regards,
Elizabeth
FIL-Customer Relations
Toll Free No[protected] BSNL/MTNL[protected] Add STD code of your state capital.

From: siva prasad [mailto:[protected]@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:54 PM
To: President's desk, From (.)
Subject: Figo - Excellent Car.. but has Ground Clearance Problem

Hello Sir,

Greeting for launching and success of Ford Figo Hatch back car.

I am writing this email to bring to your notice that the great car has very serious problem and everyone is facing this ie., Ground clearance problem or people says that it is due to very sensitive soft suspension at rear.

I do face the ground clearance problem even maintaining the correct tire pressure. A little hump or speed breaker will hit the bottom when more than 3 occupants are there in the car. It is more worse if it is a big hump. I drive the vehicle diagonally to avoid the hit. However, it will hit sometimes. Lot of Figo owners brought this issue to Dealer and they simply says that "Its known issue and we informed to Ford Company and waiting for the reply" and some says "It is due to very soft suspension at rear".

Here is the link of facebook thread related to this problem and the user "Ford Figo" reply with same message as attached.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=[protected]&topic=15167

Its a year passed and did not here anything from Ford regarding the issue fix. I am not expert in car engineering, but, most of the people to suggest to go for stiff coil springs or upgrade tyre or wheels to increase the ground clearance. It will void the warranty and car dynamics and performance.

Could you please let me know is Ford going to take any action on this to fix it permanently to all Figo owners. I know some of my friends withdraw the idea of buying Figo due to this issue. Other than this, The car is awesome and excellent in the segment. I drove all other competitive cars and did not find such a nice comfort and features like Figo.

I hope you will take this issue very seriously and provide a fix for this. Till then can you suggest a solution temporally with the help of the Ford engineers. I don't want to void the warranty by going any modifications to the car.

I will be waiting for a positive reply from your side regarding the issue.

Thanks & Regards,
Siva Prasad P
[protected].

I had the same problem with my Ford figo. I complained online through ford community link in ford figo site and some gentleman from Ford Chennai contacted me on phone and told me that dealer at Hyderabad would look into it if I took the vehicle there. I did that, the dealer took photos of the underbelly and said that the same would be looked into by Ford Chennai.

But for the lip service, I have not got anything till date and I am approaching the consumer redressal forum for deficiency of service and defective product. But for this the car is fine. But his problem recurring again would surely be bad for the car in the long run.

As a senior defence officer I intend to give the company the run for the money that I have spent on their product. So pls get in touch and we can join together to fight. That would also give us strength.

My contact info: PA Deshpande, Hyderabad, [protected]

My ford figo (Diesel) diliver mileage of 15kmpl with A.C. and the mileage of 22kmpl without A.C. There is a lot of difference in mileage with A.C ON & OFF. And also i have faced the big problem of ground clearence. Please resolove my problems.

regards,
IMRAN KHAN
[protected]

i booked figo zxi disel this is wrong dicision ? or right please tell me anybody or @ford

Dear sivaprasad and all figo owners.
I posted the same issue/problem in FORD website and got the same reply as you(sivaprasad) have got.
I hope the company is riding on the joy of sales success and not willing to look at the customers queries.
But i think this has spread to lot of people and even i have suggested all prospective buyers not to go in for FORD FIGO
only for this issue.
Hope the company understands this problems and give an effective solution to existing customers as well as a benefit.
people, post more comments to the company website, so that at one point of time they will understand .
In the longrun it will also reflect on their sales and customers intention

Hello to all of you FiGo owners.

I was googling to find if there are ways to raise the suspension on my Figo. I hit this thread.

Just to put all your minds at rest, I bought my car in July 2010. And in October I took it to Lahoul in Himachal Pradesh ( I live in Dharamshala and drive to Kangra every day for work and every other day to have coffee in McLeod Gunj) those of you familier with this place will know just what a gruelling drive it is to go from Dharamshala to Lahoul via Rohtang Pass ( it's 25 km of absolute horror from Marhi to Rohtang pass...that's just to begin.. Roads are non existent after Rohtang till Udaipur) AND MY FIGO DID PERFECTLY FINE with full occupancy in the car 3 adults and two children.
There were horrible sounds when I scraped the underbelly of the car on rocks, on my return I stopped at Saluja ford in Mandi and got the car lifted up, walked under it for good half hour and just found a couple of scratches... That was all.

I am looking for a higher suspension because I drive more off road than on road.

As I noticed almost all the complainants drive on civilised roads compared to what I drive on. I request all of you to take it easy and notice how you don't roll around in the car on a 90 degree turn at the speed Of 60km per hour. It's a perfect car to drive folks... Just touch the brakes very lightly to turn even more smoothly.

Cheers

And Ford guys I really do have a genuine problem here ... Please tell me how to raise the suspension.. And NO.. I CAN NOT AFFORD AN SUV... This car is just fine.

I also a proud owner of Ford Figo, despite the problems faced particularly with suspension. At least i might have gone to the workshop ten times and made continuous complaints of suspension noise escalated to all possible contacts of Ford. finally resolved after 2 months. But the ground clearance problem stays as it is, no body at Ford seems taken any initiative to resolve because of basic design issue. This is a major issue in indian market because of bad on non standard speed breakers. The clearance is designed as per american standards where the speed breaker height is limited to 3.5". where as in inida it is 6" to 9". Because of this issue though the performance of the car is good it is not getting market.
raons
vizag.

Alas, its the only consolotation to know that i am not the only person to suffer from the low GC problem of ford figo and the heart break of broken mud guards.

What is the tyre pressure you guys are maintaining?