The sub 4-metre compact SUV Ford EcoSport was launched approximately six months ago at attractive prices in the Indian market. The demand for the vehicle has been so high that several customers who had opted for specific variants in June itself are apparently being asked to wait till the end of March for delivery. This could further get delayed by another couple of months for a few buyers. Ford claims that this unexpected demand has left them with no choice but to offer other models to it customers and benefits worth Rs. 10,000/- on these models. Alternatively, customers can claim full refund upon cancellation of the booking with even the cancellation fees being waived off.
Customers are certainly not pleased since they will have to bear the price hikes due to rise in input cost for the production of the vehicle. False promises of earlier delivery dates have put off most customers while the dealers are pressing on delivery of other Ford cars immediately with cost benefits. The Ford Endeavor is being offered with a discount of Rs. 1,00,000/- and immediate delivery option. Ford had to recall the EcoSport soon after the launch due to a glitch in the glow plug module and 972 units were recalled in total.
Ford has officially stopped taking bookings of certain specific variants. A total of 60,000 bookings were accepted and the carmaker has managed to deliver only about 30,000 units so far. The prices are expected to be revised from January next year and this gives the customers all the more reasons to grumble apart from the fact that the car delivery itself has been delayed by months together. The Renault Duster is comparatively more expensive than the EcoSport since it does not fall into the sub 4-metre category. The Ford EcoSport is currently priced between Rs. 5.53 lakhs and Rs. 9.54 lakhs (ex-showroom, New Delhi) across ten variants and three engine options. The price hike is expected to be in the range of 1 percent to 5 percent across all models. The American automaker is doing everything possible to increase production capacities so that it can commit to timely deliveries of its very successful compact SUV, the Ford EcoSport.
Source – Business Line
