Ford Figo Sports Review : In the last few years, the trend of performance-oriented cars in India has been growing steadily – be it the Mercedes AMG or the BMW M Sports lineup in premium segment, and just a few days ago Volvo brought its S60 Polestar on to the floor. In the much accessible volume space, Maruti recently took the love for performance cars of the buyers to an all-new high by launching the Baleno RS.
Ford also didn’t waste much time and launched the Sports variants of its existing compact models – Figo and Aspire – as the big push aims at increase in sales as well as nostalgic driving dynamics the American brand is pretty well known for in India with the old Fiesta and Figo. Last year, Ford introduced the second generation Figo and it is a completely different take on its predecessor.
Let us talk in detail about the Figo Sports version as we are fresh off driving it at the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. We maneuvered the Figo Sports 1.5-litre diesel in the scorching 47 degree temperature of Rann to bring you the first drive review report down below:
Let’s begin with the design of Figo Sports. Dimensionally, it appears exactly same as the regular hatchback but Ford has introduced many noticeable changes.
Up front, the Figo Sports has received an all-Black honeycomb grille and the headlamps get Black bezel around them – giving the car a sporty look and alongside making it pretty attractive. The Figo Sports variant gets fog lights as standard as it is based on the Titanium variant.
If you glance from the front, the roof appears black and it has been done so keeping in mind the demands of the contemporary buyers. On the other hand, the black Figo Sports has gained a white painted roof. However, DRLs are not available in the Sports variant.
It is a bit of a disappointment because as much as the dual-tone body colour, it is an essential feature modern customer will often look for. But, thanks to the availability of aftermarket DRLs, you wouldn’t have to worry too much.
At the side profile, with 3-4 small changes, the Figo Sports has become pretty sporty. First noticeable update comes in the form of a 15-inch Panther Black alloy wheels, which gets 195/55 section tyre delivering a low-profile racing look. Probably due to the new suspension, gap between the car’s body and tyre appears very little.
Both the Figo Sports and the Aspire Sports have been launched with the stock 1.5-litre TDCi diesel and 1.2-litre Ti-VCT petrol engines as the regular model. In the oil-burner, 110 PS of peak power and 215 Nm of massive torque output are churned out and the petrol motor kicks out 88 PS of power and 112 Nm of maximum torque.
Performance wise, the Sports variant is better suited for the 1.5-litre diesel engine and fortunately Ford gave us the 1.5 diesel model to have a spin at. This 1.5-litre motor is so amazing that our readers voted it as the Best Driver’s Car (Budget) at the 2016 GaadiWaadi Awards.
And Ford did not make any change to the engine of the Sports version gracefully. This engine is very punchy and fun to drive, be it on the city roads or on the highway. Even we took this car to Rann of Kutch to drive and it easily reaches the speed of 140 kmph and in competition it offers best 0-100 kmph performance. On the highway, I managed to touch the 175 kmph mark with ease.
The sole reason for which the cost of Figo Sports edition goes up is the new suspension, which has also added 20 kg to the kerb weight and the vehicle’s ride height is now resultantly decreased by 5 mm to remove the uneven bounce and to make the springs stiffer. The improved driving dynamics is mainly due to the new sports suspension that plays a significant role.
On the steering front, Ford has kept the same steering adjustment as in the regular Figo, but it could have been more adaptive for performance oriented drivers. With lesser body roll, more contact patch on road due to wider and taller tyres and the signature driving thrill Ford offers, you will be tempted to pursue after the Figo Sports as much as you wanted to own an old Fiesta 1.6 S.
The most important part for car buyers in India is the maintenance a Ford will incur and it is no more that costly as you would have heard before 5-6 years.
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