In a move that could surprise many, Ford India has recently announced that it has stopped taking bookings of selected variants of its compact Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) EcoSport. The company cited increased demand of its newly launched model as the main reason for delaying the bookings. In regard to the matter, a company official was quoted as saying, "We are witnessing an extended waiting period on certain variants and have temporarily stopped taking bookings on a few variants."
According to sources, it is not clear as to which variant the company has stopped taking bookings because the process entirely depends upon dealerships. It is said that while some dealers have stopped taking bookings for the base variant of diesel, others have constrained from booking top-end variants. So, it clearly depends upon on the dealers as to how much cars they have been allotted with.
The latest offering of Ford in the Indian car market has received a good overall response, which is evident from auto maker's decision to stop booking its popular variants. Furthermore, as per the official stats shown by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Ford has sold 8717 units of EcoSport since its launch on June 26 till the month of July. While the figures for July stood at 4715 units. It must be noted that after its launch, the company claimed that its had received 30,000 bookings within the first 17 days after its official launch.
Ford EcoSport is available in petrol and diesel fuel options in India. The 1.5-litre petrol variant of the car is offered in a price range of Rs. 5.59 lakh to Rs. 8.50 lakh. On the other hand the base model of diesel version costs Rs. 1 lakh more starting from a price of Rs. 6.69 lakh, which further goes up till Rs. 8.99 lakh (all prices are ex-showroom Delhi).
In the meanwhile, apart from gaining headlines for good reasons, Ford EcoSport too suffered an early setback in the Indian car market. The car was recently involved in a mass recall with Ford announcing to take back the 972 units of its diesel variant in an effort to correct the issue of Glow-Plug module, a heating device used to start the diesel engine but the issue did not marred the demand of the vehicle and it still continues to lure buyers.
