The Hindu Business Line : `Flair' pushes up Ford Ikon sales

THE sub-Rs 5 lakh car from Ford has grabbed nearly 50 per cent of the total share of all petrol variants of the company within a couple of months of its launch.

Sources in Ford told Business Line that the 1.3-litre variant, which includes Flair, the Rs 4.95 lakh car, constitutes nearly 55 per cent of all the petrol variants of Ford Ikons. The petrol version itself constitutes nearly 80 per cent of all the variants of Ford cars.

Sources said since the launch of Flair in July, the total number of Ikons sold in September registered a jump in sales of around 40 per cent to 2020 units compared with the same month last year. Between January and September, 2003, Ford sold a total of 13,151 units of Ikons compared with 12,138 units in the same period a year ago. The company expects to sell around 20,000 Ikons during the entire calendar year and export a similar number of units during the same period. Last year, Ford sold around 15,000 units and exported 28,000 units.

Currently, the market share of Ikon in the C segment is between 18 and 20 per cent thereby maintaining the same share it held last year. The new car was launched to draw customers from both the C segment as well as from the D segment. Sources said Ford has also offered customers extremely good financing option for Ikon Flair. Those who bought a B plus segment car two or three years ago could change over to Ikon Flair with similar EMIs (equated monthly instalments). ``Along with customised financial packages from our associated finance companies, customers are in a position to choose monthly payments plans with EMIs comparable to that of small cars,'' sources said.

Ford Ikon Flair is powered by a 1.3 ROCAM engine and has features like power steering, power windows, central door locking, tachometer and full wheel covers. Flair is the only fully-featured Ikon variant under the Rs 5 lakh category among the Ikon variants. The 1.3 CLXI-Endura is the lowest priced Ikon variant at Rs 4.49 lakh but does not have a ROCAM engine. It is based on the Escort platform, which was Ford's first offering in the Indian market before it was phased out. Among the petrol versions, Ikon has six variants with a price range (all ex-showroom prices) between Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 6.27 lakh. The diesel has two variants, 1.8 NXT priced at Rs 6.58 lakh and 1.8 SXI priced at Rs 7.04 lakh.

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`Flair' pushes up Ford Ikon sales