It all started with my visit to Ford Service centre in Lucknow. While I was waiting for my turn to talk to the service manager, a guy came up to me and asked, is this the top model of ecosport? I said yes. Well, I was happy, and honestly, I have always been on bikes so car talks do not excite me much. However, that guy told me that there is some problem in the tyres of Ecosport top model , 17 inch alloys. The problem was that the tyres burst.
At that time, i just thought that he is delivering gyaan and I should just go about my business and went back to my home. Got the car delivered in the evening, all good. However, I could not let go of the words spoken to me by that guy at the service centre. He came with his Ecosport too, not the top model. He told me that he did not purchased top model because of the 17 inch alloy wheels since the 17 inch alloy wheels have problems.
I started researching online that night and came up with number of news articles and rants by people who have claimed that the tyres have problems with them.
Ford EcoSport Facelift: Tyre bulging issue (R17 size) - Team-BHP
Problem of using 17 Inch Alloys in Ford Ecosport Titanium Plus Model
Ford Ecosport 17-inch Ecopia tyre bulge issue resolved
Ford India replacing all problematic tyres on new EcoSport for free
And there are many other links online which have reported this issue.
However, since I had not faced any problems, I thought, what the heck, reading all this will just put more doubts in my mind. So I stopped my research. The car is used by my wife for her daily office commute so I chose not to tell her about this problem since I did not wanted her to panic or have doubts.
Some days later, I started the car and saw 0 tyre pressure in rear left tyre in the TPMS indicator. First thing that came to my mind was, maybe all those links online were true. I got the tyre changed with spare, and came back and researched more. I decided not to tell wife again.
Can you believe it, one week later, front left tyre bulged and cracked open , just like the previous tyre, exactly as described in the online links that I have read.
Fortunately, both the times, it happened when the car was parked and I discovered it while I was getting the car out of house in morning.
I asked my wife to go to her office by cab and told her about the problem. I then called FORD as well the service centre where I go in Lucknow. Got the tyre mended by 11 strips, drove quite slow and got the service centre manager to look at it. They inspected it and changed the tyres, telling me that since the tyres are under warranty, they will change it.
I asked, what about the remaining three tyres which have not burst yet, but they can in future since the problem lies in the tyres themselves. The service centre manager told me that they will call Ford and that I have nothing to worry about. That's what I wanted to hear. Nothing to worry about. I came back to my home.
But then, I could not let go of the thought what if the tyre burst happens while my wife is en-route her office, plenty of what ifs started coming to my mind. I waited for two days and called Ford Service again and asked them what is the status of my request to change the remaining three tyres. I was told that Ford has denied it and said that they can only change the tyres if there is any damage.
The first thought that came to my mind was to take a knife and rip open all the three tyres. I went for Ecosport because of all the cars that are in that price range, I felt it to be most sturdy and safe. I took the top model to have airbags for everyone. I decided I will talk to Ford myself and sort this thing out.
I emailed Ford, with all the links and even the link of a family who died because of the tyre burst issue.
here is the link
Ford EcoSport Tyre Burst On Nizamabad Highway — Proves Fatal For All Passengers!
I drive so safe that even when I give indicator to change lanes, I make sure that the car's high beam is not on. It makes it difficult for someone coming from front to see the indicator. Yes, I drive with high beams on because no matter how many times I have tried to drive with low beam, I always get blinded by someone coming from opposite direction with low beam. Point is, I try to cover every possible base that can get me into an accident.
Well, I received reply from Ford, here is the screenshot of it.
View attachment 760838
So, Ford told me to drive with confidence.
I then emailed again, telling them that "is this the best you could do? Advise us to drive with confidence?"
I then searched for emails of every ford executive that I could find and emailed them, but got no reply. I mean, I went to Linked in and even put in CC , Ford people from US. Well, seems once I was allowed to drive with confidence, their responsibility was over.
I was feeling helpless, trust me, it felt like I should have been a lawyer and I should pursue cases against Ford. Lots of random thoughts come in mind, how to make Ford acknowledge and change the tyres. I mean they have changed the two tyres before, they can do it for the other three too.
So, I then collected snail mail addresses of every regional Ford Office and made a list. I then lodged a complaint on pgportal.gov.in , jaago graahak jaago and took printouts of everything. Made a thick packet of very email correspondence that I had with Ford, all the news links printed, and the copies of the complaints that I have lodged against Ford.
They were 8 packets in total and I speed posted them using our India Post.
Well, 6 days later, I received a call from Ford Service Centre in Lucknow and was told that they will change all the tyres. I told them that the car is with my wife and she is in her office. I can bring the car on Sunday, but the service people insisted that they are sending someone to pick up the car right away and they will return it at my home. Well, they even offered to pay for the cab fare for my wife since she will have to a take a cab from office to home.
So, yes, got all the tyres changed. received so many calls from Ford Service centre asking for feedback. I received no further communications from FORD, neither calls nor emails.
So, if someone here faces any problems with any car manufacturer, maybe this will help.
Took me around 12 days to get this fixed.
