4 years of romancing with Raakshas! My beast, Ford Endeavour 3.2L
Well, I managed to bring home the Raakshas around 4 years back and the idea was to bring home a beast of an SUV that can take us places far away, should be fun, should be reliable, shouldn’t be a pain for maintenance and shouldn’t burn a hole on the pocket and I guess the Ford Endeavour met all of these criteria and have performed extremely well over last 4 years.
In this blog I’m capturing and sharing my experiences with my Raakshas and how it’s been over a last few years of ownership. I’ve also covered my experiences will now in earlier posts that your can read here https://www.amitpahuja.com/single-post/ford-endeavour-long-term-review
One of the off-road moments with Raakshas
Anyway, so it’s been 4 good years of ownership of this amazing riding machine that has served me very well till now without much of problems or spending a fortune on it as what was a general perception when I bought it that it’s a high maintenance machine. I can surely say that that’s not true at all and anyone who says that this is high maintenance, either you’ve got a lemon or maybe you were expecting a Maruti. For me it’s been quite affordable till now even though I’ve got new tyres and had to shell out quite a money for replacing the brake pads and rotary. But I guess this is normal wear and tear for a 4 year old vehicle that has gone to extremely challenging places and done off-roading a lot.
The beast has treated me well and I’ve treated it pretty well as well and tried to maintain it in good condition despite of all the torture I’ve taken her through. I’ve truly enjoyed every ride and it truly brings a smile even today when I ride it. In fact even today I find reasons to drive it and specially as we’ve been locked at home because of COVID ever since march 2020. Well no body could expect that we will be locked at home and wouldn’t be able to drive around much but yes that’s what happened last year. I still managed to do a couple of short drives in and around Bangalore and enjoyed the beast. Though I wanted to really take the beast for a very long drive like to North east from Bangalore or Nepal, Bhutan etc. but those are just dreams as of now and are plans that may fulfil once COVID is settled. Till then stay home, stay safe!
Some moments with the beast!
Performance and reliability
Coming to the beast’s performance now, it’s been extremely good and have not faced any big issues yet in last 4 years. Recently after an off-roading trip, I realised that the brakes are making some noise so got it checked and the service advisor recommended to get the brake pads and rotary replaced. i Was doubtful if I need that or not and did some checking but at the end went ahead and got them changed As I didn’t want to take the risk of having bad brakes. This costed me 40k and got discount of some 10% on labour cost. Apart from this, there were no issues with the vehicle.
Other Maintenance spends
Some other maintenance / wear and tear things I had to spend on are Tyres. My tyres got totally blunt and one of the tyre also lost all the rubber and the steel wires actually came out which Was a big risk as the tyres could have blasted hadn’t I ignored them. I noticed that only on a drive when the tyre was loosing air and when I checked, I realised that it’s in bad shape. I slowly went back home and got the new pair of shoes immediately. This time I got BF Goodrich as was recommended by my friend and I must say I’m pretty happy with them. They perform well on road and also off the road. The grip is very good and they don’t make any loud noise as some people complain about them. Maybe it’s the Endy’s noise cackling feature that kills the noise but I’ve driven with windows down as well and they’re pretty quiet. These costed me 21.5k each including installation. I bought them from Sri. Iyengar tyre shop and if you’re looking for a set of tyres, I would highly recommend them for great service.
Getting new tyres for for Raakshas
Some of the other things I replaces free of cost
Sun glass holder. Yes, the unit was causing some problem and was not closing properly from few weeks. I reported this to the ASS and they did nothing for it and returned the vehicle with an assurance that this will be replaced asap. I waited for few weeks and still there was no resolution. I had to them speak to my ASS service advisor and push him to raise a request to change that. He did oblige and ordered a replacement. It took couple of weeks but at the end he did change it without any additional cost. I’m not sure if this was covered under warranty as it wasn’t broken but became loose. But anyway as this was changed FOC, I was happy.
Middle seat Cup holder. The cup holder on the center arm rest broke as I guess the kids used force or somehow one of the part came out and became dis functional. I had to again request the ASS and they replaced that unit as well FOC under warranty I guess.
Wheel nuts. The nuts that Endy came with got damaged or were faulty I would say as I couldn't open them during one of the flat tires instance I had. I complained about this to the ASS and they replace it after a bit of push back and tantrums. When I pushed for it, they agreed that it is a manufacturing defect and replace the nuts FOC.
There were no other issues Beyond these minor ones and till date I’ve been pretty happy with it. The service cost at 40k kms was around 12k that included consumables as well that I think is decent enough for this vehicle. For coping up with manufacturing defects, I renewed my 4-5 year extended warranty as well just in case the vehicle demands any maintenance this year if we get to drive it.. seriously this COVID 😒 has paralysed the travel...
In conclusion, I think I’ve been more than happy till now with the Vehicle, it’s performance on road and off the road, the luxurious ride quality and low Cost of maintenance. The only issue and disappointing with the ownership is the quality of the ASS and the attitude of the staff sometimes but otherwise it’s been a pleasure owning and enjoying this beast!
If anyone is considering buying this vehicle, please go ahead and buy it without thinking much. It checked in all the boxes when it comes to performance, luxury ride quality, cabin quality, maintenance cost, reliability etc. I’m not sure how the 2.2l version drives on highways but I guess it should be ok. Please test drive and see for yourself if that is sufficient power for your kind of usage. Otherwise the overall vehicle is pretty good and very competitive when you compare with any other vehicles in India at the moment.
These are some of the cleaning products I use to maintain my ride and see the effect below
Zip wax by Turtle (https://amzn.to/3etYu6L)
3M Car Shampoo (https://amzn.to/3f4wMwl)
3m adhesive cleaner - I use this often to clean unwanted adhesive or bug marks from the body. It very effective and doesn’t harm the paint (https://www.amazon.in/3M-General-Purpose-Adhesive-Cleaner/dp/B0002NUO6K/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=3m+car+adhesive&qid=1620461271&s=automotive&sr=1-1)
Tyre cleaner (https://amzn.to/2SD6aLx)
3M interior cleaner (https://amzn.to/3f28D9P). The product is very good but from past 2 times the can doesn't work and I had to throw away the whole new can. Its not refundable as well.
McGuire - Leather gel and cleaner (https://amzn.to/2RwnEIW)
My Raakshas after a wash and polishing job
Some more moments with Raakshas
To watch some of the videos of my drives across the nation, please feel free to visit my YouTube channel
