Ford Motors has woken up to price rather late, but has offered some interesting deals now. Car manufactures had reduced the prices soon after the budget session in February. But the price reduction was limited to small car segment.

Ford has cut down prices of the popular sedan Ikon by Rs 36,000. The car will be available at a cost of Rs 4.49 lakh under the limited edition offer. The price reduction comes despite announcement of rise in steel prices by 3.5 percent in the last week.

According to sources in Ford India, the move was introduced to take on Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire, Mahindra-Renault Logan, Hyundai Accent and Tata Indigo.

Ford Ikon will continue to offer all the features like power steering, central locking, and power windows at a reduced price. “This is a limited period offer. We want to attract youth through these exciting offers” an officer said.

Ikon has been facing pressure from tough competitions; also sales have been dropping for the last couple of years. The company has discontinued six of the seven variants and is now offering a single variant through its dealer. The currently available variant comes fitted with a 1.3 liter Rocam engine. Ikon was designed specifically for Indian market by the US car major. Ford Ikon was first launched in India in November 1999. The company is also offering premium sedan – Fiesta, crossover Fusion and SUV Endeavour.

The spate of new launches in the last couple of years and aggressive price positioning of new cars by rivals had posed a competition to Ford Ikon. Interestingly, Ikon Flair, launched in 2006, has been chosen by the Indian government to replace HM’s Ambassador as official cars.