There are 2 basic problems in this car, which you cannot judge by reading just specifications provided by TATA motors.
Weight
Heating, A/C
Some other problems are
Expensive original spare parts.
ECU is not stable.
Fuel Meter not linear.
Pickup on A/C ON.
Tyre Size
Rear View
Mileage
Rear Door closing.
11.Powersteering Pump location.
- Weight :
A. The weight of the car is more than almost all sedan cars. So you must compomise on Mileage, Pickup, Handling, You always feel load on your body. You cannot drive this car more than 60km/h in city while SANTRO, ALTO can be driven to 100km/h easily. It is all just because of weight. Weight reduces the pick-up so while you need pick-up, this car fails, Weight reduces reliability of braking (sometimes skidding problem, sometimes it takes time to stop the car fully). The power to weight ratio disallow this car to use for Office going people on peak hours.
The weight of the car feels you driving like a bus or truck. though I drive this car @ 160Km/h. but only once to try it. As the speed ups the heart beats up. You feel a load on your body in high speed. & due to heavy weight the breaking is very risky & skiddy. I drove Santro, Driving a Santro is like it is a BACHCHON KA KHEL. ( I am driving cars when I was 11 years.)
The car can go 160Km/h, because of its power but not safe due to unbalanced high weight & small tyres of the car.
You cannot make a U turn at the speed of 50km/h. But all other cars like ALTO - 70km/h took U turn. Wagon R 60km/h. Santro 70km/h. Swift 80km/h. honda city 100km/h. Try this you will find that car shockers & balance are not proper for Zigzag driving.
Heating : Due to bad design of petrol engine & bad design of isolation of cabin. The car gets hot very early as compare with other cars. The cabin isolation is poor, you cannot drive this car without A/C even in October & November.
The Service & spare parts is expensiv than Maruti & Hyundai's original parts. Outside parts will void the warranty. Parts for Diesel Indica is cheap outside. Parts specially made for Xeta are not available in the local market. Hyundai & Maruti original parts is surely cheaper.
TATA voids ur warranty even if U use a K&F air filter.
TATA voids ur warranty if u installed a CNG kit on it. Only dealer can install the kit which is available double the price. In market same kit is available in 36K. Dealer go for not less than 62k for the same kit.
Every manufacturer voids the warranty but Maruti & Hyundai Santro are time tested so u can take risk. The non authorized service stations can service Maruti & Santro & Disel Indica too. But most of mechanic says, even if you install cetral locking outside it gives you a check engine warning.
4.ECU is not stable, manytimes my car gives Check Engine without any problem. As I went to workshop they charged me Rs450/- as my Central locking is from outside. The same cetral locking from Autocop is available @ 2600 in market & same is for Rs.5200/ at dealer. & warned me that if dealer keep record online that you installed central locking from outside, TATA will void the warranty.
Again I got Check Engine. I wait for 2 days. & It went off itself. One mechanic suggested me, if check engine comes, remove battery wire for 4 to 12 hours, if there is no problem. it will got reset.
- Fuel meter is not accurate (not linear), so you must fill the tank full everytime you want to check your mileage. As the petrol prices are high, this is the most imp factor.
The fuel meter is FAST but not accurate. The needle comes to half very slow & after half it goes down very fast.
- Pickup on A/C is very low. Even M800 has better pick-up with A/C on.
The pick-up of xeta remain half with A/C on. The heat resistance of cabin is not effective. actually Indica uses big A/C. so A/C is effective due to it is very big. It is "Jugarh". If you cannot make something, you can make it big to sell off. Like Videocon do.
The A/C of XETA is about 360KG, M800 A/C - 80 Kg
ALTO A/C is 120KG, WAGONR/Zen - 180KG, Santro/i10 - 240KG. City - 380Kg but no effect on pick-up.
Bigger A/C gives fast cooling & low pickup. But design of cooling system & isolation from engine & isolation of cabin, is the biggest factor.
Buying an Indian product is always compromise in comparision with a Japanese system.
Tyre size is small for this kind of heavy & wide body. So more frequently you need to wheel balance & whell alignment.
Rear view is blind, You need to buy right side rear view mirror. For city riding this is unsafest small car.
Mileage - I cannot say anything this time. Read this : HE MILEAGE IS VERY LOW. I FOUND A SECRET SO I AM GETTING THIS MILEAGE. (I KEEP TYRE PRESSURE FRONT TYRES - 35, REAR TYRES - 32) as the cost of petrol is very high then tyre price. But it is also not safe on summers & long run. tyre can brust anytime.
My car gives 9Km/L - full A/C ON, @ 30KM/H everage speed (City).
11KM/l - Non A/C @ 30KM/H average speed (City).
11KM/L - On saturday /sunday - Average speed 50Km/h - A/C ON
16KM/L on highway with A/C OFF
15Km/L on Highway with A/C ON.
11Km/l on Saturday/Sunday means there is no traffic on road. It means it is like running on highway with little curves. & No red light ( I am talking about RING Road of DELHI.)
One of my friend his alto gives a mileage of 16km/l said, you dont know how to drive a car.
We exchanged our car for 10 days. & ALTO gave me 17km/l (100% A/C ON) & Xeta gave him 9Km/l (90% AC ON - On steap slopes, - AC OFF & Switched off the AC at red signal, and put it back on once in 3rd gear)
Rear Door closing: Rear door closing are same as used in TATA trucks. You have to close them with a little more effort.
Poewer Steering pump which cost Rs 11000 is out of body, on any bad designed speed bracker can broke this anytime. So Xeta owners alway go very slow on speed brackers & never tilt on speed bracker.
Other small minus points :
Frontside - Side bumper. TATA says it BROW. is very hard to keep safe in City driving.
The shape looks good in Metallic colors but not safe for city driving. The shape is very sexy but due to Taxi image you cannot say it is stylish.
Only space & beidge interior attracted me. So if you need a little truck with a car go for this.
Or you are an spare part dealer. It is the cheapest Utility car available.
The biggest PROS: this car is the safest as the sheet metal is very hard. I daily check for the belt whether it will work if I meet with an accident. Because the car is very heavy. You must bear the impact of this weight on your body in case of accident. so only belt is the safety feature. NO ABS NO AIR BAGS. Dont forget its weight which is very dangerous while driving fast.
Today Santro on-road is 3.2Lakh & 3, 7Lakh with aproved dealer fitted CNG
kit with extended warranty. ALTO is 2.95Lakh on-road, with immoblizer. Both the cars are better, if you compromise on a little space. If you are not taller than 6’ go for Santro (Electric power steering & Minimum turning radius is 4.2m), if you are not taller than 5’6’’ go for an ALTO.
I mentioned that Xeta is for businessman, who loads som
