Xeta!! Go buy It!!. Review on Tata Indica V2 Xeta

We (my girlfriend and I) bought our first car, the XETA 1.2GLS from Concorde in Hyderabad mid December 2007. We started out by going to Maruti dealers looking specifically at the ALTO. We liked it and forwarded an SBI loan application - - for a lakh rupees - to RKS Motors Hyderabad. We were all set to pay the margin money for a Silky Silver ALTO LXi when the Dumb, Dumb, Dumb... ad was broadcast and my TATA instincts went up. I can call them the TATA instincts because I have been following the company and it’s Chief Ratan Tata since class 10. I come from a not so well to do family and could clear my class 10 and 12 examinations easily only because of Tata McGraw Hill's question bank series. I came to Hyderabad in 2006 and am now employed with a software biggie at Hitech City.

For the record, the Indica was what I always wanted to buy since I (rather we), have traveled almost thirty kilometers, 22 days a month in Tata's diesel Indicas for the last three years. The drivers had told me all about the Indica - its mileage, reliability, strength, crash safety etc and the ride quality was something I loved. I had sat in my colleagues Santros, 800s and Wagon Rs etc enough to know that the Indica's ride quality was unmatched even with all five seats occupied. It was the cost of the car as told to me by the drivers that never really made me think of it as my first car. With the Dumb, Dumb, Dumb... ad that day and in the light of all my ALTO showroom visits I suddenly realized that the Indica was well within my budget and that that the drivers were always talking about the price of Diesel cars.

I immediately persuaded my girlfriend to make one last minute check and have a look at the XETA. Here, I must tell you that she was no TATA fan and was actually quite predisposed towards the ALTO as that is what her manager had. She agreed on the condition that we would visit the Chevrolet Spark showroom too. I was alright with that and we went to see the Spark. The Spark was a cute little car that is quite nicely designed and all but can’t be called a 5-seater. There was no leg room whatsoever at the rear and GM wanted more money for everything that you liked and could want including the color.

It didn't impress any of us and we made our way to Malik Motors(TATA). We went inside and found the showroom quite empty and the minimal staff there busy with themselves. But the turning point was the Ochre XETA parked in the middle of the showroom with the price list right behind it. It was GORGEOUS and looked like a big car that could pick the ALTO and the 800 up and break either one of them into two. We loved it but not the dealership where the only information we got was about the year-closing-30-thousand-rupee discount.  What we particularly liked about TATA MOTORS that day was that it did not come across as a greedy company. The car had:

a far more beautiful design

a much larger body

a much bigger engine(400cc) f

ar better boot space

rear spoiler

boot lamp

tachometer

two trip meters

body colored bumpers

beige interiors

brighter interior lights

sturdier structure and paintwork

parking lamps etc.  AT NO EXTRA COST (in fact, the ALTO LXi was costlier)

The first thing we did was find out the addresses of all TATA Dealers from Just Dial and reached Concorde. Things were absolutely different here and we were greeted by a very customer savvy salesperson who explained every feature of the car very elaborately and let us speak to two ‘satisfied’ XETA customers. I am no fool and could make it out that one of them wasn't very happy with the mileage and the other one had driven the car only around 2000Km but something told me that my experience with the car would be way different.

Also, what had changed by the time the Test Ride ended was that my girlfriend had fallen in love with the Salsa Red 1.2 GLS Xeta and could see that the Alto was no match for it. She is not a very 'tech-spech’ person but her instincts are NEVER wrong. Four days later we took delivery of the vehicle.

It is a 3M paint protected beautiful car and turns heads wherever we take it. We have done around 14, 000Km in the car. I still (even after the fuel price hike) put petrol (Xtra Premium) for 200 rupees every time and set the trip meter to zero. The car has NEVER given me less than 70km for it. I have mastered the 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 gear speed thingie and switch off the engine at every red light. I do not race with anyone, stay cool and not get affected by other drivers' road rage or impatience. I drive it as if I were out to impress my beautiful girlfriend's level-headed, intelligent and ‘play –safe’ side.

I kept it below 80kmph the first thousand kilometers and did everything exactly as the service book said, which by the way, I have read cover to cover several times over.

Our Indica XETA is, I swear, a great possession! Also, it was a little peculiar to see only Indicas (mainly diesel though) on our trip to Vizag from Hyderabad on which the car gave an astounding 23.64KMPL!! 

Thanks a lot for all the Indica reviews you guys post. I read a lot of them – both good and bad – before I paid the margin money. (A particularly hilarious one is the one in which a scientist tells about his car which was ‘bad’, driven by ‘bad’ driver who put ‘bad’ diesel in it - all of it, in really bad English.) Thanks a lot also for so patiently reading mine.

PS; The car gives the best mileage when you either put in small amounts of fuel (200-300 rupees) or fill up the tank and use it at one go. I think it has got something to do with the shape of the fuel tank and Marsh's Law regarding evaporation of liquids.