Black Panther @ 30K . Review on Tata Indica V2

Got the car by MAarch 2007 - I ve always had a attraction towards the black beauties on the road(obviously cars)

and no wonder I got the black panther - DLG TDI(thats how I refer mine:)) .As of now the car has done about 30k and here are my experiences

Why - finally we wanted a buy a car, we were looking for economical running, Service back up, Easy Maintanence, Spacious, Drivability and finally looks

Economical running - The car gives me a decent 14 - 15 KMPL in city and 17-19 KMPL on highways(100% AC on - I ve never used my power windows except to ask for directions)

Service Back up - secnod largest network in terms of number of service center - well definitely that does not qualify TATA for Quality service( read my worse experience with service in car dealers section - Manipal motors Chennai)

Easy maintenance - Not so easy, one must be ready to shell out lots of money even if u r a close to perfect driver - service center always try minting out money if a person is unaware of the details of the car

Spacious - No competition in its class

Drivability - I ve read many reviews saying the car is not easy to handle, but this is one car which I ve pushed a lot and felt pretty easier to drive

Looks - Not the best( Pretty hot arguments went at home - I was in favour of Swift and I lost the battle) have no regrets about it.

I ll try to be brief about my experiences with the car - Good ones as well as bad ones(Bad ones onl;y happened in the service center)

I had pretty bad idea about the Diesel cars(Remember I wanted to go for swift), its all about Pretty hard pedals, real poor pick up, and high maintanence costs were the ones scaring me,

here I start with the pedals - they are not bad after all, if u have driven SUV, s the pedals will be very smooth for you but dont expect silky smooth pedals with feather touch, then u r in wrong place.

The car has got a pretty decent pick up, not bad after all for a diesel engine, the car which I own delivers about 70BHP, and the turbo boost can be felt once after crossing 1800RPM, Make sure you read the torque curve to

get the maximum out of the vehicle, right shifting will make you feel that the car is not sluggish and its easy to drive in the city.The cars mileage very much depeds upon the way you drive the car - drive within the sweet spot and reap the

maximum benefits .Handling of the car is pretty much good, I can turn at comparitively higher speeds without worrying about car getting toppled, driven in the hills of thirupathi pretty much overtaking all vehicles on site(little bit of understeer)

now I am pretty much about happy about the car in terms of pedals, pick up and drivability.

Now comes the scary ones - Start your car by morning and if u r in half sleep you ll believe you got into a truck by mistake, once the cars engine gets heated up you will find the engine noises going down, little bit of vibrations which one will eventually get used to in

sometime, swith on your music players and you ll barely hear the engine sound and forget about the vibrations. the 14 inch tires are pretty muck ok compared to 13 inch cousins but still feels a bigger can go under it(Tire pressure varies in TDI manual, Dicor manual and TATA website)

so u ve got to be lucky with maintaining a tire pressure) underinfaltion will cause easier wear out and over inflation in suspension damage, so be carefull about the tire pressure.One will never get to see the front of the car while driving so be carefull with your judgements while driving.

The engine consumes power when AC power starts to increase( AC power is inversely proportional to Engine power) .

The service back up for the car is very pathetic. if u start to get to know things one by one you will become a better knowledgable person in cars than the service lads in Authorised service centers(They can give you kwaliti service but never a quality service).And you can very well ask

a service guy to spell quality and bet your life that he will spell it wrong.

The car is good for people who are looking for rugged use and those who take long drives and the usability is more(unless and until u use it more the car is not worth)

Use the car to its maximum then sell it and buy the same car(the car can start taking its toll on your purse after sometime - to figure out when it ll take its toll, its for you to figure it out)

Overall get the car for a good driving experience and a pretty bad service experience.