True value Car - Indica. Review on Tata Indica V2

Mileage ........ The saving Grace !

Tata Indica DLS is about mileage and economy. She gives 14 to 14.5 kmpl in city consistently and most of the time in AC. In and around Andheri (E) Pump house and chakala area, which is one of the more crowded area of Mumbai and mostly in AC. On highway I have got as high as 21.7kmpl.

In dec 2006 on a trip to lonavla & back , we did get 179.6 km in 6.67 lit. of normal diesel (HP filled at Deonar ) Thats a whopping 26.92 km/lit running at 100 km /hr on AC.Thats the best effeciency I have recorded as yet. In city the best I have got on AC is 15.39 km/lt.

One and half year has gone by since after a lot of deliberation I purchased INDICA V2 DLS knowing well in advance the shortcomings of this vehicle.

The pros outweighed the cons then and they still Do. I have done about 24500 kms on it. She got drowned in the 26 july deluge in mumbai but survived.

Suspension:

The suspension after almost 2.5 yrs is holding ok. The use of poor quality plastics is more so evident with age inspite of the care taken. The door trims rattle a little and so does the glove box hatch and the cluster hood. The rear seats were never the best for this segment of car but in INDICA the suspension in the rear is still quite good second to only Palio and now Swift. Its far better in both strength and softness to Wagon R & Santro and is surely better that Getz.

PICKUP & POWER :

She is quite sluggish in AC on high gears thought the AC performance is good on its own. Requisite changing of diesel filter and air filter improves the pickup quite drastically. These parts are cheap and can be easily changed more often than suggested by the company to enhance the performance. Also I personally feel the oil GTX Castrol recommended by Telco is no good. And putting in a blended oil like Valvoline 15/40 or Mobil 15/40increases the performance , mileage and the sound and smoothness of the engine. They told me to put in a pure synthetic oil but as of now I have used only the synthetic blends and am quite happy for it. Next year i’ll use a pure synthetic and shall keep you updated about the performance.

Once the car is in the range of in excess of 1500 rpm , she is quite responsive and shall keep running all day in the overdrive. Correct gear shifting is necessary to get the performance out of this 1.4lit mustang. ( Remember HIDLAGO ....? ) A race horse she never was but she is tireless and feels very good on highway and on clear city roads.

Maintainance :

Apart from the replacement of few electromechanical parts during the deluge , I have not spent anything apart from the oil and filters etc And door glass winders needed replacement. One fine day one coconut fell on my front windshield and smashed it. That needed replacement.

She had developed a condition a few months back ,in which after a long drive when the engine is hot. If for some reason you stop at a signal and while starting from idling , engine dies on you..... then the vehicle just refuses to start.... there is a feeble cranking noise but engine does not catch on. I got the battery and alternator set checked at amron pit stop and no issues then. The starter was replaced during the deluge which means its new. And since this happened only while the engine is hot was strange..

This finally turned out to be the problem inherent with that model of exide batteries ( shipped with the Car ) which after becoming hot there was a drop in cranking power. I have since then changed to AMRON and this problem is vanished. ( what a relief ... :) ) I wish Tata should ship it with an Amron battery instead of the Exide.

Please do not use the castrol oil that is recommended by Telco . I think its no good spend couple of hundred more to buy MOBIL 15/40OR 10/40 Instead. Since I started using this the car engine performance and fuel effeciency is markedly improved.

COMFORT :

Its one of the most spacious cabins ;even better than some next segment cars and far better than its competitors. legroom is great for tall men like me. And there is good leg clearance behind me as I push back the seats quite some. The seat lower back support and the ergonomy seems great for tall drivers. But there is a lack of support for lower thigh for the drivers. This means that if you are driving for in excess of 300 km at a stretch , you may feel pressure on your knees while using pedals. The driver seat can be modified to have a longer seat base for taller drivers I feel. Apart from this thing the ergonomy of seats is lovely . And you dont need to stretch your back , neck etc. very good lower back support.

STURDINESS :

On 20 th July ’06 , a Mahindra pickup vehicle banged into my car from behind. My heart broke at the thought of my beloved car being smashed in the rear. I got down with leaden legs walked back and I could not see anything. ....... Justa minor crack ( 4" vertical )in the bumper and a hanging mud flap..... nothing else. The camper bumper was bent backwards by about 7" the impact ...... And I actually got away with just a bumper tear and a midly sprained neck.

These things kind of strengthened my belief in the worthiness and sturdiness of my car.

Experience ( after 2 years ) & economy :

As I said in the beginning , the mileage results in a lot of savings and kind of allows one to forgive the Telco engineers for all sorts of lack of refinement.

The average is probly the best in the market and that coupled with the subsidies on diesel in this pseudo socialist country of ours means good amount of savings.

Indica engine is quite refined as compared to diesel vehicles that used to rattle , hiss and vibrate away to glory. Its extremely silent inside the cabin and vibration is quite minimal . infact much lesser than that of Toyota Innova which happens to be a far superior engineered vehicle.

Besides good quality spares are available cheap. My front windshield cost me Rs3500/- against say Rs.7500/- of that of Santro. This effectively means lot of savings and economy.

Regrets :

In todays world when global boundaries are melting and indian companies are looking for foreign shore for their wares, basic design flaws is something thats just not done.

It would have been great if Telco would after fit Turbo boosters at nominal cost for people like us ( bs2 owners ) and also improve the quality of plastic used inside.

The authorized service stations also need to have strict TELCO supervision.They had actually used low quality cheap fuses in my fuse box after the deluge of 2005. I personally procured original good fuses and replaced some of the duplicate ones.

If I had not checked myself this problem would hav gone un noticed till some mishap.