Diesel prices are rising. Dont buy Indica Diesel . Review on Tata Indica V2

The decision to buy a car was not an easy one as the cars in India are still exorbitantly costly. Hopefully, with growing demand and competition, the prices will come down.

I settled for Indica diesel DLS version only for one reason – diesel. I figured that if I am clocking 15000 KMs per year, saving on fuel would be ~30000Rs per year. As I like to travel around a lot, this was a good enough motivation.

I am happy with the car as the fuel economy has turned out to be better than what I could imagine. On highways (where I am mostly found, when I am not in the office) I get around 22 kmpl. The car is very comfortable and spacious, so much so that it is a second home to me and my family. I like the driver’s seat, which compared to Santo and Maruti, is much more comfortable in terms of the thigh support.

On the flip side, there are so many things. I am not at all happy with the lower back and neck support. I don’t know about other cars, but this car is just terrible in this area. Most of the times, I have to sit with a pillow on my back. The other thing is power and engine noise. At ~53PS, the engine is horribly underpowered. You may not need power while cruising at 80 or while driving at 25kmph in the city traffic, but every time you want to overtake a vehicle and every time you start at a green signal, you are painfully reminded of the handicap. Over and above the sluggishness of the car, you are really frustrated by the engine noise at low RPMs. Surprisingly, the noise becomes bearable once you reach 3rd gear or around 50 kmph.

AC/Fan is again very noisy. Many times I switch on AC just to get rid of the engine noise. So at least you get to select, which noise you prefer. Huh. AC is not at all powerful. Try parking the vehicle in sunlight for an hour and then switching AC while driving. You would suffocate before the AC begins to have any effect. I am seriously thinking of investing in some good quality window films.

Overall, the only plus point of the car is its cheap running cost and remember there are two factors to be considered here: 1. If you drive only 500 KMs per months, the gains are insignificant. At present fuel costs, it gives savings only if you clock more than 1500 KMs per month. 2. The difference between the diesel and petrol prices is coming down. May be 2 years down the line, diesel will be costlier than petrol. I have heard that in Europe, 50% of the cars sold are diesel. This is possible because of much more advanced diesel technology. Our own Skoda Octavia and M&M Scorpiois offer brilliant examples.

I would recommend Tatas to come up with a better engine otherwise their indica glory will be a thing of past. And please, bring down the cost of the car. Swift is 100 times better than Indica and still reasonably priced. Tatas have already sold half a million vehicles. I don’t understand what stops them from reducing the price. When their petrol version was not selling, the were selling it for 2.95 Lakhs (Delhi) but just because Diesel was/is selling, they are looting customers!