Jul 06, 2004 09:49 AM
4921 Views
(Updated Apr 03, 2006 09:21 AM)
To decide on a Tata Indigo LX... I had the following choices ... Ford Ikon Flair, Esteem, Fiat Palio 1.2, Opel Sail, Zen, Alto.
I straightaway dropped all the Maruti cars ... because They were too light weight and did not give me a smooth drive, I did not find them to have good road grip, interiors were too cheap.
Opel sail I had to drop just because of Mileage. Also the shock absorbers were not as impressive as the ones in indigo. Surprisingly, the car was very noisy for a petrol engine, maybe a problem with the test drive car. But this is a cool car ... its got very good road grip, it can touch 120's very easily. If I did not care about the mileage, I would have picked up this car.
Fiat palio .. Dropped because of mileage, no clear future of Fiat Corporation. The pick up of this car was not any good compared to Sail. With AC this car does struggle a bit. The car interiors are good, car has a very silent engine, and heavy vehicle for a sturdy drive ... and there ends the good part.
Esteem ... its out dated model, but I have a lot of respect for this car.
Ford Ikon, I should appreciate the sales dept of this car. Reason for dropping this car is .. There is absolutely no space within car to dump things. Generally I like a lot of space within car to dump mobile, newspapers, sunglass,etc ... There is just one glove box, which looks like a trash can. Also the Mileage is another factor to drop this.
Points I had to compromise with Indigo ...
Being a Diesel engine, pick up is little less and frequent gearshifts are needed. But quickly you would learn how to get the max out of this car (U can get output equal to a petrol car). Once the engine is hot ... the car is really a hot babe ... On highways.... there this a cool car to drive. I have touched 140 on this car and it was still very stable. This car can do more.
I just find this point sick.... I have to wait for 20 seconds before I move the car after starting it or wait for 20 seconds before shutting off the engine!! This is because of the turbo charger :((
Quality of the car is not very good ... every time I give the car to service ... there are at least 5 complaints on the car ... Ex. The Odometer needle is not stable, Diesel smell within car sometimes, Driver seat belt is loose ... probably the spring has lost the tension etc. But for a given period of 10,000 Km and 2 regular service ... I had to make one extra visit to the dealer. This visit was just for my satisfaction.
Gear shift is not smooth ... but I hardly bother about it. But reverse gear does not engage easily sometimes ... I have to put it to first gear and then put it to reverse. That?s a little funny.
With AC ? the pick drops a little ? but is acceptable for a car of this Segment. The perfomance with AC is still good or comparable to other cars. The AC is quite powerful too.
The interior of the car is little noisy (but better than Indica). This is because of the diesel engine and the sound proofing is not upto mark. I usually keep the music system on ? so this does not bother me much.
Ok ... so why Indigo ?
Good Mileage, on a diesel version I get about 14-15 within City and about 17 on Highway. With AC ... can subtract 1km.
Heavy car, Superior shock absorbers compared to all the above cars.
Excellent road grip, I would rate this car the 2nd best. The 1st would be Sail.
Very spacious interiors, huge boot. Quality of interiors is also pretty decent
Lots of added small features like rear reading lamps, boot light switch etc.
Very good Acoustics. I have installed an Alpine 9813 System, and it sounds great.
- Very comfotable within car ... seats are also of good quality.
Umm ... looks like Indigo has a lot of bad points ?? NO ... this is what U get in a car of this segment, if I were to list down such problems of other cars I evaluated .... I would have listed down more.
Its a value for money car.
