Tata Indigo - What you pay is what you get. Review on Tata Indigo - Diesel

I got a Tata Indigo LX TDI from VST Motors in Chennai in March 2006. The car is good to drive/ride, its spacious and comfortable, sound proofing is decent. It can seat 5 large people comfortably and carry their large luggages as well. Its a good people carrier. Having said that it does not have the finish or the quality you can see with other manufactures like Maruti, Hyundai,  Ford etc. The finish is very poor, like the door beadings are not well fit and come off easily. The dashboard is simple and boring with poor plastic finish. The power windows close with a thud. But with all the complains, it is the only car which diesel sedan car in that price segment. And with no competition tata has done a good job in terms of price.

Having said that, we faced few problems like water leaking in through the rear down(during rains). The service is not great(even though the have a customer feedback system which works). There is oil leaking from the engine and we sent it to the service center the engineer dismissed it as water leak from AC. It was funny.

Maintenance costs are reasonable. My friends who use Indica/Indgo, insisted that I take the additional 3 year warranty. They feel that any parts failure will be covered under the warranty and so the maintenance cost will be lesser. So you can understand the extent of the quality of the car.

The benefits are

1. large and fairly comfortable car with diesel option at less than 6 lakhs

   
   




2. room interiors

   
   




3. decent suspensions

   
   




4. Turbo Inter cooled engine has good pickup and is responsive

   
   




5. Brakes are good but I feel it is not best for the speeds which the car can go.

   
   




6. good ride in front and rear.

   
   




7. Pretty good AC.

   
   




8. Nice large boot space.

   
   

On the downside,

1. average finish for a nice car

   
   




2. Mileage is not really great(though dealers can tell you lot of interesting stories)

   
   




3. AC becomes too cold and beyond a point it is not comfortable. I believe Santro's AC is much more comfortable than Indica/Indigo

   
   




4. Takes you from point A to point B, don't expect more.

   
   




5. Service is not the best you get. Especially with the high no. of cars they have to service.

   
   

Conclusion. a good car but not the best car. Since its the only diesel car in its price range you don't have much options, so you can buy it. But don't expect it to be as classy as Ford or Honda. Hence what you pay is what you get!