Mad about Sierra!. Review on Tata Sierra

You have to be arrogant, irresponsible or just plain spoilt to buy a Sierra! For 6 point odd Lakhs you can get a very good, fast and comfortable car from atleast half a dozen manufacturers today.

This is a two-door truck that does not even go fast. Long distance cruiser my foot, with a maximum speed of 110 km/h, every car on the highway will over take you. After paying the price of a C class, its value drops by half the day after you buy it! Try refinancing it and every half-wit finance broker will tell you this vehicle has no resale value! Therefore if you want to sell your highly loved & cared for grand possession - you will find no body else wants it!

But one thing I'll say, this car is definitely a male. Everyone has seen the ad of a motorcycle where it is proclaimed to be a 'male', but one has to see the reaction of people and animals from inside a Sierra to know what it is like to drive a 'male' vehicle. On the Indian roads where the laws of the jungle work, driving a Sierra gives you a distant advantage. Expect ofcourse the trucks & transport buses who are the Kings, every other vehicle - especially the unruly taxis & autorickshaws who by nature don't listen to anybody, will immediately give you respect. Not only are the looks of a Sierra very masculine but even the sound of the engine is very male. One only has to look at the behavior of the different animals that one has to cross on our roads to know this. Dogs & cows will at once stop on their tracks when they hear a Sierra. I never use the horn because I believe only amateur nervous drivers of lesser vehicles need horns! The road automatically clears when you move making all that noise at your leisurely pace. The only ones not impressed are the donkeys - but it is anyway very hard to impress them!

But owning a Sierra makes me very different. My delusions of changing the world and forever being young are all fulfilled when I drive a Sierra. My preference to being a loner and staying - and driving - alone are expressed. But ofcourse I am married, so when my wife comes along she is welcome to the other half of the truck - with its own dashboard light. My only child, son, can always climb over his mother to get at the back where he is in his own world - which includes the large empty space at the back. But I have even taken my Labrador on a 600-km journey and he sat at the back the whole day without a whimper. He now thinks that place was designed for him and whenever I open the back he jumps in!

The much-hyped turbo is a plain nuisance. It is supposed to kick in at 2000 rpm but it actually kicks nothing till 3000 rpm. Now having a taco-meter is really a boon because now I drive looking only at that and not at the seed-o-meter. If you change gears accordingly and don't let the engine run at over 1500 rpm you can actually get over 10 km/l in the city itself. You can get a maximum speed of 60 km/h at 1500 rpm on the 5th gear, which is more than enough for city driving. But you try that turbo, at 3000 rpm, and the engine kicks in with a loud racket, black smoke belches out the back and the fuel consumption hits your purse real hard. So what is the use of all that power? Your maximum speed even on an empty runway is anyway only 110 km/h!

So is the Sierra a car for the highway? I don't think so. It does not have the one thing that you need on the highway - speed. I think it's more suited for city driving. a) Being a male, it automatically commands respect on the road, b) 10 km/l is ok in the city, c) it feels very safe inside that heavy steel body and d) the power steering makes it possible for easy maneuvering and parking in crowded lanes (yet I hate to go shopping with my wife!).