Before I bought a Santro, I had an Indica for 4 years. We had bought the car just after it was introduced in the market after a huge hype. When the car finally arrived, we were very excited by the car, as it was a totally Indian car and no one around had it then. In fact in our city only 6-7 cars were allotted.
Because this was the first production cycle of Indica, it had a lot of bugs. The suspension was not great, the pickup was sluggish and a few others. But the car was great for a first attempt to make a totally Indian car. The best point about the car was its comfort. It was easily the most spacious and comfortable small car around. It also has a great mileage. (Once I had gone to Varanasi, it had given me a mileage of 20.5 with AC on half the time, that too on Diesel!!)
The car however was not the best one to drive. The pickup was terrible and with AC on it was impossible to accelerate nicely. It was a real pain when I had to overtake a truck or bus, the car would be so sluggish that sometimes I had to switch off the AC and then overtake.
My city has very crowded streets and it was only during the nights that I managed to reach the fourth gear. (This version of Indica had only 4 gears). The car was very irritating to drive during the rush hours because of it s low pickup. The noise was also a problem. The noise levels were definitely higher than other petrol cars and also the car vibrated a lot more than the petrol cars, but I guess that?s a diesel thing.
But if one has the luxury of keeping a driver, I suppose there is no better small car. For a while, my father was out of station and I had a driver at my disposal. It was really comfortable to sit on the rear seat, with loads of legroom. The car also gave a smooth ride i.e. the ride was not bumpy and the speed breakers and potholes were handled nicely without shaking up the entire contents of the car. It was also a very heavy vehicle with a very low centre of gravity. This gave the car a feel of solidarity and better grip on the road. The handling of the vehicle on the highways was very good and predictable. The brakes did not skid. It did not have a power steering then (Tata has since then introduced power steering), but the steering was easy to handle.
The mileage is the USP of Indica. It is the best car if one drives approximately more than 1700 KM per month or more than 70 km per day. In that case the slightly higher price of the car is made up by the lower fuel cost and lesser consumption.
I sold the car because we have at our home a policy to sell a car after 4 years of buying it. I did not buy a new Indica because the traffic here has grown so much that it became a pain to drive it.
It seems that Indica keeps on improving with each new version that comes out. I drove a new Indica recently and was pleasantly surprised. The pickup, though still sluggish is a lot better than what it was earlier. The finish of the interiors was greatly improved. The number of gears has been raised to the standard five, and euro 2 emission norms have been implemented. The grill also looks good now.
It seems that the car is being exported to Britain now. This has forced the Tata guys to look more into the details and make a much refined car. The results are apparent too. The Indigo and the Marina are a lot better finished and refined.
Overall, a good buy for anyone who drives a lot. Not very good where a lot of overtaking has to be done on low speeds. Very comfortable. Looks Decent.