Welcome to my thoughts on my new car - Tata Indigo Manza - Aura(ABS) - Quadrajet - Gold Satin.
This is my second car, after Tata Indica V2 - DLS. Though I am generally satisfied with my old car, but wanted to go for a sedan. I did some searching around, and short listed Ford Feista, Fiat Linea, Maruti Swift Dezire and Tata Manza. I did test drive all the cars. Maruti Dezire is a nice car except for space constraints. With my height being 6 ft, I have a natural inclination towards cars where I can just get in comfortably than fall inside. Linea and Feista are good cars with great drive control and power. But the price, which is nearly Rs 1.5 lacs less, and inner space made me go for Tata Indigo Manza.
Somehitng about the design. Walk up to the Manza and the first thing that hits you is that it looks like a proper sedan. The boot is better integrated than in the Indica-Indigo or Swift-Dzire siblings. The Manza does not look like a hatchback on which a boot was stuck on, as an after-thought. The Manza is assembled on the exact same production line as the Linea, at Tata-Fiat’s Ranjangaon facility. There’s a good and a bad side to that.
Within a fortnight I completed 2000 kms. I found the car is a great leap forward for Tata. There are a lot of features, that other reviewers have listed, or one can download from the website, so, I need not list them here. But hows the car?
There is good comfort inside. The plastics are passable. The finish is not up to the mark, with a lot of gapping holes. Surely, Tata could have gone for a more sophisticated finish that would show some class. But as always Tata goes for functionality than aesthetics.
Storage space is good in some areas and average in others. Sure, the main glove box is deep and there’s a storage drawer right under the passenger seat. But there isn’t a center glove box, the door pockets are rather small(7 inches long) and the seat back pockets narrow. No convenient bottle holder on the doors either.
460 liter boot. Wide mouth+ low loading lip for convenience(lower than even the Vista hatch). As someone commented on the other Manza thread, you can fit your in-laws in here. Suspension protrudes at the end. Rear seat back can be folded down for additional cargo space. No 60:40 split though:
Audio system is blaupunkt, and it is good but not great. The instrumentation and control stock at the center of dash board is good for the price.
There insulation is good, as we can hardly feel the diesel engine or hear its murmur. Many times you may doubt whether the car is running or not.
We can easily drive past 120 kms, though I have not touched 140kms still. But there is no speed feel inside. Importantly, the move towards high speeds is smooth. Yes there is a lag in engine response upto 1800 rpm. But if we are able to work around the pedal and gears, then that lag feel is minimised. Surely this is not the car for a zippy take off from traffice lights. But once past 30-40kms, then we can compete on the road. This is gentle car, where you need to slowly accelerate to higher speeds.
I did a 1000 kms drive to test the vehicle and check mileage. My stats say that the car would give around 17-18 km/lt with AC on an average, though within city traffic it may vary depending on the circumstances.
My wish-list:
•Only wish the top end variant had a rear air-con blower.
•I wish Tata has simply called the Manza a “Tata Manza”. Why bring in the Indigo badge here?
I think it is good car as an entry level family sedan. Surely, it is value for money product. Though some reviewers seem to have had some problems with the sales and service station, but at Trichy, Tamilnadu, I bought it at VST motors, and I could not fault him. As I had already owned a Tata vehicle and so I had a running relationship with them, probably, that would have helped.
There are some aspects where in Manza scores and different factors wherein other competitive cars are good. So, if the factors that Manza scores are important to you, Mainly PRICE, then surely Manza would a product that would not disappoint.
The sales too is picking up. Though I started scouting for a car two months back, but were not able to find many Manzas on the road. Now-a-days, we are able to find some good numbers for a new model. The April 2010 figures augurs well for Manza. Tata has sold more than 7000 indigo units, wherein Manza alone contributes 75%. This is a180% jump of same month previous year. Good showing I believe.
My suggestion would be that if your budget is sub 8 lacs for good family sedan, then go for Manza.
A small update: Its more than 3 months of driving the car, and nothing much to really complain about. I have taken some long tours of nearly 500 kms one-side. Though the car is good at highways, where I am able to reach 130-140 km/hr without any loss of confidence, but the feeling in village roads is not very appreciable. Last week I need to go on a 50 km stretch on pot-holed village road, the experience is not one to remember. The car was not able to absorb much of pot-holes and even small uneven-ness in road condition shakes us inside.