Man! Of all the cars I’ve ever test-driven during my time with Indian Auto, the Ikon has to be close to being the BEST (if not THE best...) handling car ever. Colin McRae, here I come! Throw it around on curves and bends AS hard as you dare, and the Ikon doesn’t break sweat - it simply takes everything, and asks for MORE! If you’ve got the bottle, it’ll do EVERYTHING you ask of it. Slide it around corners, get it sideways, pull handbrake turns, smoke the tyres - the Ikon does it all. The 1.6 SXi is the one to go for - looks cool, and check out those alloys, will you? They do need to be slightly bigger though. 14-inchers will do very nicely, thank you.
The chassis/suspension combo is BRILLIANT, there is no other word for it. The 1.6 engine, though, is not as free-revving as some of the competition. Still, the 90-odd horses it puts out are enough to push the Ikon to about 180-ish, so that’s not so bad. Still, in this chassis/suspension package, you wish you had something like the City VTEC engine under the bonnet. That said, the ROCAM 1.6 Ikon unit takes you beyond a speedo-indicated 185 km/hr. The brakes though, are barely average. Try fancy braking stuff - especially in the wet - and they catch you out... :-(
Finally, a very nice, entertaining car, I’d say. DON’T buy the 1.3 though. VERY sluggish, underpowered. The 1.8 diesel also doesn’t cut the mustard. Dullsville.
The Ikon 1.6 SXi is the one to go for :-D