I am happy to write my fifth review , over my Indica Dicor. I bought this car after owning the Suzuki’s Swift Vdi, for about an year.(i still own it, but my sister is driving it). I was pretty amazed with Indica, Dicor. I was convinced by Indica’s comfortable seats, space and good handling.
I got the car home for 4.16 lacs ( on road, Pondicherry) with extended warranty of 3 years. I feel its worth the price, instead of shelling out additional 1.2 lacs for Swift Vdi.
Spacious and comfortable ( 15mm bigger than traditional indica).
Good handling and harder suspensions.
Travels with comfort on any potholes that are common on Indian roads.
4. It has a 16v , DOHC , power of 70bhp @4000 rpm and 140 Nm @1400~2800 rpm.
*Engine Performance:
*Having driven Swift Vdi for 12000 kms, I still feel that Indica Dicor is no slouch to the Vdi. Despite producing 5 bhp’s less and 50 Nm lesser than Swift, the responsiveness is better than that of Swift’s. In city driving indica feels much faster than Swift. Driving in 3rd and 4th gear gets the job done for most situations. Even on highways , while driving in 5th gear at speeds of over 60 kmph I dont feel much of a difference between swift and Dicor.
But Dicor pulls smartly right from 1200 rpm onwards.Torque curve is more or less flat in dicor and the tall gearing allows for comfortable cruising in highways. There is literally zero ’turbo lag’ in any gear even at the range of 1200 rpm. Variable Geomentry Turbocharger takes the credit for this.
Updated After 2800Kms:
The car feels extremely relaxed and confident when driving at 100Kmph with odometer showing 2400 rpm in 5th gear. The car reaches easily 140 kmph. The punch in 4th gear is amazing. The car pulls from 40 kmph to 80 kmph in no time, as good as swift. Overtaking is easy hence. Couple of days back, I had driven in Golden Quadrilateral Highway , Chennai - Tindivanam and moreover since it was day time the traffic was less and the road was demanding thunderous speed.
Right from tambaram I was having the command on the road. With Dicor cruising at 120 Kmph, Odometer showing 2800 rpm(Engine having a lot of power still to go ) I was taking over all the vehicles. I was literally mocking at petrol powered vehicles including some sedans like City Exi’s.. One of my mocks was with a Innova who was also owning a nearly new car and was trying to race me. I was able to beat him just like that. In the toll gate when we both started, I beat him straight and plain with nearly 50 meters to spare between us. Similar stories continued with Scorpio 2.6, 115 bhp CRde.
Then came the real race. Two cars went past me like a rocket(2 Swift Diesels).I started chasing them. I put the car to 4th gear(from 60 kmph) and accelerated till when speedo indicated 110 kmph . By this time I had come ahead of both the Swifts. When I changed to 5th , both the cars had come parallel to me. Again I stomped the pedal and speedo raised to 120, 130, 140 and none of us wanted to slow down.... The race continued till 1 or 2 kms and all three of us were going parallelly with same acceleration , when there came a pedestrian crossing in a village where we could see a bullock cart crossing the road .Seeing that I slowed down.
What I felt is , a 14 kgm powered Engine of Dicor is able to race with 19kgm powered sWift. This is mainly because of the Variable Geomentry Turbocharger which delivers linear power with a wide rpm range. Even after such a thrilling drive the FE was incredible** 23.14 Kmpl.
Fuel Efficiency**:
I have driven couple of times to Chennai- Pondy ECR and Golden quadrilateral road’s. on Sedate driving (Not over 2000 rpm) I achieved a phenomenol 26.5kmpl on highways without AC. In city 18kmpl with AC on always.
Even when driven hard , with speeds of upto 120 kmph the miserly dicor returned 24.8 Kmpl.
*Dragon Digital Tuning Box:
I got the tuning box for my Dicor from USA. I expect it to increase the power of Dicor to 88 bhp and torque to 17.2 Kgm.It was a ’Dragon Performance UK’ product which sells the box suited for Dicor.It costed me only Rs. 14, 800** ’Viola’, it worked out excellently.
Fitting the box was easy task in 5 min.
Now, its the time to test the performance.
As I started the car i found the engine groaning a bit more powerful, smooth, compared to earlier. I went slowly initially to heat up the engine.
Following are Results:
Low speed response much better.
Much improved torque upto 4500 rpm.
Acceleration in 3rd gear , was better than my Swift .
3rd Gear 4th 5th
40-100kmph
Stock: 12.8 s 17.7s 29.6
With Tuning Box: 11.2s 14.7s 23.8s
50-80 Kmph in 3rd gear:
Stock: 5.6 sec
With TuningBox: 4.6 sec.(Its only 0.2 sec lesser to Getz Crdi).
The 60-100Kmph run in 5th gear was taking 19.1 sec in stock condition which now reduced to 15.8 sec. Acceleration figures was better than Fabia, remember Fabia has 16Kgm of torque and shorter gear ratios. Comparing it , its sure for Dicor to posses atleast 17Kgm of torque in the useful power band.
Even in 5th gear and at 60 Kmph the car felt very powerful and lightfooted. It accelerated as if in 4th gear. Dicor now thunders from 60kmph -- 150 Kmph with great surge, beating everyother sedans and SUV’s on road. I am able to cruise at 130Kmph with ease. Just a stomp with the right foot would do the job.
The Dicor has gained 20% increase in performance, now has 85 bhp in its hood. It’s a wonderful experience to startle other cars like Innova , Scorpio 2.6 CRde etc., After all this thunder driving, I still get an outstanding 23.14 Kmpl FE. When driven cautiously I have obtained upto 26.34kmpl. All FE figures were calculated by tank full - tank full method.**The important factor is that this box is suited for all Tata’s Dicor models , such as Indica , Indigo, Indigo CS, Marina & Safari as well.Go ahead Dicor Owners.. Rock the Road .
I have posted a detailed ’Road Test Result’ in the following link
https://mouthshut.com/review/Tata_Indigo_Dicor-148744-1.html
Comments & Suggestions welcome to ’arvind_k80@yahoo.com’.