Now, I am only going to concentrate on Indica V2 Petrol, the LSi model to be specific, cos I have the first hand experience on the same.
What do you look for in a car
Perhaps, this is what you need to make clear before you plunge into the actual act of buying a car. Is it the looks, the performance, the cost , the sales and after sales experience?? Can you do with a below average performance in one of the areas and great in others and still go for one?
As far as Indica V2 LSi is concerned, it has all. Undoubtedly Indica is the best-looking car in its class, forget Palio, Palio looks almost the same (Its supposedly by the same design team) apart from its bulging rear end. Indica has lots of curves and I love curves. But some of the most striking / important features of LSi and Indica V2 in general are :
Its tall, and hence you don’t have to strain yourself to get into and out of the car, unlike Zen
It has got great legroom, so you don’t really feel cramped like other cars,
In the traffic, what matters is to leave the crowd behind, with a 1400CC engine producing 75 horse powers and a maximum torque of 110 Nm @ 3000 rpm it leaves pretty much everything way behind.
4.The interiors are extremely sexy, with dual color dash and white instrument dials, with a clock and internal antenna, internally adjustable rear view mirror.
5.Good safety and security features like Collapsible steering column, Door intrusion beams, child safety locks on rear doors, three seat belts on the rear seat etc etc. No other car gives the same in its class (and comparable model)
6.Other features that come with this model are body color bumpers, rear spoiler with brake light, fabric lined seats, chrome tipped exhaust and of course power steering.
7.The modified Indica V2 comes with a better AC and insulation. More refined gearshift, and suspension.
8.Milage with pretty decent, I have clocked only 2000 KM and the first service is at 5000, currently I get around 9 with AC in City (ie Chennai!!!) and around 11-12 on highway which I feel is pretty reasonable considering its a 75 BHP/1400CC tarmac eating machine.
Price and others
Now how much are you willing to pay for car that has the above mentioned features, yep the Ex-Showroom (Chennai) it cost only Rs. 3.54 Lakh (Rs.354, 000) and probably its the most important factor when you have to decide on buying a car, you look for value for money don’t you???
The sales is pretty decent, the people are friendly at least at the Dealer I went to (Concorde, its a Tata-Jardine Company). There was a minor delay of 4 hours in delivering the car, but I came home a very happy man.
The after sales suck, but only according to some people. I have got terrific experience with the service folks. The called me up at least couple of times asking me how my car was performing and when I took the car to remove a dent, they identified some minor complaints and fixed is free of cost (I had to pay for the dent though :-)). You can go for an extended warranty for 2500 bucks and get 18 months additional warranty, and special treatment when you take your car for servicing.
Conclusion
I want to wind up this review else it will keep on growing. The conclusion is Indica is probably the best car in its class, when you consider all the factors I mentioned in the first Para of my review, its a great car and I think the fact that its Indian, also adds to its charm.
Hope you found this review useful....Please let me know if you feel that I have left out anything important.
Peace
Ranjith