When the Indica was launched I was one of the 1.5 lakh people who booked the car and I was disappointed when I did not get an allotment and then went on to buy Santro (read my review on this car elsewhere in this site) and then I almost thanked God I did not get an allotment because the car had such bad reviews.
In 2003 after the Indica V2 (improved) was in the market for over an year and due to the fact that my travelling per day went up to almost 75 kms a day and that Santro was delivering only 12-13 km/l I decided to buy a diesel car.
My income has not increased in proportion to the distance travelled and so I was on the look out for a car in the 4 lakh region that is cheap to run, i.e., that ran on diesel. The only options I had was Uno, Zen D, and Indica V2. Considering the maintenance cost of the diesel cars I was almost settled buying the Zen D, but the space was too small the price was high, but the km/l was high at 18, which favored it.
Then I test drove one Indica V2. I was immediately head over heels for this car. It had decent design, superb cabin space, and it ran 16 kmpl and it was cheaper by around Rs. 30, 000 than Zen D (which money I spent on the accessories like music system, etc). Ever since I brought this car I am a happy man, it has returned me 16 kmpl in the city with a/c always on (now I am fresh as daisy when I reach my clients) maintenance has been only around Rs. 1600 in the whole year including oil change etc, I have clocked about 28, 000 kms in this year and saved around Rs.40000 in fuel cost alone compared to the fuel cost for running the same distance in my earlier Santro, etc, etc.
One of my friend who is a active in rally circuit said he cannot even think about driving the car as it had no zip... now you tell me what is the average speed you can maintain in city now 100 or 40, 40 right, so why need a car that will do 160 kmph where you can do only 40.
So performance (!!!we are discussing diesel, right?) set aside I see no fault in this car, but for some ratles (not much though considering the distance run in the year and the battering it took). So if you are looking for a good value for money, more car per money, etc, etc, go ahead and buy one Indica V2 DLS today.