Lemme tell you something for starters….. an appetizer of what is about to come. This baby is just about the best thing that comes on 4 wheels this side of the Accent CRDi. Just the day before yesterday, a friend of mine was telling me about another pal of his who recently purchased the Indica V2 Turbo. Essentially, right now, if you have been checking out the rear of this latest Tata babes (Bole to the Tata Cars and not Tata Young ;-), you’d definitely have noticed the con-job the marketing guys at Tata are trying to pull. If you have guessed what I’m about to say, skip the next 4-5 lines.
Yeah, I’m talking about the TDi logo at the rear of the Indica’s and the Indigo’s. Now just for the record, the diesel Indigo always came in with a Turbo-charged engine, thus giving out more torque at lesser rpm as compared to the normal V2 Indica. Since the Indica and the Indigo are more or less created from the same scratch, so to speak, the only difference being a boot in the latter, the engineers at Tata couldn’t obviously install the engine of the Indica in the Indigo as the extra weight of the boot meant that the already not-so-responsive sluggish diesel giant would become even more lethargic. So Tata introduced a Turbo-charged version of the engine and transplanted it into the Indigo.
Commin back to the current point of discussion, Tata has now transplanted that engine of the Indigo into the Indica, and since the power/weight ratio of the car now increases as the weight decreases (minus the boot) and the power increases (turbo-charging), the existing Indica customers could be fooled into thinking that it’s a petrol engine under the hood, but only if, Tata could have further improved the overall refinement of the car, and especially the quality of the gearshifts. The shifts, unfortunately are still stiff and if you plan to drive this car for say about 7-8 hours each day, a small investment in driving gloves wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.
So Tata have now done outdone itself in the wrong sense of the word and have resorted to the sleazy advertising tactics, which were generally only used by Hyundai. Remember the Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDi??, Yeah, right….its the same car that was voted as the best diesel car in the upper mid-size segment. The TDi, there stands for Turbo-Diesel-injection. Tata now has incorporated the same TDi in the Indigo and has jutted it out exactly in the same position in the rear of the car as Skoda had, except for the side. (but more than a year has elapsed since the lauch of the Indigo. So hence, in Bluffmaster’s words I ask Tata “Why here, why now”)
Moreover, even though the basic technology is the same, the abbreviations could have been differentiated with slightly. Example (CRDi - Hyundai, CRDe - Mahindra)…..although in the cases of the above, TDi stands for Turbo Diesel Injection that is a direct injection engine while the examples stated above stand for Common Rail Diesel Injection engines. The difference between the two I’m not going to dwell on in this review, but lets just say the 2 engines are as different as chalk and cheese. (on second thought, I eat both of them on a regular basis, so they cant be thattt different)
Anyways….back to the Turbo Injected Indica, I finally convinced the guy in the showroom that I was pretty enthusiastic and would probably buy the car if convinced of its worth. So the guy all set with the notion of making a sale set out to show me in the interiors of the car in the showroom itself. But me, being me, I stressed and emphasized on a test drive without which I wouldn’t even consider the Indica as I told him I had experienced the original Indica 2000. He knew what I was referring to, and if any of you too have driven a Indica 2000 you’ll know what I’m talking about. Back to the current state of denial, or atleast hesistation, the man finally fished around the the Turbo’s keys and asked me for my driving license. After taking a look at that and noting down its number, he got into the car. He drove it uptill the main road and then asked me to take over. I did. First thing I did was put the car in neutral with the engine off and proceeded to take the gear through all its positions. Especially interested in the 5th overdrive, I had a pre-concieved notion that 5th wouldn’t shift easily as was the case with the Indica 2000 and damn sure, it didn’t. Being careful not to mention it to him, incase the Tata guy robbed me off my test drive, I started the car.
The car started with the trademark Tata Clatter like somebody had let loose ‘flubber’ inside the engine. But still, it was quite…….err….umm….quite than the earlier DLE V1’s.’ So I put the car in 1st, let out the clutch and BANG!!! The car stalls. I look around, say sorry and try again. Another Stall as soon as I anti-depress the clutch. ‘Damn’ I think, the guy must be thinking I’ve never ever driven a car before. Anxious to dispel the notion from his mind, I let the clutch out easily this time……and the car glides forward smoothly….. I mean…..as smoothly as you can expect of a Tata car. That done, the guy sitting besides me quips, ‘Don’t worry, everybody stalls this car…….its turbo-charged and the clutch is heavy-duty’. Yeah…..like I’d grown up driving Maruti 800’s and Reva’s.
I saw the RPM’s moving back and fro while holding the throttle steady, kind of like u see in a 10 year old Jeep with the speedo moving from anywhere between 50-60 at a constant speed. The gearshift as I mentioned above is still notchy and keeping the car in the powerband to gain maximum torque requires a huge working of the hands. Still its not the sleeping giant that the non-turbo one is, its more of like a groggy-half-awake-monster that threatens to catch you unaware if you are not careful. Mind you, its no Skoda TDi, but its catching up……slowly but surely……very slowly I might add.
The interiors are pretty tasteful with a Digital trip meter, a speedo, tacho and engine temperature gauges. However refinement is still an issue with the switches giving out a feel that they will fall off if used for about 2 or 3 months. Turbo-lag in the 3rd and the 4th gear is very evident, or it may just be that the engine runs out of horses at 5500 revolutions. But still compared to the normal Indica’s which do not have the benefit of turbo injection, the car is pretty breezy to drive and exudes a feeling that it can overtake that Aveo in front of you. Mind you, actually overtaking the Aveo is another story, but then it does give you the feeling that it can and that’s what counts.
All in all, I’d give the turbo a 3 and a half out of 5, the only disappointment being in the quality and the levels of refinement which are still the same. No!! I’m not expecting quality of refinements as high as the Skoda Diesels which are in a different price bracket, but you could atleast try to get it close enough to the Scorpio DX or better the Scorpio CRDe or even the Palio 1.9 D……That in my opinion would give all other cars in the same bracket a run for their money……..
All in all, I’d say a great car…..and definitely worth a buy……as at 3.75 lacs you don’t get anything else even remotely close to the indi turbo. And oh, did I mention the 18.5 kmpl mileage………..!!!!!!