Prelude: I’m writing a detailed review, and presenting it to you in multiple parts
XETA 1.2L GVS... A good Deal Indeed! (PART 1) - The details below
XETA 1.2L GVS... A good Deal Indeed! (PART 2) (PART 3 etc., )
THIS IS FIRST PART. The PARTS 2, 3 etc are along with the comments
I purchased this car from Concorde Motors Bangalore, in Jan 2007. I call her Akhila II (pronounced as Akhila the Second). I’ve driven this car in BangaloreCity and taken it for long drives for the past 1 year. Let’s get started...
Rationale behind choice: I wanted a tallboy (not a hatchback), B-Segment (2 box model), with above decent power and most important a fit on my budget.
Mileage: The Car gives a steady mileage between 11.5 to 12.5 kmpl. I’ve done enough experiments with mileage part. If you want to know the details of the experiments, I’ll provide if readers of this message specifically asked for. On maintaining RPM at 2000 and doing a soft mode driving without much A/C on, in the city, the best mileage I get is slightly above 12.5. Instead, on ripping the car on City roads, (effectively, revving from Signals, taking RPM to 3500 to 4000, heavier usage of A/C, harsh braking, etc - all causing a lot of power wasteage) I still got a 11.5. On the other hand, on taking Akhila II on a long drive, I got a whooping 17 to 18 kmpl. I’ve used only Shell Super Petrol for the car.
Performance / Power: The car delivers decent power, and you can look at zipping through traffic lights, under one condition - A/C is OFF! Yes, the performance considerably goes down with A/C on. The A/C anyhow, works quite fast. Typical scenario: On a hot sunny day, you take this car out of garage and switch on the A/C. The kit performs quite fast, and takes less than 10 min to cool the cabin. But during this time, the performance goes through the drain. Once the cabin cools and you reduce the fan speed, the car gains back performance, but still not in full. There is an in-built logic by which, once you switch on the A/C, the RPM slightly goes up. Good in many cases, but sometimes a nuisance, especially when you rev up the car from halt, as the RPM goes too high. This makes a lot of noise and wastes power too. To tell the truth, I’ve taken this car up to 140kmph, which it touched in 4000RPM. My gut feel is, it is neither safe nor healthy (for the car) to take it above this speed.
Braking: Braking is quite good. The front Discs are really good, and like all other old styled cars, pumping the brake is better than constantly applying. I’m a gear mode driver. What I mean is this: While slowing down, instead of pressing clutch and applying heavy brakes, I leave the car on a lower gear and slightly apply brakes. If you are my kind of driver, then braking is up to the mark. You must understand that the car is heavier and applying brakes on a heavier car has a relatively heavy impact on the braking assembly
Pricing: This is one thing I like. The on-road price of the car came to around 3 Lacs. I took a 2 lacs loan from ICICI, at 9% for 3 years. The EMI works out to around 6500 per month. Works fine on my pocket. You must note that the car is a 1.2L car, and I was able to get this 35000 cash discount that Tata Motors provided.
Body / Build: This is an important area. The car is too sturdy! I happened to have a minor accident, where a speeding biker lost control and happened to hit the rear of my car. It did damage the fibre bumpers... but not a dent on the metal. This one is heavy – really heavy and metallic. All said and done, there is a problem. The fitments of the doors are not at all up to the standards. You can see visible gaps between rear door and the C-Beam, whereas the fitment of front door to A-Beam is far, far better. The B-Beam / Beam is quite big and the gaps are also quite visible there. The car also developed a door problem, where the rubber beading gave way and was hindering proper closure of door. This was fixed on the second service. Generally, you’d have to slam the doors a bit harder than any other car! Overall, the body is sturdy but not smooth.
To Be Continued in "XETA 1.2L GVS... A good Deal Indeed! (PART 2)"