I started my research for buying a good diesel hatch about 4-5 months back. A little background about my requirement.
Weekly running about ~300kms. Spacious, new, value for money has to be a diesel because of the addictive torque of the turbo cheap to run and relative maintainence costs.
The cars in contention were,
Swift DDiS,
Palio Multijet,
Vista Quadrajet
and the newly launched Ritz Diesel and Grande Punto MJD.
Swift DDis: -
Pros: Excellent car, excellent pick up, great handling, sporty looks, Maruti badge
Cons: cramped interiors, dull black finish, thick A pillar, dash and door trims prone to rattles, long waiting list.
Price as checked in Mumbai : OTR price: 5.83L (VDI non abs model)
Palio Multijet:
pros: Great handling, good stability while high speed cornering, great engine
cons: looks dated with that dashboard, hints of being discontinued, Fiat badge
Price as checked in Mumbai : OTR price 5.45L (palio stile sdx)
Ritz Diesel :
did not like the shape so was rejected outright also the rpm meter addition to the dash was not to my liking, rest all features were similar to the swift with the engine being tuned differently for more linear pick up as opposed to the swift’s wooosh!! turbo pick up.
Price as checked in Mumbai : OTR price 5. 85L (vdi non abs model)
Grande punto:
What a beautiful car, excellent exterior fit and finish, a true italian beauty, the interiors were top class quality with body hugging driver seat and a huge boot. the rear seat looked a little cramped due to long play in the front seats. great highway manners, excellent handling I pushed this car and threw in to corners literally but my son who was sleeping in my wife’s lap did not move an inch such is the quality of this car. But alas the desirable model with abs and ebd was way off my budget. also I found it to be a bit sluggish to start with and the huge turing radius was a bit of worry in crowded city roads.
Price as checked in Mumbai : OTR price 6.50L (for the Multijet Emotion model)
Indica Vista Quadrajet Aura
all this discussions brings us to this car. The TATA’s have come along way I thought when I looked at this car, the styling was a big step. it looked beautiful from the front and side profile, the back was disappointing though, the characterless hatch door reminded me of the Indigo marina.
The interiors had a fresh feel with one of the most spacious cabins in a hatch. the centre console on the dash looked a bit awkard in the begning but I was surprised, that I got used to it so quickly during the test drive.
This model is the fully loaded one with all four power windows, central locking, rear wash wipe, defogger, height adjust driver seat and steering, stereo with four speakers (kinda ok output, nothing great). with unique things like a 12v socket on the right of the rear parcel tray for charging your laptops or watching DVD’s on your dvd player.
The drive itself was good with a linear pick up and an awesome third gear which improves the driveability in the city the range is quite outstanding from 20kmph till about 65kmph. the brakes though felt a bit less equipped for a hatch of this size and weight. so braking needs to be planned well in advance. abs is sorely missed. the quality of the door hatches from inside might have some issues later as they looked very flimsy and of poor quality. the ac is adequate and does not affect the pick up of the car.
With a discount of about 30k INR the on road price of this hatch came to about Rs. 5.25L OTR Mumbai. I have booked the car, (Solar Orange) for its sheer value for money package and the space it provides for the family. This is truely more car per car.
*Update @ 1100 kms
*Been driving this car for almost all days from the day I picked it and has proved to be quite an eyeopener in terms of features TATA has provided in the car.
Every day has been a new discovery (read that, BALAJI MOTORS, did not give any demo on the features of this car while delivery or when I test drove it, they only answered my questions and that too not very convincingly... why I am writing this here in the car’s review is because a great product if not sold properly can spell doom for that product. WAKE UP TATA TRAIN UR GUYS).
Discovery 1. The rear wiper automatically starts if the front wiper is on and the gear is shifted to reverse. (very thoughtful I must say).
Discovery 2. Learnt many features of the music player fantastic package by tata. It is a clarion product with additional pre outs for speakers/ ampli and woofer if added in future. (this type of Original Equipment is a rare scene in cars of this price range).
Discovery 3. It has engine immobiliser built in ( cant think of any car at this price range having this feature factory fitted, & why dont TATA advertise it????). and the child lock feature is a great boon!!!
About Running: The car has been a dream to drive in the city as well as on highways. been to one long drive to Malshej Ghat (outskirts on Mumbai) about 250kms round trip. The 3rd gear is really great on the twists & ghat sections its as if you are driving an automatic. The city drive has been flawless too. The engine is a bit loud in the morning but it settles to low hummm after a few kms. The car will be going in for its first service tomorrow. Some small problems to report.
Squeaking noise from the clutch
Something is scraping the front wheels while reversing in left.
Some unidentified noise coming from the back of the rear seat... needs to be investigated.
No other problem found.
I will keep you all updated for the after service drive.
*First Service done:
*1. The clutch is silent now with a little bit of grease on the lever
Problem still persists. The service station said if it increases then report back.
The noise was identified as the internal top mounted back stop light, it was loose, now fixed.
Total cost of service: ZERO :)
The car has been filled with ordinary diesel till date and has been returning a fuel economy of 17kmpl with 100% ac and mix of 70% city and 30% highway runs. The service guys said it would go up after service.