For most of us, buying First Car is one of the most toughest and exciting thing to do, I also come in the same category, so starting August 2009, I started my search for a perfect car which would meet my needs.
Price Range: 4.5 - 5.5 Lacs
Low Running Cost - since I had some regular long drives in future, which certainly meant Diesel.
Sedan - Sedan it had always been, I waited some extra time, not to buy a small car, after all.
Assured After Sales and Service Support.
Some basic but additional features, which are not provide in cars at this price range, like Power Staring/Windows/Central Locking/Fog Lamps/AC with Heater+
So I had the following options in my mind.
Tata Indigo CS
Maruti Swift Dezire(I had the CSD option, hence it came just inside my budget.)
Maruti Swift - not a Sedan but still met most of my rest of the needs.
Fiat Punto - again for the same reason as above.
Maruti Ritz -same as above.
Too Bad the Hyundai/Chevrolet/Honda did not any cars in this competition.
Since I was living in NCR, so the idea of buying a Petrol Sedan and converting to CNG did crossed my ming, but believe me, its not very good idea to choke a new Petrol with CNG kit, I’m not against CNG, infact still liked the the idea of CNG as clean fuel, but something I didn’t wanted to try with my first Car, moreover as I mentioned that I had plans for long drives, and CNG might not be available everywhere, and I will end up using Petrol, failing the overall purpose.
So I was left with just the Maruti and Tata
In November I had to make a purchase decision, but unfortunately when I checked with Maruti, then both Maruti Swift and Swift Dezire had around 4-6 months of waiting. So the end result was even though, the Maruti Cars were costly, and even though most of people recommended them to me, I still couldn’t opt for Maruti Swift Dezire, because of their sick plans of keeping unnecessary waiting time of freakin 6 months.(Wake up Maruti, the Dealors are suckin upto 20-30000 from customers if they need your cars without waiting).
I did checked out Maruti Ritz, somehow didn’t appealed much to me personally, it had a bumped in hatch back, would have been better if it would have been bumped out:).
Fiat Punto was an also nice, and it offered interesting options, unfortunately at that time Fiat had just started its journey, and not much reviews were out there(I’m talking about November 2009). We all know by know that Fiat has brought back much of its reliability and faith by the Punto and Linea cars.
So at last we I came back to good old and reliable Tata’s, and they had Indigo CS, to offer me. I consulted ABS Motors Gurgaon branch, and I must say that I was impressed with the customer handling, moreover I had planned the booking near Diwali, so they had a bunch of offers.
Here’s what they offered me:
Model:
Indigo CS LX TDI
Total Cost: 4, 85, 000(On Road)
Loyalty Discount : 5000(long story, but somehow managed to pull this one:)
Corporate Discount : 5000
Insurance(1st Year) : 11500(Free to Customer)
So the Net Cost for me for the Top Model(LX) was roughly 4.75Lac, which landed very sweetly where I wanting it to be.
We choose the Arctic Silver Color, for many reasons, firstly it gives really classic executive looks, Gurgaon is one of the most dusty cities, and believe me on Silver color dust is least visible, this is realized infact after purchasing the car.
In the end I got a Car which had all the 4 features I mentioned.
So now its roughly more than 1.5 years, and I can summarize the overall experience with this car:
- Mileage: My pocket is most happy in this segment, although documents do say around 22.5KMPL, which we know is theoretical, but guys believe me I have been getting 18-20KMPL on highways, and 15-18 KMPL in city, which means I don’t have to think twice before taking out the car, and that’s the best part, after why did you payed so much amount if you have to shabby all the time when you need drive the damn vehicle.
Here’s an example: The most frequent Trip is from Gurgaon to Chandigarh, I checked all the figures in our last trip, a complete round trip is roughly 600KMs end to end.
At did the calculations the traditional way of topping up the tank an at 40 Rs/Liter Diesel, the whole trip cost’d around 1300/-
- Service Support: Ok I agree the all Tata’s Service Stations are not really one of the best ones, but you have to find a good one, and I did found one, ABS Motors’s Service Station is one of them, and everytime I carried my vehicle here, they made sure to check all the things I was concerned of.
I did had some not-so-good experiences with some other Tata Service Stations, but as I said, like different people, there are different Service Stations, you need to find a good one.
There’s hardly 500-600 Rs more as compared to Petrol Service.
- Good Looks: Well I know Tata cars haven’t been that good looking, somehow Silver color does suits the Indigo CS, and gives nice overall finish.
Check out the attached Photographs, I really woo my Car. The first pic is the one when it was newly bought and brought to the Car Decorator shop.
The Second pic is the one, when its all Brided up.
- Good Combination of Features: I have found most of the additional features I have been looking for, like Power Staring, All Power Windows, Rear Defogger, AC with Heater, Fog Lamps, Driver End Fuel\Tank opening controls, few more which I don’t recall right now.
The Boot space is not as huge as those large Sedans, but its enough that even though I had kept a dedicated 12’ Pioneer Sub-Woofer Box, there’s enough space to sack on all the baggage’s, something I have always dreamed of - carry Woofer and All the Bags together, and hence the Sedan.
- Bad Quality\Shabby Work: There are number of locations, not observable generally, which show lack luster performance from Tata, its same old Tata Indica actually, and so inherits almost all those things.
Tata did tried add some punch like, mixing little bit of extra things, like chrome on Steering Wheel, leather cover to gear knob, nice rework to the Hud, AC & Fan controls.
But besides these its still that plain old Indica look, anyways, this is the only downside(which is too much for some folks and run away from this car).
So far its been turned out to be a wise decision, despite the advices against Diesel Cars, at the time of purchase, but look now, Diesel Vs Petrol -> 40 Vs 65. As I mentioned earlier, the servicing costs are not so high.
Moreover I would like to mention that there are few things that every car owner need to take care of whether you have Diesel\Petrol:
1.For Good Mileage - Don’t be a F1 racer and push the throttle to full at street lights. Push the peddles gently, move to higher gears as soon as possible without running your engine at too much RPM’s.
- During Long Drives : Your car also needs some rest, make sure to take a break for at least 15-20 mins after around 150-200 KMs of driving.(I even open up the front bonnet and expose the hood to cool down a bit)
Check and inflate Tyre’s before long journeys or once a month otherwise. You also have to trade off the Air Pressure: Higher Pressure, gives better mileage, but your ride is less smooth as every bump is felt.
- Do not use High Speed Diesel\Petrol always, once a while is ok. using High Speed Diesel every time, is not good for health of your Diesel Engine, same with Petrol Version.
Lastly as I said, I’m So Far So Good with my Ride.