When I decided to upgrade to C-Segment while buying my third car (after Matiz SA and Indica DLX), I was clear about what I wanted: Good (and economical) performance, good looks, good build quality, and most importantly, a great price tag with good resale value. This narrowed down my choice automatically to the Maruti Esteem, Ford Ikon, Hyundai Accent, and Tata Indigo. (Sorry, Fiat don’t count as their resale value and service, at least in Bangalore here, just plain sucks.)
The best performer was of course the Josh machine. What went against it was its age and fuel consumption. Accent too had the same drawbacks, in addition to being too huge on the outside for downtown Bangalore. Also, both the models are in the last legs of their lives, with replacement models quite overdue. So I went for a dekko of the Esteem. Trust me, after using Indica for 3 years, the Esteem’s interior room resembled a kennel to me! Extremely cramped interiors, cheap plasticky and extremely dated looks, seating position that makes you lift your bum when driving in case the speed breaker scrapes it, and ingress that required the passengers to adopt yogic postures just to squeeze into the cramped interior, saw me running for my roomy Inidica outside, to get as far away from the horror as possible!
Thus I bought my third car yesterday: The Tata Indigo GLX BS-III.
And believe me, I think I have just made the ’’right’’est decision of my life. To begin with, the performance of the new BS-III engine is simply awesome. 85 live and prancing horses are at your beck and command. All these are unleashed on you at the simple touch of your toe on the gas pedal. The build quality equals, if not betters, the so-called ’’world’’ cars. There are good features packed in too (headlamp levelling, clear-lens headlamps, goggle-case, power-windows, 32-bit microprocessor, etc.), though there could have been better ones offered as an option (ABS, etc.). And, as ever, the interiors are cavernous! The boot is a best-in-its-class 450 litres. Only grouse, though, is the finishing of the beadings and other rubber that are used in the car - there is scope for some improvement here.
If you are considering buying this car, my advice is, don’t. Just do it!