Tata infamous for launching new variants of its cars every three months has finally come up with a new car, that too is the much anticipated next generation Indica. As Indians, we are emotionally attached with Indica – India’s first indigenous car Tata has kept the name untouched while adding Vista ( name of the Microsoft’s latest platform) to it and lure young customers.
Indica Vista is the car which has been making news for sometime since this marks the second Innings of Tata motors. Tata plans to make this new platform a truly global one. Soon Tata plans to rub shoulders with Suzuki’s and Nissan’s in Europe. Hence unlike the earlier Indica, this one is not just for taxiwallah, not just for Indian customer but it is for global customers. Let’s dig out the new indica vista and check whether it is good enough to be called a global model.
Tata Indica Vista Safire: Evoultion is always better than revolution. Though the radically designed are difficult to emulate it is highly risky. Many cars in the history of automobiles fails to succeed due to its styling. Tata rolling out its 2nd generation Indica doesn’t want to take the risky way. The all new Indica vista is a modern version of Indica. On the top of the wide smiley grille emerges a small crease that goes upwards towards the windscreen which gives Indica vista a slight V at the front. Accentuating the V shape are the pedal shaped headlamps which is mounted on the lines of body panel.A large front bumper with fog lamps gives the sheer road presence to the car. The turn Indicators mounted near the wing mirrors are nice engineering touches. Indica’s styling has been loved by customers and this new vista would receive the same. But i’m sure that Tata must bring up a new version within next three to five years otherwise it will look outdated.
Tata Indica Vista Safire: Under the bonnet of our test drive Indica vista is the Fiat’s Fully Integrated Robotised Engine (FIRE). Tata has worked over the engine and integrated with the vista platform. The power is beefed up by 8PS and max torque by 4Nm. It churns out only 65PS of peak power and 96Nm of peak torque at 3000rpm. Pretty low isn’t it? especially when compared to its competitor’s – swift and i10. Even after the upgrade, it feels under powered. For such a large car there should be more power under the hood. It feels tad stressed beyond 100kmph.
But we loved the refinement and NVH of the engine. It’s remarkable leap over the Indica Xeta’ engine. It also offers good mid range performance,result you can confidently challenge anyone at signal to signal race. But for that you have to Floor the accelerator and wait till the engine revives to 3000rpm. The amount of low-end torque available is pretty poor. You would sometime wonder whether you are driving a petrol one or a LPG fitted car.
Tata Indica Vista Safire: The engine is mated with the Fiat’s c510 gearbox. Unlike the earlier one, this double Bowden cable gearshift communicates through cable. That means low vibrations at the gear knob. But slot into the 3rd gear, keep the hand on the gear knob and drive the car. You would feel some sort of pulsating movement.
Tata Indica Vista Safire: The response from the steering is good. It iss light and found very useful in tight traffic conditions and parking. But it fails to gain weight as the speedo needle zooms past three digit numbers.Also there is discernible body roll but not much like the previous Indica. Remember this new Indica vista gets anti roll bar.
Absence of ABS is also playing spoilsport on the handling characteristics of the vehicle. Driving the vista at high speeds in the present monsoon season would need atmost attention.
Tata Indica Vista Safire: The quality of fit and finish has improved a lot but still Tata has miles to go before matching Suzuki’s and Honda’s. Doors shuts with lovable thud, the shut lines are clean but still the few things fails to blend. The Christmas tree tail lamps resists to align with rear panel.
Tata Indica Vista Safire: is available in seven colours – cavern grey, marine silver,artic silver, gala red, solar orange,noble blue and infinity black.
