I’ve been driving the Tata Indigo DICOR (CRDI engine) recently, and I must say, I’m not very comfortable. That does not mean it’s a pathetic excuse for a car, it does have its strengths, which are not strengths for a car lover like me.
What Tata Motors is trying to accomplish with this car is easy to understand, the instant you step into this car – make money and lots of it.
The Indigo’s interior is the last place I’d like to be in. There are elephant-wide gaps, unevenly cut plastic claddings, sharp edges and disfigured storage spaces and roof linings that are falling apart like on castles that were built during the medieval ages. It exactly what a car designer would construct if he got drunk before departing for work.
Start the car, and you’d hear the sound that chalk and blackboard would make. On a cold morning, you’d rather listen to someone getting stabbed. It’s brutal.
The clutch is heavy; the action is like sitting on this side of a see-saw with a giant buffalo on another. Even better is the sound the spring makes once you let go of it. The position of the pedals is so Tata 607-like, and the steering wheel was fitted by a 6-year old girl, who was learning the art of cutting a square out of a piece of paper with a scissors.
The Indigo which I’m driving has done more than 20k kilometers, and it feels like its done five times that. The leather wrap on the gear knob has come off, the wiper’s action is not an action anymore, the rear stop light has dislodged from its mount, the seat covers does not like its stitching anymore and stuff can be squeezed into the dashboard through the lid’s widened gap.
The car is well maintained, which I learned only after referring the service log. Its gone to the service station regularly, but still, it feels like the last time a technician worked on this car was while filling the fluids in its production line.
At full lock, the steering makes this noise which you’d hear in a factory when its 5:00 P.M. Your brain is this car’s ECU, you’ll need to work out where the power band is every time, and actuate the engine. The suspension due to the action of heat and pressure has turned to bricks, or maybe this Tata’s suspension was built from cement and bricks.
The steering offers almost nil feedback, the body roll is excessive, sometime life threatening. I even managed to do a little drifting early morning yesterday, it is not a safe car.
The term turbo lag could have originated from this Indigo, and who knows why they decided to ever put brakes on this thing?
I could begin swearing any moment now, so I’ll come to the softer part.
I never bothered to calculate how much this car’s on-road price is, since it’s not worth my time. I learn the Indigo costs very little to maintain. The fuel economy is Indigo’s greatest triumph, fill the tank, and you can drive around the earth.
Then there’s the space and comfort. Five adults can fit in the Indigo, there’s a large boot and plenty of cubby holes to store your stuff.
Will I buy it?
Definitely not.
The Indigo is based on the Indica which turned ten last December. The naked truth is that Tata’s not bothered what they are selling, it’s the money which it makes that bothers them. Sure cars like the Indica Vista and the newly launched Safari are way better, but what I was driving for the last few weeks, is the last thing you’d want to drive. Tata’s Indica Vista was light years ahead of the Indica, but why have they not phased out the old car? I thought they could continue to offer the taxi variants and focus more on the Vista. I have a gut feeling the same case will be repeated with the Indigo Vista.
Hi can any one tell me what will the cost for complete engine repair like new bore, piston rings, fuel injectors…
Liked your creativity in writing, how much money did you get from competitors to write this article? My uncle has dicor CS and have done 120000 in that in last one and a half years, and beleive me it has been great outstation tourer, cheap and best.
@Manoj – What makes you think I was bribed to write this piece? That’s just your view of this article, so I don’t want to try and prove you wrong. We’re putting our efforts into building an unbiased automotive blog and we’d really appreciate it if you can respect our views, if not encouraging.
I bought a Tata Indigo during 2004 and its performance was good. Encouraged with this satisfactory performance, during 2007, I bought a new Tata Indigo with new Dicor engine which I was told is a very good engine having best performance. However, my experience with this vehicle with DICOR engine is pathetic. During this period of 3 years, I was able to use this vehicle for not more than one and half year and for rest of the period, vehicle remained under breakdown and with Tata’s workshops. No doubt, during the warranty period, the company replaced some major components of this Dicor engine but performance of the vehicle remained the same and it has to be taken to the workshop again and again. While discussing these problems with the workshop technicians, they privately inform that there is serious defect in the Dicor engine and very few people who bought Indigo with Dicor engine are facing similar problems.
I also understand that the company has since discontinued manufacturing Indigo using Dicor engine which strengthens the point that there is serious flaw in the Dicor engine.
Because of this perpetual problem with Dicor engine, I have been requesting the company to replace this engine with TDI engine, but nobody from the company is ready to listen.
The only option to me now is to get this Dicor engine replaced with TDI engine at my cost.
I am really surprised that a company of TATA’s stature do not have any effective mechanism to address customers’ grievance.
Tata Motors Service Code which mentions “Responsiveness, Reliability, Value” has no meaning whatsoever because they are neither responsive, nor their vehicle Indigo Dicor is reliable and nor it is value for money.
[...] my harrowing experience with the Tata Indigo DICOR, I decided to drive other Tata products including the Sumo Grande and the Indica DICOR to see what [...]
After the first few lines, you read this blog post (nay review?) less for the car it derides and more for its humor (despite bags full of grammatical faux-pas).
Buffalo on a see-saw indeed. Very creative.
@Amit – Sometimes frustration can result in a lot of creativity. Thank you for your comment, anyway
Thank u for writing this blog and showing us the true features of this car ,so i will not like to buy it.
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Alexander Cruz
sapience
Very nice new theme IAB! and I agree with you, I wouldn’t buy that ugly thing either.
@Greg – You’re right mate, this thing is not very nice to drive