Test Drive: Tata Indica

During the past one week, I was in India, in what they call the ‘City of Virtues’, Pune, home of Tata Motors. Now, before I go on, let me state that India is a huge country. People I speak to define 200 kilometres as ‘near’. I had landed at Mumbai airport, located along the west coast, and Pune (pronounced Poo-nei) is located around 200km away in the southeast direction. The road conditions plus ridiculously heavy traffic even at 1am, meant that my journey from airport to hotel lasted four miserable hours.

Anyway, before we move on, let’s get the pre-conceptions aside. Most of you have probably watched the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire by now. The story may be fictional, but its depiction of life in India is, as far as I could observe first hand, bang on accurate. There are probably millions of children there going through the same childhood as Jamal, Salim and Latika.

However, during my short stay, I actually grew to like the Indians. I saw them as humble and honest people just trying to survive in a hostile environment. Many of them barely get two meals a day and many others don’t even have a proper place to sleep. Nevertheless, most of the people that I interacted with, with the exception of some dodgy characters at the Mumbai airport, are very polite and soft spoken. However, once you put them behind the wheel, all their good manners are thrown out of the window. 

Honking is the norm, cars drive within millimetres of each other, and traffic lights are ignored. They seem to have a vague concept of lanes, but they just squeeze their cars through any space they can see. The astonishing part is that, over eight days there, I saw only a handful of accidents, which is phenomenal. Usually, whenever I travel, I always prefer to do my own driving, but for the first time in my life, I was happy to be the passenger.

It doesn’t help, of course, that the conditions of roads in India are nothing short of horrendous. While they may be tarred, the finishings are as smooth as the faces of pimple-scarred teenagers. I used to complain a lot about tolls in Malaysia, but after this trip, I will shut up. Paying tolls in Malaysia leads you to proper highways, paying tolls in India leads to the same bumpy roads.

Most of the days, I was driven around in Tata Indica hatchbacks. These cars are as populous in India as the Proton Wira in Malaysia. They don’t look inviting on the outside, and they don’t look well built in the inside. I did a little research, they’ve been on the road since 1998, and have been top sellers in India since then till now. I certainly see how desperate Rover were when they were willing to badge engineer this car and sell it in the UK as the CityRover in 2003.

Tata Indica @ CityRover

The Indica is available in both petrol and diesel, but all those that I’ve sat were diesel powered, each coming with a 1,396cc 4-cylinder motor under the hood delivering 53.5PS at a high 5,500rpm (for a diesel), and 83.3Nm at a useable 2,500rpm. Like most cars in India, all versions feature a 5-speed manual transmission. A peculiar nature of Indian drivers, at least those who were driving me, is that they have a tendency to upshift very early, before the tacho even passes 2,000rpm – making the car appear sluggish from the passenger’s perspective.

Stopping power is given by a standard vent-disc/drum setup, but, impressively on the suspension side, Tata has given the Indica independent suspension all-round, with MacPherson struts up front, and semi-trailing arms at the rear. Other amenities available include front power windows, manual adjusting side mirrors, and digital odo/tripmeter. Most of the cars I sat in had black plastic dashboards, with the exception of one having metallic finish.

Metallic finish. No joke. 

As my stay in Pune came to an end, it was time for me to head back to Mumbai airport to catch my flight home. At that time, I As we stopped for diesel, I told the driver to hand me the keys because I wanted to take the wheel. I sat inside, adjusted my seating position, mirrors, started the engine, and off I went. Slot into first gear – disaster – it was another one of those rubbery and imprecise gear changes. It’s so bad that you can’t tell second from fourth or third from fifth, and who taught them to put the power window switches IN FRONT of the gear lever? Poor ergonomics. 

Five-speed shifter rubbery and imprecise.

Fortunately, once you’ve brought the car up to speed, you don’t really need to bother with gear changes too much, for the diesel engine does offer good pull, even at fifth gear. Flooring the pedal at 100kph brings about noticeable acceleration, sometimes even better than my Waja Campro. While the assigned driver was happy to settle for driving at 70-80kph, under my command, the Indica felt most comfortable at 110kph. Of course, the word ‘comfortable’, especially on Indian roads, is a relative term.

The 93km long Mumbai-Pune Expressway that we took had some rather demanding stretches with twisting bends and poorly surfaced roads putting driving skills and suspension durability to the test. It is here, the rubbery gearstick rears its ugly head again, where regular downshifting is required to maintain traction through the bends. Cornering and lane-changing are acceptable within small hatch limits, but the thing is, you won’t need sports car handling here, so why bother?

At the aforementioned highway speeds, the rear speaker shelf panel was shaking so badly, I was worried that it might shatter. Then I noticed that it appeared to be an aftermarket fitment, and it was the only thing that was shaking. The dashboard, cheap looking as it might have been, did not shake one single bit – which is astonishing, considering the abuse that this car must have been getting over the 35,000 kilometres displayed on the odo. Come think of it, none of the Indicas that I sat in have rattling dashboards.

Dash is cheap looking, but rattle free. Instrument panel includes digital trip and odo.

Now, 35,000 km may not be much on Malaysian roads, but the fact is, 35,000 km over Indian roads would destroy anything that’s not tightly screwed together, and tightly screwed together the Tata is. The harsh natural environment of India means that machineries that see service in this country, or are made in this country are built to be tough, even if they aren’t very sophisticated. Herein lies the strength of the Indica. It has no beauty, no fancy, but it’s built tough, and built to last.

Under usual circumstances, I would have dismissed this car outright, but not this time. Make no mistake, it is still rubbish to drive. In Malaysia, I’d probably not even give it a second look, but in the crowded streets of India, this car makes absolute sense. It would last years upon years, kilometres upon kilometres of horrendous service conditions, and it would continue to serve you faithfully and without pretensions. The best part, it would remain intact long after other more fanciful rides are broken to pieces.

The car to have in India.

Verdict
(+): This car will last you for a great many kilometres
(-): A great many kilometres of unenjoyable driving, unfortunately.

Conclusion: A car you can drive in the harshest conditions, but unlikely to derive any enjoyment out of.