2005 Tata Indica LGi


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deville_56

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2005 Tata Indica LGi (Sold)

Intro:

My friend with high hopes was behind buying a Punto Multijet for daily use and everything gone wrong rejecting the car loan and his father said no more financial assistance. He was married recently and a car was necessary for monsoon commute with his wife. With every hopes gone, he changed mind for Punto and dropped the daily use plan. He approached Maruti True Value. Every junk there were with unworthy sticker price. Cheapest was a 1998 Zen claiming only 40k km on odo and doctor owner at 1L. Everything else were Altos and 800s and his max budget was 1.5L. With him, mom and dad well built, small cars were out of thought. His workplace was 5 min away from Mahindra First Choice. He took a colleague and checked in there and the manage happened to be the cousin of the colleague’s wife. So the dealing were fine. He offered very low price than the sticker price. Zeroed on a 2004 800 Standard without AC for 1.15L and struck the deal paying 10k in advance. He said asked the manager to let him know if there is anything big available for under 1.5L and left. He got a call later asking whether he is interested in Indica?? Indica is one of the most hated car by friend (I’m one of the admirer of the car that changed the Indian Hatchback scene). He decided to take a look, he has never been inside an Indica and thought it’s a small car with poor taxi image.

At dealer’s yard, was this pristine piece of machine. Single owner and well maintained, but it was petrol [:)]. Manager personally guaranteed it’s a trouble free car and the colleague took car for a spin (he got an Alto) and was very much impressed with the performance. Took it to the nearby workshop and got it checked and got clean certificate from the mechanic. My friend fell in love with the car once he was inside the car and now a big Tata fan. Till he took delivery I was against purchasing a pre-Xeta petrol Indica. Since he was okay with the car, I had no objection at the end. Final deal was 1.3L + 2k for processing and stuff and 24x7 roadside assistance by Mahindra for one year. Took delivery yesterday.

The Car:


It was a pleasant looking Metallic Carnival Red car, April 2005 model (August 2005 registered) Indica v2 petrol, 46k on odo. 13kmpl in city mileage as per owner (yet to test). LGi trim. All four power windows and central locking (Autocop). Revved the engine till 6k rpm and absolutely vibe free. No ICE. Cracked tail lamp. Plain mirror in LHS ORVM. 2-3 small depression in bonnet. One packed up power window motor, which First Choice people with rectify this week itself. Genuine Tata accessory seat cover and floor mats. Fabric inserts in door pads started peeling off. Two new tyres and two will last 5+k km. Steering started showing age, peeling plastics. No parcel tray, seems first owner removed them with ICE. Otherwise, everything seem original and in place and no rattling at all.

I’m down with fracture and couldn’t test drive the car. Will be driving it by July first week.

Car will be used primarily in rain and weekends only and occasional long drives.

Mod Plans:

ICE is the primary requirement. HU will be JBL GT-X333 with JBL GT5-S204 4-incher in dash and JBL GT5-S396 6x9 on MDF parcel tray. Struck a deal for 8725 bucks excluding the parcel tray and installation will be DIY.

Then comes tinting and new interiors. New seat cover in all black and fabric inserts to be replaced with black art leather. And of course a matching all-black leather steering cover. Steering wheel may be replaced or will be painted black after touching up the peels. Pedal covers are into consideration since the pedals are too small for my taste.

Hope every aspect covered [evil]
 

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I saw this picture in your FB profile and was wondering why , now i get it! Very well written report you have covered most points. Even i am not a big fan of Indica , the only reason i like this car is the SPACE! The car looks to be in good condition considering its age. Can you post some interior pictures too? But what a heartbreak it must be for your friend dreaming of a Punto and driving an Indica now , but hope he is happy now.


OT: Get well soon buddy!
 
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deville_56

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I saw this picture in your FB profile and was wondering why , now i get it! Very well written report you have covered most points. Even i am not a big fan of Indica , the only reason i like this car is the SPACE! The car looks to be in good condition considering its age. Can you post some interior pictures too? But what a heartbreak it must be for your friend dreaming of a Punto and driving an Indica now , but hope he is happy now.


OT: Get well soon buddy!
Thanku thanku. Will get interior snaps once I'm back on foot or if he can bring the car home before that. Biggest heartbreak or rather heart attack was when another bank approached with offer 50% downpayment and injustifiable EMI [evil]
 
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Intro:


Mod Plans:

ICE is the primary requirement. HU will be JBL GT-X333 with JBL GT5-S204 4-incher in dash and JBL GT5-S396 6x9 on MDF parcel tray. Struck a deal for 8725 bucks excluding the parcel tray and installation will be DIY.
Decent choice of ICE. One suggestion, about the 6x9s Go for the JBL GTO948. Its got more thump in it and has less distortion. But it will cost a bit more. Then again it can handle 400w PMPO
 
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deville_56

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Decent choice of ICE. One suggestion, about the 6x9s Go for the JBL GTO948. Its got more thump in it and has less distortion. But it will cost a bit more. Then again it can handle 400w PMPO
K. Lemme check the availability. there was gt6-699.
 
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Congrats to your friend for the car. He definitely got a good deal since the car looks to have been maintained well.
 
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although i burnt myfinger after buying a diesel indica v2. its a very comfortable car on long drives. congrats to your friend on his new ride.
 
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deville_56

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I'm back on wheels and the car has been with me for a couple of weeks. Time for the review.

Ride quality of the car is great compared to Zen and Estilo or any other cheap Indian hatchback. It absorbs all potholes with ease. There is ample torque, but the heavy wait affecting the acceleration a lot. I never had to cross 2k rpm for decent speeds (around 60s). Engine revs without any vibes. Nothing rattles in this 6-year-old car like the 4-year-old Maruti does.

Experience with Mahindra First Choice is not so great. The rear power window was not working as mentioned earlier. They promised fixup. I thought of checking it myself and on removing the door pad there was no motor at all in the right rear door. Asked my friend aka owner and he said they removed it for repair. Now we called them to know whether it ready, they are saying they don't have them and they didn't remove them and don't know about that [frustration]. Feeling cheated and now have to search for a replacement motor, which should cost around 3k, I believe.

Another idiotic act by the dealer was they never fixed the battery> I found the battery clamps in the glovebox. Battery was in place by the mercy of the cables only. One hard braking would have thrown off the battery causing another Tata burning.

ICE has been dropped for the time being since the car is not being used much, for last month only idling and no running [evil]

Boot space is supposedly big, but the strut towers spoils the space. They protrude too much making the otherwise deep boot. Estilo's speaker enclosure won't fit in it.

The rarest Indica badges. I thought so, but found lots of them in Trivandrum after buying this car. Most of the government owned Indicas and Indigos were Petrol ones. Last time I visited Focuz Motors (a Tata authorized service center, no sales), there were quite a few of them. Cousin who was service advisor in Mohandas Motors (Tata/Fiat dealer) said there are lot of private petrol Indicas. They sell in decent number, more car per car.
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The broken tail lamp
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The plastics.
Everything intact. Only the steering horn switch shows the age.
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Peeling door pad inserts. Will fix them when we get new seat cover in matching shade or fix it the D.I.Y. way.
 

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