Tata Indigo XL review

Yesterday, my friend Nawaz called me up to get some thoughts on buying a new car. He had been doing some research himself on the web and also been talking to his other friends. From what he had heard from his friends, he seemed to have been quite impressed by Tata Indigo XL. When he called me up, he was very upbeat and was explaining the features a lot. He asked me if I could go along with him to the Tata show room to take a test drive of the vehicle. I agreed and went to the show room with him. I had never test driven a new car and it was my first time.
Tata Indigo has petrol and and Diesel variants. In each of these variants, they have two models - Classic and Grand. At the showroom 'Grand' was there a display piece and we started inspecting while we were waiting for the executive to come and attend to us. The car looked good. At first glance, the most impressive thing about the car is the space. There is a lot of room inside. The back seat is very spacious and 3 people can sit very comfortably. Tall people won't have any problem stretching their legs when they are seated in the back seat.
By now the executive came to us. She started explaining the features of the car. The classic is the more basic model which has a 1.4 ltr engine. The boot (trunk) is quite big, but still not as big as I had expected it to be (as there is a lot of room inside). The interiors are not very great with the car. They have tried to give a wooden finish to the front panel, but it is made of plastic and doesn't go well with the car. The 'Classic' comes with premium fabric upholstery which is pretty good. One very good feature which I haven't seen in any sedan is split AC. There are separate AC ducts for the back seat. This feature is something, I have seen only in Qualis and Tavera. But even in those, the AC ducts are on the roof, but in Indigo, they are at the bottom (between the two front seats). This is a cool feature. Another unique feature is the chiller. The chiller is in the glove box and can keep your cool drinks chill (ofcourse the AC has to be ON for this). Fog lamps, all 4 power windows, power steering, rear defogger and central locking, front seat height adjustor (for both seats) are all default in the Basic model. There is no Cup holder for the driver's seat. It is there only for the passengers in the back seat.
The basic model comes at around 6.1 or 6.2 lakhs on road in Bangalore and is a good buy.
The Grand comes with a few extra features. It comes with leather upholstery, 4 speaker DVD player with two LCD displays behind both the front seats, a car phone kit (free nokia phone and a charger) and power seat height adjuster.
Now it was the time to test drive. I took out the 1.4 petrol for a drive. I could only drive it in busy Bangalore traffic. It had a smooth pickup even when the AC was on. The gear shift was smooth. Really not much complain with the car. This is not to be considered as the the full 'GO' for this model as the drive was only for 2 kms in traffic. One has to drive the car before making their choice. However there were a few things I was not comfortable with the car. The gear seemed to be very far from the driver's seat. One has to reach out for it. I am used to driving a Maruti Baleno which has a very big front window shield which gives a very clear view of the road. I was not very happy about it in this car. For tall people whose head almost reaches the roof, the road view is not very clear.
After the test drive of the petrol version, we tried the diesel version. I sat in the car and turned the ignition on and I was immediately disappointed. There was a lot of engine noise and vibration. It was like sitting in a truck (OK, I am exaggerating here, but I was very unhappy). The Grand Diesel comes at around 8.75 lakhs in Bangalore. Who would want to pay so much money for a diesel car with just 1.4 ltr engine which makes so much noise. Atleast I wouldn't. The diesel versions of Verna are so smooth when compared to Tata Indigo. Classic makes a good buy for that price, but Tatas will have a difficult task selling the diesel version of Indigo XL, that too when they have the image of a taxi.