Tata's One lakh car

I don’t know what is with these company chairmen trying to impress people at Motorshows by declaring their impossible dreams and then letting some poor chaps called engineers work hard to get their dreams come true. But I do love their dreams, once they sprout wings.

A decade ago, at an opulent Motor show, Mr. Ferdinand Piech, Chairman of the Volkswagen group expressed his idea of a car that has at least 1000bhp and a top speed of 400kmph. The engineers terrified by the Chairman’s declaration, however had to resort to very hard work for the eight years and large volumes of money flowed in until recently, the chairman’s dream finally came true- The Bugatti Veyron. It had a 1000bhp and hit 400kmph as dreamt by Piech and was as unique as planet Jupiter. But only very few could actually buy them as the very limited numbers they produce cost over Rs.8crores and barely manages 2kmpl.

Back here in India , Mr. Ratan Tata, the Chairman of Tata Motors also did a similar exercise at another Motorshow, when he declared his vision of a One lakh Rupee car, by which he stunned the public and frightened his work force. But in his case, fortunately, we are benefited. His project was not a ridiculously over priced, oil well bursting, piece of art form that no one can afford to buy, but a cheap and efficient form of transport that you and I will really consider buying, even if we don’t really need them. It will prove to be an alternative to two wheelers and should be a really great city car.

Work began and from then on, the main questions he faced at every new car launch were about this one lakh rupee car. He has been very careful about his words ever since and whatever he told were carefully dissected by motoring journalists to see what clues of the one lakh car they could derive fromhis words. If the sources are to be believed, the Tata’s much hyped One lakh rupee car will be here next year when you and I will be crowding around the nearest Tata dealer to get ours. And very soon, Tata will take charge as the largest automobile manufacturer in India , beating Maruti and Hero Honda off their current top spots in the four and two wheeler segments. India will have a large part of its population put behind the wheels and the days in which an entire family of parents and two children, traveled by hanging onto the saddle and every other part of Papa’s scooter, will soon be history too. One lakh rupees is all you need to be driving in your brand new car. At least, it sounds very promising.

Let’s however get some fallacy cleared here. The one lakh car, contrary to people’s perception or to its name, will cost more than a lakh. It could have been a lakh were it to be sold eight or nine years ago when the idea was conceived. Steel and component prices have gone up ever since and a safe guess about the price would be about Rs. 1.25 lakhs.

As it can be seen from the illustrations above and as clearly specified by the company’s chairman, it will be a proper car with four doors and four seats and not an auto-rickshaw with four wheels. According to our reliable company sources, it will be a small, mono-volume design resembling the Zen Estilo, but with the engine at the back. Seating will be for two adults and two children, since the engine under the rear seats will make them short on space. But having the engine at the back has some obvious advantages. For one, it gives better packaging in the given size. Secondly, it makes the steering light. And the problem of cooling this engine has been taken care of by vents provided at the back.

It will likely be powered by a small two cylinder petrol engine, which should be a half of the Indica Xeta’s 1200cc block. It is adequate since this is meant to be a city car. To access the engine, the lower part of the rear hatch has to be opened and the rear seats to be removed or folded down. But hopefully Tata, unlike its other cars, will make this engine rather reliable, and that you don’t have to undergo this chore every day.

Tata is also trying to make it very fuel efficient, in the range of 28kmpl. And they will also introduce a diesel version with a 700cc unit similar to the one in the Ace minivan. This engine will be even more fuel efficient to a point where it can threaten even some commuter motorcycles for frugality.

If everything goes well, people will soon say “Tata” to Maruti and will be seen around in cheaper Tata cars. Or else, if the product turns out to be flawed, these same people would invest their money in used yet tried and tested Maruti 800s which are reliable. What has to be waited and seen is how Maruti will react to this situation, where it loses its title as the nation’s largest car manufacturer. I expect a barebones, and even cheaper version of the Maruti 800 at a similar price, with cotton seats and coir mats!

Performance Midsizers

I bet that ninety percent of those people out there contemplating a purchase of any of these cars would be driving themselves. These cars churn out about a hundred horses and are meant to be entertaining to drive. Besides, they should be reasonably fuel efficient and offer good accommodation. But how many of them actually deliver what they promise?

The SX4 created quite a stir when it arrived. Everyone and his neighbour soon needed an SX4 and customers queued up at Maruti outlets. Sales charts of past months show that it knocked off the Honda City from the top position among the upper mid-sizers. The hype has now somewhat settled down. People have started to consider the other products in the segment, which they once ignored. So has the SX4 got what it takes to be a good driver’s car? Or else which of the other cars will be the best driver’s car out there? Read on.

Now, buying a Maruti has one problem. They have a presumption that people will continue to buy their cars even if they treated customers like plague spreading rats. They get ranked high when it comes to JD power surveys, which I suppose is due to a customer crowd who doesn’t know better treatment is available elsewhere. Honda will make you feel like a king if you were to buy a City, even if it is the base model. Hyundai will set you a dinner and Ford will tell you bedtime stories. If you happen to purchase a Maruti, you will be filling up ‘customer satisfaction forms’ for the rest of your life, which no one will even care about, should you have a complaint. And you will see your new expensive Maruti car serviced alongside run down 800s and Omnis in the dirty garages which they call as service stations.

The SX4 looks butch and almost SUVish thanks to its crossover origins. The cab forward City, which looked strange and alien when it was launched, now looks contemporary and acceptable. The rest of the cars have more conventional looks with the Fiesta being too traditional. It is a design that will neither excite nor offend. The Verna with its long bonnet and stubby boot however looks smaller than it really is. The grill is not to most tastes though.

Inside, the City has the best utilization of space followed by the Verna. The SX4 is a four-seater with a narrow rear bench and high transmission tunnel. Fiesta has great seats spoiled by a slight shortage of legroom. Quality of interiors is where the Fiesta and City excel. The Verna’s fascia and steering, even though made of quality materials, does look decidedly cheap. The SX4 has decent interiors. But overall quality is poor with some switches having a “tending to fall apart any time” look.

All these cars produce similar power output. Yet they are so different when it comes to road performance. The City VTEC posted the best acceleration times in our road test followed by the Fiesta 1.6. The Verna was nearly two second slower. But surprisingly, the SX4 with the maximum power output was the slowest here due to obesity. To cross check our test results we referred to AUTOCAR magazine’s test data. According to them, the 0-100kmph times of the City, Fiesta, Verna and the SX4 were 10.66, 11.43, 12.07 and 12.10 seconds respectively.

Acceleration figures are only indicative. To know which of these cars is the most “fun to drive”, we drove them to the hills. The City was the easiest to drive. Its great performance will ensure that it will be the best choice for those looking for outright performance. It is the easiest to drive and rides really well. But it does not have the cornering prowess or the intoxicating sportiness of the Fiesta which has a slightly heavier steering and controls that is ( or are) great at speeds. This is a real enthusiast’s car. You must be a talented driver to appreciate the brilliance of its chassis. The Verna is a great cruiser and best suited or compatible for the highways with no special talents exhibited in the corners. SX4 on the other hand rolls, but grippy tyres see that it goes round corners really well. Its ride quality is not the very best here either.

When it comes to value for money, the Fiesta and Verna are right up there, but the SX4 trounces them by offering a lot of goodies at a mouth watering price. It comes with airbags, ABS, alloy wheels, climate control and a lot of similar stuff for a lakh less than the City VTEC. But it has a few real weaknesses which makes buying an SX4 for the goodies alone, look like opting to travel by the slowest airlines just because they serve tastier food. You arrive late, which spoils the primary purpose of the journey. Thus we classify the Verna as the best to be chauffer driven and the Fiesta to be the most sporty and entertaining out there. The City VTEC offers great performance, fuel economy, brand image, interior space & reliability of all the cars. So in our test we choose the City VTEC as the winner, even though it costs considerably more than its rivals.

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Pete's Treat

When my friend Peter Chacko who owns the International Hotel, Cochin invited me to come along, I had little idea about what was in store. I was expecting a delicious five course dinner at his grand and opulent hotel, with thick soup, steaming dishes and frozen desserts. But I was in for an even bigger and more delicious treat. I had three cars to play with. Two Skoda Octavias and a Laura.

So what is special about these cars? These are not anyone’s usual commuter cars. The two Octavias produce in excess of 300bhp. And the Laura makes a healthy 150bhp, not bad for a diesel. Now for those who are not much into vehicle performance terms, let me explain what ‘bhp’ really means. BHP or Brake Horse Power is a measure of how much torque (twisting force) an engine can deliver for a given time or it is simply the amount of work an engine can do. The term ‘bhp’ gets its name from the way horse power is measured. Mechanical brakes are applied to an engine which is running. So how much braking force is applied will give the power of the engine.

The petrol Skoda Octavia RS is a car that is fast on its own. It has a top speed in excess of 210kmph and will accelerate from rest to 100kmph in around 9 seconds. And then there are people who get bored of even this. After a couple of years of driving around with ‘just’ 150bhp, they feel an even more need for speed. I recommend them to take a visit to Petes performance where they will tinker around your car and up the power by 100%. You drive in with 150bhp and storm out of there with 300bhp.

It is not just increasing the power that they do at Petes. They turn your family car into a sports car by tinkering around with its electronic brain-the ECU(Engine Control Unit). So what they do at Petes is to make this brain forget what it was taught at the factory and teach it some new tricks by a process of remapping the initial maps (instructions to the engine about how much fuel to take on various conditions). Then they install a bigger turbo, a new clutch and others to increase the power. Then, to harness all that power, they fit stronger brakes, larger wheels, wider and grippier tyres. The end result is quite exemplary. You get what is one among the fastest cars in the country.

Now the two Skoda Octavias may produce similar power output. But the way they both feel is totally different. The black one is the more untamed beast of the two. It is like a dangerous wild dog that will bite you back, should you provoke him. It barks loudly as to scare everyone, thanks to one of the loudest exhausts I have ever come across. It has more aggression in its nature and the remap to this car was done on the basis of the performance mentality of the owner. Compared to it, the white car is your powerful yet dependable hunting dog. It is aggressive where it matters, while being friendly towards you. It is much more driveable in city traffic with a lighter clutch and is quieter. Now the two cars can dismiss off the 0-100kmph run in as less as 5.5 seconds! Top speed is a yet-to-be-tested 280kmph+.

Now with these levels of performance, these cars can threaten most of the exotic sports cars in India . In a straight line, they accelerate so hard that you have to strain your neck muscles to make your head stay straight. But they get all this done without making a dent to their practicality factor. They can still seat four and has a large boot to carry the luggage. Then there is the silver Laura DSG which has everything like this and a diesel economy to back it up. It still develops 150bhp which is 45 bhp over the standard car. Now, for a diesel, that is more than enough. It has a large amount of torque as well.

So head to Petes with your Skoda to see what it is really capable of. The way they makes these cars perform like this is just brilliant. What if you don’t have a Skoda? Petes Performance will be able to get more power from most modern cars on our roads. If it is a diesel that you drive, Petes will get you one of his tuning boxes. This is a small ‘plug and play’ device that connects to the ECU and instructs it to produce more power and the best part is that all this power comes with no adverse effect on fuel economy. As for me, I have already started saving!

Indica vs Palio

The Tata-Fiat partnership to sell and service Fiat’s cars seems to be going very well. Of late, Fiat buyers have been treated to a better life than with TVS, who were the earlier ‘in-charge’. And Tata gets closer contacts to one, who has the finest in automotive technologies. But will the Tata people, in an attempt to promote their own product, dissuade people from buying the Fiat and sell them an Indica instead? Naturally they should. But theoretically they won’t. Since the Palios cost more, the dealer will enjoy the better margins on selling them. Besides that, they sell enough of those diesel Indicas that they are not desperate to woe buyers.

To find out, I hopped into my car and headed to a dealership, pretending to be there as a customer who likes to buy a Xeta or Palio, as a second car. To add credibility to the situation, I had taken my mom along with me. We pretended total ignorance as to be knowing nothing about the two cars. I was prepared not to laugh even if they told “Sachin Tendulkar drives the Palio only for the ads. At all other times, he drives a Xeta”.

The level of courtesy they offer in Tata showrooms is exemplary. If I walk into a dealership as a journalist for the New Indian Express, they would treat me well; no question in that. But I was there as a customer and their treatment was still up with the best. When I asked them which of the two cars should I buy, the told me, the Fiat has an up-market image, better quality and reliability and is the one I should buy, if my budget allowed it. When I approached another person for a second opinion, he told that I should buy the Xeta because it is similarly equipped and a lot cheaper. So in a Tata-Fiat showroom, you end up a lot confused than when you entered. And you will probably buy the better looking (and better built) car- The Fiat Palio. So Fiat, everything is working really well. Your quality and marketing strategy has ensured that Tata people see Fiats as superior to their Indicas and promote them.

Both these cars were originally designed with the same requirements, by the same I.D.E.A institute of Italy . Hence the two cars are very closely matched. They are similarly sized, quite spacious inside and are affordable with the Xeta being more so. But if you take them for a drive, the difference is obvious. Compared to the Palio, the Xeta feels like a scaled down truck. The steering that is more horizontal than vertical, the wooden brakes, the vague gearbox and the lack of sufficient insulation in the cabin all makes you remind about the days when, all that Tata could make were trucks. It feels crude and utilitarian. But the ‘big size and the small price’ justifies all these short comings. Performance is underwhelming, but not as much as the Palio. It makes up for a decent family car for a price that is nearly Rs.70000 less than the Palio’s.

The Palio 1.1 has better quality and is more built to last. The way the doors shut and the perfectly aligned body panels, all give you a sense of solidity. Interiors feel richer with beige theme though space is similar. Compared to the Indica, the steering is well positioned and precisely weighted, the brakes feel soft and velvety and the gearbox is crisp. The ride quality of this car is one of the best and with the new engine, the car is reasonably fuel efficient. The only downside to the car is performance or rather a complete lack of it. It weighs 1100kg and puts out a feeble 58bhp from the tiny engine, which ensures that it is more of a garden ornament than a car. It barely moves. And what’s more, the moment the AC is switched on, the engine jerks as if it is going to stall.

Overtaking in this car can teach you a lesson or two on patience. You pull out from behind the slow moving truck, bury the accelerator pedal, look twice in at the speedo to see if you are accelerating, switch off the A C (and still wonder why nothing happens) and 10 seconds later, apply the brakes because the car you saw a mile away is now only a couple of feet away and you have not cleared that truck either. Thankfully, it has powerful brakes, but why? It doesn’t reach any great speeds so as to need them. On level roads, if wind is favourable, it will do 0-100kmph in about 20 seconds.

So like they say, buy the Palio if you have the budget. It is too slow to be on our highways, but power is adequate for the city. And it rides well on our potholed roads. Besides it will start on every morning and everything in it will run through out the day.