The successor to the “Indian car”, Tata Indica. The first ever sedan offering of the auto giant Tata is the much in demand, the Tata Indigo. Although it is not readily available, it makes for an excellent used car buy. Achieving what was unachievable in a limited time frame is what Tata has done. It diversified its portfolio from being an all-commercial to passenger cars manufacturer. But here is where the entire problem lies. The roots of Estate and Sierra are still evident in the Indigos and Indicas of today. This is despite the leap Tata has achieved in terms of reliability, quality and refinement. The fact of the matter is this; Tata indigo is a sedan which many people can afford to lay their hands on, courtesy to the killer and dynamic pricing strategy. Due to this factor a large share of cars that have been sold are running as taxis and as a cardinal or a thumb rule one should keep away from those vehicles. This is simply because those cars are not well-maintained neither are they serviced in an authorized service station. One must only look forward to a privately owned and well- maintained vehicle so as to avoid problems in future.
Tata, which is know for its reliability and affordability factor, has done tremendously well as it shows. Even a second hand Tata Indigo has fewer problems, especially if serviced at recommended intervals from the authorized centers. So if you are game for a used Tata Indigo insist on the service records before parting with your hard earned money.
Tata indigo come in both petrol and diesel- engine variants which inherently doesn’t seem to have problem except for the fact that it is slightly unrefined. While evaluating a used Tata Indigo one must have a keen eye to figure out the accident damage. One must start from under the car. Power steering assembly is very vulnerable and prone to scratch on taller than normal speed breakers. The elbow is easily knocked off, which then leads to leaking of the fluid used for the power steering. However, it is not much of a science to replace an elbow unless the box has been hit real hard. Things can take an ugly turn and so can you at this moment, if the box has taken a serious beating. One more part that is particularly known to be prone is the tie bar. It has the potential to destroy the alignment of the wheel, so one must not miss it. One must also check the engine end and the wheel end of the boot, so as to confirm that it had not undergone serious wear and tear and is intact. If it is otherwise, such that it lets dust penetrate and accelerate the wear on the shaft. Also, if you are looking at a used Tata Indigo which has already clocked 20,000 km, it is about time to replace the arm ball joints.
Further one needs to delve under the hood and check for battery shelf. If at all it seems unbalanced, it is an assurance of a frontal shunt. One needs to inspect the cross member in the front which later doubles up for the bumper. If this is uneven or bent, the car is sure to have had an accident. Authorized Tata workshops can repair and repaint those to regain its originality. They sometime go to such extreme extent as to apply lacquer on the repaired surface area. It will be easier on your eyes if the repair had been undertaken by a local road side mechanic.
It is time to replace the brake pads once the car has reached a mark of 20,000 km. whereas the durability of the clutch is twice than that of the brake pads. When you take the deciding test drive on a car which has registered less mileage, if the car makes juddering noise in the first gear, the clutch plates for sure have worn. Implying that, the vehicle has been used very badly by the owner. The radiator fan and condenser fan come to their expiry as soon as the car has clocked 60,000 km. The condenser fan costs Rs 2,200 whereas radiator fan costs Rs 6,000 which by all standards can’t be considered cheap. At such mileage, the alternator will also require a servicing which will cost about Rs 2,500.
The electrical wiring of even a used Tata Indigo should ideally be reliable and trouble free. But one must not be complacent about it. Check the re-circulation switch of the cooling system and check for its functionality. Many, if not all owners don’t use the switch too often, hence the probability of it being in a jammed condition is high.
A second hand Tata Indigo is not prone to rusting, however that may be the case if the vehicle is not being used around for quite some time. One area that you can’t afford to oversee is the silencer and the exhaust pipe. Also the battery stand deserves a check. It is generally a tendency among the owners to overfill the battery’s silo, which culminates into leakage of acidic water and thus to corrosion.
Being a much in demand product, the Indigo holds its monetary value quite well. The point is a second hand Tata Indigo can be more costly than otherwise you think it would be. Rest assured once you lay your hands on this car, it will beyond doubt be cheap to maintain, run and a be good companion both on the highways and in the city. A used petrol Tata Indigo from the 2005 lot would be yours for only Rs 3,48,500. The diesel Tata Indigo price would go for far higher and would be available at around Rs 4 lakhs. The DICOR engined ones would commans somewhere around Rs 5 lakhs roughly.
