[Magnaspectre]

Good review. Tata has brought out a good product into the market. Hopefully, vehicles like the Magic Iris and the Bajaj RE60, we will soon see fewer 3- wheeler autorickshaws on the roads. A good move in the interest of safety.

[Mistakenguy]

Originally Posted by narayan

There is even a load carrier version of this thats doing the rounds in some parts of Chennai. Looks very cute. This should defenitely be far better than a 3-wheeler auto in all respects. Especially in Kerala which largely has a lot of KAL autos, this is a really a few notches above in the luxury quotient.

The number of these vehicles have increased so much that I have seen a couple of exclusive Iris stands( in the Aluva-Paravur belt).

narayan: Its been atleast 4-5 years since I saw a KAL auto. Wonder where you get to see many KAL autos.

[Gansan]

Come to Chennai, and you will see plenty of Tata Magics running on fixed routes, with destination and route boards!

[bejoy]

Thanks for the review amalji. I had seen these auto taxis while i was in Kochi, but never seen the black/yellow color combination. I also heard that it was facing a slight 'identity crisis' as the owners are not being allowed to park them in auto stands or in the taxi stands, by the respective unions.

[i.1979]

one of my friend has a dealership of tata CVs and he gave me a chance do a test drive. it is OK to drive except braking (this is not a car so we can't expect car like braking). backseat comfort, space far better than those three wheelers and feels safer too. he himself was surprised by seeing the good response from the customers. as per him engines are sourced from greaves/ piaggio.

[poloman]

Excellent option for passengers. The autos cause more accidents due to the handle based steering which though increase the maneuverability is grossly misused by drivers. Govt should come ups with segment guidelines for quadricycles which does not exist now. But addition of features like seat belt as pointed out by some comments here can kill the very existence of the segment, in what case it will become more of a car and push down the cost advantage.

[freakmuzik]

I just travelled in one very recently in Thrissur! It was soo better than the present autos of Bajaj, Ape, etc. In comparison to these, the Magic was spacious, suspension was way better, easier ingress and pretty smooth engine for a diesel. The gearshift was looking and functioning cool . The only grouse is that the front seats are being removed and a bench fitted in all these vehicles ( as seen in the opening post). Plus, basic safety norms like Seatbelts should be made mandatory for such new entries into the mass market. That, in one way, might also help in popularizing the importance of safety in a better manner.

[shankar.balan]

I wish the government would issue a complete ban on pesky Non CNG auto rickshaws in favour of vehicles like this Tata Magic, Mahindra e20 and so on...

[Grace]

Thank you Amalji for this wonderful review.



My DIY mind is thinking what if I remove the body and use the rest of the four wheel as a contraption to get around in my gated community.

Andy

[rangarx]

Great stuff here! Seen one in my native (Udumalpet) a month back. It was used by a private owner who, turned out to be very satisfied with the vehicle as I learnt from my chat with him. He also quoted the mileage was a stupendous 35 kmpl! Forgot the price though.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I wish the government would issue a complete ban on pesky Non CNG auto rickshaws in favour of vehicles like this Tata Magic, Mahindra e20 and so on...

Mahindra e2o with its price levels, can never be a viable proposition for taxi trade.
Now there is likely to be a flow of iris like vehicles soon. Mahindra and Piaggio can derive from their existing range pretty easily.

[amalji]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Notice variant sticker 'D+3' - thats probably "Driver + 3". It is very likely that the front passenger seat was removed from the variant to meet some autorickshaw license norms - Autos cannot carry a passenger in the front. That explains the 'raised leg rest' in front.

Spot on. That exactly seems to be the case. Thanks for pointing it out.

Originally Posted by Steeroid

The vehicle in the picture has a carrier on the roof - not sure if loading the top of this vehicle (tall with swb) is a good idea. They would be better off using the front passenger space for additional luggage.

It already has adequate boot space behind the passenger. The carrier doesn't seem to be a requirement at all, unless if they want to transport light weight but long materials.
And as you said, they can even use the front area if required.

Originally Posted by Mistakenguy

The number of these vehicles have increased so much that I have seen a couple of exclusive Iris stands( in the Aluva-Paravur belt).

Wow, that's good. Shows that this design is here to stay.

Originally Posted by Gansan

Come to chenni, and you will see plenty of Tata Magics running on fixed routes, with destination and route boards!

Is it legal to do it that way ? Or they are doing it bypassing the law ?

Originally Posted by bejoy

Thanks for the review amalji. I had seen these auto taxis while i was in Kochi, but never seen the black/yellow color combination. I also heard that it was facing a slight 'identity crisis' as the owners are not being allowed to park them in auto stands or in the taxi stands, by the respective unions.

1) Infact, it's for the first time, that even I saw a black/yellow combination. I ran behind it to get it stopped.

2) I hope, the typical "oppose everything at first" mentality with us - Keralites don't cause issues for this fantastic design from TATA.

Originally Posted by i.1979

one of my friend has a dealership of tata CVs and he gave me a chance do a test drive. it is OK to drive except braking (this is not a car so we can't expect car like braking). backseat comfort, space far better than those three wheelers and feels safer too. he himself was surprised by seeing the good response from the customers. as per him engines are sourced from greaves/ piaggio.

Brakes, I guess it's because it doesn't have power brakes. Even the Nano doesn't have power brakes.

Originally Posted by poloman

But addition of features like seat belt as pointed out by some comments here can kill the very existence of the segment, in what case it will become more of a car and push down the cost advantage.

Safety should come by default on all vehicles. To support that, government should bring in policies, where the manufacturers gets tax exemption, when they meet safety standards. That way, even the cost can be brought down. Unfortunately, our government is in a money milking mode.

On a country where the majority cannot afford a car, they put all sorts of taxes so that when you spend 8 lakhs for a car, 3 lakhs goes into government's pocket. After looting the tax payer, if the tax payer needs good roads, they again charge 1 rupee per km in terms of toll. The looting doesn't stop there. Our government makes more profit per liter of fuel sold than what an OPEC country would gain, when they sell one liter of crude oil!

Originally Posted by rangarx

Great stuff here! Seen one in my native (Udumalpet) a month back. It was used by a private owner who, turned out to be very satisfied with the vehicle as I learnt from my chat with him. He also quoted the mileage was a stupendous 35 kmpl! Forgot the price though.

35 kmpl is fantastic mileage.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Mahindra e2o with its price levels, can never be a viable proposition for taxi trade.
Now there is likely to be a flow of iris like vehicles soon. Mahindra and Piaggio can derive from their existing range pretty easily.

Other issues with the electric car concept for taxi are

• Range of the vehicle. You hardly get to drive 90 kms in one charge
• Charging time. 5 hour of charging time means you lose out on business.
• Battery replacement too expensive. It's difficult for a normal driver to save that money over a period of time, and then spend it when needed. This is a very unpredictable and huge expense and doesn't work well with the segment. Even for energy from solar power, failure point is the batteries. Till we get better technology to store electrical energy, it will always remain uneconomical. TATA's air car would be a good solution for vehicles using alternate energy because it stores energy with very good efficiency.

[blackasta]

Even Jalopnik is impressed by the Iris and the maxximo !

http://jalopnik.com/5965768/why-indi...teresting-cars

BTW - the above review got the reviewer an invite from Anand Mahindra - do look for his comment in the discussions segment.

[classact]

Nice review Amalji. Good that you were prepared for the review and was able to capture all the important points. It's really difficult to do a review even when you own the vehicle, reviewing it while travelling on a taxi is a good job.

[saion666]

impressive indeed,specially the space in the back seat is just wow.
However am quite skeptical whether these would replace the 3 wheeler autos in the metros.The iris surely makes sense in semi urban and rural areas where the roads are empty and the commuting distance is more but when it comes to the congested roads of the metro cities the 3wheelers steals the show with their maneuverability.