Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   The Indian Car Scene (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/)

-   -   Where did the Indicabs go? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/104460-where-did-indicabs-go.html)

I was wondering, I recall there was a variant of Tata Indica meant fully dedicated for the Cab crowd.
But offlate I am not seeing any new Indicabs at all.

Has Tata stopped producing Indicabs? All the recent cabs I see are either Indica or Vista ones?

Or am I missing something here?

Not much of a price difference between indica and indi cabs, thus many cabbie's are buying indica's itself for a few features etc.

Tata website doesn't have any mention of Indicab
Indicab were visibly different from Indica in that the tail lights were round with black surroundings and the interiors were less premium(if I may say so).
I feel, now that the market has improved, even the taxi segment buys Indica instead of Indicab.
Hence they must have stopped Indicabs

Hmm I agree, what I am wondering is that Tata has stopped it without creating much news at all.
And even there is no one who is creating an issue for the product having discontinued by Tata, aint it very strange.

I think they phased it out for bringing in the famed eV2 which apparently did not set the sales chart on fire . I think its time tata moved on from that design . They've held on on to it for far too long .

The INDICAB was an awesome concept. Guess they only sold it as a TAXI and the lighting scheme was simple and practical - the rear lights

There was so much of cost-cutting involved that even the INDICA badge was a 'sticker'

With the life-time tax thing not being added to the On-Road price, this one must have been a real steal. Guess they also sold it in bulk to travel operators.

Last but not the least
"You could have it in any colour, so long as it was white"

I think they are phased out and the last versions of Indicabs came up with the Type-I Indica taillamps with white lenses for indicators.

Interesting question. I had the same doubt and asked the cabbies and they said that the Indicab was phased out quite a while back. It was replaced by the normal Indica with clear-lens lamps (basically the facelifted Indica V2). Now, for the metros, that is replaced by the eV2 Indica.

Tata came up with Indicabs in pre Vista era since they wanted to get rid of cab image of Indica. Hence a sepeate name, few exterior diffrences and cost cutting measures to lure cab owners. And should say that worked fine. However now, with Vista as their major positioning in private hatch I guess it doesnt make much sense for them to sell two variants of Indica. May be this is the reason for stopping the model.

@Xingamzon, that was in all probability a BS-III model and hence no longer available in Metro's.

But tell me one thing: How often does a person notice a new cab ?

We had an Indicab before the WagonR (of course we had it for running in 'tourist taxi' plates).
We bought it when the refreshed Indica V2 with the horrible wheel arches was launched.
I quite liked the christmas three light affair which did their job well, especially the reverse light, and also the smoked headlight which looked cool than ordinary lights.
If i remember it had thicker tyres than the ordinary Indicas and definitely spartan in the interiors,though things like the rear parcel shelf and vanity mirror in passenger visor were present.

What was that word - Condorised or something :uncontrol

Coming back to topic, the idea was to have a visible difference between Indica Cab and personal cars (As Indica was suffering from Cab image) but since the roll out of Vista, Tata has stopped manufecturing Indicabs as they have indica V2 (eV2) in this section.

The Indicab was all but a slightly mod version of the DLE (without PS). The reasoning for this variant must have been due to the nature of the cab business. In Blr most of the Indicas/cabs are used by IT/ITES transport service. The maintenance of these cars are appalling to say the least with bumps all over the body and tail lights broked or battered.

These issues were mitigated with the simple pod tail lights in Indicab. Also in many states companies do not allow registration of yellow boards on their certain model range (like have not seen many vista yellow board) and thus allowed it then for Indicab and not Indicas.

Now since the V2s are not patronized by individual / private owners, the entire range is available for commercial use. An example where Indigo XL was the super premium version of Indigo, it is now abundantly available in the fleet of Easy Cabs et all.

I guess end of Indicab is a clear indication of the ageing of the V2 range in Indica product life cycle.