[gjnnbagal]

According to Autocar's Facebook page, Mercedes was developing Indica for Tata. (Which did not happen for some reason)

Link

[dragracer567]

The design does look somewhat similar to the first gen Mercedes A class sold in late 90s, especially the front half (image below). Moreover, Mercedes originally entered the Indian luxury car market in 1994 through a partnership with what was then TELCO (Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company). So, its not really inconceivable that Mercedes helped Tata with their first car!

[Eshan Joshi]

Well back In the days Tata used to have a collaboration with Daimler.





In 1992 Tata released the Tata Estate , which looks quite similar to the W124 TELCO used to import.







TELCO also started to assemble the W124 E220 in India for Mercedes in 1994.

Tata also used to have some stakes in Mercedes Benz India.

And as dragracer567 mentioned , the front of the A class and Indica look similar.








So , I am not surprised.

[TrackDay]

If this is indeed the first gen A class, I feel the Indica looked better as far as external appearance goes (Compared to 1st gen A class) as the W 168 looked more like a matiz. Perhaps if Mercedes was involved in the project, the Indica might have been a superior car mechanically, but a bit expensive too. Nevertheless, good to know this story.

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

The design does look somewhat similar to the first gen Mercedes A class sold in late 90s, especially the front half (image below).

Actually the 2nd generation A Class which was sold from 2004-2012 has more resemblence to Indica than the 1st gen. Also, TML pulled off a much better design than Mercedes.

[aadya]

Overall Indica's design was revolutionary at that time. Just so that we have been seeing Indica as a cab for so long, we feel it as dated. What was lacking in Indica, which could have been provided by Mercedes, is the excellent fit and finish. In the photos published above we can clearly see the panel gaps and the quality of Chrome work and the overall solid look in the Mercedes, unmatched by the Indica.

[Latheesh]

IIRC In the past Mercedes used TMLs paint shop for painting Mercedes cars.

[Nithesh_M]

As far as I know the first gen Indica was partly designed in Italy with some ex Fiat Punto designers. So any remote resemblance to the A class fascia is purely coincidental.

[ajmat]

If you read the article, Mercedes and Porsche designed specific budget cars for China which did not happen. This was designed. Am not sure if Tata's had a hand in designing it or were adapting it for use in India