[Deepak_Boston]

Iam driving a Indica zeta 1.4k cc engine.. for the past nearly 4 yrs...Its mileage suprises me...with very difficulty it touches 9-10 km/ltr...I can understand it is heavily built...and the first in petrol by tata in indica...The engine too doesnt kick given the high cc...

is there anybody who can share his experience on this


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[ganesh_evo75]

Originally Posted by Deepak_Boston

Iam driving a Indica zeta 1.4k cc engine.. for the past nearly 4 yrs...Its mileage suprises me...with very difficulty it touches 9-10 km/ltr...I can understand it is heavily built...and the first in petrol by tata in indica...The engine too doesnt kick given the high cc...

is there anybody who can share his experience on this

@deepak,
Indica petrol's are known to have low fuel economy, so i guess you will have to live or leave with the car.
Petrol Indica's had an problem of overheating, thus leading to Head Gasket failure's, so check it out. If you happen to keep the vehicle for long time, and you realy loves the car, then probably you can ask the Service engineer to see the parts (ECU, Fuel Pump, Injectors, Various Sensors, to name few), that Tata has upgraded in interest of fuel consunption, reliability, etc,etc.If they are easily availaible and make sense to replace, consider the option.

[shuvc]

I drove a 2001 Indica Petrol for 3+ years. This was the first version (pre-Xeta, pre-V2) with the 1.4mpfi engine.

The FE you are getting matches exactly with what I used to get. 3rd gear acceleration was pretty peppy.

[msharma_79]

Get your car checked for any problem with Tata cause I have just sold my xeta1.4 GLS. The car was trouble free and gave me mileage of 15 without AC and 13 with AC.had done 50k kms and 4th year running.

Hope you have been going to TATA only for your services, elsewhere no respect for the car..Trust me. Every single experience with any other service station has been very troublesome..cause they dont understand the car and most of the time their judgement is clouded by the perception of the car.

[.anshuman]

1.4 Petrol engine shared the engine block and a lot of mechanicals with the Diesel engine of the same cubic capacity. The engine received a lot of refinements and modifications over time, Utimately the cubic capacity was reduced to ~1200cc when the petrol variant was renamed Xeta. Petrol versions could never manage the refinement and reliablity of its Japanese and Korean competiton. Though the power output on 1.4MPFI engine was a healthy 75bhp but the performance was mediocre. Despite being sold at a price much cheaper than diesel variant the petrol indica never sold in good numbers.

I think Tata took a right decision to outsource the engines for Vista and Manza from Fiat given their constant struggle to keep niggles away with from the previous gen Indica engines.

[quattroa4]

some manufacturers have an image problem in our market like tata or take skoda even , they all only known for their diesels and people do belive in their diesels only . so even if tata has maneged to source fiat engines , hardly they will sell it . despite the new vista n manza saffire are very good products!

[ACM]

The effeciency figure seems fine enough given the know figures for the vehicle in the early days.

You could change some of the parts to newer ones for better effeciency if you are going to keep the car for long - check with the authorized centre.

Also low friction tyres from michellin will add 1 kmpl to the effeciency.

[Abhay]

Xeta is the supposedly more fuel economic version right? I have a 2005 V2 Indica and I get around 11-12 in the city and 15 on the highways. I cannot tell you recent figures but these are from my calculations in the past but I think they are still valid.

As for acceleration? It is a heavy car but as shuvc said 2nd and 3rd gear are peppy and it will out-gun most other small hatches on the roads (especially in the ghats, the torque makes climbing ghats a lot easier as well as in slow moving traffic)

[srh]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Petrol versions could never manage the refinement and reliablity of its Japanese and Korean competiton. Though the power output on 1.4MPFI engine was a healthy 75bhp but the performance was mediocre

Being an owner of a 1.4 Xeta, I can vouch for the reliability/ longevity part for the engine (although not for the plastics, wheel geometry and to some extent electricals). My car has done 27k km.

Having widely driven a Wagon R, I can also say that refinement is comparable if not better. It is just that the Indica petrol engine is not free revving and you have to keep it in the right rpm range and not try to go to 5000 rpm (which anyways you don't need to due to the great low end torque which peaks at around 2700 rpm). In 3rd gear roll-on acceleration figures, most comparable hatches (read Santro/ Wagon R) won't hold a candle to the Indica petrol.

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by srh

Being an owner of a 1.4 Xeta, I can vouch for the reliability/ longevity part for the engine (although not for the plastics, wheel geometry and to some extent electricals). My car has done 27k km.

Having widely driven a Wagon R, I can also say that refinement is comparable if not better. It is just that the Indica petrol engine is not free revving and you have to keep it in the right rpm range and not try to go to 5000 rpm (which anyways you don't need to due to the great low end torque which peaks at around 2700 rpm). In 3rd gear roll-on acceleration figures, most comparable hatches (read Santro/ Wagon R) won't hold a candle to the Indica petrol.

By the time Xeta was launched most niggles were sorted out.

As a owner of Xeta do you think the quality and performance of the engine and gearbox is at par with Hyundai Santro and Maruti Wagon R? I am talking about the all round performance here not just some specific aspects like driveability or 3rd gear performance.

[abhi413]

Would like to put in my 10 cents of experience with the Xeta -

My dad bought our Indica Xeta GLX in mid-2006. Ever since then it was returning a measly FE of around 9 KMPL (my dad likes to drive with the AC on all the time) consistently.

Being a serving defence officer the car wasn't used as much as his office vehicle - however after the 4th service, and now that we travel on the NCR roads, the car is touching a decent 14+ with 100% AC. Better late than never... although we had given up all hope of decent FE from the Xeta.

Please note however that since 2006, we've been posted at Kharagpur & Guwahati, 2 cities not exactly known for their roads! The decent FE only started once the car was running on Gurgaon/Delhi roads.

[dr.faramroze]

Dear BHPians,

I bought an Indica V2 LSI, 2004 model, run 52000 kms, the fuel economy it gives is same as mentioned in the above posts, rather, I feel its fuel luxury. The positive point is peppy drive at any speeds.


I drove Maruti 800 for years now, drove Corsa for a year, but this car indeed is worth the buy. Its completely sophisticated than Maruti products. Though it might not be as refined as the Vista, but when I drove at 120kmph yesterday on NH8, it was awesome.

[rpmx1000]

Glad to see this thread on the Indica Petrol. IMO it was one of the most underrated cars because everyone cried about the low FE. I have driven it at times and felt it was always a bargain for the price. I remember a Xeta keeping good pace with my Indica Turbo (68PS) once on the Krishnagiri-Vellore stretch and have to concede it was not bad on performance at all.

[ambujlal]

My Indigo CS which I believe has the xeta engine and heavier than xeta gives a decent 13kmpl with 75% AC on in bangalore traffic. For me that is a more than decent figures while on highway drive, it has never returned me less than 16-16.5. Although I am a sedate driver and like to drive between 80-100 on highways most of the time. But when situation demands it responds with good torque, although I must say in those times I have to switch off the AC. It won't oblige if AC is on. But then its fuel economy vs peppy drive!

As far engine refinement goes, I did not feel any difference between a maruti wagon r (my dad owns a year old wagon R) and similar and my CS. the engine is pretty silent given the stop and go traffic which I mostly drive in.

I strongly believe Tata petrol engine are highly under rated but they do their job silently. Also I have hardly spent any money on engine maintenance (except regular oil change) in my past 2 years of ownership and more than 20K Kms of drive.

Not tough to figure out that I am one happy tata petrol engine car lover

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by ambujlal

I strongly believe Tata petrol engine are highly under rated but they do their job silently. Also I have hardly spent any money on engine maintenance (except regular oil change) in my past 2 years of ownership and more than 20K Kms of drive.

Tata Petrol engines do not have anything great about them, the engine you are talking about is a result of 12 years of Beta testing on customers. Every car in the segment has a better engine, even Tata motors have given up now and now use Fiat Petrol engines in the newer cars like Vista and Manza.

20K is not a mileage high enough to demand engine maintenance, its barely 2 oil changes old. The competition has engines that perform like new at 10 times the age.