[leonerd]

Congrats on owning this awesome car. I am in love with Vista and nearly went for it this Diwali before I broke down . The gala red is the color to go for and looks just awesome on Vista. Please do post the interior pics. Are you planning any upgrades? Keep us posted.

Congrats once again.

[lightpower]

Originally Posted by herculesksp

...Also, I think the entire staff were waiting at the exit in a neat line and starting clapping and congratulating as we drove out. It was so embarrassing when they were doing that, but it is definitely one thing that I will remember always....

Congrats on your new buy. Happy Motoring.

I had a similar experience when I took delivery of my Palio in Concorde as well. I was very much embarrassed but the moment is etched in my memory for ever.

[vijaythacker]

hercules, congratulations on your pista vista friend.Gala Red looks so cool on vista.Keep updating your ownership review and enjoy your ride.

[driving_smartly]

VFM car a good decision of trusting fiat engines. This car has potential hope that tata improves PDI aspect and try to minimize the defects before delivering the car to customer. congrats on your Vista. Please keep updating the thread on regular basis your observation about the car and fuel efficiency and so on. Which sunfilm have you gone for ? is it Aura ? please post the inside pictures as well.

Drive safe

[herculesksp]

Thanks a lot everyone for the wishes. The car definitely feels very nice to drive and I am glad that I bought it. Will update with pics(interior and exterior) and more ownership reports. Already have some stuff to post and I just have to compile it in a nice format.

Originally Posted by Gilead

Congrats. That's an awesome color. What your your OTR price? Are they running any special discount schemes?

Originally Posted by safari_lover

Could you please share the OTR price for the car and the discounts you got, if possible?

The OTR price came up to 4,58,396. Total discounts were 18,000. I don't know the discount breakup as this was the invoice I got from the leasing agency. Additionally the dealer threw in Rs. 3,000(or so he says) worth of free accessories, which included floor mats, mud flaps, car cover and sunfilm.

Originally Posted by leonerd

Are you planning any upgrades? Keep us posted.

Originally Posted by MAS

Treat your car with a set of nicely designed alloys + wider tyres. This would give your car a meaty look.

I definitely want alloys, but not planning to do it immediately. Planning to see how the car runs, maybe for about a year, and decide whether it is a keeper. If so, then I can splurge on it. Also gotta check the contract with the leasing company and see what mods are allowed on the car.

Originally Posted by MAS

Get it repaired/replaced asap. As you had lot of time, the Team-bhp Check-list could have helped

Seriously... I missed much of the PDI. Was so excited/nervous/anxious that I didn't check half the things. Plus the pressure from the better half of the getting to the temple before it closed.

Originally Posted by MAS

Should not happen. Please get it checked with the service advisor immediately. Ask for a test drive in another Vista and see if you experience the same roughness

Yup, good idea. Will compare with another Vista and see. Dunno if it is the vibrations from the clutch plates, or from the lever itself. But with the engine off, I didnt feel any vibrations while depressing the clutch. So I guessed it is the clutch plate.

Originally Posted by MAS

Typical TATA. Get the combination switch changed, as you could blow the fuse due to this.

Righto... will get it rectified ASAP

Originally Posted by anekho

Aha. You mean mudguards!

Originally Posted by Zappo

Exact word for that is Mud Flaps.

Unbelievable... How did I forget that word? Grrrrrr.....

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

I expected green since you called it Pista but red looks fantastic anyway

Yup, I know Pista is associated with green, but since there are no green Vista options, I decided to name mine that. :P

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

First of all when you say not aligned do you mean that the height of the beams from the two lamps are going skywards?

Nope, that is not the issue. The left lamps seems to be fine, but the right lamp is projecting funnily. For example, the left lamp is projecting at a distance of about 10 feet ahead(say), but the right one is projecting 2-3 feet ahead and the spread is also concentrated. By this I mean, the left one spreads more(between 8-12 feet). while the right one is like the light from a torch. I'll take a pic and post.

Originally Posted by driving_smartly

Which sunfilm have you gone for ? is it Aura ? please post the inside pictures as well.

Yes, its the Aura variant. They gave me Garware sunfilm of 50% grayness. They said this is as recommended by the RTO.

[driving_smartly]

Can you explain exactly what is this contract lease how does it work in terms of Cars ? with whom is the ownership rights now with you or the leasing company ?

[herculesksp]

Originally Posted by driving_smartly

Can you explain exactly what is this contract lease how does it work in terms of Cars ? with whom is the ownership rights now with you or the leasing company ?

You can find a lot more information on this thread -> http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying...etter-you.html

Just to brief you on this. The car is owned by the leasing company and I am its appointed driver. The leasing company will pull in the car for regular service and maintenance. Instead of paying EMI to a bank, I pay EMI to the leasing company. The interest rates are higher than if I go to a bank directly, however the other benefits outweigh this high interest. At the end of the lease period I can choose to keep the car, paying some amount, or take another lease on a new car.

[Latheesh]

Congrats! Red vista is one of my favorite cars. Happy Driving!

[greenhorn]

heh, just stumbled onto http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/hatchb...ndica-not.html

so it took you 3 years to buy a car eh
Congrats. You got a vastly better deal than the xeta

[herculesksp]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

heh, just stumbled onto http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/hatchb...ndica-not.html

so it took you 3 years to buy a car eh
Congrats. You got a vastly better deal than the xeta

Heh... yup, technically this is my first car. I had the M800 for 2 years but I had bought that second hand. So turns out that waiting to buy a new car was actually a good thing.

[Majic]

Congrats on you new car, its really worth having, dont be bothered about minor issues most of it would be taken care of in the first service!

[herculesksp]

Some updates on the car after having driven 250kms until now. Thanks to the weekend for helping me clock that much distance.

• Radio - The FM tuner is very funny. I had tried tuning into FM 91.10 and the reception was not that great. Tried with 94.30 and that too wasn't very clear. Only FM 91.90 was clear. So I was quite surprised and thought the FM receiver is not very powerful. Then while was trying out some manual tuning I realized an interesting thing. The tuner/display is offset by .05 MHz. So Radio City tunes to 91.15, Radio Indigo to 91.95, Radio One to 94.35 and so on. It is quite easy to identify this as the Stereo indicator lights up when offset by .05 MHz. Amazing quality issue.
• 2nd Gear - I have to test this out more but in the second gear, at around 2000 or 2500 RPM, the power seems to drop just a little bit momentarily. It then picks up as the RPM increases. I didn't notice this on the other gears. Is this some issue with the ECU mapping?
• 3rd Gear/4th Gear Roll-on - Though the power is a little less, the driveability of the 3rd and 4th gears are very nice. They pull easily at even 20kmph, but pull very slowly. Once the RPM nears 2000, it begins to pull hard. Feels like turbo lag in petrol. Does anyone have a link to the Torque/Power curve of the Vista Safire? I would like to study the T/P curve. I have a feeling that they intersect between 2000-2500RPM based on my drive until now. But yes, I have not exceeded 2000(2500 occasionally) since I am running the car in.
• Clocks - One thing that Tata/Concorde should have done was to set the clocks on the Stereo and the Dash. The times were not set and both were showing totally different times. It took me about 2 days till I found the time to go through the manual and set the correct times on the 2 clocks. This should be a part of the PDI for Tata.
• Driver comfort - Definitely better than the M800. When I used to drive that for 3-4 hours in a day, then the next day I would have such a bad pain in the rear. However, this weekend I drove more than 6-7 hours and I can still sit down. Need to adjust the lumbar support though, not finding it making any difference to my driving comfort.

These are the observations for now. Will post more soon. Planning to take some night-time pics tonight.

[herculesksp]

Here is an update on my car. Sorry for not putting up any pics yet, I have firstly not found much time to photograph the car, and secondly whenever I decide to photograph it, it would have just rained and my car would be very dirty. But I promise to put up some pics very soon.

I have now covered almost 1000kms now. I still have about a week's time before I complete my first month. Following are the good and bad points that I have observed about the car.

Bad:

• There is a lot of noise from what I think is the front suspension when I drive over potholes and speed breakeres. It is a whining noise like that of un-oiled springs. So I end up driving a little faster than I should over small humps to avoid the squeaks.
• The headlights are driving me insane. It is as if there is no right side lamps at all. The throw on the right side is pathetic and of course the high beam bulb on the right is kaput. It gets very stressful at night because there are a lot of stones next to the divider and iron rods protuding out of it, and without the throw of the headlamps, I would notice them too late. I have been lucky so far and where possible, I drive in the center of the road.
• I have driven in the rains a few times and there is this enormous tendency of the outside of the windshield to fog up. The defogger clears up the insides very fast but I have been unable to defog the outside except by running the wipers. I have tried all temperature settings but I am not finding it of any use. The other thing is that the intermediate wiper setting is not working. Either the switch is malfunctioning or some wires are not connected. I end up having to do a manual wipe once some drops build up on the windshield. Also, I have not seen the wiper activate after the 5 second gap except when I do a manual wash and wipe, doesn't it work when I use the wipers normally?
• Driving Comfort - Yes you read this right. The car gives me so much to play around with that I have not been able to find the optimal driving position yet. On the 800 I would just move the seat back till I find a comfortable position and be done with it. Here I can move the seat back and forth, I can raise it up and down(and quite a lot), I can tilt the steering up and down. There are so many parameters that I am finding it quite tough. I would have preferred a reach adjustment on the steering and then I would have settled in more comfortably. I have had very bad backaches after long drives due to this. Lumbar support too is not helping.
• I would have preferred a lamp at the boot. There is a spare 12V charger at the rear seat, but a boot lamp would have been really good. I had a tough time loading up the boot at the airport at night. Also the boot is quite smaller than I expected and I had to fold down the smaller of the rear seats to accommodate a few bags.
• I have this funny feeling that the brakes lose the bite when applied 2-3 times at low speeds, or while reversing slowly. For example, when I am reversing the car out of my gates, I have to constantly apply the brakes since it is a down slope out. Almost at the end of the slope when I brake for the final time, I feel the brakes have gone soft and the car doesn't stop immediately. When I release and re-pump, then the bite comes back. Is this how power brakes behave, or is there something wrong with the car?
• The paint on the plastics seems to be of poor quality. My wife brushed the front bumper with her scooty. The rear footrest of the scooty brushed past the bumper near the tire. Even if I had kept my finger in between, I would not have felt any pain, it was that light a brush. But a small chip of paint has peeled off revealing black plastic underneath. I think the paint is a very thin layer and is not cohesive enough. Similarly, there is a small white scratch on the bonnet caused I think while someone was cleaning/dusting the bonnet. Again I think this was caused due to a very thin layer of paint. But the experts can comment better on this.

Good:

• Coming to the good things, the car is a pleasure to drive. I have had my bottom aching for days after a 40km plus dirve on the 800, but here on the Vista my bottom feels pampered. I have driven around 100kms in a single day and I have survived painlessly to the next day. There is only that matter of making my back feel comfortable which I have been largely unable to do.
• The car is very smooth and awesome to drive. The engine has started sounding a bit noisier, but I hope that will improve after the first service. The TD car was much smoother than that, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. The soft carpets on the floors are a pleasure to rest the feet and long drives are efffortless. I read that the steering feedback is dead and lifeless, but I found it quite nice. In fact, after the swift, this is the only other power steering that I find heavy enough and comfortable at the same time.
• The throw of the headlamps that are working are very nice and it is a refreshing change from the poor throw of the 800. I also found the rear fog lamp very useful while reversing in the dark. I never realized that rear fog lamps are red, I had expected them to be white like the front ones. The front fog lamps are not that useful for now as the throw of the right low beam almost overlaps the throw of the fog lamps. Duh!!!
• The built in player is quite good unlike what many make it out to be. My Pink Floyd mp3 CD spun up effortlessly and within 10 seconds was ready to play. It was faster than my PC DVD drive. Also the sound staging is awesome on the car. Yes, the bass sounds a little hollow, but I felt the audio reproduction of the highs and mids were very accurate and the lows are really not all that bad for an OEM system.
• The AC is again a powerhouse, but then Bangalore weather is also quite cool these days. I had to keep the cooling setting at the middle to keep things comfortable. At max setting and blower speed 1, the AC would cool the front seat occupants within a couple of minutes to the point that you would have to turn the AC off.
• Finally for the ones who have been waiting for the FE report, here it is. To give you a perspective, I drive about 5-6 kms daily on weekdays. This is mainly within a narrow pedestrian filled road and I never exceed 20kmph, maybe 30kmph and at the max I am on third gear. I have the A/C on most of the time at blower setting 1 and the cooling setting fluctuating a lot (thanks to my wife and I having different cooling requirements). I drive about 100kms during the weekends with the occasional 200 on some weekends. These long drives have been mostly on the ring road and new airport roads, but I have had my share of jams as well, maybe in total around 3-4 hours spent on 4-5kms of roads.
  This being the case, my average with the auto cut off method comes up to around 13.5kmpl. I consider this quite good considering the very fuel in-efficient routes that I do on a regular basis.

Those were the only points that came to my mind. I would be giving the car for its first service next week, and I will then update the thread with the condition of the car after service and the quality of service. Of course I can't give you my impressions of the service since my company will be doing it for me.

If you have any other questions about any specific parts/switches/features of the car, please shoot and I will get back to you ASAP.

PS: @mods, I forgot a title for this post and I am unable to do that during edit. Could you please add '1000kms report' to this post? You could update the thread title once I have submitted my car pics.

[WindRide]

Thanks for the detailed and candid update Hercules.
Regarding the noise from the front suspension, this seems to be common to most Vistas! And the problem seems to get fixed in the first service interval itself.
Wonder why TATA can't ensure they come noise-free from factory itself. Don't these guys learn anything from dealer feedback?!!

And hey that's FANTASTIC FE for a heavy petrol car. You are almost trespassing onto Vista QJD territory here!!

Looking forward to the pics. No doubt the Vista would look gorgeous.

[herculesksp]

Originally Posted by WindRide

And hey that's FANTASTIC FE for a heavy petrol car. You are almost trespassing onto Vista QJD territory here!!

I wouldn't be so confident that I am trespassing onto QJD territory, but considering that I was expecting only around 10kmpl given my roads and the bulk of this car, this was quite was a surprising revelation.