Till April 2011, I was using a Bolero Storm (
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...tached-10.html), but I had to give it up due to health reasons and switch over to an Indigo CS. This thread is meant to share my experience of the Indigo CS and get other owners' perspectives as well.
I'd first seen this Indigo CS lying in my father-in-law's (FIL) garage in Nov'2010. Upon querying, I was told this had been bought for another member of the family but since that person had opted for FIL's Logan, this vehicle was being used for FIL's office staff. Being used to the sight of Indicas by a dozen in Bangalore, my first impression of the Indigo was... Hmmph! Taxi! A short ride in the Indigo somewhat altered my viewpoint since the back seat felt very comfortable and the noise levels, fit and finish of the cabin was quite refined. I did notice that FIL was racing the engine a lot in 1st and 2nd, saying it was needed because the vehicle didn't have enough pickup. I left it at that...
Following an appendix surgery in Jun'2010, I was feeling pain in the area of the stiches whenever I drove the Bolero. Since I needed to travel long distances during the weekends, I was having to endure the pain during the course of the travel and also upon reaching my destination. This was taking the fun out of my weekend drives. When I mentioned this to FIL, he suggested that I take the Indigo and he would sell the Bolero & buy an SUV for himself. This agreed, I dropped off the Bolero one fine day in April and got ready to take the Indigo. The day being Saturday, I didn't immediately go for a test drive -- test drive? what for? a taxi? I thought.
The next day, FIL and my co-brother insisted that I try out the Indigo on the way to Church to make sure that I liked it. Thinking nothing of it, I sat at the feel and was I amazed! The steering wheel with the wooden touch felt good to hold. The front seats were high-tech compared with anything I previously owned -- with electrical adjustment using two switches (even my friend's ANHC had manual controls for seat adjustment! Hah!). Since there was height adjustment, the first thing I did was to set my seat at the highest setting since I liked the high seating position of the Bolero and wanted to get a similar feel here as well. As I cranked up the engine, it sounded like your regular indica/sumo -- noisy. But once the windows were rolled up, you were in a different world and the engine noise was not an issue any more. I was in for a bigger surprise once I got onto the main road!
On the road, with the windows up and the AC running the Indigo felt just like the petrol Zen Estilo I had before the Bolero. Sure, it was not peppy and I occasionally stalled the car in the 2nd gear, where the Bolero would have chugged along pretty fine. My driving style is such that I change gears early, anticipating the engine's needs and also for braking at high speeds. Thus with my driving style, I felt that the Indigo's low pickup could be negated. Just as my co-brother was commenting on the Indigo being underpowered, I spotted a Swift behind me looking for an easy overtake. I played with the gears, used minimal foot brakes and pleasantly discovered that the Indigo was going to be a very interesting animal on the highways on my long weekend trips!
Here's a little more about the Indigo:
As I've mentioned above, the shift to the Indigo from the Bolero was mainly on account of comfort and on that score it has done pretty well...
Pretty good seating layout, with fake wood finishing here & there, nice small steering, stylish & comfortable gear lever, fit and finish of the interiors is good enough for a car of this class.
Front seats come with electronic seat control switches for 3-way movement. Hah! To think that my friend's ANHC has a knob for height control!
Side RVMs with built in side indicators... and I finally get RVMs which I can control from the inside!
Back seat legroom is just about okay, but since I keep the front seats up to the maximum height, legroom at the back becomes much better.
Boot space is enough for a 3-member family and when I need to carry something more...
... the back seat can be flipped over twice to increase the luggage carrying capacity.
Apollo Amazers have been just that -- AMAZING! considering the way I drive! But I suffer frequent punctures and so I plan to shift to tubeless at the next change with no change in aspect ratios.
The engine is definitely underpowered but like I said, with my driving style I'm able to squeeze out the kind speed I want...when I want it. Gives a pretty decent mileage of 16+ kmpl with AC.
The last stretch to my FIL's estate is a mud road, which is drivable during the dry season provided your vehicle has good GC and there again the Indigo does pretty well.
Thus far, I've been pretty happy with the Indigo but my main grouse is that the service experience has been below par and this car could've been much better if the servicing was good. The service interval is 10K, which works pretty fine for me considering that the Bolero had a 5K interval, but my last two services have come upto Rs.9400 and Rs.11500 respectively which looks kind of high. Also, something I regret quite often when I drive this car is how I spent a lot of money on my Zen Estilo buying tubeless tyres, alloy wheels and what not -- if only I had that money now I would've bought tubeless tyres & alloys and sythentic engine oil for this baby and then what a ride it would have been! And so the journey continues... nearing 50K kms for the moment and I hope it lasts at least upto 70-80K kms.