Indica Vista D90 First Impressions

Today I got to date yet another Tata Product. The newly launched Indica Vista D90. My previous experience with Tata Products began with Tata Nano Superdrive in 2010, during which I got to spend 28 days in Tata Nanos while serving as one of the Official bloggers. Later in 2011 and 2012 I got to drive Tata Aria [Review, Pic Set 1, Pic Set 2, Set 3] and Tata Venture [Review, Pic Set 1, Pic Set 2, Set 3]. Recently took out a Tata Safari EX 4x4 on a self drive and I haven’t had enough of it yet.[Photos]

Thanks to an initiative from Blog Adda and Tata Motors, I happened to be one of the 30 bloggers all over India chosen to review Indica Vista D90. While I got the confirmation during the beginning of the year, the dates assigned to me was Jan 18, 19, 20^th , which meant I had to eagerly wait for couple of weeks before getting my hands on the new car. Nevertheless time flew and as communicated, I had a Indica Vista D90 delivered to me today.

While I'm going to spend couple of days with the car exploring it fully, this post is to share some of the first pictures and first impression. More photos and reviews will be published after my drive.

First thing that stuck my attention was the trim name. Its labeled ZX. As far as I could recall, Tata Motors used to name its variants LX, VX, LS, GX, EX etc. There was never a ZX variant. So ZX looks like a new trim level Tata Motors is planning to introduce. (Remember Maruti has its top end variants named ZDi and ZXi?)

The USP of Vista D90 is its 90 PS diesel engine. Sourced from Fiat, this multijet unit is doing duty in Manza, maruti SX4 diesel, Maruti Ertiga (its lowered spec 75PS engine is even widely used in Swift, Dzire and Indica Vista). The engine is well acclaimed and is a proven one. It should be smooth and well behaved, I'll more about it later.

Interiors of Indica Vista has also changed substantially in D90. Original Vista had central console (saves money, since same dashboard unit can be used in export markets as well). In D90, console is moved in its conventional position and a DIS (Driver Information System) is introduced at the centre. (Similar to Xylo's DDIS)

Turn indicator has been integrated with A pillar (not new for D90). This saves money to the buyer. If the indicator had been moved on the rear view mirror, when damaged rear view mirror would have been expensive to repair, given the additional electrical of the indicator. With indicator inside the body, there’s less risk of it getting damaged.

Indica Vista comes with stylish alloy wheels be default, not the plain white ones sold with almost every other car in the market.

Vista D90 has many more features. Tata Motors representative gave me detailed walk through of its features. They also asked me to push the car to the limit and go on long drive- it shows their confidence in the car and I will follow their advise to the letter. I am not going to spend any more time writing about them now, because I need to make the most of every moment it will be in my possession. So I'm hitting the road now.

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