Indigo MANZA Aura Safire ABS(Petrol)

 

Exterior Side looks are the best.Front looks resemble the Vista.Rear Looks is pretty ordinary.More or larger red lights required.Painting is good as it saidf to share the paint booth with Fiat Linea.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) It has got a host of useful features that enable  a safer drive such as ABS,blue tooth,8 wiper settings,abundant space,driver seat adjustment,lumbar support,set belt chime ,illuminated key hole ,Blaupunkt Music system with steering mounted controls,Fog lights and many more.

The rear seat is even better, good place to relax and stretch your legs (I'm 6'1" and needed a big car!).A/c is very effective and reaches th rear immediately.Comes with tubeless tyres.

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox This review is posted by me after 2000 kms and one month of driving ...comprising 40% in village /rural roads  and 60% on 4 lane NH.Engine is silent,averaging 14 kmpl to date.This is very good mileage for a huge and heavy car.Gears are not the 'butter box' marutis though! Got to shift down 2 gears after speed breakers to regain rev and speed.Only here did I find the car engine sluggish.

 

Riderruality & Handling Ride is superb.Handles well in all roads.Excellent on 4 lane NH.Amazing drive and control.Good ground clearance.Spent the past 12 years in various models of Marutis. While marutis score in quality,reliability and fuel efficiency,off late they have started to fleece customers with expensive servicing/repair  costs. No rear space at all in any maruti (suits kids only).

 

Final Words Scanned the market for sub Rs.5.50 lakh vehicles :Dzire,Ikon Diesel,Sumo Victa,Rio,Bolero,Chevrolet,Logan and Manza.Needed to wait 4 months for a Dzire.Catch me waiting that long for a new car in 2010 AD! Holding costs of Ikon are high.Chevys are low mileage cars.Not willing to gamble with the Rio s as yet.Rio,Sumo,Bolero in my budget are withous power steerring and A/C. Did not go in for logan as it is not clear who will own it and service it 2 years from now.I'm told even taxi segmets dont buy the discounted and piled up logan these days.Got my choice of Dew white petrol manza in 5 days.Tatas have shown that this is all it costs to provide so many features if a car is made in India.The difference in costs in this segment could be mostly be royalty paid to Foreign car companies. Maybe the MANZA is the 'POOR MANS COROLLA'.

 

Areas of improvement Electricals, engine,door handles,more rear area of red lights required.

 

SPACE, SAFETY FOCUSED FEATURES LIKE ABS,BLUE TOOTHINITIAL NIGGLES WITH PW SWITCHES,REAR LOOK,moderate engine performance