In-di-go!

Finally, a new member enters our household! She moves, she entertains, she laughs, whines and what-not! Such a cute li’l baby she is!

Now that was an understatement; a gross one, so to speak. Naah, my mom didn’t give birth to a sis. (Sigh!! But she’s past menopause and dad isn’t too ..erm.. interested. But I can never confirm! :P)

We just bought a new car!!

Meet our new Tata Indigo CS LS TDi!

We’ve contemplated buying a new car for years. Not that we were throughly dissatisfied with the good ol’ Maruti 800. It was perfect! (Precisely the reason why we didn’t give it away for a crap-price) Apart from minor hiccups and bimonthly services, it was fine and didn’t strain dad’s pocket. Mom & I learned driving in it. Despite our nasty gear-shifts, and my maniac acceleration, it helped us steadfastly edge our way through nerve-wrecking traffic jams. Once, when even mighty SUVs bore the brunt and simply stopped during a flash flood, it helped us sail through (quite literally), even under my tepid arms. But the need for a new car became more and more imperative, for, almost everyone we knew had ‘moved on’! The need was more a ‘social’ one. The fat pay-checks my parents got on a monthly-basis coupled with minimal-splurge, thanks to dad’s MBA-refined, spartan outlook towards money, ensured that we had enough disposable income to afford a new Sedan.

The old Maruti 800

Thus began a saga of research. Dad would religiously spend hours in front of the laptop, scourging for car-models. After close to two months of research (and 300 MB of car-info eating up his hard-disc space), dad decided to try the Maruti Swift. After checking out the swift at Popular and Indus, dad pretty-much lost his Swift-predilection, the main reason being rock-bottom mileage. Then he went on to try the Indigo, allured by its stunning 17+ mileage. Poof! comes this new model Indigo CS. (CS = Compact Sedan). It’s all Indigo, but for a tad-less boot-length. Which means, over a neat 75k reduction over the conventional model. Post test drive, dad was hooked. We booked the Diesel model: Indigo CS LS TDi.

A week, and Rs 5.15 lakhs (which was accrued by fifteen grand, thanks to seat cover, the Pioneer DEH-3050 UB stereo with 2000W PMPO speakers, and floor mat) later, we got the car all for ourself on the 22nd of March. Complete with Power Steering, Power Windows and Air Conditioning. I decided to get myself conditioned for sometime before I could start driving the beauty (which doubled as a beast, at times). Maneuvering turned out to be quite a tough cookie. Pangs of my conditioning in the Maruti, perhaps. The power steering eased my job, though. Gear-shifts were effortless. The Engine-power was mind-boggling. The 1405 cc engine delivered an amazing performance, even in the battered State Highway One. The A/C and the suspension was too good. Not to mention the stereo, which (thanks to the speakers) turned out to be the best part of the story!

See the beauty for yourself! 😛

Front

Rear

Side-angle. (note the rear-boot. The boot-length-reduction is clear enough)