1600 KM Round Trip, Second Service Update

Gave the car for second service on 17th May 2012. The darn full beam is still not fixed. On the verge of giving up on the full beam. Very very very disappointed with that. The problem with H1 and H7 bulb assembly is i cannot go for 100/90W setup. The best i can do is 80W each and that would be slight tricky.

Anyways, over the last week end, completed a 1600KM round trip on my inddie.. The ride was supremely comfortable for my parents in the rear bench and was truly sedan class. The car behaved very well on the highways.. With 100% AC, keeping inddie between 80 and 100 KMPH returned a FE of 18.75 KMPL. With 100% AC, pushing inddie upto 120 KMPH, sudden acceleration and deceleration to accommodate the two lane NH 17 from mangalore to goa yielded a healthy 17.5 KMPH.

Cracked Bumper, Shattered Tail Light - Fixed

Got the second service done. Along with that showed the cracked bumper and shattered tail light. I was given an estimate of 2500/- for replacement of the tail light (right lower) and rear fender refit with brackets etc replaced and bumper touch up. The split was something like 1100 for tail light assembly including labour and 1300 for bumper work. Gave the car at 9:30 AM and got the car back at 7 PM. But, a job very well done. Will post pics later. Sad part is that the high beam is still not aligned to my satisfaction.

Two and half months into the ownership, I think I can say that so far, the car has been fantastic. I dont regret having made the choice. The small "niggles" I have listed before were not something that I lost my sleep over or not something that made me mad. Most importantly, none of those niggles were on the critical path of the car's basic function - moving from point a to point b.

Let me continue to share my experiences as we go along. For now, 1700 KMs trip is just round the corner. Will update soon.

-Aravind

Cracked Bumper, Shattered Tail Light and Tint Removal

Today, I wanted to remove the tint as the cops have set May 19th as the deadline to remove the same. Instead of giving it to Service Center to remove the tint, I decided to do it myself. I successfully pulled out the sun film but the glue residue was still present on the glass. The easiest way of cleaning the glue from the glass is to use some paint thinner which is available in any hardware shop and use a old toothbrush to clean the glue. Dip the brush in the thinner and just rub over the glue stuck to the glass and it works like magic.

However, after this was done, i wanted to start to office and was backing my car and lo, it crashed against the pillar. Inddie's rear bumper got cracked and the RHS tail light glass was shattered.

Will have to get this fixed during the second free service next week. Btw, May 24th, Inddie will start on 1800 KM journey to Goa and back. Will update post second service.

- Aravind

The Elusive Full Beam

OK, I have news and not a great one. I am frustrated. Simply, the 4 headlamps of Vista dont necessarily translate to better night vision of the road ahead. The headlamps suck, and bigtime. Yesterday was my 4th Visit for the same issue. Instead, now, the low beam alignment is also gone and high beam continues to focus on tree tops. I feel the previous alignment was better!

Very frustrating. Night time, i dont think i can cross 40-50 KMPH safely. The other problem is, headlight alignment switch only applies to low beam and not to high beam.

Next service, I will give it another shot. If these guys (Concorde) are not able to do it, I will take it to AutoMatrix and give it a shot.

My experience yesterday was sub standard too! I go to concorde and the security tells me to pull into the workshop. Cars are parked so hapizardly, that to reach the workshop I lost 20 mins from the entry gate. When I reach workshop, they just ask me to drive to QRS (Quick Repair Service) bay for which I did not have to drive through all this mess. Finally once I am in QRS, the guy tries to adjust beams and screws up low beam as well. I was able to realize only when i drove in the night that it was messed up. He claimed that it was perfect now.

Whoa.. I think following are the options in front of me:

1. Give two more tries to have the headlights focused and aligned properly - one at concorde and one at AutoMatrix.
2. If that fails, I have two options:
2a.Go for some really powerful foglamps (is that what you call them? the ones installed on the bull bar like Hella etc)
2b. Go for a mod on the original and get a pair of projector headlamps.

- Aravind

Summary of Issues and Good things faced so far in the One Month of Ownership

Issues First:
- A/C Vent not moving up and down - Fixed
- Grinding noise from Front right wheel - Fixed
- Dashboard plastic sheet has come off - New Issue, will fix in second service.
- Full beam is a sore point in Vista. The headlamp level adjustment is only for low beam. All my enthusiasm about 4 headlamps fizzled out because the full beam adjustment is still not to my satisfaction. Even with 2 or 1 person in the car, the full beam will blind the pilot of the aircraft flying in the sky but not light up the road ahead. With 4-5 persons, dont use the full beam, it is of no use. This is a very very irritating thing for me, because spotting a speed breaker at 80 KMPH in the night and slowing down in time is simply impossible with these high beams. I think H4 bulbs are better or TATA should have head lamp leveler adjustment for full beams too.


Good Things:

- Good riding comfort
- Ability to take on bad roads
- Feels stable at 140 KMPH (on a straight road)
- 80 - 100 KMPH feels stationary and absolutely free of stress
- Good mileage
- Super duper A/C which chills in peak summer.

Tale of 140 KMPH, One Grounding and Dashboard Plastic

On 31st Mar, my drive to sullia was progressing as usual. Suddenly my wife tells me to take a look at the speedometer and the speedo is showing 140 KMPH. RPM is 3000+ . But car was stable and did not realize that we were cruising at 140.

FE from that trip (90% A/C) was 18.9 KMPL. In the previous trip, my nephew and niece wanted to play in the river at Sullia and i was ferrying them to the river. I drove over a sand dune and lo, the car scraped the ground right at the center, but luckily on the frame where the jack is normally placed. Thanked stars for that.

Hmm, Now to the "niggling" issue: Yesterday I observed that the dashboard plastic (black color) has come off from the dashboard. I realised that the black plastic feel of the dashboard was achieved by gluing the black textured plastic material and was not part of the mould itself. Will have to fix this in the next service (5000 KMs). Car has already clocked 3300 KMs in one month.

So far so good, nothing major to worry about..

- Aravind Kamath

First Service Update

Completed 1st Free Service on Mar 21st. Got engine compartment waxing, 3M paint protection done. Cost about 3500/-. Asked the high beam adjustment to be done, it was done, but I need to have it adjusted again. It is not to my satisfaction. Car runs great as usual.