Verna in the Getz

Before you start to get puzzled, let me make it clear. The Hyundai Getz gets a Verna, er, the Verna's engine. It's not your run-of-the-mill engine plonked into the engine bay. Fancy the fantastic, faster-than-the-petrol guzzlers, 1.5 l, 110 bhp, 235 Nm CRDi VGT lump? Spot on. The Getz gets the exact same engine as the Verna diesel. This engine makes the Getz CRDi miles faster than the Swift diesel, which, in its own right is a great car. The Swift DDiS will simply struggle to keep up with the tail of the Getz CRDi come drag race, which is not surprising at all considering that the 1.3 Multijet unit of the Swift makes around about 40 horses less in comparison to the Getz engine. The Hyundai engine has the measure of the Fiat lump in the torque rating as well. 235 vs 190 odd.

If I'm given a choice between these two brilliant hatches, I would most happily go in for the Hyundai. Its road manners is on par with the Swift, it looks just right for me and most importantly it does a nought to hundred in 11 seconds flat - two whole seconds faster than the Maruti. Bolt a set of sticky Michelin 205 tyres, fit a K&N filter complete with the intake duct assembly and allow the engine to roar better with a free flow exhaust. One second shaved off. That'll do for me.

The Ultimate Hot Hatch. And frugal at that. Brilliant.

The Good and the Bad Looking

I've just come across a car that's both good and bad to look at, at the same time! It's called the BMW 1 Series. The little Beemer looks impressive in the profile. There's a complex interplay of concave and convex surfaces on the side of the car and it manages to look as if the whole lot has been carved out of a single billet of metal. Awesome. But, it's the head-on view that's awful . Atleast for me. The culprit here is the headlamps that suddenly bulge out in size as it goes towards meeting the fenders. In order to try and tone down the controversial Bangle effect, BMW has been, for some time now, concentrating on softening up the looks and the results, unfortunately, don't manage to go down too well with me.

The Hot Cake of the Indian Auto Industry

Why has the Tata Indica been and is selling in such huge numbers? The answer is quite simple: the Indica is a small car that offers dollops of space inside. In other words, on the outside it isn’t much obtrusive [in terms of space for those cramped city streets] than an Alto while at the same time providing interior space that can shame cars a notch higher in the segment. This is one of those rare small cars that can comfortably seat three people abreast in the rear seats. In addition, the very efficient diesel engine that though short on power [more so in the un-blown version], does a very good job in handling the daily chores ensuring that prospective customers on the look out for a practical small car for their family need not look beyond this car.

The build quality is acceptable while the tyre roar and the engine noise fall just short of irritating when the windows are rolled up. The air-con too works fairly well to cool the relatively large cabin.

Although small niggles are aplenty in this car, as an overall package, for its price, the Tata Indica is a good buy.