Ever since Tata Motors rolled out its first hatchback, the Indica, on Indian roads, they’ve worked and reworked the concept – so much so that it’s almost a decade-and-a-half that Tata has had with only one hatch. With a refreshing new design, Tata named their hot selling hatch, the Vista. Futuristic in its looks, and a good feature list would have you paying around `6.5 lakhs (on-road) for it – and it was worth every penny. Tata car owners are happy with what they get at that price, but they unanimously crib about one thing – the quality of the interiors. The company defends itself against this allegation, but looks like this time around, they let their work do the talking.

Indeed, I’m talking about the all-new Vista from the Tata Motors stable. The company decided to do away with the ‘Indica’ tag, and have put in a lot more into the car. The Vista has a curious mix of features from the company’s product line. It’s got the Manza front end – so a lot of chrome. It’s also got the interiors and alloys from the Vista 90 petrol, and the engines are the same as what we saw in the earlier versions – the 1.4 Safire and the 1.3 Quadrajet. So, the question to be asked is – how does it retain its original identity?

When it comes to the exterior of the car, it’s a lot of bling – and not too pleasing at that. Needless to say, there is a lot of chrome on the car. The door handles, side skirting, not to mention the front grille – it’s all been sprayed with a heavy dose of the shiny stuff. It’s all about giving the car that upmarket look after all. The company logo at the rear too is bold, and mounted on a black plastic mould strip. The new Vista also gets a set of alloys that do add to the overall look of the hatch. The front end of the new Vista is a copy paste job from the Manza Elan, so if you see any of these cars in your rear view, well 9 out of 10 times, you won’t be able to tell one from the other.

The interiors of the Vista are refreshing, yet familiar. The black and beige interiors seen in the Vista 90 are retained here, but the rest of the cabin doesn’t see many changes. However, the changes that have been made are worth a second look. The backlit instrument cluster changes from blue to a closer shade of white, which does improve its visibility. The music system too is what we saw in the earlier cars. It’s got a radio, a CD player, AUX-in, USB and Bluetooth connectivity (it’s what Tata now calls Blue5).




The steering is adjustable for height, but it would have been a nice extra if we could get reach adjustment too. The Vista finally gets steering mounted controls, and if you thought they were an all-new development, not really. Yes, the Vista will be the first hatch to get them, but we’ve seen these controls on the Manza, so it isn’t really all-new now, is it? Another new feature in the hatch is the electronically adjustable side mirrors. And, if you put it all together, you do realize that Tata Motors has actually managed to pack in a lot of features in this segment.

The new Vista is available in the 1.3-litre Quadrajet and the 1.4-litre Safire engines. These have been Tata’s tried and tested mules, and have worked for them in the past. The Quadrajet that we drove had smoother gear changes, and the turbo kicked in as soon as the revs went past 1900 on the tach. There is evident turbo lag in the car, and, sometimes while overtaking, you have to shift down to get that additional dose of power to help with forward momentum. The gear changes, though, are considerably slicker and this helps a lot in city traffic.

All-in-all, the Vista is a blend of most of Tata Motors’ products, and stands out among its competitors. But, how well it withstands the competition of the recently launched Maruti Suzuki Swift will be something to look out for. It’s been a long and hard road for Tata Motors, but they’ve succeeded in punching above their weight. Now, what remains to be seen is how they’ve been able to further leverage the Indica’s DNA.

It’s time for a new car, a new badge – and perhaps even a new beginning from a much more equitable plain. With the new Vista, mind you, they have been able to mix some sugar and spice – putting together a recipe that could very well cater to the needs of a lot of different tastes.