Tata Vista D90 – A Review Of The Tata Motors Car

I am not a car enthusiast. But I have been driving more than a decade now. I have driven primarily two cars Wagon R and Honda City. I did drive some rented cars in US and UK – most of which I do not remember. Except, the one Red Renault that I crashed badly in the UK more than 10 years back. And I got a chance to review Tata Vista D90.

I always wanted a Red Car. But after I crashed a red one I read some statistics from the insurance industry. Where they said the Red cars are ones that get hit the most. And in some places, even the insurance premium for them is higher than other cars. These two data points were enough to deter me from buying a red car. So I was very happy when I got this Red-colored car for 3 days to test drive. A wish fulfilled may be for a limited period only.

Tata Vista D90 Car

Incidentally, it was the first Tata car I ever drove. Which is strange because living in India it is not very easy to miss out on Tata products that dominate almost all the fields that they exist in. This was also the first Diesel car that I consciously drove. In fact, when I was talking to the Tata Motors representative, he kept saying ‘Madam this is a Diesel Vehicle’. I kept taking notes in my mind that I must figure out if that makes a difference to the driving pleasure. It was the first new car I drove in a few years now. So it was fun driving it around the city. Though I drove it only to the extent I needed to. Could not bring me to burn the fuel just for the heck of it.

Features

As an average, not crazy about cars driver, here are some of the features that stood out for me in the car:

The car is quite spacious from inside. The back seat has been divided not 50:50 but 60:40 so that three persons can sit comfortably. This essentially means that the person sitting in the middle has a space of her own and does not have to sit on a partition. This works well also when you are traveling with lots of luggage. And may need to fold the 60 part of the seat to accommodate the large bags.

Dashboard

The dashboard is very well designed and along with music system it looks sleek and trendy. It comes with many usable features like Bluetooth connectivity that allows you to pair up to five mobile devices with the music system. You can not only receive or make calls but also play music from your devices. Music controls are available on the steering wheel that makes it easy to play your own DJ when driving alone, with no need to fiddle around, the buttons. There is a mileage display along with time and temperature that I think is brilliant. As it can tell you at any point in time how efficient is your driving. And hopefully, helps you save the precious fuel.

The joystick-like device to adjust the rearview mirrors is very easy to use and is placed in a very convenient way. There are two power-charging points one in the front dashboard and the other behind the rear right seat. This is a very small but a very thoughtful feature given the fact that we are such a gadget dependent generation.

The automatic rear wiper operation when you move to reverse gear and if front wipers are on is another small improvement that can be very helpful during monsoons.

Design Elements

There are other design elements that you can see on the external body like triple barrel headlamps, a lot of chrome in the front grill, double-colored roof etc for those who like the exterior appeal as much as the interior one.

A few small things that have scope for improvement are – I like to have a clear space to keep a water bottle in the car. I could not fit one anywhere on the front panel or the door panels. I found gear shifting, especially from 1^st to 2^nd was not smooth. But this could be because the vehicle was too new and needs tuning during the first servicing.

Thank you, Tata Motors for giving me this opportunity to drive the yet to be launched vehicle, a first for me. Wish you all the best for the launch and the run of Tata Vista D90.