The Indica vista may look like an evolution of the indica but is a grounds up redesign launched in 2008. And, its apperance is its biggest problem, too similar and familiar with those triangular headlights, smiling grille and christmas tree taillights, meaning an casual observer would mistake it for just an indica which is enlarged. However, the front is striking, the sides look ordinary and in this safire version, look out of proportion when shod with puny 13 inch wheels. For a car this big, the wheelwells whould have atleast 15 inchers.
Justin Noyrek, of I.DE.A, who designed the vista, has kept the familiar “christmas tree taillight” look at the rear. While it makes up for a clean looking trunklid, it still looks very early 90s. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Chassis engineering:
- Hyundai getz: 6 /10
- Hyundai I 20: 7 /10
- Honda Jazz: 8 /10
- Maruti Ritz: 7 /10
- Maruti swift: 8 /10
- Skoda Fabia: 9 /10
- Chevrolet Aveo 5: 6 /10
- Tata Indica Vista: 6 /10
- Fiat Punto: 9 /10
These cars may look similar but are very much different under the skin with varying degrees of stiffness that differentiates the Europeans from the Japanese and the Koreans.
Europeans are still masters in designing rigid and stiff chassis that are of prime importance In developing countries where pathetic roads and poor infrastructure means that these cars are more abused than your average “kantabai” maid.
So, not surprisingly, the punto and fabia are blessed with the gem of a chassis with stiff springs and damper settings for amazing ride quality and road holding at high speeds, with an anti-roll bar at both front and rear for amazing handling at any speed. The skoda’s key to its high speed road manners is the VW groups “C” platform, designed and engineered in South America, where similar roads exist, requiring the use of “rough road package” for maximum stability at any speed.
Ditto for the punto. Based on a SCCS platform shared with the corsa, it was also engineered for South American markets (esp. Brazil, Fiat’s volume market) and South African markets where similar road and weather conditions persist.
The Honda jazz, in its second generation, is also designed keeping the US market in mind and is truly a global product, with a stiff chassis (for a Honda) aimed at optimizing ride comfort while providing neutral handing. It is a good example of packaging marvel. Based on Honda global small car platform shared with the city and insight hybrid, it’s an extremely compact, intelligent and space efficient chassis with simple suspension setups tucked on to the farthest of the monocoque. Same goes for the wheels-tucked far off to generate maximum passenger space.
The Hyundai I20 follows a similar chassis design philosophy as the jazz but is designed more towards easy driving than sporty handling, key to markets in Europe. It is a new generation PB chassis, more stiff than the jazz’s though in terms of packaging and space it does fall short, despite of having a long wheelbase than the Honda’s. All in all, it follows a conventional chassis trend as with any other European supermini of today, nothing groundbreaking.
