Indian built cars - good or bad ?

50Twuncle

RichardD1970 wrote: »

Probably both.

MG Rover paid Tata £3000 per car, a couple of minor differences in body panels (bumpers if I remember right) and a different suspension set up and tried to sell them on for £6,500.

Cheap components, cheap production facilities and a car never designed for the European market. What could go wrong! :rotfl:

Similar then to the mid 70's Allegro, Princess & Marina then ?
BL again - there's a surprise !

BeenThroughItAll

50Twuncle wrote: »

Similar then to the mid 70's Allegro, Princess & Marina then ?
BL again - there's a surprise !

Well, they were very much designed for the European market, and the major issues with those three weren't down to crap components (except water-soluble body panels) and factories, but due to the union-led puppet workforce who spent half their time standing around the braziers and the other half casually lobbing parts together into roughly a car shape.

Stoke

RichardD1970 wrote: »

I worked for Rover at the time and knew some of the lads doing PDI's at the docks. Basically a re-badged Tata Indica.

Some of the horror stories I heard :eek:

Strangely enough, 12 years later, I still see one driving around local to me and it still looks and sounds like it did new (not that that is a high standard to maintain :rotfl:).

And Tata has redeemed himself with his investment in JLR

Would love to know the horror stories.

I'm not too knowledgeable on the CityRover but for me, I think the concerns with that car obviously lie with the safety of it? I mean, just look at it? You come up against any other small car of the same era and you're finished. Corsa? You're dead. Lupo? You're dead. Punto? You're dead. I mean, the irony of course was that the CityRover was meant to replace the Metro which itself was an absolute death trap. Maybe I'm wrong, but just looking at the CityRover, it hardly radiates safety.

The build quality probably does sit on the shoulders of Rover and Tata. The Indica is a popular car in India, and has been designed for the rough and tumble of India's environment, so surely the CityRover should have been better?

To be fair, the thing I said about the engine is true, as far as I'm aware. They're designed to be absolutely hammered and can cover many many miles. They're quite popular in these low powered endurance races that cross Europe etc, because of that very reason.

RichardD1970

Safety was, I think on a par with other supermini cars of the time.

It had side intrusion bars, collapsible steering column, airbags, all seats with anti submarine ramps and three point seatbelts, front belt pre-tensioners and height adjustable head restraints. ABS was included on the higher spec models.

The engine was derived from a Peugeot.

Like you say, it wasn't all bad,

Despite the media criticism of the CityRover, one (the upgraded 2005 version) was chosen in 2006, to be used as the reconnaissance vehicle for the 2007 Himalayan Challenge Endurance Rally. With only minor modifications, the car was driven over the 7,000-mile (11,000 km) planned route from London to Delhi, by students from the University of Southampton, Chris Cardwell and Nick Clarke, without any major problems, including crossing significant distances of desert, and a number of mountain ranges.

The reasons given by the event organisers for the choice of vehicle were that it is "the cheapest brand new car you can drive in Britain", and to prove that the route could be driven in an ordinary small car, without the need for a large four wheel drive vehicle.

Following completion of the race, the car was shipped back to the United Kingdom and sold to a prospective competitor, with the intention of using it on the event in September 2007.

Ganga

Somebody told me that the Nissan Micra is now made in India,do not know if this is true.

facade

Indonesia or france according to Wiki.

Indonesia VIN starts MF to MK, France VIN starts VF to VR, India would be MA to ME.

Indonesia can't be any worse than Sunderland's attempt to build my [STRIKE]Renault [/STRIKE]Nissan Note- think BL circa 1976, but without the quality control and reliable Lucas electrics