[RavenAvi]

Received on WhatsApp.

[SS80]

Originally Posted by MunnabhaiMBBS

Looks are equally important to me.

I will buy any TATA hatchback only if...

I think the R&D team at TATA really took your post seriously, Tiago, Tigor, Harrier - they seem to be designed keeping these points in mind.

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Received on WhatsApp.

Attachment 1941912

Rear wiper and defogger are restricted to only the top two XZ and XZ(O) variants. Even adjustable headrests for the rear seats are restricted to the top two variants only. These play a very important role in preventing whiplash injury. No height adjustable seatbelts as standard either (restricted to the top two variants again).

Pathetic mentality from a manufacturer striving for 5 star rated cars when it comes to safety. Seriously, didn't expect TATA to do a Hyundai here.

Another thing I just noticed is that the driver seat is height adjustable only on the top two variants! Steering reach adjustment is absent across all variants as mentioned before.

The mid variants have once again faced the brunt of bad feature allocation just like the Harrier and the Hexa IMO. The mid variants represent very good VFM for most customers and also aid cross shopping between segments. TATA is shooting its own foot here.

[Latheesh]

That red Altroz with black roof looks awesome, and it is the best looking hatchback in the market along with Polo GT. I did not like black unibrow like piano black insert and waistline insert. Interior looks bit boring but it looks like well put together with nice textures. Rear wash-wipe and rear adjustable headrests are available only in XZ and XZO variants.

Am I the only one who liked that speedo meter?

https://youtu.be/6ag4UyZDUHQ

[gururajrv]

Head to autocar India link here to get a full view of the car. Car looks absolutely smashing from all angles except for the rear which is appearing a bit busy with the paint job mostly.

Attaching pics here for a preview before you head to the link. I’m sure Altroz will steer Tata’s sales north from their mediocre sales reported of late despite having strong cars on stable but lacks what competition offers such as clean finish job & features. Let’s see how Altroz turns out to be.

But, I’m sure Altroz will face the heat from Hyundai with their upcoming new gen i20. It’ll surely again spice up the heat in the premium hatchback segment and they better equip the car with a lot of tech features to attract the crowd as I’m sure Hyundai is ready to come all guns blazing and load the car with features to the brim!

[freakmuzik]

I really am loving the design of the Altroz and the very reason is it is growing so much from a design that i hated to something that i'm finding reasons to like the more i see it. Interiors look pretty basic in terms of styling but if the quality is really great, i see no reason to complain.

I'm seeing certain comments on how there's no certain features in certain trims , etc. I really wish people do a proper comparison across cars of same class and then shoot such comments here. Other than steering reach adjustment and the option for 6-airbags (which is seriously a big chance missed by Tata), i find all other aspects exactly at par with the competition.

Eagerly looking forward to the reviews to see how the car performs and how good the quality is. I can't help but say it is disappointing to leave out the automatic during launch. It would have made a sea of difference in the overall perception of the product.

[Herschey]

TATA ALTROZ - THE UNVEIL
Just saw the TATA ALtroz’s unveil presentation live on Youtube and I must say, it was one of the lamest, uninspiring and boring sessions I have ever seen. And whats with the venue location Jodhpur? Did the Tata team want a holiday on company's expense? Is Jodhpur the mecca for all car enthusiasts? And the presentation; it was like a bunch of freshman year students, shivering and trembling but trying to make a presentation in front of the class and failing miserably at it. The TATA guys were all over the place, some making no sense, some trembling with fear on the stage as if someone had a gun pointed to their head, and some looking stoned and lost in their own sweet world. They need to learn a thing or two from the likes of Apple and Tesla when it comes to unveiling a new product. The real product was visible for barely 3 minutes during the entire event and that too right at the fag end of the presentation. At that point, TATA folks looked more like wedding guests making a beeline for getting themselves clicked while handing out those cash pouches to a couple (which was the Altroz in this case). It looked very down-market and unprofessional. Shame on the marketing team at Tata Motors for putting up such a flop show! SHAME!

ABOUT THE PRODUCT – TATA ALTROZ
Since I have personally not experienced the car, all my opinions are based upon the information and videos shared by various Youtube channels, some of them belonging to other automobile magazines and websites.

TATA ALTROZ - THE GOOD
1. The Altroz houses some good design elements having some sharp creases and corners. This one would age much better (with Gold color being an exception) than all their current designs on other cars, Harrier included. Overall, a good effort from TATA.
2. The diesel engine on offer looks sweet and should perform well considering oodles of torque available from extreme low end of the rev band. The torque spread on the diesel is great as well so in-city and heavy traffic drivability should be a breezy affair.
3. The car comes with really wide opening doors which is a definite plus. It would not only allow for easy ingress and egress for the passengers but would also enable easy loading of cargo on to the passenger seat area in case required, especially at the rear.
4. The doors house decent sized door pockets at both the front and rear doors. The pockets have space for holding 1 liter water bottles with ease with space left for other knick-knacks. The driver side door pocket houses an umbrella holder as well.
5. The car houses adjustable rear headrests rather than the fixed type which most other cars offer these days.
6. The boot looks reasonably big with the capacity of 345 liters. The loading lip is a bit on the high side though. The rear seats could have done with a 60:40 split option to offer an even better storage solution.
7. The addition of rear air-conditioning vents and rear center armrest adds to the comfort of the passengers seated at the back.
8. The tire size looks adequate for both the petrol and diesel options.
9. The side indicators are not integrated into the wing mirrors and are instead housed within the front fenders. This may reduce breakage in tight traffic situations we find here in Indian cities. The wing mirrors house a neat looking chrome strip instead.
10. Instead of only a color MID, there is a full color digital instrument cluster which along with showing the RPM, also shows other related information.
11. The flat bottom steering wheel looks good but could have been just a wee bit smaller to look even better.
12. The overall dashboard design and layout looks good. The layout of the climate control switches looked a bit odd though. The quality of the switchgear remains to be seen.
13. The rear houses a flat footboard which would aid in seating 3 passengers in better comfort.

TATA ALTROZ – THE BAD
1. The comparatively small fuel tank capacity would limit its overall range, more so in the Petrol models.
2. The normally aspirated Petrol engine on offer is a complete dud. It feels dead at low RPMs, is lethargic to respond, and does not like to even listen to small inputs to the accelerator pedal. Altroz should have been launched with a 4 cylinder normally aspirated petrol and a 3 cylinder turbo petrol.
3. Not a big fan of the dark grey tone used in the plastics and the seat fabric. A darker shade of black would have looked much better. This however is purely basis what I have seen in various videos where lighting conditions don’t necessarily do justice to the colors which might look a bit different in reality.
4. The recessed door opening levers for the rear doors; while they allows for the car to have a flush look, are not as practical in terms of usage.
5. The low ground clearance of the car would ensure dented running boards spoiling the looks of the car. The car would also scrape its belly much easily with a full load of passengers, and may also damage certain critical parts, chief among them being the exhaust system.
6. The cheap to manufacture 4 bolt wheel hub design is not great for Indian road conditions. However, it would just work owing to the low power and weight figures of the vehicle but a 5 bolt design always works better and lasts longer.
7. The car lacks a wireless charging pad which would have added to its premiumness.

TATA ALTROZ – THE UGLY
1. The front wiper blades love to lie naked on the windscreen.
2. The digital instrument cluster ‘design’ looks old and downright ugly. Also, the RPM dial is digital while the speedometer is analogue while it should have been the other way round.
3. The Gold color shade on the car looks gawdy and over the top. TATA needs to work on the use of color palette on their cars.
4. That black painted shoulder line beneath the windows doesn’t look all that great to me personally. It should have been kept as an optional, much like the dual tone roof option being offered.
5. The rear camera placement right in the middle of the Altroz badging looks odd and should have been placed elsewhere.
6. The car should have come with a shark fin antenna. The placement of the current antenna would not even allow for getting it changed for a different antenna owing to its front placement.
7. The power windows’ switchgear doesn’t look like it belongs to a premium car.

ABOUT TATA & ITS STRING OF PRODUCT FAILURES
TATA certainly needs better people in their marketing team for sure. If the sales charts are anything to go by, the present marketing guys are simply not good at all. They are solely to be blamed for the failing fortunes of an otherwise satisfactory product lineup. They are a big failure when it comes to creating buzz around the product and their people engagement skills (which were as extinct as Dinosaurs during this unveil) have been thrown out the window. They do a pathetic job at handling brand and product image management and care two hoots about any negative sentiment spreading in the market about any of the products. There is nothing done in terms of brand positioning, increasing brand reach & penetration, to bring the products to the notice of the prospective buyers, and to create an aspirational value for the brand. In a nutshell, the marketing team at TATA are just too good at their job, maybe so good that they should be working someplace else.

CONCLUSION
TATA should not align themselves with the auto manufacturers’ cabal and price their products to appeal to a wider audience, even if it means keeping thin margins since higher sales numbers would more than make up for loss in margins. I wish TATA all the success with their new cars, more so since they are sincerely putting in efforts to belt out better products.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Herschey

And whats with the venue location Jodhpur? Did the Tata team want a holiday on company's expense? Is Jodhpur the mecca for all car enthusiasts?

Had mentioned this in an earlier post.

The venue is Jaisalmer - the 'Golden City' in keeping with the 'Gold Standard' theme of the Altroz.

[Herschey]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Had mentioned this in an earlier post.

The venue is Jaisalmer - the 'Golden City' in keeping with the 'Gold Standard' theme of the Altroz.

Sorry for misquoting Jalandar for Jaisalmer! Thanks for letting know of the same.

However, what should look and feel gold to TATA should be the sales charts and not Jaisalmer. They should have made this launch a grand carnival of sorts with a larger participation from the public, somewhat on the lines of Tesla's launch of the Cybertruck. The launch should have been planned in Delhi NCR or Mumbai, the biggest automobile markets in the country and TATA should have invited people to register on Altroz's website for free passes to the mega launch event. All three engines options with all possible variants along with prices should have been launched with deliveries commencing from January onward. Other cars from TATA's stable should have been showcased with the facility to book a car right from the launch venue itself. A light and music show showcasing a prominent DJ post the unveil could have been planned to appeal to the younger crowd on the sidelines. A whole host of stuff and activities to promote brand engagement and reach could have been planned. But anyways, as expected, this has been yet another lost opportunity at the hands of TATA.

[TangoSierra]

Coming from a family who owns and runs a fleet with Tata Vehicles at heart, I must say that Altroz is a top-notch product. Just that Tata hasn't done enough justice

1- Dragging the launch too much. Most of the prospective customers have now turned cold and the enthusiasm has long died. The same happened with Harrier. I mean, from showcasing the car at Geneva in March to Media drive in December is a long time. IMO, they should have announced the prices and launched the Altroz, with deliveries begenning from Jan 2020.

2- Putting that STUPID 3-pot petrol motor in a so-called "GOLD STANDARD" product. A proper 4-cyl motor with similar figures would be more drivable.

3- Then, they went ahead only with manual gearbox (despite point 1), blatantly ignoring the growing affinity towards AT/AMT boxes among masses (I prefer a manual though, just couldn't bear the silly mistakes) despite lessons from Harrier.

Now that the final specs are out, I could only hope they have a JTP version on cards with a turbo-petrol and some serious performance.

[XRoader_001]

Brochure of Tata Altroz can be downloaded here :

https://altroz.tatamotors.com/images...d-brochure.pdf

Tata Altroz Microsite :

https://altroz.tatamotors.com/tata-altroz-downloads and the brochure:

Few takeaways from Microsite and Brochure :

1. Tata Altroz gets similar variant distribution which we are well versed with, a total of Five variants XE, XM, XT, XZ & XZ(o).

2. Tata Altroz Pre-Bookings are open and the booking amount is ₹ 21,000 it can be done both online or at the dealership level.

3. Benefits of Online booking: Priority test drive once the cars are in the showroom, Priority delivery, 100% safe and secure, Free cancellation at Dealership (up to 15th Jan 2020 for customisation packs).

Free cancellation up to 15th Jan is a clear indication that Tata Altroz will arrive either by end of Jan or at the auto expo I guess we may have to wait for long for final pricing which isn't smart at all.

4. The website has “Gold Standard” all over it, Gold Standard of Design, Interior Ambience, Driving Performance, Technology, Space ergonomics, Safety and Customisations.

5. You can Compare two variants along with on the website itself which is quite handy.

6. Five colour options to choose from High Street Gold, Skyline Silver, Downtown Red, Midtown Grey and Avenue White.

7. Build your own Altroz takes you down to the “Imaginator” where you can look at the features of the car including the interior, exterior, infotainment, performance, safety, comfort convenience, colours (here you get only three options to choose from High street gold, Downtown Red and Avenue White)

8. Tata has claimed following as First-in-class features in this segment :

• C- Pillar mounted rear door handles 15 L cooled Glovebox
• Rear flat floor
• With 90-degree opening doors
• 345 boot space
• 17.78 I'm TFT Digital Instrument Cluster
• Harman Tuned Audio with 6 Speakers
• Multi-drive modes
• Alfa Architecture

9. In the Customise section in total, there are Four Packs to choose from only a specific pack can be chosen on a particular variant, after adding the pack you can view it as well.

(XZ(O) being the top variant no customisation is available as expected )
The interesting thing is all packs have the same price in the imaginator ₹ 10,000 (which I presume may change) later

10. Customisation Packs: Rhythm, Style, Luxe and Urban

• Rhythm Pack (Only for XE variant ) includes 17.8 cm Infotainment, 4 Speakers + 2 Tweeters, Remote Key, Dual-tone horn & Camera + Display.
  
• Style Pack includes R16 Stylized Wheel Cap, Contrast Black Roof, Body Color ORVM Skull Cap, Chrome Air vents & Front Fog Lamp with DRL.
  
  For XM Variant ( Rhythm and Style Pack ) are offered in combination but you have the option of selecting either Rhythm or Style as single pack option as well.
  
  
• Luxe Pack (Only for XT Variant) includes R16 Stylized Wheel Cap, Body Color ORVM Skull Cap, Contrast Black Roof, Satin Chrome IDH Lever & Leather Wrapped Gear Knob and Steering Wheel.
  
• Urban Pack (Only for XZ variant) includes Contrast Black Roof, Body Color ORVM Skull Cap, Body Color Console G.S Bezel and Body Color Airvent Bezel.

Many buyers will opt for XZ and add Urban PacK to it. It remains to be seen whether the packs are part of accessory packages at dealership level or cars will come integrated from the manufacturing end, with the particular chosen pack by the car owner, before booking, as for example a leather strapped steering done at dealership level is different from the An OEM manufacturing plant leather steering.

11. While the variant distribution is always debatable same is the case here as well fellow Bhpians have already pointed it out, XZ & XZ (O) differ only in Black Contrast Roof, Note that Black contrast roof is only available for three colours (High street gold, Downtown Red and Avenue White)

12. For me, most baffling is Missing of Auto-dimming IVRM on a so-called Premium hatchback (I see this feature missing in most vehicles for no valid reasons)

13. The gold standard on Saftey (without offering 6 airbags and all Disc Brakes) isn't ideal or am I asking for a bit more.

14. Tata marketing team had sent fantastic invites to media houses along with with a ”scale model” here is good news you can reserve one for yourself at price of ₹ 3,999 only.

15. At the unveiling event, we didn't get any information on the ”Price” and other being the ”Mileage”.

16. It's pretty much evident that Tata motors have focused on features only rather than powertrains, to be fair to them, it takes a lot of R & D along with investment to launch an altogether new platform, without experiencing the vehicle in person would reserve the final opinion on it, as it will all depend on the ”Price” of the product along with its features which eventually forms a package, if priced well Altroz does have the potential it will not be easy competing against the likes of Swift, Baleno, i20, Jazz, Figo, Polo, i10 Nios. It will eventually come down to the price if Tata wants it to be a volume getter it needs to undercut its rivals.

Adding screenshots of the website, brochure and relevant information.

[wheelguy]

Still can't get what's the gold standard thing is all about.

• Looks like Tata is going to pit it against Swift and i10 Nios rather than directly against Baleno and i20, then this car will find its place in the punching above its class list.

• On the interior, looks like Tata took function & practicality over form approach with Altroz.

• On pricing, I hope at least for the launch Tata manages to price it above Tiago in the Swift bracket rather than in the Baleno bracket. But still mid and top variants of Altroz can compete with the Baleno/i20 lower and mid variants with ease.

The car is wonderful in isolation, but things can fade in comparison with upcoming i20, so slotting it against Swift can give it punching above its class tagline. Come on Tata, surprise everyone with the launch pricing!

Is it me or anyone else? I'm seeing a bit of Hexa design language in the front.

Few things about the upcoming Punch Powertrain's DT1 DCT automatic transmission which is quite different from the regular DCTs:

Punch Powertrain conceived and patented a new way of realizing the dual clutch principle. The second clutch in this new DCT is a normal multiplate clutch, however the first clutch represents an additional planetary gearset ratio that can be engaged between the engine and the transmission. This allows the unit to shift seamlessly between 7 forward ratios, using only 4 gear pairs and one side shaft (similar to MT). This results in a lighter, more compact product, while offering a considerable cost reduction.

Punch Powertrain's DT1 Dual Clutch Transmission is intended for vehicles with maximum engine torque of up to 200 Nm and engine power of up to 110 kW. The large first gear ratio (1:18) is optimized for this application, resulting in smooth accelerations in any circumstance and strong capabilities on inclines. The overall wide ratio coverage of up to 8, enables the transmission to operate with a favorable fuel consumption.

[volkman10]

The Premium Hatchbacks - Specs compared!









Link

[padmrajravi]

It definitely looks good enough to get compared with the rivals in the segment. But with this specification, it will only get into the top 5 consideration set for people and will get rejected immediately. For anyone to seriously consider this, the price has to be significantly lower than competitors. At least a lakh. Otherwise, the safer choice is to go with a Maruti and Hyundai. And both of them come with 7 speed CVTs.

[fhdowntheline]

This is one of the most underwhelming launches in a long time, I'd say. Other than the jazzy TFT, there is virtually nothing innovative or exciting. Maybe it is for the Tata family, but it has the same run-of-the-mill engines, even the fit-finish (based on some early walk around vides on YT) seem to be just 'ok' , and absolutely 'meh' features. What exactly is the gold standard here ? 300+ litre boot space, think Baleno/Jazz, dual airbags (virtually every other car), connected car infotainment (its been out there for some time). I personally think the Tiago/Tigor JTP twins deserved better publicity than this old wine in new bottle.
I also think it is high time that the industry urges the government to abandon this ridiculous sub-4 metre restriction that is preventing true hot hatches from being launched.
The automotive enthusiast community, at the end of the day, is left high and dry.