[rosaf]

Slightly off topic- Spotted this yesterday evening at a chowk in Chinchwad, and managed to get beside it in my Safari. Immediately took a picture from my phone and was so delighted that i have a scoop Yes it was 'THE TIAGO' AMT with the same gear lever and layout as of the Zest .

Got home , took out my phone to look at the picture again carefully , and the front window glaze just disappointed me so much

But i vouch for it that it was AMT for sure and might be a petrol one as it zoomed off after the signal turned green and there was no smoke from the exhaust whatsoever.

Hope it gets launched sooner rather than later.

[fz_rider]

Took a test drive on Tiago. Looks nice in person, the Orange shade is eye catching. Very clean design!
The doors have enough heft, especially the rear ones. On the inside, you sit a little high at front. The front seat width is comparable to Grand i10. Very well laid out dashboard and looks premium too. But there is quality and there is perceived quality. Only time will tell how well the quality is in long term. On the Test drive, noticed little squeks from front right door panel, barely noticable, but was there.
The three pot petrol engine is peppy in nature. It revs clean, but is fairly audible at high revs as well as in low revs high gear position. NVH is not bad, its neither great!
Whats with seat belt quality now a days! The seat belts are thin, the action is saggy. I noticed it on my Aspire too. My 15 year old Alto has better seatbelts.

The ride is good, a touch soft. The EPS is light and weighs up as speed builds.

I am told that top end petrol would cost 5.3-5.4 L on road.

[dheepak10]

I took a test drive at Malik motors Hyderabad today.

The most delightful thing during the drive IMO is the steering wheel - compact, light at lower speeds are weighs up sufficiently. The horn pad is easy to reach due to the steering diameter.

The suspensions are a delight as well, absorbing all the 'thumps' and bumps.

Outside Noise isolation is pretty decent; most sounds are muted.

The spoilsport is the engine noise - sounds like a diesel engine from inside the cabin. A lot of the engine noise filters through into the cabin.

While I didn't find the vibrations too much, my wife on the passenger seat did mention that she could feel the vibrations from there lower dash area. I could feel minimal vibrations from the gear lever at lower speeds.

In city mode, the engine is quite torquey and has sufficient power and doesn't feel dull.

Eco mode doesn't feel sluggish within the city, and will be quite usable for the fuel-burn conscious ones.

However I did notice the mild whining sound mentioned in the official review while in the 2nd gear on Eco mode. I did validate it twice.

I did a couple of U turns as well and feel like the turning radius is a bit on the higher side for a car off this size.

The rear view mirrors are of good size and quite assuring. However, I find the reversing sensors a bit over enthusiastic . They get panicky even when there is still more room.

The AC was decent, but using it beyond the speed level 1 will be a pain. It is quite noisy.

They did mention that base version will start at an ex-showroom price of 3.5 lakhs, but I think 3.9 lakhs is a good guesstimate.

While there is a lot to like about this car, one'll have to get used to the engine noise and vibration to start loving it. But at the price of a Celerio, this would make the Celerio a no brainer.

I would anyday rate this petrol car above Celerio and Figo, but not the Grand i10.

And the last thing to mention is about Malik Motors in Himayat Nagar - the experience was quite warm and good. We wish they had a showroom in the Greater Hyderabad area as well. Though the salespeople were quite enthusiastic to have us around, the driver accompanying during the test driver seemed least interested in the process. Hope this gets sorted out to make the customer experience even better.

[fz_rider]

Some pictures to share. The compact dimensions remind me of Zen sometimes.

[Rajeevraj]

Did a TD of the Tiago today at Concorde Motors, Outer Ring Road Bangalore. Was passing by and stopped by to have a look. There were no customers around, so took the opportunity to do a quick TD. Few observations.

• Definitely feels like a quality car. Both outside and inside. Doors feel hefty and do not have a light weight feel to it.
  
  
• The cabin is a good place to be. Everything looks finished well and of good quality. Definitely will not be out of place in a car couple of segments higher.
  
  
• The large number of storage options and the soft close glove box are things that I specially liked.
  
  
• The space is definitely not typical Tata. It is definitely a small car. Which in a way is good. Can definitely feel the small dimensions when sitting inside.
  
  
• Front seating position is a little high. Good view of the road.
  
  
• With the seat set to my driving position, was able to sit reasonably ok in the rear seat (I am 5'11). But not spacious by any stretch of imagination. 3 at the back also looked to be a squeeze.
  
  
• The long feature list is a big plus. Especially the 8 speaker Audio System. Could not find anything significant missing. Steering control, bluetooth, driver side seat height adjustment, Electric ORVM and the list goes on.
  
  
• Lovely Key. Looks almost exactly like my Vento key.
  
  
• Boot looked decent. On par with the size of the car.

Drive Experience.

• Things went a little downhill at this point. Although the reviews had indicated that the engine was not the strong point, expected a reasonably silent motor in line with the plush experience and feel of the car. But the petrol is pretty noisy and gets worse as you push down. Engine noise is very prevalent inside. Even the 10 speaker Harman could not mask that.
  
  
• The city drivability as such is good. Did get some relatively empty stretches and the car was pretty responsive and was able to keep up/beat the traffic without any fuss.
  
  
• Pulling power from almost dead stop in 2nd gear was not great. But expected I supposed.
  
  
• The steering is a size too small for my liking, but felt good to hold. The high seating position helped in ensuring good visibility.
  
  
• Gear shift was ok, not very smooth. I don't have a benchmark to say how good/bad it was.
  
  
• Vibrations. There is definitely a vibration. Felt it in the clutch pedal and the gear. It is minor, but definitely an irritant.

Dealership experience and other notes

• Experience was good. Nothing to complain about. As mentioned by several others. Starting price will be between 3.5L to 4L.
  
  
• 4 variants expected. XE, XM, XT, XZ.
  
  
• As per SA, chance of ABS in the lower variants. Not sure about Airbags.
  
  
• Top End OTR Bangalore is expected to be around 6.5L for the Petrol as per the SA. (5.4 Ex Showroom)
  
  
• Showroom Buzz was non existent. No one there to check this car out.
  
  
• They have 3 cars, all same color, all Petrol. Strange. One would have expected a petrol and a diesel TD vehicle and a different color display vehicle.

Couple of random pics. 3 cars, all same color and spec.

Overall Summary: The impression you get when you see the car and sit in it is diluted once you drive it. The noisy feel and the vibrations are a turn off. If the price is at 6.5L OTR Bangalore (5.4 Ex Showroom) as predicted, the Grand i10 is not too far away 7-7.5L OTR Bangalore before any discounts. Anybody who drives both back to back will not fail to notice how smooth and silent the Hyundai is. The drivability is not bad.

I don't expect it to create any waves at 5.4L Ex Showroom for the Top End Petrol. Like the other Tata cars will do modest numbers. The other key thing is how the mid variants are specced and priced. A well specced XT has the potential to do good numbers.

[Latheesh]

I predict a starting price of 3.49 Lakhs for Base Petrol and 4.99 Lakhs (+/- few thousand) for top end Petrol. Let us see what Tata has in store for us.

[antz.bin]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I predict a starting price of 3.49 Lakhs for Base Petrol and 4.99 Lakhs (+/- few thousand) for top end Petrol. Let us see what Tata has in store for us.

I feel that delta is too large for such a small base price. Celerio Petrol LXI starts at ~4 lac, all the way to ZXI (O) Manual at 5.06 lac. At this price range, it will be priced ~50k below its stable-mate Bolt.

~3.5lac is where Renault Kwid RXT (No Airbag) and Alto 800 VXI (1 Airbag) ends up being priced at. That is way too low for a car with a 1.2l Petrol engine. The least priced car with a 1.2l Petrol engine is currently the Beat @4.29 lac Ex Delhi (Not counting the Datsuns which start @3.23 lac). Sharing the platform with its sibling Indica should help Tiago gain the competitive price advantage.

[kaushik60]

Originally Posted by rosaf

.. Yes it was 'THE TIAGO' AMT with the same gear lever and layout as of the Zest .

Great news! I really hope this hits the showrooms soon. If it does, I will have my chequebook ready

My non-negotiable requirements are AMT, Dual airbags + ABS, Good ICE, Good city driveability and decent highway feel for 250-300 km drives once in a while. If the Diesel AMT comes out soon, that will be the cherry on the cake!

[rsm97]

Originally Posted by antz.bin

I feel that delta is too large for such a small base price. Celerio Petrol LXI starts at ~4 lac, all the way to ZXI (O) Manual at 5.06 lac. At this price range, it will be priced ~50k below its stable-mate Bolt.

~3.5lac is where Renault Kwid RXT (No Airbag) and Alto 800 VXI (1 Airbag) ends up being priced at. That is way too low for a car with a 1.2l Petrol engine. The least priced car with a 1.2l Petrol engine is currently the Beat @4.29 lac Ex Delhi (Not counting the Datsuns which start @3.23 lac). Sharing the platform with its sibling Indica should help Tiago gain the competitive price advantage.

IMO, it will not be easy for 1.2L Tiago to get premium over 1L engines of MSL. To make matter complex, there is elder sibling Bolt that already is suffering depressed prices. So Tata has a challenge in their hand while pricing Tiago.

Some prices here for reference (base NCR). Bolt-P base model at this moment can be negotiated for 4.25L OTR, take or leave a few thousand. Tiago base model has to maintain a gap of around 30-40K hence 3.5L Ex-S seems appropriate.

On the other hand, Celerio ZXI(O)-AMT can be had for about 5.6L OTR after all discounts. That sort of caps the price for topmost petrol AMT version of Tiago (whenever launched). Hence top petrol version should be priced around 4.75L Ex-S. AMT can charge an additional 25K.

This guess is purely on the basis of brand perception as well as past behaviour of the market, which I believe Tata will find hand to ignore.

[honeybee]

I received a call from a landline number from a lady claiming to from Tata Motors and asking if I was interested to trade my Nano for the Tiago. I said I was interested, but the lady couldn't give any info on the Tiago, including whether it was a hatch or a sedan!

[girimajiananth]

During my TD with concorde motors (KR road, Bangalore) , the sales executive said Tiago has projector headlights and DRL, the light throw is very strong and what not. I had to explain that only bolt has projector lamps and not Tiago

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

During my TD with concorde motors (KR road, Bangalore) , the sales executive said Tiago has projector headlights and DRL, the light throw is very strong and what not. I had to explain that only bolt has projector lamps and not Tiago

Dear Girimajinanth - hello to you. Thanks for the feedback, already taken up for action.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[jetti]

I had the same experience with Malik in Hyderabad - I had registered my interest for the car in 3 showrooms before the launch, but Malik in Himayatnagar was the only one to call me back as soon as they had the car. Hope this is of help to Hyderabad members. How I wish they had a branch near Hitech City/Kondapur/Gachibowli. Do they have a diesel version

Originally Posted by dheepak10

And the last thing to mention is about Malik Motors in Himayat Nagar - the experience was quite warm and good. We wish they had a showroom in the Greater Hyderabad area as well. Though the salespeople were quite enthusiastic to have us around, the driver accompanying during the test driver seemed least interested in the process. Hope this gets sorted out to make the customer experience even better.

This is the opposite of the experience I had with Ford, where the driver was the most knowledgeable and interested in explaining the features of the car rather than the sales adviser who had no clue.

[Rajeevraj]

As per an update in IAB , Tata Motors have informed that the launch date of March 28th is yet to be confirmed. If true could be due to production being impacted because of the sanand strike.

[SKavuri]

Visited Malik Motors Himayathnagar, Hyderabad with the intention of test drive.

After I went round the vehicle, I second all the positive points mentioned so far about the design. build and quality, features, attention to details, etc.

When I sat in driver seat, I tried to push the seat back but found it stuck. Then I realised that it is all the way back to the limit! I felt that even at that position also it is cramped and the under-thigh support is also poor. No way I could drive this more than an hour without some ache starting in my knees or heel or back. Then I sat in the rear seat and felt it is even worse. 15 minutes would be my endurance limit in that seat. Even the Indica is better in space. ( I am 5'10" and 80kg) I thanked them and returned without even taking the TD.

As a former happy owner of tata, I felt a frustrated. The Bolt standing right next to Tiago (Bolt is "supposed" to be a segment higher?), but with comparatively inferior design, smaller boot space, features, etc. And the Tiago is with better features but poor room and seating.

The space issue alone may not adversely affect the sales, considering Alto sales. Perhaps this may be due to the average anatomical dimensions of the countrymen.