[girimajiananth]

I was without a car of my own for two years almost. I had to sell my dad's Innovoa GX after he passed away in 2015. For all urban commutes it was either uber / ola or my faithful CBZ xtreme. I somehow got used to self drive rentals and public transport for all intercity commutes. I was longing for a car of my own, but somehow the plan never got materialized and I never put much thought into it.

May 2017, I lost my bachelorhood and became and "phamilyman" . The need for a car became quite obvious. Every relative was curious to know when I would purchase a car. My dad had set expectations and obviously I could not afford Innova. I was on the lookout for a small, fuel efficient, pocket friendly petrol hatch.


Budget and the requirements

Budget was a main constraint, I had no room to stretch, I did not want to compromise on the safety, ABS and airbags were mandatory. Decent fuel efficiency was desirable. Easy to maintain, spare parts available without a fuss and decent service network was a must. If not a 5 seater, the car must at least be able to accommodate 4 adults with decent boot space. The purchase was almost immediate and I did not like endless waiting periods.

Cars considered before the purchase decision

1. Toyota Etios Liva

I headed to Toyota showroom, past ownership made me swear by the T badge reliability. Etios is no doubt a good car, but I hate the outdated design and the speedo meter console in the middle. I expected the Toyota engineers to put the speedo meter to where it belongs, in front of the driver, but somehow they keep forgetting it. No other car in the Toyota stable was suited for my budget. I tried to hunt for a decent car in the Toyota U trust segment, most cars had clocked more than 60,000 KMs or the interiors were not well kept.

2. Maruthi Suzuki and the Nexa

Swift LXI was too basic, it failed to meet my basic criteria, safety. No ABS and airbags. I did consider the VXI (O), but then the OTR price in Bangalore was close to 7L, ZXI was simply over my budget. Although I have a soft corner for the swift, I had to drop it with a heavy heart. Ignis sigma variant ticks most of the boxes, all variants are equipped with ABS and dual airbags. The basic variant lacked any sort of comfort. For some reason, I felt that the ride quality was too bumpy. Celerio was on my radar, but seemed under powered and if I wanted the complete safety package I had to buy the ZXI (O) variant.

Even maruthi true value disappointed me, I was not able to find a decent used car for 3.5L OTR. I felt it was impractical to get a used car financed.

3. VW / Honda / Hyundai

VW Polo felt too crampy, plus the nearest showroom was quite far off from my place. I was too skeptical about the maintenance cost and the fuel efficiency. The build quality is quite impressive though.

Honda Brio was really awesome. The cute little car impressed me a lot. 90 BHP engine was really smooth and rev happy. Honda has good reliability too. But the boot space was a disappointment. I tried to look at some used Honda Jazz, but did not find a decent model. I somehow disliked the older versions of Honda City (except for the first gen)

Hyundai i20 was too expensive , i10 grand was out of my budget. I had to drop out Hyundai cars. Used i10, Santros did no impress me at all.

4. The Tata showroom

My father owned 2006 Tata Indica DLS. We used the car for a good 6 years and clocked 2L KMs on it before it started showing signs of old age. Despite being tagged as a taxi segment car, and cars with lots of issues and niggles, the car served us faithfully. We maintained it at a nearby FNG, changed oil periodically, tyres replaced accordingly, suspension replaced when required. The car was decently driven all along. Given that I had fair knowledge on how to maintain a TATA car, I bravely step foot into the Tata showroom.

The new age Tata cars were leaps better than its predecessors . The build quality and finish was far better than any Tata car manufactured.

I was following up on Tata Tiago thread actively, right from the launch news to the official test drive. As soon as the car was launched I had taken a test drive and was quite satisfied with what I saw. Back then I had no budget to buy a car and I had dropped it. I once again visited the showroom to check out the car. As soon as I stepped into the showroom, I saw a fully loaded Tiago welcoming me. The car looked decent enough to me, though the fully loaded car was slightly out of my budget, I was willing to stretch a little . I got one more test drive with my friend and fellow BHPian "tejus.s", we found the car to be fairly comfortable. I returned home with brochures, price sheet and finance estimates to get approval from the home ministry.

The home ministry was curious to know about the car before they gave their approval. The rear seat was comfortable enough, sufficient leg and head room, and most importantly vanity mirrors. Pleased with what they saw, the home ministry gave their full consent to buy the car.

I thought the sun burst orange was too common, I did not like red / brown / or the blue, I had set my eyes on the fair lady.

The booking and delivery

I decided to make the down payment the next day, all documents were in order. There was an upcoming wedding in the family, a cousin was getting married the next weekend and I wanted the car by then at any cost. Since the color I wanted was readily available it could be delivered within a week.

A day after all the finance formalities was completed, I got a call from the sales executive from concorde saying that the car will be ready for PDI by evening. I along with my cousin and fellow team bhpian Vsathyap went to the showroom for a PDI. The car checked out to be fine. We decoded the VIN and found that it was May 2017 manufactured. We Okayed the car without any hesitation.

Total OTR : 6.09L + 6500/- for the extended warranty = 6.15L.

Discounts and Freebies : No discounts at all, after much haggling, had the sales executive commit on free mudflaps and mats.




PDI all done and okayed.

Friday June 16th, the pearlascent white Tiago was all ready for its new home. The showroom had cleaned the car inside out, we were given a warm welcome, the sales executive was quite courteous towards us. We completed the last minute formalities, I was handed over the documents and the big key was handed over to my much elated mother. As we flagged off from the showroom, the staff gathered around us and gave a nice ovation, this I feel was a good gesture. The car already had close to 4 litres of fuel and I got a coupon for another 5 litres. Tata's have surely improved. I remember my experience with them back in 2006, when dad purchased Tata Indica DLS from concorde motors. We were just given the keys and documents, showroom folks did not even bother to congratulate us.

After the warm experience at the showroom, we headed towards the temple to thank the lord for the wonderful gift.

We retired for the evening, since we had to leave the very next day for my cousin's marriage at Hubli, 400Kms away from Bangalore.

The Key and the welcome kit.


The car all decked up and ready to be delivered


Mandatory pooja at the temple (sorry for the poor image quality)





This idol of lord Udupi Krishna has been there with us since 25 years. This was the same idol which my dad had in his first car. The dedicated space for the idols is a nice touch. Tatas know the Indian market for sure.



Luggage space

The car has decent boot space. Given the size of the car, you cannot expect much. Remove the parcel tray and the boot can easily swallow luggage for 4 people. So for all those long vacations, where you need to stuff the boot, I suggest you leave the parcel tray behind.

With the parcel tray in place, I was able to manage 2 big suitcases and a medium size suitcase with some space for soft luggage. The boot lip is somewhat narrow. Lifting heavy suitcases is bit of a task. The following pics can show you the amount of boot space in the car.

The suitcase size for your reference


Luggage space with the parcel tray gone.


Luggage space with parcel tray in place. Though full, you can manage to squeeze some soft luggage.


The interiors

Step inside the car and it is hard to believe that this car is made by the Tata. Everything looks top notch and nowhere close to the older Tata cars. Fit and finish look superb. There are plenty of utility spaces inside the car. Small details like ticket holder on the RHS of the windscreen, vanity mirrors on both sun shades, those extra spaces to keep all your knick knacks makes this car very utilitarian. Very thoughtful Tata.

As mentioned in the official review, the black seats are very practical for India. Tata Indica Vista had lumbar support in one of the models (I think top end model). This is sorely missed out on Tiago. It would have been nice if they had provided a lumbar support, at least in the XZ version. The seats are not bad though, I felt the under thigh support could have been better, then again this is a small car. The rear passengers were comfortable with the legroom and had no complaints.




Headlights

Both low beam and high beam on the car offer a good throw and does not cry for an upgrade.

Low beam



High beam




Tyres

I was lucky enough to get Bridgestone B250, 175/65R14 tubeless tyres. I noticed other cars in the showroom had good year, apollo and MRF. I wonder how one car brand can have so many vendors for tyre. Anyway Bridgestone is a wonderful brand for Tiago. I am quite satisfied the grip and tyre noise. As of now I do not have any plans of changing it and I do not feel the need for it.

Highway experience


I tanked up at shell for the first full tank, since the normal fuel was not available, I was forced to tank up with the shell V power. The onward journey was very pleasant, good weather all along, my favorite music playing on the Harman made the drive even better. There were only three of us in the car, luggage was very minimal. The car effortlessly did 100 KMPH on the highway. I am a very light foot driver, I maintained a healthy 80-90 KMPH speed all along. All said and done, this is a small three cylinder engine. I did not want to stress the car at all. I was cruising between 2-3K RPMs and the engine never complained. With 100% AC all the way, the MID was reading an impressive 22 KMPL. The overall noise levels are acceptable. When the engine lugs at lower speeds the vibrations are very much noticeable (obviously) but at higher speeds, the vibrations were very less (negligible) and the steering had sufficient feedback to inspire confidence.

Full tank to full tank FE

Highway : 21.5 KMPL
City: 16.5 KMPL ; both the figures are with AC on.

AC is a chiller, it cooled the car within no time. You can set the AC to highest cooling level during peak summer days. When it rains outside or during night, it is better you adjust the thermostat to a more suitable and a comfortable level.

The brakes behave differently, it takes a while for you to get used to it. When I brake, it initially feels spongy, a couple of seconds later the car slows down effectively. This is something new to me. Maybe the brake pedals have a lot of play before the bite kicks in.

Gear shift is spot on and the throw is very short, feels sporty. Engaging reverse is a bit annoying sometimes. The gear does not slot into reverse sometimes, I had to pump the clutch twice and then engage the gear. The clutch is pretty light as expected from a small hatch.

The ORVMs are wide and offer a nice view of the vehicles behind you, the IRVM is just sufficient nothing to complain.

Wide ORVM.






Tiago resting after a continuous 300 Km run.



The side stance of the car. Looks smart in white.



It was raining all along the highway. Wipers were working overtime. Impressive sweep



The "kitna deta hai" factor. 100% AC on the highway.



After the two day event at Hubli, we set out for Bangalore, I had an extra passenger on board and the car was fully loaded with luggage. Still the car continued to perform at its best. There was no drop in the performance, however the FE dropped to 20 KMPL, which is still a decent figure. By the time I reached home, the car had already clocked 1000 KM and was awaiting its first service.

Service Intervals are something that I am not really pleased with. The first service is between 1000-2000 KM or two months which ever is earlier (agreed, since this is what most manufacturers do), the second service is at 7000-8000 KMs or 6 months which ever is earlier , I fell this should have been done at 10,000 KMs.The third and final free service is a t 14,500-15,500 KMs or 1 year which ever is earlier (this could have been done at 20,000 KMs). The service executive said the oil will be changed only during the final free service. So is the engine oil changed once in 14,000 Kms ? or 7000 KMs ? I feel 7000KMs is too short for an oil change.


The first service

The following week I headed towards Concorde motors at Dairy circle for the first free service. I was the second or the third customer in queue. After a 15 minute wait, the service advisor showed up with the job sheet. He was in for a pleasant surprise to see the car for its first service just after 5 days of delivery. I had no complaints on the car, I asked them to wash the car thoroughly. Since water wash is banned in Bangalore, I was told that the car will be given a chemical wash and the interiors will be cleaned using compressed air.

I collected the car in the evening, Concorde motors did a decent job cleaning the car. The experience was quite pleasant at the service center. Good job Tata Motors. I hope they keep up the service quality and work on improving it further.



Other random things about the car - The likes and the dislikes

- Try to lock the car when one or more doors not shut properly, the car warns you by honking once.

- The dead pedal is a nice effort, but it is somewhat awkwardly placed and it is very uncomfortable, I hope Tata's can improve the dead pedal in the upcoming models.

-The eco mode is not very useful. The engine becomes very sluggish even for city usage. When I switch off the engine and switch it on again, by default it switches back to city mode and not the eco mode (if it was set in eco mode earlier). I simply wish there was a sport mode instead of eco mode.

-Blind spots. It takes some time to get used to the car. I find it difficult to get a clear view on what is coming on the left side of the car when I am taking a 90 degree right turn especially when there is a passenger sitting next to you.

- When It rains, the front passenger window gets fogged up. Not the entire window, but only a small square patch which blocks my view nicely. I have not observed this in any car before. Am I doing something wrong here. Right now I do not have a picture, will surely snap one next time and post it here.

-The fully loaded variant XZ get all the nice features, after seeing the Tigor, I just wish the rear seat had an arm rest for the passengers. As such the rear seat is not comfortable for 3 adults, they might have thrown in an arm rest atleast.

-Only the red and orange get the AC vents in the body color, it would have been nice if all colors had it. If not from factory, at least at the showroom level.

- Tata needs to work on the brakes, I had a few heart in the mouth moments on Mysore road. For a 6L rupee car, I wish there were disc brakes on all wheels ( I guess grand i10 has all 4 disc brakes, please correct me if I am wrong).

-Low end drive-ability is not very impressive. Frequent gear changes during bumper to bumper traffic in city is cumbersome to drive.

-Ground clearance is ample. I had to drive through some rough roads and the car did not scrape the ground even once.


The useless dead pedal.


Some pics for your viewing pleasure. Photo credits go to my cousin and fellow team bhpian- Vsathyap.

I am not an over enthusiastic stickering chap, just a team bhp bhakt .




Got BHP ? Yeah, all 84 of it.







The transparent URL stickers on the mirror look superb !



Live to drive !



Fantastic road for the fantastico







Let us raise a toast to the Tiago. Some parting shots








Other mods planned


Though not immediate, I have the following mods on mind, not sure how far I will be successful in implementing it.

- 5 Spoke alloy wheel, full black color. Does this affect the fuel efficiency in anyway ? I have no plans on up sizing the tyre.

-Decent set of seat covers with pockets for storage. I am looking for black seat covers with some nice red logo in the middle.

-Black leather steering cover with red thread for stitching.

-Driver seat arm rest if it does not interfere with the handbrake or if it does not affect the gear change.

- 3M or Garware sun film, something like CR-70.

-If $$ permitting, I would like to have the projector headlamps from the Tigor. If and only if it is a direct fit. I do not like any sort of aftermarket cutting and welding jobs on my car.

-Vinyl wrap the front AC vents in white.

-Might get a fast tag if I continue to conquer the highways.

-Anything else that might help me make the car look better, or add some utility factor to the car, please suggest.

My verdict so far

In five months of my ownership, the car has clocked 4750 KMs and it has been a wonderful experience so far. My experience with the car, the showroom and the service has been positive till now. If Tata can manage to keep up, continue to improve the product and after sales service, I am sure we can look forward to better products from their factories. Look at the Hexa already. I just hope I can keep sharing my experience with my first car on team bhp for the days to come.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[bharatbits]

Looks very good in white. Surprised to see it swallowing 3 huge suit cases. This hatch has got some serious boot space.

Congratulations!

[Col Mehta]

Beautiful car that is. Tata sure has come a long way in build quality and ASS. Wish you and your family many happy and safe miles with it..!

[yogesh.8984]

This is one car which started the change in everything for Tata from end customers point of view. If I recall correctly, this was also Team-BHP's car of the year for 2016. That says enough about the car.

Congratulations and wish you happy miles with your fantastico!!

[AdiSolEn]

Congratulations on acquiring such a beautiful car!It looks really beautiful in white

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

Though not immediate, I have the following mods on mind, not sure how far I will be successful in implementing it.

- 5 Spoke alloy wheel, full black color. Does this affect the fuel efficiency in anyway ? I have no plans on up sizing the tyre.

If you keep the tyre size same, then it should have no impact on the FE. Mods and seniors please correct me if I am wrong.

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

My verdict so far

In five months of my ownership, the car has clocked 4750 KMs and it has been a wonderful experience so far. My experience with the car, the showroom and the service has been positive till now. If Tata can manage to keep up, continue to improve the product and after sales service, I am sure we can look forward to better products from their factories. Look at the Hexa already. I just hope I can keep sharing my experience with my first car on team bhp for the days to come.

Tata service has definitely improved. I can second the same from my experience of the Nano over the last 1.5 years. Sorry if this is off-topic.

Wishing you and your family lots of safe and happy miles in your car!

[N4Nikunj]

Dear Girimajiananth,

Heartiest Congratulations on your latest acquisition of white Tata Tiago. It is indeed a very good package for a small hatchback car. The fuel mileage is very good for a petrol car.

Enjoy your car to fullest and drive safe.

[anshumandun]

Congrats on the car! When you mentioned that you got an average of 22 kmpl on the highway, I was trying to find out if you got the petrol or the diesel engine. But then I found this:

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

Got BHP ? Yeah, all 84 of it.

So it's a petrol. 22kmpl on petrol is fantastico

[deepfreak15]

Congrats on your new car. At first I was wondering why you showed a picture of 3 suitcases for reference and loaded only 2, then I realised it can take all 3. That is really impressive!

[Thirugnnanam]

Congrats on the new car! Wish you many happy miles in it!!

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

- When It rains, the front passenger window gets fogged up. Not the entire window, but only a small square patch which blocks my view nicely. I have not observed this in any car before. Am I doing something wrong here. Right now I do not have a picture, will surely snap one next time and post it here.

Maybe due to AC vent pointing towards the window glass.

--
Thirugnnanam

[vasanthn21]

Congratulations!!

Seeing a white Tiago for the first time, and it looks amazing!

Surprised to know about the FE on the petrol.

[bhp_maniac]

Congratulations! Looks stunner in white Wishing you many more happy miles to munch. Meanwhile, the FE figures are quite impressive for a car still in its running in period.

[NishantKj]

Congratulations. Very impressive FE and looks really awesome in white. Tata has done commendable job, not surprised why my office parking is full of Tiago's these days.

[puneeth2]

Good post! Nicely written. Tiago seems like a good car from Tata and rightfully has been a good seller.

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

- Tata needs to work on the brakes, I had a few heart in the mouth moments on Mysore road. For a 6L rupee car, I wish there were disc brakes on all wheels ( I guess grand i10 has all 4 disc brakes, please correct me if I am wrong).

Grand i10 has disc brakes only at the front. Even Elite i20 has discs only at the front. First gen i20 had disc brakes on all 4 wheels.
I think none of the Indian hatchbacks except Fiat Punto Abarth have disc brakes on all wheels.

[driveanddrive]

Congratulations on the car! Sure looks lovely in White

5 Spoke alloy wheel, full black color. Does this affect the fuel efficiency in anyway ?

I thought XZ comes with Alloys?