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-   -   My Tata Tigor XZA - Petrol Automatic (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/212127-my-tata-tigor-xza-petrol-automatic.html)

So here I Am:

• My first attempt to contribute something valuable. The very purpose of this platform & members joining TBHP.
  
• My first attempt to detail a car which we purchased last year. Yes, last year. 18th April 2018 When Tigor came home. SO my comments in upcoming posts are for First generation Tigor XZA & nothing relevant to the facelift.
  
• My 300th Post (those are counted). :D

The Summary of observation for the car in terms of What I like & What I Don't. I will try & explain each in the relevant section as well.

Likes

1. Gearbox/Driving :
   • Very responsive gearbox (AMT), specially in Manual mode
2. Interior
   • High Quality Plastic, tightly integrated to the body.
   • Cabin Sound Insulation is excellent.
3. Audio
   • Very powerful for the cabin size of Tigor
4. Seating
   • Very Comfortable & spacious, with Lumbar support on driver's seat
   • Very easy entry & exit due to wide opening doors.
   • Arm Rest at rear seat, well hidden inside the backrest.
5. AC
   • Very Powerful. Chiller on Highways
6. General
   • Decent amount of cabin storage slots & a Very large boot.
   • Two 12V sockets, one for each row.
   • Presence of Dead pedal.
7. MID/Instrument Cluster
   • Bright & properly lit, Very Readable.
   • Gear suggestion (Up/Down Shift) when driving in Manual Mode
8. Dealer/Manufacturer
   • Good reputation of the dealer for after sales services & issues.

Dislikes/Areas of Improvements/What it is Missing

1. Gearbox/Driving
   • Dead Zones between gear shifts when moving to higher gears in Automatic drive (Both City & Sports Modes)
   • Manual Mode is less fuel efficient, for reasons unknown.
2. Interior
   • There are still few loose ends, (Ex: Water pipes for wipers, hang as some places).
   • Cheap looking Power window switches in all panels.
   • No express down feature for Rear & Front Passenger window. Another DIY Candidate.
3. Audio
   • The display could have been better & an inbuilt Navigation system would have made the day.
   • Though provisioned for on rear doors, Rear Tweeters are missing.
4. Seating
   • Very tall people on rear seat may have to squeeze a bit.
5. AC
   • No Climate control system in Top End Automatic variant
6. General
   • No rear wiper.
   • Too much of Cavity around the boot area & wiper parking zones results in dust / debris storage.
   • The Radiator fan re-starts frequently in under three minutes.
7. Dealer/Manufacturer
   • Not experienced it yet (touchwood), but whimsical behavior of Tata Mgmt. in cases of Warranty claims is always a threat.

To start Off: Reasons to Go For TATA Tigor & why not anything else.
If you look at my signature, My Four Wheel Garage is Two Tata SUV/MUV & One Maruti Esteem - Esteem will be moved to vintage category in a very short span of time.

I was hell-bent to buy a Safari at some point of time in my life & purchased Safari EX - in Sep2010, after considering all suggestions from Team BHP members & availability of Vitamin -M.
All others (Non-BHP) suggestions asked me to stay away from Tata & specially Safari giving me infinite reasons. These were conveniently ignored from the ear from which they were heard.

Safari was launched when I was in 9th standard, Safari was my first crush. There is a famous say in Hindi""Dil aaya gadhi par to Hoor cheez kya. Which implies to "Love is blind. If you love something you wont look at its physical beauty & completely ignore its shortcomings."
Literal Translation : If you love a jennet/Jenny even an Angel/Fairy wont impress you :D
I bought Safari completely ignoring whatever people (outside) said & boy I haven't regretted it till date. It is still running fine, never ever gave trouble on road & ready to roar whenever asked to.

This is the thread which made it all possible (of course all other Safari threads which I could search for and read). Thanks to all the BHPIans who provided their inputs & helped me make a decision.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-...ta-safari.html

Jump to May-2015, My brother was on look out for a bigger car. Safari can seat Five very very comfortably. Middle row is nothing short of a Sofa & last row is trouble for elders & not good for long rides for kids as well. He was looking for Genuine Seven seater. We were actually waiting for Hexa (or whatever it was called, when it was declared that Aria is getting decommissioned & being replaced by an improved car). We had waited enough & Tata being Tata, delayed Hexa to eternity. Took a Test drive of Aria Pure (with Varicor-400 engine) & booked it as The Pride variant was not available with dealer. Liked the space inside it, comparatively comfortable last row & decent storage space even after last row was up. Scorpio was also tested & Innova was out of picture due to multiple reasons. To our surprise the SA at Pandit Motors got hold of a Pride variant & booking was upgraded to Aria Pride after a visit to the workshop and understanding differences in Pure & Pride.
Though Aria was Dead-On-Arrival in Market when initially launched (Due to its price - My thoughts - and later due the multiple failures of the units sold). However certain upgrades later was fairly stable, specially with Varicor-400 engine. We did study a few threads on Team-BHP for Aria & were mostly convinced to go ahead, along with the final deal we had got for Aria.
It was again a gamble to go for another Tata (Aria specially), but gamble has paid off till date. I wont say I was as lucky as I was with Safari, Car did had few minor issues & all were easily covered & replaced in Warranty, backed by Four year AMC. Tata had improved significantly over the years in terms of service, with few exceptions.
We are proud to have these two in our stable along with the eldest car being Esteem, still with us.

Following Threads were studied, before zeroing in on Aria:


Again, a sincere thanks to all the inputs by owners & the points discussed.

This thread was a Killer: Mainly the safety part of it, nailed it and convinced us to proceed ahead.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...-accident.html

Jump to 2018. Why Tigor & Not any other alternates
My sister who had now got hold of a decent Job in Hospitality industry In Indore, was looking for a car. She was impressed with Tiago. Having Two Reliable Tata vehicles at home & Tiago being a super attractive option in market was the obvious first choice. No other car, was even thought off.
But out of the blue My sister comes home one day, calls us & asks us to suggest for a car which has a dedicated boot space & has automatic gear box. In short was asking for an automatic Sedan. This is when Tigor clicked in.

She had fixed her budget. We did explore Nexon, but variant available in the budget was not convincing us. Plus she was not comfortable driving it. I guess due to its size or reasons best know to her.

We took two test drives for both Diesel & Petrol Variants. We were ready to go for the Diesel variant, but realized that her day to day running will not be much and Diesel still had no Automatic variant; hence Diesel was not the correct choice . We finally decided to go for Tigor XZA - Petrol.

Booking & Delivery
Booking was done with Jabalpur Motors. Details were posted on "I booked my car" thread & as follows:
Entire process was super smooth along with delivery.
OFF TOPIC : Why Titanium Grey : Simply Because our ESTEEM is exactly same color & My sister absolutely loved it when she saw the display vehicle.

An introductory Pic:


Extended warranties & service packages
- In all four years (1+3) extended warranty with Gold AMC.

Engine type & variant
- Revetron, XZA

Safety & related equipment

• Dual Airbags
• ABS
• Integrated Reverse Parking Sensors
• Reverse Parking Camera. Installed as part of accessories

.
Usage Pattern :
10-15 KMs a day six days a week, with occasional visits to Dewas & Bhopal of 80KM, 300KMs respectively.
Tweety has done done ~10000KMs while I write this.

Completely off topic & irrelevant to the thread - but describes my "Traits":
Yeah, Yeah I am very lazy. I am lazy enough to compile the entire thread, which contains writing down everything as per set/recommended Team-BHP standards. Took me a year to:
1: Click all the necessary pictures
2: Gather energy & courage to start drafting the thread
3: Took me an hour to figure out where is "Assembly Line" and as I write I still don't know if at all I will be successful in giving out a comprehensive thread.
4: As you would have noticed, haven't updated my signature yet.stupid:

First Things First: Exteriors
First thing that attracts you is the design of the car or the first look.
Tigor is none different. Its another Cute looking car, with curves all around. There are hardly any sharp edges on the entire design. Looks very small & compact, however it isn't. It is quite spacious, completely contrasting to its looks.

Can anyone see a resemblance in the two: stupid: (Image copyright to original designers, source)


Another angle of the side profile:


One from the night: Apologies for the poor quality, had to reduce the pixels to optimize the file size.


The front looks as if its smiling at you:


It carries Honey Comb grills:


When it comes to entering the car, Both doors open real wide & almost 90 degree to its body; Making entry and exit real easy.




Another attractive feature is The alloy wheels, that the car has. It comes with 175/60 R15 81H Bridgestone Tyres with Alloy wheels.



However, spare wheel is 175/65 R14 82T Bridgestone tyre on Rim instead of alloys. May be a step in direction of cost cutting.




Headlights:

Its a double barrel setup (hope I am correct on this).
Low beam being a projector which comes with Osram 55W halogen & High beam is traditional reflector. The headlight setup has Indicators integrated to it. Pics as follows:


I have upgraded the stock Osram 55W bulbs in both beams with Philips Extreme Visions. Following its the difference in low beams, details later in the thread.
Before

After


Rear spoiler has LED lights connected to brake lights.

Lets enter the car & look at the interiors

This is what you will see when you enter the car and occupy the driver's seat.
The steering is sleek, comes with all music controls mounted on it. You can Change source, Tracks/Radio Station, Adjust Volume & answer phone (if connected via bluetooth) .


This is how the overall dashboard looks.
Overall finish of the entire product is excellent.
Nearly no panel gaps, High quality & durable plastic used. No cluttering or noise of any type.




Few Takeaways from this section in terms of Negatives/Miss/Dislikes:
- Car still has no cruise control. Even being Top variant & Automatic.
- No Climate Control A/c.

This is how the instrument cluster looks like. The MID has significant amount of information displayed:


Description of interiors cannot be complete without highlighting the storage spaces that car comes with.
Tigor too has its own share of conventional storage areas.

1: This storage space is right under the steering wheel on right side below the AC vent & can store a 5.5" phone/tab without any issue or a heavily filled wallet.




2: Most important: The space provided between the front seats & around gear lever:

This space can hold a 6" mobile comfortably.
Can cause issues when Aux cable is connected.



2a: Has More slots for small cups, Store Coins in slot given ahead of additional 12V socket (other is next to audio input source), along with large cup holder at end for rear passenger.


2b: I say large because it can hold a 1.2l comfortably.


This should give us a clear picture.


3: This is how the glove box looks like. Has decent amount of space.


3a: Above all, it can be chilled.


Another pic with glove box full


4: The storage space of the front doors. It can hold a half liter bottle (recommended & marked on door to do so). It is not recommended to store cups. Once bottles inserted remaining space can hold receipts, books etc.


5: The storage space of the rear doors. It can hold a one liter bottle (recommended & marked on door to do so). It is not recommended to store cups. Once bottles inserted remaining space can hold receipts, books etc.



6: This is a hook which is on the front Passenger side seat. It is foldable and hidden most of the time (Pic1) and can be pressed from bottom & then used to hang some objects.



7: There is ample amount of storage area under the front seats: A box 6"X12" can easily go under the seats.



Next: I may run out of limit for Pics per post hence : Interior Continued: Boot & Controls

Interior Continued: Boot & Controls

The cabin has only one light in the center. It is LED, Power saving I guess. The switch of this light can adjust its operation to
1: Light On when doors open & off when all closed.
2: Permanently turn off the light.
3: Turn on permanently, irrespective of door status.

Additionally, support handles are provide on doors except the driver side. You need something to hold onto, if a nut is driving.

These are auto fold types.


There is an anti skid area right at the center of the dashboard, to put air freshener or statues.


The Inner Rear view mirror, quite big & provides good view.
It has an Anti glare knob for use at night.


AS soon as you close the door, this is the warning that you see for precautions & to operate an AMT:


Both ORVMs are Electronically adjustable, from Driver side only. Driver side can be heated using switch at central console.


This is the rear parcel trey. Cannot be removed.
As the glass is too inclined, any object (large specially) will obstruct the rear view from IRVM.
No issues if the driver relies more on ORVMs.


The central console has only Three active switches
1:Heating ORVM
2: Turn ON the Front Fog lamp. Only works when parking is ON.
3: Open the boot lid.
4: Remaining three are dead switches.


As we can see in the above pic, there is a switch which opens the boot.
This operates only when Key is in "Acc On" position.
Another way to open the boot is to use the key directly to open the boot. This lock is next to the number plate.
Here is the pic.



The boot is supported by gas filled struts on both sides. Which holds it open.


Mind you, if you park you car under a tree which has small leaves, the entire area around the strut can act as a massive storage of dry leaves & small branches. Leading to quick rusting. In fact entire area above the rubber channel, which keeps the boot isolated can have same issues.
This is what I am talking about.



Boot is really big & Tata has insured that everything is neatly tucked in.
The jack, its parts and spare Tyre is hidden underneath the floor.





Surprisingly boot has a light which turns on Automatically when open.



Provision to access the electrical wiring for tail lights. All wiring is tucked in nicely.



Next : Air Condition

India is land of varied Temperature. So here comes the Air Condition

What I like:
1: AC is really powerful and is tested for two summers already when temperatures have sored up to as high as 44 Degree Celsius. I am writing this after 18 months of ownership. :Frustrati
2: When on Highway, is a chiller.

What I don't Like & what I miss
1: Mentioned already - In-spite of being Top end variant -. It has no Climate control AC, just as in Aria Top End Variation.
2: When in City limits, the rear seat takes some time to cool down. Understood & acceptable issue/limitation.
2: Rear Went is missing. May be a DIY is needed, once done with warranty.

This is the AC control panel:
.

The Central AC vents:


This is where the air to the feet is blown from.



These Central AC vents can be closed completely.



The Left & Right AC vents : Merged the pics, to avoid overrunning the limit. Unlike the one's on the central Console, these cannot be closed completely. They always leak some air. This too is understood feature - To avoid complete blocking of complete air flow, if Central vents are closed.
Look at the amount of Chrome, on all the vents.

The electronics and engine area.

It's a flip key. Surprisingly only one of the two keys provided with car is E-key. The other one is simple key with no remote.
There is a flaw in the locking mechanism, which i will come back to, later.




The engine area.
Proper covering on bonnet for sound insulation.



Power unit. Revotron.



I always wondered what happened to the Kite twins. This is an indication that Tigor is one of them and other sibling is Tiago of-course. Please look at the sticker on the fuse box which says "Kite-5"



Look at all the warnings properly pasted on relevant area. However will rot over the time, except the one embossed over exhaust outlet.

Off topic. The oil filter is very easily accessible, a good DIY candidate for near future, when warranty goes out.


Look closely, there is no engine guard or Sump guard. Not sure if that is actually necessary for this setup. I may be wrong.



Tiago - XZA has all power windows. As a general practice the master control panel for all windows is provided on Driver side door.
However - Negatives
1: Looks really cheap & does not justifies the standards of Top End Variant of Any car. Even the basic stickers are missing from remaining switches, which is available only on the Driver side door.
2: Only the driver side window has Express Down feature.


And this is how the remaining switches look like.


I assume no car is perfect & Tigor is not an exception either. The Supply line of Wipers has some lose ends:

Seating Arrangements

Lets start with Rear seat.
Three Seat Belts, as shown in the next picture.
Seats are really comfortable.
Look closely, we can see that if both passengers on door sides are buckled up, the person sitting at the center can have issues the seat belt locks.
NO Head rest provided for the middle passenger. Understood limitation, to avoid rear view through IRVM.
The height of the head rests, cannot be adjusted.


However, The legroom can be an issue for really tall guys. I am 6'1" & this is how i sit when seated behind the driver with seat pulled all the way back.




The height adjustment of Driver Seat. The seat rises around two inches from its base position (lowest/bottom-most)
The reference point for seat stands at ~8 inches, when at lowest


The reference point for seat stands at ~10 inches, when at topmost point



The Driver seat & the passenger seat can be adjusted horizontally. The swing s around 5.5" to 6".
The distance of seat from reference point is ~13", when closest


The distance of seat from reference point is ~17", when furthest. (Apologies for the poor pic quality).


Parting shots
Front seat


Rear Seat


I missed one feature to highlight. Apologies I de not have a pic of it.
If you see the pic of the rear seat, there is a hidden arm rest. Which can be pulled down & is wide enough to let both the passengers use it comfortably. If only two are seated, its a mini sofa set.
All seats provide sublime comfort, with proper lumbar & under thigh support.

Headlights

As informed in OP, the headlight is a double barrel setup with Projector for low beams & reflector for high beams.
Reposting from first post:


The stock headlight comes with 55w Osram bulbs.
I have swapped theses bulbs with Philips Extreme Visions.
The bulb on left is Osram & on right (with Blue tip) is Philips EV.


Following is the output Low beam & High Beam On Osram:



Following is the output Low beam & High Beam On Philips EV:




Tigor has conventional headlight controls, as available in combination switch under the right side of steering in-stead of European style headlight switch that comes with Aria/Hexa/Storm.
Headlight level adjustment (only Low beam), is integrated in the stick; instead of a separate rotary switch.
Same stick acts as indicator control. (Am I going in too basic details!!!!)
To move to high beam pull it up & push down for low beams.


XZA has company fitted fog lamps. Those can be seen on the introductory pic, I wont post the PIC of the face of the car again.
Fog lamps can be turned on from the central console, second switch. (please ignore where my finger is pointing - I dont have a separate pic)


Wiper Controls
Stick on left side is Wiper control.
Has three positions, Inter - Slow/Med & Fast.
Speed of inter can be adjusted through a rotary switch integrated to the stick.




Pull up for the spray on front windscreen: Two nozzles to insure adequate spray.


Negative - It has No rear wiper.


Though this section under Windscreen where wipers are parked looks cute, however is a big storage house for leaves or any other debris.


No puddle lights on any doors:

My Favorite part AUDIO

I will sum up my observation & Experience of this HU right at the start.
Entire Audio output is too powerful for a cabin of the size of Tigor
Play a 320 Kbps MP3 or Lossless Audio file & pump up the volume above 16/18 you will feel the quality & thump. Do this and look at the IRVM, you would see it dancing. Anything above 22 for these files is madness. The volume goes up to 30 though.

General

• No CD Player. - Understood, why you need that when USB & AUX are available.
• USB & AUX in are available next to 12V Socket. Bottom most panel of Central COnsole.
• AM/FM Radio player.

Good Things:
1: Amazing sound quality.
2: Display can be turned off during night drives to avoid distraction. Use the "DISP OFF" button from HU to activate this feature.
Brightness dims automatically little when parking is turned in.

Bad Things
1: The display could have been better. It lacks the richness.
2: No tweeters in rear door. It is just the dummy panels at rear. (Am I asking too much??)
3: No in-built navigation. It clearly instructs you to connect your phone's navigation device. Please refer to the following video, to have a better look at the display.

https://youtu.be/ew0mfp2qeiY



Steering mounted controls.

Audio can be completely controlled from steering wheel. Which includes source selection, volume control, track change, mute and answer the phone and mute the entire system.

Rotor on left is Power + Volume button & one on the left is to navigate through the menu options.


A pillers have tweeters:


Radio: Has FM/AM stations. Press "Radio" twice & you can change the band. Can store up to Six radio stations for all Bands. Buttons Numbered 1 -6 at bottom can be used to select the stored channels.


Pressing setup will present you with options such as Vhicle setup, Audio Setup, Bluetooth setup etc.
Combined pic of Setup & Vehicle Setup Submenu;


Audio setup allows you to adjust the three band Graphic Equalizer with Bass, Mid & Treble only. It has presets as well.


Bluetooth settings. The HU allows audio streaming as well along with phone calls support. Reasons to mention this is because Aria does not supports Audio Streaming. Only phone calls.


Next is volume setup which allows to adjust & enable Speed dependent Volume, Bluetooth Volume & Default Volume & startup.



The last in the list of Setup is General Settings which allow you to adjust Date,TIme & format i which to display the date (24h or 12h).



The last options are Reset to factory settings & Software details.



The One Hour Mode : This mode an be activated by Taking the key out of the keyhole & pressing the power button of the HU. Works only for one hour & should go off after that (Should - Because I have not tested it, going by the mode name)


These housings for Tweeters on rear doors are only for show. Tweeters do not exit.

The instrument Cluster.
Turn on the key, and you will receive a needle salute.
The cluster is well lit and remains that way throughout, ensures great readability of all dials and other electronically displayed information.

https://youtu.be/C7nfBgsqlgA

The details displayed on instrument cluster contains
1. Run time fuel consumption.
2. Two trip meters.
3. Outside temperature.
4. KMs to next refuel.
5. Current Time.
6. Current mode (Manual/Auto) and gear at which car is in

https://youtu.be/YvFMc23kUcs

The Actual Purpose of the car - Driving

A car's sole purpose is to drive you from one place to other, while you enjoy every bit of it. How dumb I was to wrap up the experience, without highlighting it.

Sincere thanks to GTO (personally dropping a note) & Aditya to point that out when I requested to move this out of Assembly line.. I assume GTO is keeping an eye on these drafts ever since I started drafting them on assembly line. His "Thanks" prove it.

I would admit that I have not driven this car even for 100 KMs till date. Car is in Indore & I am in Pune. I take Safari or Aria when travelling to Indore & these are the cars which help us travel around, during my visits. Tigor rests. But yes, still for short travels within the city: Tigor is the choice.

Most of the experience shared below are inputs from my sister & a from very little experience that I have with this car.

Steering:
Steering is very responsive and ultra light. Again, someone who is driving a Safari or An Aria will find it superlight.
You rarely have to take your hands off it, as all audio controls are mounted on it & with all sources plugged in or connected (Ex: Pen Drive, Bluetooth for answering the phone & streaming music & all radio stations set). Above all, It has to be obviously set to drive in Automatic (City or Sports mode - Your choice).

Steering can be tilted using the lever right under the steering.
However, it is not a Telescopic steering setup, which may allow steering to go deep and away from the driver.


As we have seen from the pic of the steering in Audio section, using the horn can be a little tricky as the periphery of the steering is occupied by audio controls and you may have to stretch you fingers a bit to blow the horn.
Though I have highlighted this, I realize that this is the compromise one has to make when a car is loaded with features. Aria has same issue.
Having said that "No or Low Honking" will be aided by such setup.

Now, lets put our feet on the pedals, hands on the steering & zoom.
The Driving part of it

My sister started learning driving on Manual shift & moved to Automatic in very early stages of her learning days. She never uses the manual shifts. She prefers to use her hands to control the steering & audio.

Gear Shift/ Gear Box modes
The car can be selected to Drive either in Automatic Mode Or the Manual Shift Mode:

1. Auto Shift: Driving in Auto Shift helps the car to maneuver with ease in all traffic situations, with help of a responsive steering & reliable brakes.
   • Negative : that I observed and should be looked in to, is the jerk and loss of power when gear changes. If I may address it this way that there is momentary dead zone when gear changes upwards "1>2>3>4>5".
2. Manual Shift: Is more responsive in both City and sports mode. Gear shift and power delivery is instant. The instrument cluster flashes a warning if you are driving in wrong gear. It does suggests to change the gear upwards or downwards if the RPM do not match with the speeds, programmed in the ECU.
   • Negative : But for some reasons unknown: The manual mode is less fuel efficient than the auto mode, even if you change the gears before the defined limits of RPM and allow the car to coast.

When braking, the gearbox lowers the gears automatically even in Manual mode. You can simply resume your driving from the gear your gearbox has left you with.

Car has two driving/performance modes (in Both Auto & Manual Shift)

1. City mode : Far more subdued and fuel efficient. My sister's driving is on the rough side and she is able to derive ~14kmpl in city using this mode. Gears change at around 2500RPM. Highway drives are less but a recent fully loaded drive in this mode gave us 17KMpl.
   
2. Sports Mode: This can be selected "on the fly" by a small push button below the gear stick. It is immediately reflected on the instrument panel , when a Red "Sports " starts flashing. As evident from the name this is only for performance and high speed - More power will be a more apt word for this. More aggressive and fuel consuming. Nothing to right in details as it is not yet comprehensively tested by any of us. I have used it only once to overtake a cab driver, I admit I loved it. Though not gives a feeling to push you back in the seat, but real fun.

Noticeable difference in this mode is the change in RPMs at which gears change. It goes up to 3500RPM when the gear changes.

The instrument cluster displays in details what exactly the gearbox is doing. It displays the gear in which the car is driven in, along with the mode (city or sports), is it driving in Automatic or Manual, RPMs etc.


Surprise, Surprise (at least for me). Tigor comes with a dead Paddle.
Width of the break paddle is good. The spacing between the paddles is also good. People who prefer to drive with footwear "on" and have pretty wide feet, will not face any trouble here.


Some precautions :
No Matter what mode you select to drive: To start a drive from stand still, Brake paddle has to be pressed to engage a gear. Once in gear & brake released, it starts moving automatically within 1-2 seconds, if accelerator is not pressed. However, with accelerator pressed expect the car to dart away immediately.
Engage a gear without brake pressed will result in a beep, car wont move. You will have to move back to neutral, press the brake & engage first gear again.

Beware : When bringing the car to stationary position from a moving position (Ex: Traffic Stops), you have to disengage the gear & have to have it moved to neutral. Keep the car in gear & keep the brakes pressed, you will start receiving a beep as sign of warning to move it to neutral. Having said that the Car's User Guide/Manual does says that Keeping car engaged in gear in a stationary position (brakes pressed) may fry the electronic clutch.

Ride Quality/ Comfort
The recommended tyre pressure for the car is 36PSI (Laden-Unladen Doesn't matter). You have to be very careful with this.
AT 36 PSI, the comfort inside is supreme. It absorbs most of the potholes (not the craters) on the road & pass on as less jerks as possible to the people inside the car. Making the ride as comfortable as possible.

However, any compromise with tyre pressure upward or downwards - You will feel as if you are riding a "Jugnu Auto" (app based auto service in Indore), who was last serviced only when it left the assembling plant & has been on road even before I was born. - OK OK, I may have exaggerated, but hope have made the point clear. We know, incorrect tyre pressure leads to Poor Mileage, Quick Tyre wornouts etc.

Brakes :
The fronts are Disc Brakes & the rears are Drums, aided by an ABS module. There have been two instances, informed by my sister when she had to apply brakes real hard. Brakes have performed exceptionally well.
With brake paddle pushed to the floor with full power, on a rainy day with wet RCC Road : Car stopped in a straight line without any skid/wheel-locking.
That gives some confidence while driving.


Safety
It has two airbags. God forbid, anyone ever requires them to be used. Both are at the usual place as compared to other cars. One in the steering & Passenger side on the dashboard above the glove box.

The Manual does says car carries a feature called "Hill Assist" & can be used with help of Hand Brakes. However, I have never tested it. Hence cannot write in detail of its experience.

My Apologies/Regrets
I do not have much experience on driving this car & hence I am not able to share any more details on the driving experience point for this car.
However, I am open for any questions/queries on any point & will try to answer as early as possible.


stupid: I still don't know/understand why are Automatic gearboxes set in a way that you have to push the gear lever forward to reverse & pull the stick back to drive forward.



Saurabh

Very nice & detailed review, Saurabh.

Manual mode less efficient - likely because you (we) change when we think it is right. Automated changes are calibrated for change at optimal speeds. How much is the difference ?

I dont think you can do a DIY on express down feature - this is possibly part of the BCM (Body Control Module), and is locked. Cannot change it on the ECU. Actually, none of the parameters can be changed by us. Our Storme's have a 3-blink quick-indicator for turns, and we wanted at least 5 (better 7). We had checked for this, but no luck.

Rear Wiper: Does the rear windshield collect so much dirt during rains that have you felt the need for it ?

Thanks for highlighting this sir.

The difference in mileage is 10~11 KMPL in Manual V/s 13~14 Automatic - City Mode. I will keep a note of your point, try & copy the gear change in Manual.

Express Down DIY: I thought I read a thread somewhere, where remaining windows were changed to express down. However on another car. Hence will require a lot of study & wait as the car is still under three more years of warranty.

Rear Glass : Yes sir, it does collects too much. I am not sure why, even when rear glass is very inclined.

Which car did you read about ?

Our experience in checking this - a friend who does a lot of DIY, fellow Storme owner & I - we found that no way to modify the parameters on Tata's ECU. They are locked down, and even service centre folks with their laptops dont have access to change even the smaller stuff.

It's not about the glass incline, but the muddy water that is thrown up by the rear wheels. Since the boot is not long, the windshield collects this dirt.

One suggestion that I just thought of - try to have longer flaps behind the rear wheels. It may help. You may need after-market/3rd party ones.