[PrasannaDhana]

Altroz having a leisurely time as usage had come down due to Covid restrictions and lockdown.

A fancy odo



And a few pics



Weekly washes help keep it look new



Wheel alignment hasn't been done since day 1. Will be doing it when the car clocks 10k km.

Quite literal sense when I think of calculating boot space in liters
Among the largest boots in the segment, it has always been more than sufficient to me.



Until then, a lot more fun drives in this lovely cabin



I really want to travel to new places. When work trips alone take up 3000 km a month, one tends to not focus on doing road trips to new places. But that needs to change. Once this Omicron spread has come down, I am planning to do regular road trips within the state. Altroz will be the car of choice 60% of the times, while the Storme will get the much needed pedal to the metal time for the rest 40%.

[PrasannaDhana]

3 months of Ownership & One splendid Kolli Hills Drive

3 Months Update

The altroz has served me beautifully for 3 months now. Odo stands a little shy of 9000 km

Odo : 8910 km

January 2022 has been pretty active for the altroz inspite of me being quarantined for 5 days.



Jan'22 usage- 2887 km with MID fuel efficiency for the month standing at 19.2 kmpl while the actual tankfull to tankfull fuel efficiency for Jan'22 stands at 18.78 kmpl. Obviously more than pleased with the stunning fuel economy of the Altroz diesel.

A fancy odo figure

Oh Kolli Hills, lovely Kolli Hills

If you have read my motorcycle ownership threads (CBR250R, D390 & RC390), you will know how much I love riding on the 140 hair pin bends (70 bends one way) of Kolli Hills, a small hill station near Namakkal.

Going throttle wide open on Kolli hills has always been/ will always be a blissful experience. I have been to Kolli hills 6 times in the past with experience of riding 7 different bikes, ranging from a slow rusty 18 BHP Royal Enfield Electra 350 to madly fast beast of a motorcycle 150 BHP Yamaha FZ01.

The last time I rode a motorcycle there was in 2018



Well, let the pic talk. This is a bird's eye view of the awesome hair pin bends of the Kolli Hills







This is the first time I am driving a car on the kolli hills. I have driven all my previous cars on hills - Ooty, Kodaikanal and Yercaud. Never once on Kolli. Me and my wife decided to spend our Sunday on kolli hills.

It is a 280 km round trip from Trichy via Namakkal. Good thing is, the roads are good all through. We started at 6 30 in the morning.

The altroz on the beautiful Trichy - Namakkal route



We had a brief stop in Namakkal for breakfast and to check in the famous Namakkal Anjeneyar temple



I love the roads from Sengamangalam to foothills of Kolli Hills- Karavalli village. Roads are narrow but smooth and scenic.

Yours truly with the Altroz. Red was purely unintentional



When you see this arch that says " Beautiful Kolli hills welcomes you", it's translates to "it's time to have absolute fun mate" for the hard-core riding/driving enthusiast



I had a blast driving the little Altroz on the Kolli hills




Pics from the Seekupaarai View point






A short footage from the humble SJCAM4000 dashcam from the cabin. Tried 2 different positions, one from the conventional windshield and another from the LHS rear window. Play with volume ON(also don't mind the occasional squeaks from the suction mount of the dashcam)

https://youtu.be/YcO9OezyRic

Kolli hills is one of those riding/driving locations that make you bond deeply and 100% with the soul of your motorcycle/car. I did, with the altroz. Loved the small foot print, stiff suspension and the superb steering. Even the stock goodyear tyres did a splendid job, though they were very vocal around almost every hairpin bend The handling was telepathic to put it in a word. The car held the line I wanted it to, steering was precise and the feedback was superb.

At the end of the drive, a Duke 390 rider who was riding at my back (at a very good pace) overtook me when I slowed down, and showed "superb" sign with his hand. I have experienced such acknowledgements and appreciation on motorcycle rides, this is the first time in a car. Felt good hehe.

https://youtu.be/KEGwHmjFpQg

I had taken a lot of pics. Just a few from them









The view from the cabin for most part of the kolli hills is awesome. An example here, pepper creepers on either sides



Even after driving it fast, the altroz delivered a superb fuel efficiency of 20.2 kmpl for the entire trip



Parting pics before next update (10k km)

The calypso red of Harrier and Downtown Red of Altroz are very very similar, while the bright red of Tiago and Nexon are very similar to each other



The 56 mm difference in width between Vento and Altroz shows. Vento looks narrow here



First week of Feb will be taken care by this big boy. 49500 km on the odo and I will put him to use so that I clock the 50k milestone soon. The SUV has run just 400 km in January. It's going to be a well deserved rest for the Altroz.

[chaksjr]

The only ownership thread I keep my eyes out for

Glad to see the Altroz performing the way it is. And these hills do look like an absolute delight to drive on, gives one a good opportunity to test their car's handling mettle

[sunnysideup_]

This is the first time I'm replying in this thread so congratulations on the car! I couldn't stop myself from replying because I would often take a bus from Trichy to Rasipuram (Near Salem) when I was in college and it would take the picturesque Trichy to Namakkal route as well. The way the road meanders right by the Kaveri is a lovely lovely sight that is even more beautiful during the monsoons, even if a little dangerous. I love that you stopped to take a photo, please keep them coming!

[jalsa777]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

https://Youtu.be/KEGwHmjFpQg

That's a beautiful road indeed. I'm sure you had a lot of fun. But please don't honk so much and destroy the serenity of the place and cause so much noise pollution.
Stick to your lane on the turns and keep and open ear and be alert and smart. You really don't need to honk at most of the places. I have driven on Ghats all over the country and never really felt the need to honk incessantly like that.

It might feel unnerving at first, but stick with it and break this bad habit. And as a bonus you'll get to enjoy the engine note much more.

[speedguy]

Beautiful car, beautiful thread. Keep it coming.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

This is the first time I am driving a car on the kolli hills. I have driven all my previous cars on hills - Ooty, Kodaikanal and Yercaud. Never once on Kolli. Me and my wife decided to spend our Sunday on kolli hills.

Wonderful drive, wonderful car and wonderful driver! When you corner the hair-pin bends, even I was screaming along with your Good Year tyres. I bet you won't dare that with your Storme (may be you would) in that narrow Kolli Hills.
At that kind of speed, you need to sound the horns. There is just no room for maneuvering in that hills.
Thanks Prasanna - you brought some cheer to my otherwise dreary morning.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Wonderful drive, wonderful car and wonderful driver! When you corner the hair-pin bends, even I was screaming along with your Good Year tyres. I bet you won't dare that with your Storme (may be you would) in that narrow Kolli Hills.
At that kind of speed, you need to sound the horns. There is just no room for maneuvering in that hills.
Thanks Prasanna - you brought some cheer to my otherwise dreary morning.

Glad you felt what I felt Thank you!

I did think of what it would feel like to do that in storme. I definitely would do the same with the storme too, but I can't have any passengers together. You know what happens to others in the cabin in the storme if driven like that

Passengers would pass out from moving from door to door lol.

Horn part, yes, some might feel it's excessive. But only those who have been to Kolli hills and who have driven fast there understand how essential honking is.

People can argue "Why can't you drive slow?". Well, there is a lot of fun lost on Kolli if you drove like a grandma. Even if you are slow, you need to honk around Kolli hills. Kolli hills isn't just another ghats section. It is very narrow and quite dangerous for inexperienced. I love pushing my machines to their limits there.

It is also one hill station where you find many inexperienced youngsters (many times three on a bike) ride on weekends. They almost always end up in the opposite lane exiting hair pin bends. I would rather create sound pollution than kill someone who can't ride/drive around hills.

You have just made my temptation of driving the storme there resurface, much stronger Lol. I should, solo though.

Originally Posted by speedguy

Beautiful car, beautiful thread. Keep it coming.

Thank you for your kind words Speedguy!

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Horn part, yes, some might feel it's excessive. But only those who have been to Kolli hills and who have driven fast there understand how essential honking is.
Even if you are slow, you need to honk around Kolli hills. Kolli hills isn't just another ghats section. It is very narrow and quite dangerous for inexperienced.
It is also one hill station where you find many inexperienced youngsters (many times three on a bike) ride on weekends. They almost always end up in the opposite lane exiting hair pin bends. I would rather create sound pollution than kill someone who can't ride/drive around hills.

Absolutely Prasanna. You must sound horn in narrow ghat roads. In fact in Nilgiris, you will find cautionary boards specifically asking you to sound horns. It is better to be loud and safe than be quiet in death.

People can argue "Why can't you drive slow?". Well, there is a lot of fun lost on Kolli if you drove like a grandma. I love pushing my machines to their limits there.

Wow. Well said. In fact IRC there is nothing much to do in Kolli Hills. The last time I went there was about a decade ago. You go there for the thrill of driving/riding.

You have just made my temptation of driving the storme there resurface, much stronger Lol. I should, solo though.

Whatever you do, please take a full video. Your video in a Storme riding up the Kolli hills will be a sensation. Trust me - you have the skills and the right frame of mind.

Stay Safe Prasanna.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Prowler

It is better to be loud and safe than be quiet in death.



You go there for the thrill of driving/riding.

Absolutely! It remains the same destination for those who love driving and riding. There is nothing on the hills except for a temple and a falls.

A small example of what one might regularly encounter on kolli (from an old footage of me riding my first gen Duke 390 on kolli) -

https://youtu.be/2YiVZN0VMMU

Honking may not make them fall back into their lane, but it almost always makes them respond back with a honk, indicating their presence and hence I can drop speeds and be prepared.


We had the most fun during group rides. A great chance to exchange motorcycles and test their handling prowess. Here is another such video, the guy you see riding in the front is me on a R3 and the camera bike is my rc390 ridden by BHPian friend Nitninja.

https://youtu.be/VG48BjqAk_A

You need to do another trip to Kolli. A decade is a long time.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Whatever you do, please take a full video. Your video in a Storme riding up the Kolli hills will be a sensation. Trust me - you have the skills and the right frame of mind.

Stay Safe Prasanna.

Thank you!

Will definitely share the video once I do it.

[Neversaygbye]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Absolutely!

A small example of what one might regularly encounter on kolli (from an old footage of me riding my first gen Duke 390 on kolli) -

https://Youtu.be/2YiVZN0VMMU

Honking may not make them fall back into their lane, but it almost always makes them respond back with a honk, indicating their presence and hence I can drop speeds and be prepared.

Not just in Kolli or some other ghat section, this is something one can encounter on any blind turn in India. I have seen many drivers drift to the opposite lane while taking turns, even on plain ground. Hence as a rule I always honk while approaching a blind turn and this has prevented quite a few incidents as well. (I remember a Bullet that narrowly missed me in Coorg simply because I honked and he took evasive action - it would have been a head on accident otherwise.)

Hence I am all for honking on blind turns - the benefits outweigh the noise pollution caused.

[PrasannaDhana]

10,000 km and 108 days of Altroz 1.5 Diesel Ownership

Ownership experience after 290 hours behind the wheel of the Altroz

I have driven the Altroz in national highways, rural areas, dense B2B traffic as well as ghats.

My beloved Altroz has stepped onto the 5 digit milestone



Odo : 10010 km

A very brief report for anyone who is interested in purchasing the diesel Altroz

Likes

* Gorgeous looks & Solid build quality - inside and out








* Superb ride and handling - great steering and a chassis that has excellent high speed stability

* Spacious and very comfortable front seats, even for a big man like me. Large footwell too.

* 1.5 L Revotorq diesel is a delight to use. Very good driveability, very enjoyable and punchy midrange right from 1500 RPM to 3000 RPM. 120 kmph comes at ~2600 RPM in 5th gear. There is nice progress even upto 3500 RPM. 100 kmph at 2200 RPM. Engine is refined at 2500 RPM and sounds sporty when pushed harder. Top speed similar to C2 diesel sedans. I managed to clock just about 8 kmph lesser than what I clocked on our Rapid 1.6 TDI on the same road and conditions. That says a lot about the 1.5L Diesel.

* Light clutch and average gearbox. No complaints about gear shift quality though I would have loved something like the one in the Polo TSI

* 165mm Ground clearance more than sufficient. No scraping whatsoever

* Interior layout and good quality interior materials. Everything feels solid



* A lot of features. I have become a fan of cruise control now. IRA, Automatic headlamps, Automatic wipers, cornering fog lamps, Android Auto and Apple carplay, IRA, adjustable front armrest, large rear armrest, Isofix mounts, proper dead pedal, cooled glove box which is large enough to accommodate laptops, ambient lighting and beautiful DRLs etc

* Excellent fuel efficiency - It returns 15+ even after idling for hours and driving in B2B traffic. Getting 19 kmpl is a cake walk. Be sensible on the highways, it will return easy 23+ kmpl

Data for the entire 10000 km



With just 5 rs per km, I am actually burning 40% less fuel than I would in my storme V400. First 50k INR spent on diesel for the Altroz



* Wonderful ICE quality. The audio quality is lovely

* Among the largest boots in premium hatchback segment

* Adaptive guidelines are accurate

* MID shows an exhaustive amount of info, right from drive data and other essentials, to door ajar warning with exact animation indicating the door, boot and bonnet open warning, parking brake engaged warning, alerts to take a break if driven for 2 hours continuously etc

Dislikes

* Average brakes. The brake lacks bite, though it is effective. One may not even feel it if Altroz is the only car he drives. For me, the 4 superb disc brakes of Storme which have an excellent bite, make the average brakes of altroz more evident

* Rear bench has very good back support, but lacks underthigh support for anyone over 5'9

* We can choose themes which will have a preset colour choice for the MID and LCD infotainment, audio setup and well as preset notification volumes. Strangely, all presets have very high notifications volume, which range from that lady asking your passenger to wear seat belt, the drive modes to the reverse parking sensor beeps. Quote loud and irritating until you change the settings

* While I like adaptive guidelines, the camera quality is below average

* Stiff suspension if you are used to cushy riding cars like ciaz/city/duster/storme/hexa. I have optimized the rife comfort to satisfy my needs by dropping a few PSI from the recommended tyre pressure. I set 30/31 PSI and the ride quality has seen quite some improvement. No more an issue. But if you have it set at 36 PSI as recommended by Tata, you are in for a ride

* Noisy goodyear OE tyres. Grip is decent though.

* Wheel wells though insulated, give out very noticeable noise when small stones hit the underbody


Minor irritants

The driver door, on very rare occasions send out minute rattle when driven over bad roads. The thing is, it isn't consistent. The same road, same speeds, with music off, you can hear the sound if you are keen at times, other times it's not there no matter how keen you tend to be. I just can't reproduce that rattle. Its 2/10 times it happens. But then, for my kind of usage, any car from any brand will develop minor rattles and I don't care about it. Also might be from loose stuff I have left it in the door pad.

* Rear hatch collects a lot of dust, I mean a lot!

* Rear door opening is unconventional, like the Chevy Beat. The issue is it takes effort to open the doors. For an adult of average height, it's almost at their shoulder lever and it requires pressure to open it. Senior citizens tend to find it hard.

* EGR flap noise at 1300-1400 RPM while coasting, which is a characteristic of the 1.5 diesel. A fellow owner told me Tata had updated the ECU in his recent service and that noise had gone. Not sure if thats true. Anyways I have become used to it and avoid driving (coasting) in that RPM

* While the flat bottom steering is an absolute delight to use, the cruise control and MID navigation button could have been more tactile. Needs firm touch to toggle to next menus.


Any infamous DPF issues?

None!

Thankfully, for every 1000 km I drive, I drive around 400 km on the highways. I mostly drive in the 2000-3000 RPM range, unless I am looking to have some fun, at which times I drive in the 3000-3650 RPM range. Let's say, my average RPM on the highways stays at 2500 RPM for hours together every week. From what I read in the DPF engineer BHPian's thread, the soot vapourizes at high temperatures brought by consistent 2500 RPM range driving for longer durations.

So far, so good.

Am I happy with my choice?

More than happy, Altroz diesel has exceeded my expectations in all areas. I thoroughly enjoy driving it so much that all the other 3 cars of mine have seen just 3000 combined km in the last 3 months. Altroz diesel brings back memories of our Rapid 1.6 tdi in several ways.


Will I recommend the Altroz 1.5 diesel to someone looking for a fun to drive, safe family car?

yes and no

No- if you are going to be using it predominantly in the City or if your driving style is fuel efficiency oriented/ low RPM lugging style.

HELL YES - If you hit the highways often and enjoy driving. It is a terrific 5 seater car and at just 11.25 lakhs on road, it is extremely value for money too (given the atrocious pricing of most cars now).

And hey, Tata is offering diesel altroz in that gorgeous Dark shade now.

A few parting pics

At the famous Poondi Madha Basilica



Owning a red car means washing it often to keep it looking clean





With another favorite car of mine - The City



With the big bad bro, the hexa

[condor]

Nice, concise review there, Prasanna.

But you and DPF issues are like opposite poles.

How come you didnt change the tyres at time of delivery of the car ? And have you tried a 33PSI for the tyres ? How was it ?

Edit:
How about a small upsize on the tyres ? Would it help ?

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by condor

Nice, concise review there, Prasanna.

But you and DPF issues are like opposite poles.

How come you didnt change the tyres at time of delivery of the car ? And have you tried a 33PSI for the tyres ? How was it ?

Thank you

33 psi with 4 on board is okay. But with single occupancy, the bumps and undulations are prominently felt at slow speeds (<30 kmph). I have the habit of being extremely slow over bad roads, and hence I felt it a lot. With pressure reduced to 31, it's a lot better.

[akshay380]

Do check for Diesel getting mixed with Oil. I have already seen eight cases till now and have taken them up with Tata.