1 year & 32K km with my Tata Altroz: Total ownership cost Rs 1.91 lakh

I am more than happy with the car & would like to hold on to the efficient & peppy 1.5 diesel for at least 6 more years.

BHPian PrasannaDhana recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

1 Year with the Tata Altroz 1.5 Revotorq Diesel

I took delivery of Altroz on 27th October 2021. This a small throwback from the first posts of this ownership thread.

Odo was 52 km when I drove out of the showroom. Today marks the first anniversary of my ownership of the little red car. I have driven 32,000 km and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it in the last 12 months.

I have driven the Storme for 8000 km, Kwid for 4000 km and new Celerio for 2000 km in the same period. Altroz has played a major part in lessening the workload on the Storme, which would have touched 90,000 km by now if not for the Altroz.

A pic from today, at one of my farms

Odo on the first anniversary

This post will highlight the following

• 30,000 km service
• Ayudha Pooja
• Highest actual T2T Fuel Efficiency obtained during the recent Peravurani trip
• Overall Cost of Ownership - Fuel, Maintenance & Misc
• Overall Fuel Efficiency
• Niggles
• What could have been better

30,000 km Service

I have always been meticulous about getting my cars serviced before the deadline. This time I was busy and crossed the deadline by a very little margin. The car wouldn't let it go though, the MID kept throwing the Service Overdue message continuously. IRA app too spams with service notifications every hour.

It's the 5th Service Overall- 1000 km, 7500 km, 15000 km which were free services, last two services at 22500 km & 30000 km are paid ones.

As usual, the service went smoothly at Kaveri Tata, Trichy. Glad they are opening up another outlet just 2 km from my home. The current one is 15km away.

Notice the EV charging outlet which is open to all EV customers. Trichy has 2 such EV fast charging stations, one at each Kaveri Tata dealership.

This service included oil replacement, filter replacement, AC disinfecting, wheel alignment and balancing, along with other routine checks. The service bill was INR 73xx.

Car after service

Next service will be at 37,500 km which will just be a check-up and the next oil replacement/brake pad replacement will be at 45,000 km.

Ayudha Pooja

It is a tradition in our family to pray and show gratitude during the day of Ayudha Pooja, by performing Pooja on our agricultural farms, farm equipment, school equipment, school vehicles and personal vehicles. I make it a point that I wash all my personal use cars myself before the Pooja. This time, it was just 3 cars as Kwid 1.0 was sold a week before the Pooja.

Storme took me a good 2 hours to wash, Altroz an hour and the new Celerio took 45 minutes. Despite the time and effort, the satisfaction that comes from the task is profound.

Pics of the personal cars on the day of Pooja

Highest Actual Fuel Efficiency Obtained

I drove to my wife's native Peravurani for a get-together. It is a 244 km round trip. I was pretty sedate compared to my usual style of driving. It was 60% highways 40% rural SH. I had the cruise control set at 90 kmph on the highways.

The MID showed 24.4 kmpl. I was hoping I would get around 23.5 to 24 kmpl from tankfull to tankfull method. After refueling, I was surprised that the actual fuel efficiency was bang on the same as the MID figure.

24.39 kmpl

With the legendary Amby

Overall Cost of Ownership in 1 year & 32,000 km

This includes the running cost & maintenance costs

Total Cost of Ownership: INR 1,91,611

Of which

Total Cost of Fuel: INR 1,66,711

Total Maintenance Cost (including insurance renewal): INR 24,900

Overall Actual Fuel Efficiency

Actual Overall FE : 18.19 kmpl

I am more than happy with that! My usage is 60 : 40 - Highways : City/Rural

Highest FE - 24.39 kmpl

Lowest FE - 15.26 kmpl

Of the 100+ tank refills, 97 of them have been done at my usual BP bunk

Niggles

DPF Issues - None!

There haven't been any major niggles though. I have faced 2 minor ones.

• AC fresh air recirculation flap - Doesn't close fully I guess, letting some outside air inside even when the AC mode is set to recirculation.
• The next one isn't a niggle, but a small battle scar - a small area where paint has chipped away. A small area, approximately 1 inch wide on the rear bumper. I am not sure if it was some two-wheeler giving that scar or if it is paint chipping. Anyways, I used the teambhp URL sticker to cover it, not to cover it up aesthetically, but to cover the area and avoid further chipping.

Both these minor issues don't affect the user experience and hence decided to get the 1st issue sorted during the next service.

What could have been better

After using the Altroz diesel for good mileage over the last 12 months, I am more than happy with the torquey engine, solid build quality, excellent high speed & overall handling dynamics - well-calibrated steering with good feel and feedback + sorted suspension, features, very good fuel efficiency and nominal service costs.

There are 2 areas Tata can improve Altroz on:

• NVH - Especially at triple-digit speeds. Road insulation could have been better. Add to that, the lack of a 6th gear means the engine isn't as relaxed at 120 kmph as it is on my Storme or i20 which have the 6th cog. The NVH isn't bad per se, but if it was lower, it would have made Altroz diesel a perfect highway car. I also believe the OE Goodyear Assurance tyres play a role with the NVH. I am wondering if I have to go with Michelin P4ST for an absolutely silent & comfy ride or with Continental UC6 which has a great grip but isn't as silent as the Michelin.
• Stiff Low-Speed ride - I have spoken about it numerous times in this thread.

I would have added a 3rd point about giving the 1.5 diesel in Nexon's tune. All the 3 improvements would have made it a perfect car. Sadly, Altroz may not even have a diesel mill next year.

Other than these 2 areas of improvement, Altroz diesel has proven to be an absolute workhorse.

A few more pics:

With our Safari 2.0 AT, which had its front RHS suspension replaced fully under warranty. Not exactly the best way to inspire confidence in buyers who spent 28.6 lakhs on your flagship product Tata.

With a BHPian's Punto at a highway restaurant parking.

Almost 90 days of 365 days behind the wheel of the Altroz, it makes you know its dimensions to the precision of the last cm.

With Hyundai pulling the plug on the i20 diesel, I am sure Tata will also stop Altroz 1.5 diesel. Gives me more reasons to hold the efficient & peppy 1.5 diesel at least for 6 more years.

Last 2 diesel hatchbacks on sale

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