2024 Tata Curvv : Our Observations after a day of driving

The 1.2-litre engine is quite revv-happy and most owners will like the punchy nature of this GDI motor. Throttle response is sharp and power delivery is linear.

Driving the Tata Curvv 1.2L Turbo-Petrol GDi 6-speed MT

The 1.2-litre 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol is called the 'Hyperion' engine. It features gasoline direct injection and makes 123 BHP and 225 Nm. We got to drive the 6-speed manual transmission variant:

We’re familiar with Tata’s 1.2-litre 3-cylinder Revotron petrol engine from the Nexon and it may seem that the Hyperion engine is the same with gasoline direct injection added to it. However, engineers from Tata have confirmed that it’s not. This is almost like a newer generation of the engine with a lot of modifications to the older Revotron engine. In fact, this is the first ever Tata engine to feature gasoline direct injection and has a 350 bar injection system. The engine produces 123 BHP @ 5000 rpm and 225 Nm @ 1750-3000 rpm. The engine also features something called a ‘Torque Rush’ which bumps up the torque to 250 Nm in short bursts as needed in Sport mode.

The engine has an all-aluminium structure with additional ribs for better structural integrity and an integrated aluminium oil sump. It has an electronically actuated variable geometry turbocharger and a closed couple exhaust after-treatment system. The system has a 3-way conversion catalyst at the front along with a 4-way conversion catalyst at the rear. The exhaust valves are liquid sodium cooled for durability. Even the pistons are friction-optimized with steel ring carriers. For the gearbox, it comes incorporated with machine learning for better shifts and also launch assist which assures smooth take off on gradient and high altitudes.

Let’s jump from all the technical jargon to the driving experience. Luckily, this time around I got to cold start the car. Upon firing up the 3-cylinder engine, you can feel mild vibrations in the cabin. It takes a few minutes for the vibrations to settle down and once the engine is warmed up, you can appreciate the refinement of the engine. Take your foot off the light clutch and the car crawls forward smoothly. Tata car clutches have this peculiar trait that it takes some time to get used to. The clutch bite isn’t smooth and you feel a jerk while engaging and disengaging. You have to spend some time with the car to get a hang of the clutch and drive smoothly. This trait was present in the first-ever Nexon as well and you’d expect Tata to have worked on this to make the drive experience smoother, but sadly that’s not the case. Especially when other cars in the segment have a more user-friendly clutch.

The 1.2-litre engine is quite revv-happy and most owners will like the punchy nature of this GDI motor. Throttle response is sharp and power delivery is linear. What’s better about the non-GDI engine is that the bottom end has improved. The engine doesn’t feel dead at low RPMs unless you’re purposefully lugging it. There’s enough grunt at low RPMs and the turbo kicks in at ~ 1,750 rpm. You do need to be careful of one aspect though. If you are someone who likes to lug the engine and keep it at low rpm a lot, you will tend to stall the engine. Thanks to the dual mass flywheel, the engine is more prone to stalling than the non-GDI engine which has a single mass flywheel. But apart from that, the engine has enough power to get around the city and keep up with the traffic easily.

Get on the open roads and you can extract the performance out of the Curvv. As mentioned earlier, the engine is revv happy, but this is not a high-revving engine. It starts pulling from as low as 2,000 rpm and has a good punch in the mid-range. This is good enough for overtakes on the highways. The engine pulls strongly till 5,000 rpm beyond which it starts to flatten out and the revv limiter kicks in at just under 6,000 rpm. The fuel cut-off is also sudden, so it’s best if you upshift at ~4,500-5,000 rpm. Thanks to the tall 6th gear, the Curvv can cruise on the highway at 100 km/h at ~2,200 rpm and 120 km/h is seen at ~ 2,500 rpm. And while you can manage to overtake cars while in 6th gear, it’s best to drop down a gear for a quick overtake.

Like all the Tata cars, there are 3 drive modes. A big relief here is that the typical Tata call when you change the drive mode is now gone! No more “Sport Drive Mode Activated”.

City Mode - The default mode. The car always restarts in this mode, no matter what mode you last drove in. It's great for driving in the city as well as on the highway. Strikes a good balance between power and economy.

Eco Mode – This is supposed to be the most fuel-efficient mode. In this mode, the throttle response is muted in comparison with the City mode. It doesn’t really make the drive smoother and you feel sluggish while driving. You can engage this on the highway when you’re cruising at a constant speed and won’t be overtaking a lot.

Sport Mode – The difference in this mode is quite noticeable and throttle response is sharper in comparison. Drivability is in fact good in Sport mode and you won’t even feel it to be excessively jerky while driving around in the city. This is also the mode in which you have the extra 25 Nm of torque available in short bursts.

As mentioned earlier, the clutch isn’t one of the nicer units in the segment. It’s almost like an on/off switch rather than something you can modulate for a smoother drive. This makes driving the MT smoothly a difficult affair. The 6-speed manual gearbox has longish throws and enthusiasts will like shorter throws. The good thing is that the gearbox is sure-slotting.

Noise, Vibration & Harshness (NVH)

The turbo-petrol GDI is definitely more refined than the non-GDI engine, but doesn’t really set new benchmarks in the segment. You can still feel the vibrations on the gear lever while driving normally. This increases when the engine is at higher RPMs. Overall the refinement is good, but could’ve been better. The wind noise and tyre noise are also kept in check.

You get an insulation sheet under the hood:

Mileage & Fuel Economy

Tata hasn’t revealed the fuel efficiency numbers of the Curvv Hyperion engine. But given that it’s a turbo-petrol engine, it is sensitive to throttle inputs. So, drive with a heavy foot and you will drain the fuel tank faster.

The Curvv has a 44-litre fuel tank and is E20 compatible:

Driving the Tata Curvv 1.5L Diesel 7-speed Dual-Clutch AT

The 1.5-litre diesel engine is heavily updated and makes 116 BHP and 260 Nm torque. It has been named the 'Kryojet' engine and Tata claims that very little has been carried forward from the old 1.5-litre Revotorq diesel engine that we’ve seen in the Nexon:

The Kryojet diesel is a 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that makes 116 BHP @ 4,000 rpm and 260 Nm @ 1,500-2,750 rpm. What’s unique about the Curvv’s diesel engine is that it is available with a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Only the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos were offering an automatic with a diesel engine and the Curvv will likely take a piece of that share. Tata has gone with the 7-speed dual-clutch automatic from a Belgian company named ‘Punch Powertrain’. This is a wet clutch pack which is more sensible for the Indian climate. It also has machine learning software that optimises transmission behaviour based on its diagnostics and analysis of parameters. It also has self-healing technology.

At idle, there are mild vibrations and you can hear the diesel clatter inside the cabin. Slot into D, take your foot off the brake pedal and the Curvv crawls forward smoothly without any throttle input. With a light foot on the accelerator, the transmission moves up the gears quite smoothly. This is good for driving around in the city when in bumper-to-bumper traffic. This is a big step up from the jerky AMT that Tata had with the Nexon diesel. Build up some speed and some flaws of the DCT start to show. If you’re in Economy mode or City mode, the gearbox is always looking to be in a higher gear. Get off the throttle for a bit and you’ll see the gearbox go up a gear and it won’t hold on to a particular gear. This can get annoying when driving around in the city as you’ll see a lot of shifts happening. Moreover, the shifts aren’t extremely smooth like you would see in say a VW-Skoda dual-clutch automatics. You do feel the upshifts and when coming to a halt, you also feel the downshifts with a slight jerk.

Take the car out on the highway and you will enjoy cruising in the diesel automatic. You can get up to cruising speeds quickly and the engine spins comfortably at 1,750 rpm at 100 km/h and 2,000 rpm at 120 km/h. It’s important to know that this transmission is tuned for comfort and not for performance. It’s best if you drive it in a sedate manner. While the engine has a good amount of power and packs a punch in the mid-range, the gearbox limits the performance. If you are in the mood for some enthusiastic driving, you will have to switch to Sport mode where the transmission holds on to the gears a bit longer. The engine comes into its stride at 2,000 rpm, but the gearbox doesn’t allow the engine to revv beyond 3,750 rpm. That’s a very narrow power band. You can use the paddle shifters to engage manual mode, but even here, the transmission won’t allow you to go beyond 3,750 rpm. In kickdown mode, the gearbox drops down a gear or two, but it’s not very aggressive. It’s best if you switch to manual mode (via paddle shifters) and drop down a couple of gears for a quick overtake. Note that the paddle shifters are slow to respond. It takes ~ 2 seconds for the gear to engage after you’ve selected it. Engine braking also isn’t very strong with manual downshifts. To cancel the paddle shifter manual mode, you have to engage ‘D’ once again by pushing the gear lever down.

Overall though, driving in the city is a comfortable affair thanks to the convenience of an automatic and the size of the car. For someone looking for an automatic to occasionally drive around in the city and cruise on the highway, this diesel dual-clutch automatic option makes a lot of sense.

Like the petrol Curvv, the diesel engine also gets 3 driving modes –

City Mode - The car always restarts in this mode, no matter what mode you last drove in. It's great for driving in the city as well as on the highway. The throttle response is good, but the shifts are noticeable in this mode – upshifts and downshifts as well.

Eco Mode – The engine and gearbox are tuned to extract maximum fuel efficiency in this mode. The throttle response is dulled in comparison with the City mode and the gearbox is looking to jump to the highest gear possible. It doesn’t really make the drive smoother and you feel sluggish while driving. Surprisingly, the gearshifts are smoother in the Eco mode and if you want to drive around smoothly in the city, you can switch to this mode.

Sport Mode – The difference in this mode is quite noticeable and throttle response is sharper in comparison. The transmission holds on to the gears much longer in comparison with other drive modes. This is the mode you will want to be in when you want to drive enthusiastically.

Noise, Vibration & Harshness (NVH)

In direct comparison with the 1.5-litre Revotorq engine, the NVH levels have improved. The engine is not as noisy on the outside and the refinement has improved on the inside as well. You can hear the diesel clatter above 2,000 rpm and the engine gets loud above 3,000 rpm. It’s not a good sound either, so neither you nor the passengers will be happy to hear the engine sound at high RPMs. While cruising, the wind noise and road noise are kept in check.

Mileage & Fuel Economy

Tata hasn’t revealed the exact fuel efficiency numbers for the diesel engine. It has a 44-litre fuel tank and the engine should be fairly efficient like the previous generation Revotorq diesel. We will have to wait for the ownership reports for the real-life fuel economy of the diesel engine.

Note that the diesel engine doesn’t have an AdBlue tank:

Suspension

Ride Comfort

The Curvv rides on McPherson strut suspension up front and a twist-beam rear. Having driven the Curvv EV just recently, the difference in suspension is quite evident. The Curvv is comparatively softer and the ride is more comfortable. There is an underlying stiffness to the suspension which you can feel at low speeds. Another contributing factor is also the 18-inch alloy wheels which make the ride stiff. The suspension handles bad roads well and the suspension works silently. Big potholes however make themselves felt in the cabin with a noticeable thud. Over a bad patch of road, there is side-to-side movement in the cabin.

Handling & Dynamics

Straight-line stability is good on the Curvv and the passengers will be comfortable at highway speeds. The vertical movement at high speeds is well controlled thanks to the stiffness of the suspension. It doesn’t iron out the road irregularities completely on the highways though. Expansion joints and road bumps are felt in the cabin. When it comes to handling, the chassis feels well balanced and you can push hard through the corners. The turn-in is sharp and the car holds its line well. The body roll is kept in check too. The 215/55 R18 Goodyear tyres provide decent grip, but squeal when pushed hard. You should consider switching to grippier tyres if you want to do some enthusiastic driving.

Steering

The steering is nice and light in the city and weighs up adequately on the highways. The Curvv steering has a peculiar character where the resistance increases with the steering angle. This is primarily done to avoid crossing over of arms and works fine. Some drivers prefer consistent feedback from the steering. Notably, the steering on the diesel car was heavier thanks to the heavier front end. Overall, this is a decent steering setup and thankfully not a completely disconnected EPS as we see in some cars.

Braking

All-wheel disc brakes are offered only on the Accomplished and Accomplished + variants. All other variants get drum brakes at the rear. We drove the all-wheel disc brake variant and it had excellent stopping power. The car sheds speed effectively and the pedal feel is progressive too.

Niggles & Problems

The Curvv is loaded with features and the chances of things going wrong are also high, unfortunately. Our petrol test car had had alignment issues and was pulling towards the left. Then the front parking sensors kept going off randomly when there was nothing in front of the car which was irritating. These were just some of the things that we faced in our car. We highly recommend that you do a thorough PDI and make sure that your car is free of any niggles or issues. Also as always, we recommend that you get the 2-year or up to 1,25,000 km extended warranty over the standard warranty of 3 years or 1,00,000 km.

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