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My Tata Altroz DCA: Observations after initial 300 kms of driving

14th September 2022, 15:06 by Dev Shah

The wide opening doors are a boon because they allow the elderly a huge space to enter and exit.

BHPian W.A.G.7 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The total mileage crossed 300kms yesterday night. Tomorrow, we are traveling to our in-laws place, once again to Satara; so we have a chance to test the cruise control feature. I will update the experience here tomorrow or on Sunday.

Some things that I missed to mention in the main review are these:

The steering wheel is a flat bottom steering which feels nice and chunky to hold. It is adjustable for height but not for the reach.
The fuel lid opener is in the standard position near the driver's door. It's not linked to the central locking in any way (to give a reference, in the EcoSport, the fuel lid is managed by the central locking; unlocking the doors will also unlock the fuel opener).
The rear view camera can be used to keep a tab on the vehicles trailing us; as shared by Turbosailor (Thanks Turbosailor). However, it is pretty useless at night because most of the people drive on high beams and the display distracts you when used in this way because the glare from the vehicles behind you is blinding.
Wing mirrors are wide and will do a good job of showing the traffic to your LHS and RHS.
We finally figured out how to change the mood lighting today morning! It's a roundabout process but I will show that with pictures. The red is gaudy, yellow/bronze looks weird, so we reverted back to the default blue.
As pointed out by Turbosailor (Thanks, once again!) Siri works flawlessly when used with voice command buttons. The voice commands are useful now, but we are still learning some of those yet.

Here are a few exterior pictures of the Altroz. The location is Thoseghar waterfalls/Chalkewadi windmill farm. There was heavy rainfall when we went there for a photo shoot of the car.

When I mentioned the piano black surface was going to be problematic- this is what I meant. There are already micro scratches on all the exterior piano black finished surfaces:

The rear lights are tiny but bright. The alloy wheel design is simple and looks nice:

Here's a side profile of the car. The chrome strip was the only thing that we added on the car. Otherwise no other additions, it is completely stock:

Grey looks good. Its a please all and offend no one colour:

This is one of the best angles to view the car. Notice the projector headlamp and the pilot lamps which are on:

The chrome strips are nice, but they are not subtle as is the case with VW cars. I am not really a fan of chrome but these are okay for me, they are not too much in your face:

A photo with the windmills in the background:

Here's a shot of the rear, with the lights on. They are small as I said, but bright enough:

Another generic angle from which the car looks beautiful:

The natural water beading effect. We have not opted for any kind of coating as yet. The paint quality is darn good and is even on all the surfaces:

It remains to be seen, how the paint fares in the coming years. This one is on the roof. The antenna is a springy one, we would have loved a shark fin antenna. This could be a future D-I-Y:

Vocal for Local sticker. Is that really true in the sense of this car? Or does it have bits and pieces mixed from multiple car manufacturers? Also, notice the piano black finished triangle above the windscreen. That probably could be a cover for fitting the rear spoiler:

Wild flowers, nothing specific about this photo:

The chrome strips, are not overdone but not subtle either. The car looks good in this frontal shot. Just to clarify, our son is not alone, my wife was there in the driver's seat! However, the reflection on the windscreen makes it look otherwise:

Doors open w-i-d-e! Notice that the rear window does not roll down fully:

The wide opening doors are a boon and a bane. Boon because it allows the elderly a huge space to enter and exit, but they are bane because they will bang an adjacent surface or will eat up space on narrow roads, such that vehicles cannot pass:

When it's raining hard, there's no better combination than hot tea, Parle-G and omelette-pav!!

Another 3/4 view of the car. There's the piano black surface again, on the side. It's quite thick. What's the obsession with this colour, wherever possible? The good thing about this is that is blends nicely with whatever shade of colour the car is:

The heavy rainfall caused a build up of fog inside the light housing. Notice the piano black surface (again!) and the chrome strip:

A generic photo of the scenery. The nature here in these parts is utterly beautiful:

A long shot of the car, the rain had stopped for a few moments here. The roads are awesome and there's hardly any traffic on these interior roads:

Here's a rear shot of the car, taken when the rain had stopped for some time. 10 minutes later it became overcast and began raining once again:

The dashboard shows a nice 3D picture of the car with the exact door that is open:

In one of the original posts, I had mentioned about this. This is a nifty feature where the car reminds you to align the steering wheel if it's turned in either directions while parking. It also tells you the direction in which you need to turn the steering:

The indicator on the fender is tiny! Do not be fooled by the outer covering, that's way bigger than the actual bulb and it's housing:

As you can see, there are quite a few reflective (you guessed it, piano black again!) surfaces in the car. For example, the car is in neutral but I have a hard time figuring that out, because the outside reflections are bright. It's all the more obvious in the second picture:

For a round trip of ~300kms, for an automatic car that's actually quite a good Fuel efficiency of 15.6kmpl! The odometer stands at 606kms yesterday evening as you can see. Funnily we averaged a speed of 37 kmph only, that's quite low: