Tata Tiago diesel: My thoughts after 6 years & 130000 kms of ownership

Apart from two engine mounts and timing kit, I didn’t have to spend anything extra on maintenance. A service every 10000 kms is more than enough to maintain this car in good shape.

BHPian Cool-Shine recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Long term ownership review of my TATA Tiago XZ (D)- (after 6 years and 130000 Kms):

TATA…All important things in my life are closely associated with TATA. Be it my first job (working in TCS since 2009 till date), meeting my life partner at TCS, my first car (Tata Indica Vista) and now my second car (Tata Tiago XZ diesel). TATA was always there in all the best moments of my life.

My brother and I bought our first car Tata Indica Vista (VX Quadrajet) in 2011. We learnt driving on this car. I must say that the Fiat-sourced Quadrajet was a gem of an engine and it’s still going strong even after 11 years and 90K kms. . But after I moved to Pune due to my job and got married a few years later, in 2016 I started feeling the need for another car.

Tata Indica Vista Vx (Quadrajet) 2011:

Since I was driving a diesel car right from the beginning and I was going to a travel a lot between Mumbai and Pune, my first choice was diesel car only. Hence, I started looking for a decent diesel hatchback car. Since I had also purchased a new house in Pune in the same year, I had a very limited budget (~Rs. 6.5L) for buying a car. Now the main problem was that there was no diesel car available in the market in that price range. I checked few cars like Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Grand i10, Tata Bolt, but they all were way above my budget. At that time I read the Team BHP review for Tata Tiago. Tata was offering this car with diesel engine as well. Though the power output was nowhere near Indica Vista, I still decided to go ahead with this car mainly because of two reasons:

• There was no other diesel car available in this budget.
• After using an Indica Vista for almost 5 years, I was completely satisfied with the quality of TATA cars. I never faced any issue with their service as well.

I wanted to buy this car in Navi Mumbai, since my permanent residence is Navi Mumbai as per all my official documentation and the place where my family was living was outside the Municipal corporation territory - thus, I could save on octroi charges (which I had to pay if this car was bought at Pune).

Now, the biggest issue was that the Tata Tiago had a waiting period of 3-4 months at that time. In 2016, I considered a 3-4 month waiting period to be on the higher side as other cars were easily getting delivered in 3-4 weeks. I certainly could not wait to get my hands on my new car and wanted to have it immediately, so I started checking with all Tata dealerships in Mumbai if they had this model of Tata Tiago readily available which was allotted to some customer and later, got cancelled.

Luckily, there was one car available at Wasan Motors, Chembur, Mumbai. Infact, they had the same color and version of the car I was hoping for. I also asked them to share the VIN number of the car. After checking the VIN number, I immediately sent them an email to block this car for me and made the initial down payment without even seeing the car!

Buying experience:

Though this was a big risk of booking a car without seeing it, it was a calculated one - I took a chance since they had the car readily available. I went to their dealership the next weekend to transfer the remaining down payment amount. At that time, they were forcing me to buy the car insurance from them which I politely refused and told them that if they are matching with the quotes which I got from other insurance providers, then I will go with their insurance. After a very long deliberation, SA agreed to match the quotes.

I thought, after this I just need to get my loan sanctioned and I can take this beautiful car home. But I was wrong. The dealership did not help me in processing my loan. As I was working at Pune, no other bank or financial institute was ready to come to Pune to do my employment verification. As luck would have it, at that time my wife was on her maternity leave and was staying in Mumbai with her parents, hence I asked the dealership to transfer the booking on my wife’s name and applied for a loan on her name only.

I also had a very tough time while registering the car at the RTO Office. Though, I had bought this car on my wife’s name, she did not have any address proof of Navi Mumbai where I wanted to register the car. We only had our marriage certificate. RTO office was not ready to register the car only based on the marriage certificate. Hence, I had to update her Aadhar card to reflect the Navi Mumbai home address where I wanted to register my car. All of this delayed my car delivery by one more month. I did not get any support from the dealership in this entire ordeal.

Finally, the wait was over and I got the delivery of my Tata Tiago XZ (D) on 3rd Sep 2016!!

I must say that the Tata Tiago is really a very decent car. It has a turbocharged three-cylinder engine that develops 51.5 kW (70 PS) at 4,000 rpm and 140 Nm of torque at 1,800-3,000 rpm. Though the figures look very average on paper, in real world, it is more than enough to perform all required activities one should expect from any car in this class. Under 2000 rpm, you will definitely feel the lag. This is more evident in city traffic; however, on the highway once turbo kicks in post 2000 rpm, you will get a linear acceleration from this engine. The speed of 100 km/hr can be achieved at 2500 rpm. This car can easily cruise at this speed all day long without any issue!

Pros:

• Awesome fuel efficiency this car gives- I can easily get >25 km/l with mix of city and highway driving.
• Decent interiors- Interior fit and finish is much better than the earlier Tata cars.
• Ride quality- The Tiago has one of the best suspension setups in its segment.
• Features- This car has decent features as compared to other cars in the same price range.
• Sound system- This is the best feature of this car. 8 speakers Harman Kardon music system is simply brilliant! No other car in this segment or segment above offers this kind of smooth music system! I am spoilt for all other music systems now!
• Build quality of this car is really good. I have experienced this owing to a couple very minor accidents/bumps I had with this car.
• Ground clearance is very decent. It is much better than Vista!

• Apart from two engine mounts and timing kit, I didn’t have to spend anything extra on maintenance. Regular service at ASC after every 10000 kms is more than enough to maintain this car in good shape.

Cons:

• This three cylinder diesel engine is very noisy. Though the engine noise is very well contained, you can still hear it inside the cabin. This engine also vibrates a lot.
• Rear seat is good enough for two adults and 1 child.
• Seats are not very comfortable and not as much leg room for above average tall persons.
• Throw of the headlight is very poor.
• Evident turbo lag below 2000 rpm.

Service experience at ASC:

• This car was majorly serviced at following ASC -
• Fortune Cars (Nerul) – I used to get my Indica Vista here for regular service and had developed very good connects with few service advisors; however, once they left job, I stopped going there.
• Concord Motors, aka Bafana Motors aka Garve Motors (Tathawade, Pune)- I got my Tiago serviced at this service center few times; however, I was not very happy with the work done at this service center. Unfortunately, could not find any competent ASC at Pune location hence decided to go to Mumbai for all periodic services.
• Riddhi Autocraft (Pawne, Navi Mumbai)- Really happy with this ASC. Always satisfied with the work done at this center. Got very good connects with SA and floor managers. They pay special attention to my Tiago as I come all the way from Pune.
• Heritage Motors (Kalamboli)- This is the new ASC which is located very close to my home in Navi Mumbai hence got my last service (at 120k KMS) done at this service center. Overall I am quite happy with the work done by them.

Mods done till now:

• Installed aftermarket seat covers and floor matting immediately after delivery.
• Upgraded headlight to Philips Rally 100/90 with Exelite relay.
• Installed IPH car projector fogs with 35W HID.

Accidents till now:

Met with a minor accident on western express highway where an autorickshaw suddenly entered in my lane from the adjacent lane. This resulted in minor dent on front RHS fender. Got it repaired from a fellow BHPian Noel. Total repair cost- Rs.3000/-