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BHPian jotwani recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
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Pros:
Cons:
1. Faulty Door Sensor: When you turn off the car, the infotainment system activates the one-hour mode, which ideally should turn off when the driver-side door opens. However here, it does not. Why? I found out on my first trip to the service centre that the driver door sensor that recognizes door opening, is faulty. Not just in my car but apparently, in all cars including the Safaris and Harriers. A modified part is said to be in the works for this to be replaced in all cars.
2. Faulty Software Update: During the same first visit to the service centre (Noida Sector 5), they decided to update the software version of the car. While I am thinking why didn’t they do this before delivering the car to me, I nevertheless agree, being a lover of all updates. Little do I know that the update will make my life tougher. After the update, there is a notification sound in the car that comes every few seconds. Why? No reason. How do I stop it, I can’t. I tried finding a pattern to the sound but to no avail. Thus, I take the car on its second trip to the service centre, in its second week with me. The Service team take 2 hours and update the VCU of the car and declares, that all is well. I am happy, I turn on the car and start driving back, only to brake in 10 seconds. The noise had come back. I call the SA and am told, “Oh, it's back? Well there’s nothing I can do right now, take it home, there's nothing wrong with the car, I’ll let you know if and when I get a solution to this issue”.
What do you say to this? Back home, I started using it as is, with a slight change of increasing the speaker volume to drown the notification sound.
3. Faulty Small Battery: One Sunday afternoon, as I am getting ready to go out, I press the unlock button in the key to open the car. But it doesn’t work. Surprised I tried a few more times with no luck. Same with the touch button on the door handle. A quick check of the car key and it's confirmed that the key has a sufficient battery. I unlock the car using the manual override key and get in. Tried to turn the car on, but to no avail. The car just won't respond. No lights, nothing. The starter battery is dead. But why? I am certain that there was no electric unit on when I parked it (a few hours ago only). No lights, not even the malfunctioning sound system was on so why? I then call the RSA and inform them of the situation and within 45 mins I have a guy on a scooty standing next to the car with a spare battery. He jump-starts the car and promises it won't stop now. I ask, why this happened. Then he opens the can of worms. This is a common problem and is quite regular in Tata EVs. The small battery drains abruptly and quickly for no known reason. It could be poor wiring, or a leak somewhere or just thanks to the amazing software of the car. This is why I will go on my third visit to the service centre now, within 3 weeks from delivery.
4. Gear Stuck Issue: Amongst all of this, there have been times when the car has refused to start itself. This has happened twice, with me. Once with the service centre guy sitting and driving the car as well. What happens? After pressing the start / stop button, the gear doesn’t move from neutral. The car keeps saying, press the brake pedal, despite me pressing it with all my might. When this happened with the service engineer, he just kept trying to restart the car multiple times and luckily it worked after 10-15 mins. However, he didn’t bother to investigate the cause of the issue and solve it. Merely saying it was a temporary issue and won't happen again. Unfortunately, it did happen again, 2 weeks later only.
5. Faulty Window Functionality: This is the latest development. As if the existing problems weren’t enough. The driver-side window is faulty. First, when you press down and then press up, instead of going up, it goes down. Next, when you long press it to go all the way up, once it reaches the top, it automatically rolls back down halfway and stays there. The first time it happened, I was worried that I’d have to leave it open like that. Thankfully, by slowly rolling it up and not long pressing it, it stayed and was able to close the window. So that’s the solution I have for it for now.
Other Issues: Facing all these issues, I started talking to more people and doing internet research and I got to know of a few more common issues in the car. Such as:
6. Stuck Charging gun: Where the gun just doesn’t get released despite pressing the unlock button. Solution?
7. Battery sudden drop: I have heard (thankfully not faced), that sometimes, after charging to 100% SoC, the battery suddenly starts dropping by 1% every few minutes and discharges much faster than the Range. Why? Not even God knows, let alone Tata.
I liked the car. I loved it when and before I bought it. But after all these daily issues, I majorly regret buying a TATA. Despite being an erstwhile Tata Motors fan and supporter of ‘Made in India’, I now have put off buying Tata again and have asked a few colleagues to hold their Tata Motors purchase (who didn’t need a lot of convincing after my experience). For a 2-week-old owner of a car, having paid 17+ lacs, this is sheer torture. I hope someone at Tata Motors is listening and not just watching their growing stock prices. Swearing off all things Tata till then.
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