Why we first rejected the Punch & why we bought it eventually: Review

After removing the "mini Tata Harrier" from the equation initially, we had considered the Maruti Jimny as well as the Hyundai Exter.

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Ownership Review - 2023 Tata Punch (Creative Variant)

My Likes:

• Looks – The mini Tata is a looker, no two ways about it. There’s nothing like it in the price segment.
• Space – The cabin is spacious, and the boot is quite large for its footprint.
• The updated BS6 Phase 2 engine is significantly better than its predecessor when it comes to refinement & power delivery.
• Ground clearance of 187 mm, coupled with a relatively shorter wheelbase, makes it quite handy on our roads.
• Seating position – one of the best in the sub-4m category cars.
• Ride and handling is top-notch; manoeuvrability is excellent.
• Harman’s 7-inch infotainment system is exceptional.
• The Creative variant’s feature list is elaborate - LED DRLs, diamond-cut alloy wheels, auto headlamps and wipers, cruise control, cooled glovebox, and the list goes on.

My Dislikes:

• Fit & Finish - Just above average, needs improvement.
• For a million-rupee car, niggles are really unwelcome.
• Although the material quality of the dashboard/door panels is par for the segment, they seem to be scratch-prone.
• Switchgear quality could have been better.
• Ergonomic issues on the interior – horn button placement, cabin light switch design.
• Maintaining the black body cladding clean is quite a task.
• Handbrake lever feels a bit lifeless.
• Quality of the rubber door beadings could have been better.

Prelude

Ours has always been a 3-car garage for the past 2 decades, currently featuring a 1968 Mahindra Jeep, a 2020 Kia Seltos Diesel, and a 2023 Tata Punch (which replaced the 2018 Maruti Alto K10). We tend to keep our vehicles for 7-8 years before considering a replacement, though the Jeep has been a cherished exception, remaining with us since 1968, and we're not sure if we'll ever part ways with it.

Having a second or third car in our garage is a necessity, and considering our use case, it must have a compact footprint. The typical usage of the vehicle would be around 4000-5000 kms annually. Although high ground clearance is a top priority, the Alto K10 and its predecessor, the 2009 Alto, took us to places usually considered 'Jeep' territory. While the K10 performed its duties adequately, we couldn't quite capture the charm that the old Alto had. About 18-24 months into ownership, thoughts of replacing the car began to linger.

Chapter 1

When Tata announced the HBX concept, it truly sparked our excitement and made us feel it was worth the wait. Despite not being Tata fans, the concept was too impressive for us to ignore. As time passed, the HBX transformed into the Hornbill, and eventually, it hit the market as the Punch in October 2021. On the day of the car's launch, I visited the local Tata dealership, and unsurprisingly, I found the sales advisor to be lacking enthusiasm.

Here's a fun fact

The official Punch website at that time indicated that the car had a 6-speed manual transmission. When I sought clarification from the sales advisor, he suggested that this could be due to the car being a mini SUV. I was left in disbelief!

I had shared my contact number with the sales advisor and requested him to notify me when the test drive vehicle became available. As days passed, and once again unsurprisingly, there was absolute silence from the dealership. After multiple requests and a couple of nudges, I finally managed to test drive the car. Boy, I was disappointed, and that would be an understatement. While the looks and suspension bowled me over, the engine left me unimpressed. When pushed hard, the engine merely growled and groaned, nothing more. I understand that the car isn't meant to be a performance-oriented machine, but the car it aimed to replace was nothing short of a pocket rocket. Those who have driven the K10 wouldn't disagree, I'm pretty sure. The Punch was taken out of the equation with no second thoughts.

So, the dilemma of 'what car?' was not easy to handle. The car had to be compact, peppy, with good ground clearance, and preferably from Maruti. All these requirements pointed towards one car—the Ignis. It checked all the boxes, in fact, every one of them, but we found embracing its quirky looks challenging. With not many options around, the procrastination continued.

Chapter 2

With the urge to change the car growing stronger, and with Ignis's restyled front end gaining acceptance in the household, it was time to reconsider the Ignis. A test drive further reiterated how good the car really is. With everything set and done, the decision to go ahead with the purchase was almost finalized, conveniently ignoring the oddball rear-end styling. I say "almost" because it was that month of the year that people in our part of the world generally consider inauspicious. Although we weren't too strict on this, our well-wishers advised us against it. As the days rolled on, new thoughts and ideas kept creeping in. Finally, when the moment of truth arrived, all of a sudden, my Dad found the rear-end styling not to his taste. The Ignis was rejected for the second and final time. This was in the second half of 2022.

Chapter 3

Enter Jimny

With Maruti confirming the launch of the 5-door Jimny, the news kept us interested. With more and more spy pictures of Jimny floating on the internet each passing day, the interest only grew. Finally, when Maruti unveiled the Jimny in January 2023 at the auto expo and opened the bookings, it did not take long for us to book one. And the wait for the price reveal and the actual launch started, which, as you all know, took an eternity, very unlike Maruti! Meanwhile, the news of a new Tata dealership that had come up in Mangalore caught my attention. And so did the updated BS6 Phase-2 version of the Tata Punch. The new dealership, Cauvery Motors, had developed a good reputation in a relatively short span of time.

Sometime in mid-April, while returning from a holiday in Goa, I decided to check out the updated Punch at Cauvery Motors. I cranked the engine, and to my pleasant surprise, I felt that it was remarkably smooth and silent in comparison to the Phase-1 model. Although the increase in power figures isn't significant compared to its predecessor, the overall driving experience proved to be significantly improved. The test drive was an eye-opener. In short, the car left me impressed.

With a Citroen dealership not too far away beside the highway, I also checked out the C3. I liked the car very much for what it offers. I found it to be a compelling package at its price point, especially with a substantial discount on offer. Overall, the customer experience at the dealership was pleasant. However, there was no way we were putting our money on the car after having a terrible ownership experience with our Fiat Palio 1.6 about a decade and a half ago. The market has evolved a lot since then, but I'm afraid things haven't changed much as far as the FCA group is concerned.

A couple of weeks later, when I was in Bangalore, I was presented with an opportunity to drive my relative's updated Punch. Although it was an AMT version, I really liked the car. I drove it in and around the city for about 100 kms. It further reiterated my belief that Tata has improved the car to a good degree. However, folks at home weren't too keen on a Tata car, and I decided not to push my case further.

After six long painstaking months, Maruti decided to reveal the pricing of the Jimny on June 10th. And our worst fears came true. The Jimny was not coming home at that price, no matter what. But still, I decided against canceling the booking since ours was one of the earliest. In case of a change of mind, I did not want to be at the far end of the long queue (which many thought it would be).

Enter Exter

With the Jimny moving out of the reckoning, it's time for the Hyundai Exter to enter the fray. Neither did Hyundai take long in opening the bookings for the car, nor did we in booking one for us. I was kind of neutral on the car from Day 1. We were invited to the launch event at a local dealership and got to see the car in metal. Although the car did not excite me much, the overall package and its pricing seemed good then. I felt the car to be a tad low-slung, and the gap between the wheel well and the tires did not give me good vibes. Once the online reviews started flooding YouTube, my skepticism only grew. A test drive a week later was enough for us to cancel the booking. I'm not saying that the Exter is an incompetent car, but it did not strike the right chord for us in numerous aspects.

In the meantime, the local Maruti dealer had gotten the Jimny for test drives. Just to quench my interest, I took a test drive. In this particular car, gearshifts were really hard, just tractor-like. The car looked appealing, but nothing that would make us overlook the optimistic pricing.

All this while, the sales advisor (SA) at Cauvery Motors, with whom I had first interacted, was following up on a consistent basis. The enthusiasm he showed was quite heartening. Meanwhile, my good friend and fellow BHPian Thilak29 had purchased a Tiago EV from the same dealership, and he had a lot of positive things to say. To add to this, one of my close relatives, who had bought a first lot Punch, had many positive things to narrate about the car after driving it for close to 30,000 km in less than 18 months.This gave us a lot of confidence, and slowly but surely, the Punch was getting back into the reckoning.

When I insisted on another test drive, the SA was happy to get the car to my place, which is about 100 kms from the dealership! The test drive further pulled us towards the mini Tata. The SA persuaded us to book the car then and there itself, with the condition that he would refund the booking amount at the earliest in case our plans changed. So, I went ahead with the booking without committing to the variant and color. This was on August 10th. Although we as a family liked the vehicle very much, buying a Tata car seemed a tough decision.

With the Jimny booking still in hands, the mind was oscillating every single moment. Once, there was even a wild thought of getting home the Jimny, replacing our Alto K10, and the beloved '68 Jeep both. Finally, better sense prevailed, and the decision was made to go ahead with the Punch. This delay in decision-making helped us, as Tata introduced some new features on the Punch, and the SA committed to delivering the latest model in the last week of August.

With the decision made (finally), it was time to let go of the Alto K10. Though I had a few people inquiring about the car, a serious buyer approached me and without much ado, he agreed on our price and promised to take delivery in 10 days or so, and he did as promised.

The final twist in the tale

I had notified my SA about 3-4 convenient dates that we wish to take delivery of the new car, the latest being Sep 6th. As luck would have it, there was a delay in the logistics from the manufacturer, and the vehicle delivery was getting delayed. The worst part was that the proactive SA suddenly turned non-committal and started avoiding my calls and text messages. The frustration got too much to handle, and I went to the extent of canceling the booking altogether. We wanted a new car immediately, and I started inquiring about other options in the market. Finally, a senior representative intervened and committed to a delivery date. I insisted on PDI before going ahead with full payment, which was agreed upon. During the PDI, I found an abnormal panel gap on one of the interior panels, which I notified about the SA. Other than that, I found the vehicle good to proceed with the payment. We chose 15th Sep as the delivery day.

Presenting you our Tropical Mist Punch – Creative DT variant(Manual Transmission)

Price details (in INR)

• Ex-Showroom price – 871,900/-
• Road Tax – 138622/-
• Insurance(Zero Dep.) – 34546/-
• Registration charges & Fastag – 3262/-

Accessories opted

• Mud Flaps – 625/-
• 7D floor mats - 5999/-
• Boot mat - 1192/-
• 3M Anti-corrosion underbody coating- 3200/-

Offers

• Discount on accessories- 3000/-
• Tata Shop Share Smile offer – 3000/- (Tata group employee referral discount)

Total on-road price – 1,053,345/-

Brochure

Since now the car comes with a standard warranty of 3 years or 1 lakh kms, and considering our relatively low intended usage, we did not find it worth opting for an extended warranty.

Car Delivery Day

The delivery day was no less dramatic. They had the car ready by noon, as promised. Customary cake cutting, unveiling of the car, and key handover followed next. Overall, it was a pleasant delivery experience. The fact that my buddy and fellow BHPian PrideRed, who has a very good rapport with the GM at the dealership Mr. Umesh, had put in a good word certainly helped big time. I would like to thank PrideRed for invaluable assistance. With all formalities completed, the dealership staff requested us to pose for a photo without the new car before fitting the registration plates. Their surprise was evident when we didn't express much enthusiasm for the idea.

With all formalities done, it was time to get behind the wheel of the Punch. My father took the keys, and my kids joined their grandpa. I and my wife followed them in our Seltos. My father missed the first available fuel station on the highway to our place, and the next fuel station was about 10 kms further away. He managed to stop there. And guess what!? The fuel lid cover refused to open, no matter how many times we tried. This was frustrating, to say the least. We were left with no other option but to take back the car to the showroom.

The GM immediately directed his service personnel to attend to the car, and he sounded genuinely apologetic. Although it was a frustrating situation, none of us really lost our cool. It did not take more than 10 minutes for them to resolve the issue, and we were back on the highway again pretty soon. The 100km drive to our place turned out to be a smooth one with a spell of heavy rain on the way.

Rain soaked Tropical Mist Punch

I took the car out for a spin the following day, and I returned home smiling. However, with Tata cars, niggles are never too far away, and it did not take long for me to experience it. On the first day itself, I found that the boot lid didn't close the way it normally should. One had to really bang it hard to shut it. Even that wouldn't guarantee shutting the door in one go. This was quite annoying, and the double beep of the horn each time you open the door was only adding to it.

On day 4 of ownership, I was out in the town on some work, and when I tried operating the driver side power window, it started to misbehave. Once the window is fully rolled down, it would refuse to fully roll up. The window would roll up halfway and retract again. Even with multiple tries, I failed. I immediately called the dealership to check if I could troubleshoot with their assistance, but it did not help. I tried operating the power window switch in an intermittent fashion and luckily I succeeded in closing the window. That was a huge relief with dark clouds in the sky and rains looming large. Once I reached home, I noticed the same issue with the power window. But, this time I knew how to troubleshoot. However, the fuel lid cover was back to its old ways, reluctant to open.

I had enough and decided to take the car to the service centre the next day to get the issues resolved. This is exactly the reason why the proximity of the dealership (Is the proximity of dealerships / service centres one of the influencing factors in car purchases?) (Is the proximity of dealerships / service centres one of the influencing factors in car purchases?) is a compelling factor in my car-buying decision. The fact that BHPian Thilak29 had given me a heads-up on what to expect and what not in a Tata car had kind of calibrated my mindset, and it helped me not to lose my mind over the issues. I appreciate Thilak29 for his valuable insights

As planned, I ended up at the service center. Although I had no intention of meeting the GM that day, I ended up doing so. The gentleman again assured me that all the issues would be resolved. I was asked to wait at the customer lounge until they got the car ready. In the next 60-75 minutes, the car was ready, and all my issues had been addressed. The misaligned window panel was blamed for the issue. The fuel lid opener worked fine as well. I'm not sure what they did with the boot lid, but it shut like a charm when I tested it. I had a few other queries too, which were all answered quite patiently.

Although the service center visit was an unplanned, unwanted one, it gave me positive vibes about the service center. A huge shoutout to the GM for the way he handled the situation. I also kind of enjoyed the 200km round drive, getting familiarized with the car's character and features.

With the first set of teething issues cropping up and subsequently getting them resolved, I/we started to enjoy the car. The car on the road is true to its UV credentials. The seating position is exemplary, and it gives a commanding view all around. The fact that the variant comes with a seat height adjuster further adds to it.

Design & Looks

Not for Nothing is the Punch often called a mini Harrier. There’s no denying the design language bears a striking resemblance to the first-generation Harrier, and that's not a bad thing at all. The car has a quite butch appearance for its size. I am in love with its sleek DRLs, they are bright as well. However, the front air dam is not quite to my liking. The rear-end styling is a lot simpler in comparison. Although it looks good and muscular in metal, it certainly isn't photogenic in my opinion.

The LED tail lamps add a neat touch to the rear, though. The roof rails make the roofline appear straighter than it actually is. The short and stubby antenna looks neat, however, the sunroof variant of the Punch gets a sharkfin antenna.The 16-inch diamond-cut alloys, shod with 195/60 section tires, fill the wheel arches really well and look handsome too. The thick body cladding adds masculinity; however, these plastic elements tend to lose their sheen pretty soon. To be frank, I'm not a fan of dual-tone colors on small cars.

Since the Creative variant only offers dual-tone color options and happens to be our preferred variant in the lineup, we had no choice but to select from the available colors. However, the Punch in Tropical Mist + Black dual-tone shade looks really cool and certainly stands out on the road. The Orcus White + Black dual-tone combination on the Punch is another appealing choice for me.

Aggressive front-end design

Simple yet muscular rear-end design

Compact and stocky, with minimal overhangs

Purposeful stance, seems ready to prowl

Elegant looking alloy wheel

Stubby roof-top antenna

Lights in action during daytime

Lights in action at night

The unmissable RHINO

Performance

As mentioned at the beginning, the BS-6 Phase 2 version engine is clearly a few notches ahead in terms of refinement and power delivery compared to its predecessor. Tata engineers certainly need to be applauded for this. The acceleration is decent for the segment, and the improvement in low-end torque is noticeable. Hitting triple-digit speeds isn’t too difficult either. With the AC turned off, the engine is astonishingly silent for a 3-pot motor—so much so that I had one of my folks, who was standing a few meters away, confirm with me if the engine was really running! Switch on the AC, and you will hear some coarseness, though nothing too bothersome.

The car comes with two drive modes—City and Economy. Honestly speaking, I find the names uninteresting. It would have been better if Tata had named them City and Sport/Highway instead. Out of the two modes, City mode is the one you would mostly love driving. In Economy mode, the throttle response is a bit dull; however, it is sufficient enough to potter around inside the city, ironically. The default drive mode is City mode. The clutch needs a special mention as it is super light, and the gear shifts are generally precise and reasonably slick. However, there are occasions where slotting into reverse gear needs a bit of effort. When reversing, an unusual whine is noticeable, which, apparently, is normal for this vehicle.

The updated BS6 Phase-2 Engine

Fuel Efficiency

While fuel efficiency is not Punch's forte, it isn't really bad, to be honest. The manufacturer claimed fuel efficiency is a shade over 20 kmpl, the best I managed to achieve so far has been 20 kmpl (as per MID) during a short drive on a highway with mixed driving conditions, which included good to bad roads and slow-moving traffic for a few kilometers on under-construction stretches.

On the first tankful, the fuel efficiency achieved was 11.xx kmpl. Post that, on subsequent tankfuls, the fuel efficiency kept improving—12.xx ->13.xx ->14.xx kmpl. Currently, with our use case, the car consistently delivers fuel efficiency in the range of 14 - 15 kmpl, which is quite decent. Just for comparison, our K10 used to sip a liter of gasoline for every 13-14 kms it was driven.

Ride and Handling

The car's road manners call for special mention. Honestly speaking, the suspension setup is a bit on the stiffer side. At slow speeds, passengers in the car do feel the road undulations; however, as you pick up speed, the suspension soaks them all wonderfully well. The lower trims with 15-inch rims and higher-profile tires might have an even better ride quality. Intriguingly, on the 2nd day of ownership, I found all the tires overinflated with tire pressure in excess of 40 psi. After reducing it to the prescribed limit, the ride quality improved noticeably. The ride is quite compliant, and for a car with a relatively high center of gravity, it really corners well too. I have also had an opportunity to take the car on a non-tarmac narrow stretch of road, and the car handled the beaten path admirably well, I should say. The electric power steering is light, making the car's maneuverability a delight.

The steering is confidence-inspiring even at triple-digit speeds. Additionally, the leather-wrapped steering wheel looks quite chunky and feels really nice to grip. I felt the brakes aren't too sharp; they are a bit on the spongier side but adequate nonetheless. However, the handbrake lever feels a bit lifeless, and unless you pull the lever right up, the brake won't do the job for you. This is one aspect you have to be really careful about while stopping/parking on an incline.

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