Even though I tried to convince her to check the WagonR once, she said a strict NO to Maruti.

BHPian RaghavEvoX recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am posting this on behalf of my sister who wants to buy a new Petrol automatic car under 8.5 lakhs OTR.

This is going to be her first car and she doesn't have any driving experience before.

She doesn't want to try the used market fearing high maintenance costs and also many flood affected cars comes in the Chennai used market.

Requirements:

• Budget - 8.5 lakhs OTR max hard stop.
• Petrol automatic.
• Reliable city car which is easy to drive with reasonable safety.
• Performance & mileage are not factors considered as it will be only used for a 20km city drive everyday.
• No to Maruti.

Cars considered (under 8.5 lakhs OTR Chennai):

• Renault Kiger RXT AMT - 8.5L.
• Tata Punch Adventure AMT- 8L.
• Hyundai Grand i10 Nios Magna AMT - 7.8L.
• Hyundai Grand i10 Nios Sportz AMT- 8.5L.
• Tata Tiago XZA AMT- 7.7L.
• Hyundai Santro Sportz AMT - 7L.
• Renault Kwid Climber AMT - 6.4L

Not considered:

• Hyundai Aura: Don't really require a bigger boot. OK with i10 boot space.
• Tata Tigor: Don't really require a bigger boot. OK with Tiago boot space.
• Maruti Swift / Dzire/ Ignis /Celerio / WagonR / S-Presso: No to Maruti.

Even though I tried to convince her to check the WagonR once, she said a strict NO to Maruti.

Among the cars considered, we have cherry picked the Tata Punch, Tata Tiago, Hyundai Santro & Hyundai i10 Nios (all AMTs) based on the reviews on Team BHP.

Even though Tata cars score highly in safety, their mediocre AMT gearbox gives us a reason to consider other alternatives, which leaves us with Hyundai Grand i10 Nios & Santro.

Request some suggestions from fellow BHPians.

Here's what BHPian condor had to say on the matter:

Despite all the features, I will keep out the Renaults.

Suggest your sis take at least 2 drives in the Hyundai & Tata models short listed, and then further trim the list. As important as the cars are, the driver's comfort is equally important.

Here's what BHPian shashi792 had to say on the matter:

I would suggest the Tata Punch:

• High on safety.
• SUVish seating position, visibility of bonnet ends is imp for new drivers.
• Petrol automatic: I know it's not a turbo-petrol, but based on your needs it fits the bill.
• The AMT might be an issue for someone who has already tried TC/DSG. But for a first-timer, the AMT behaves pretty well.

Renault Kwid Climber AMT - 6.4L is a big NO from my end. It's too late in its gen and not safe as such.

Here's what BHPian AjinkyaP had to say on the matter:

I would suggest to extend the budget a bit and get a CVT equipped car.

If it has to be an AMT , go with Hyundai. They have smoother automated manuals in the segment, especially Santro AMT.

Small yet significant detail:

While test driving Nios AMT I noticed - Unlike Maruti AMTs , Hyundai ones will upshift only when certain speed/RPM is reached and not when you lift-off the accelerator pedal.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The car ran smoothly for the first 5000 km before the problem cropped up.

BHPian RIKUPIKU recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We have bought BSVI Tata Tiago XZ in February 2021. Since then it has been running smoothly with 5000+ kilometres in the odometer. However, in the last week, the first time we experienced the problem of engine locking in the car. In the morning while starting it, the self-starter motor did not get activated. TASS suggested reconnecting the battery points and it was resolved. After a week, today morning again we have encountered the same problem and we could not start the car yet after trying for more than an hour. We did not face such issues in our Hyundai and Maruti cars before. Please suggest to me what could be the possible options to come out from such an issue/situation. Thanks in anticipation.

Here's what BHPian abhishek46 had to say on the matter:

This could be down to Battery & Electrical Issues.

Get your battery tested under 'load' by some nearby Battery-Guy.

Thereafter, get your wiring harness inspected for any cuts/rat damage etc.

Also, it would be better if you can record these on video.

It will serve as evidence if service centre guys are not responding.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The car didn’t have pre-installed fog lights and hence there was no wiring present which I could have used.

BHPian SulemanP recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This could be a normal DIY specifically for after-market fog lamp installations where an OEM does not provide one. I have searched a lot in Team-BHP but have not come across a thread specifically for Tata Tiago any variant. Hence a new thread.

I bought my ride in 2019 still under warranty and I had no idea that Tata would not provide me with 2 important things in the car 1) Fog light and 2) Auto/Manual IRVM which greatly aid while driving at night times. Read quite a lot about DIYs in this forum and specifically threads from @Reinhard, @leoshashi, to name a few…these have really helped me gather a lot of information to go ahead and do it.

I was a little confused as to what should be done because 1) The car didn’t have pre-installed fog lights and hence there was no wiring present which I could have used. 2) I was not comfortable piecing the car’s firewall and installing a switch inside. 3) I was not in favour of using a headlight switch to operate the fog lights that way I would have had no separate switch for the fog lights.

After pondering a lot on what to do…I decided to have independent control, it was necessary to install a separate switch and hence piercing the car’s firewall was the only option. Though @Reinhard had used the Bluetooth method to control the fog lights I steered away from the idea…also warranty related issues are untouched if you have a dedicated circuit & control for the fog lamps installed.

Let's quickly go ahead with the DIY project it will be in STEPs for better clarity.

Materials used for the DIY.

• 2x IPHCar 3" bi-xenon projectors including mounting brackets (Model number 612, water-proof)
• 2x 55W AES HID ballasts (Non-Canbus adapter type)
• 2x 55W 5500K HID bulbs with H11 spec
• H4 wiring harness with relay
• Push/Pull switch for now (later on I’ll replace it with a toggle switch)
• ½ inch flexible pipe 2-3 meters
• Couple of Spade & Ring Lugs for 1 sq.mm wire gauge

Materials used:

Most of them are aware of what are the tools required for a DIY project and you can find more of it over here. Before we start with the DIY you really need to know if your car is Positively Switched or Negatively Switched, it will help to understand how to proceed ahead and complete the wiring safely. It is a must if your car is from a Premium segment cause in that case the wiring may be monitored by a computer or a dedicated module which may throw up some error signs later on.

Engine bay before wiring was installed:

Step 1 – Install the Push/Pull switch in the cabin - Pull the panel below the steering wheel towards you from the LHS that way it is easier to remove, it will need a little jerk so the panel unlocks, then proceed to the RHS here too you will have to apply a little jerk and pull the panel toward you and it will unlock.

I have installed the switch on the LHS as marked in the below image:

The Fuse box:

Panel with the switch installed:

The scene behind the panel had to make a tiny hole in the firewall gourmet to get the wire through, with this, we complete the work on the inside of passenger cabin:

I was stupid to follow a Youtuber and install the switch in this place... I should admit it is not a good place to install a switch. Anyways, I will change the place soon.

Step 2 – Modify the H4 wiring kit to power fog lamps, here you will find that there are 2 circuits one for low beam and the other for high beam. Since we are using this kit to power fog lamps I would need any one of the circuits and the remaining one you can put away after applying insulation tape at the ends. Cut both the H4 connectors of the wiring kit and solder the H11 connectors that come with the fog lamps.

Please ensure two things over here, always make a straight joint to combine the wires. The joints should never be parallel / at the same length to each other. When you bring the joints near, they should come one after the other please see the image for reference.

Straight joint:

Step 3 - Open the bonnet to complete the wiring part using the modified H4 wiring kit. Ensure you route the wire such that it does not come in contact with any moving part and heated surface as it may lead to melting of wire insulation and further the circuit will be grounded. Use cable ties (wherever feasible) to fix the wiring and iron wires/nut bolts to fix the ballast.

Engine bay after I was done with the wiring part:

Step 4 - Remove the front bumper for fog lamp & ballast installation

Without the front bumper:

Ballast installed on the RHS vertical member of chassis using 3M tape and wrought iron wire for better weight management as I don’t trust only 3M tape and cable ties to hold the ballast:

Over a period both the tape and the cable tie will give away leaving the ballast dangling freely:

Repeat the same on the LHS.

Step 5 – Installing the projectors on the front bumper fog lamp housing. TATA Tiago bumper has no provision of nut bolts to fit the fog lamp body, TATA has given simple flat head screws along with a locking system to install the fog lamp body. In my case they had given a blank plate in the fog lamp housing, so you need to cut this blank plate to fix it around the projector body. Post cutting this plate it turns into a ring that fits around the lamp body.

I have been doing this DIY for 2 weeks now because I manage to get free time only on Sundays. Hence even while writing this thread I am yet to address the alignment issue post-installation. I would be posting additional images once I am done with the alignment part.

There are a couple of things that I would like you to check & recheck while doing such a DIY, they are as follows:

• Never leave any wire exposed in the engine bay, either use a ½ inch flexible pipe to cover the wire or at least wound the wire generously with black (only black) insulation tape. If you have cloth type black insulation tap nothing like that.
• Always use a lug at the wire ends it is a best practice to avoid any untoward incident refer to image
• Always use iron wires/nut bolts to secure the ballasts in addition to 3M tape
• Put a sealant in place if you, puncher the firewall to seal the hole.

Installation:

Job done:

Complications:

1. If there is no wiring, then you will also not have a switch in the front fascia plate and you will have to install one of your own.
2. Initially when I installed the ring on the projector body it did not fit perfectly and I had to use a double-sided tape (Gap filler) for a sturdy fit, later I used silicon sealant to fix the ring properly on the projector body.
3. It will certainly take some time to adjust the beam throw primarily because there is no provision for projector type fitment. This is really bothering me as of now.
4. If you go for Fascia Plate on the Dashboard it is an expensive affair & you still won’t find a separate switch over there. TATA has smartly combined the wiring and the plate itself is basically an electronic circuit board that is difficult to be modified or a time-consuming affair.

I will post the remaining images once the alignment is done.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

Tata might offer the CNG option in select variants of the Tiago, especially the mid-spec XT and XZ trims.

According to a media report, some Tata Motors dealerships have started accepting bookings for the Tiago CNG for a token amount of Rs. 11,000.

The Tiago CNG is expected to be powered by the same 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine as the regular version. It produces 85 BHP and 113 Nm, however, when running on CNG, peak output is likely to drop slightly.

Reports suggest that Tata might offer the CNG option in select variants of the Tiago, especially the mid-spec XT and XZ trims. The features list is likely to be identical to the corresponding petrol-only variants. It will include a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity, keyless entry, dual airbags, rear parking sensors among others.

Source: Zigwheels

Primary driver would be the better half, who has learnt driving, but is out of touch. Also, she would potentially be taking the two kids along always. Me driving would only be if we go to crowded markets.

BHPian LegalEagle recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Background:

Currently, we are using a TUV300 T10 (The Truck), which is sufficient and comfortable for me and my family consisting of myself, better Half, and two angels aged 7 and 3. The TUV is my daily drive, for office and all other runs, and has to remain so, because I suffer from a lower back problem. We take a small holiday every 3 months, mostly by road, and two major vacations, one of them preferably by road. The TUV runs close to 10,000 kms a year, and we have absolutely no complaints whatsoever.

The conundrum faced:

With the offices, and potentially schools opening during the first quarter of the next calendar year, the TUV will be relegated to regular office runs. And as known by all members, the current schooling system is such that the parents play an equal role in the education of the children, with the requirements of making multiple short trips increasing daily. In addition, the office timing(s) and potential extension into home hours make it impossible for me to attend to any of these requirements. Coupled with all the above, the size of the TUV makes it a bit cumbersome to drive in the nearby markets, (People based in Hyderabad would know the awesome Ameerpet/HUDA Maitrivanam marketplace; for the Chennai group, it would be close to Parry’s, Delhi Karol Bagh, and Mumbai, the equivalent electronic/grocery market).

Thus, the requirement for a second car for doing the “Dhaniya, Pudina, Mirchi” runs becomes essential.

The requirements:

Below are the requirements in descending order of preference:

• Hatchback and automatic.
• Needs to be purchased and ready for delivery by February 1, 2022. No delays possible whatsoever.
• Primary driver would be the better half, who has learnt driving, but is out of touch. Also, she would potentially be taking the two kids along always. Me driving would only be if we go to crowded markets. Else the TUV is the first choice.
• Must be within Rs. 6-7 lakh ex showroom Hyderabad, If OTR even better.
• New vehicle only. Personal belief, no offence.
• Will be retained for 10 years, and would rarely, if not ever, see the highway. Max highway drive would be the city - airport - city run, and that too on a emergency.
• A.S.S maintained only, so should be reasonable in maintenance. (Definition of reasonable - I currently maintain a TUV300, and do major maintenance remotely for a Maruti Dzire 2017 ZXi. I have also personally maintained a Ford Figo Zxi (First Gen) and a Maruti Swift Ldi (Second gen facelift model). All vehicles maintained at A.S.S. only.
• Needs to be the top or top - 1 variant. Don’t want to miss out on too many features.
• Two driver airbags, front power windows, central locking. (Note: Not listing ABS as it is now mandatory)
• Rear wash wipe, rear power windows and split rear seats.

Other options but not important at all:

• Fuel type: Not relevant at all, as I don’t see the vehicle running more than 5,000 - 7,500 kms per year.
• Gizmos and gadgets: No preference to touchscreen(s), sunroofs and others. We have our TBHP recommendation, Indian DeCars for all those things.

The current options: (In no order of preference)

Note: No test drives have been taken. Will start taking test-drives only after seeing responses on this post, due to time constraints, and inability to be open about this. (Married men would know how hard it is to keep a secret with the family).

• Tata Tiago: Liked it only for the AMT option from the Tata family, and being present for quite some time. So ideally, glitches should be ironed out. Neutral on engine performance. Worried about the Tata A.S.S.

• Maruti Suzuki WagonR: Liked it for the Tall Boy design, and reliability. Neutral on ride quality and performance. Worried as it is no longer the Maruti Suzuki from 2000 - 2010.

• Hyundai Santro: Liked it for the  Tall Boy design, and being present for some time. Neutral on ride quality and performance. Worried as no experience with Hyundai A.S.S.

Not considered:

• Maruti Suzuki Celerio: Pending next generation, and too outdated for current time (but open to the same).
• Maruti Suzuki S Presso: I just can’t fit in the car and have a person sitting behind me while driving. (Yeah, I am too big for the car).
• Tata Altroz: No auto box.
• Renault Kwid: Not sure about the company’s future, as they have a limited lineup.

Based on this, need the help of members to decide which is a good choice, based on the requirements. I am open to other options also, which meet the criteria listed above.

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

If the AMTs work for you, and you want to save time, TD the following :

Maruti Suzuki Ignis Zeta AMT and Tata Tiago XZA about 7.84 on road Hyderabad.

Hyundai Santro Asta AMT and Maruti Suzuki WagonR 1.2 ZXi AMT about 7.65 on road Hyderabad

Some more points :

Maruti Suzuki WagonR: Fits your needs at the lowest price point.

Hyundai Santro: Doesn't have 60:40 split.

Tata Tiago: Safest of the lot, doesn't have 60:40 split.

Maruti Suzuki Ignis: Good city car, reasonably safe.

Hyundai Grand i10 Nios: Good city car, slightly pricey compared to the others.

Don't think the i10 Grand is available anymore, at least can't see it in the listings, seems to have been replaced by the Nios and rightly if it has been.

Whatever car you finalize, check our ownership reports.for niggles and issues.

Good Luck.

Here's what BHPian KPR had to say on the matter:

For this, the small foot print of a car is very important. We have purchased an Alto and it aces this need like a bike. Why not try out the Kwid, RediGo, Celerio and revisit the SPresso? (Tata A.S.S is something I'm worried about, that's why I'm not including the Tiago). Anything more than these will become an overkill for the above needs. All these entry level hatches are very much pocket friendly to maintain with almost nil A.S.S woes. It doesn't mater if Renault or Nissan closes, service is guaranteed. Buy a -1 variant from top and add more fun to it by installing a component speaker setup with a nice quality Bluetooth audio player that supports component setup.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.