Ownership review : Tata Tiago XZ Petrol

Before we get started, A peek at my Tiago when I was at a weekend getaway

1)Drive

A: The sane

For day to day commute, the driving is really easy and smooth, the power is adequate, gear changes are nice, light clutch and everything falls into the right places. Keeping the car in city mode is best for driving in a fast paced traffic however for start stop traffic eco mode will do just fine The steering is well balanced so taking U turns and driving in city curves is no hardship. Its a very good city car and fits in all the tight spaces.

B: The insane

For an enthusiastic driver, it may feel a bit under powered but it revs hard and the tall gear ratio make it go at very high speeds on lower gears, it can do up to 120kmph in 3rd gear alone! The handling is good but there is a bit of body roll at high speed curves. Braking is good but when braking under high speed it feels a bit short on bite and progress however it has ABS which works pretty well. It's an absolute joy to drive this car in narrow and twisted country roads, it can handle all those tire squeeling turns and put a big smile on your face.

2)Comfort

A: Infotainment

The system in place is neat and functional. When paired with phone via Bluetooth you can pickup , drop the calls right from the steering wheel, which is very handy.I absolutely love the 8 speaker audio system, the clarity is just amazing and it can also manage the sound based on car's speed.

The reverse parking sensors do a decent job of alerting you of any obstacle, its a bit too sensitive.

You can change a lot of car setting, like the auto relock and follow me lamps which is very handy. Overall the Infotainment system works well and is quite surprisingly good.

B: Ride quality, seats and boot

This car can handle all the rough road surfaces and has a good ground clearance of 170mm which can tackle the tallest of road breakers in India. The relatively soft set suspension filters out most of the rough road patches and passenger sitting inside can't feel much of the rough terrain.

The front seats are very comfortable to be in and they offer good overall support. The rear seats are comfortable for people less than 6ft tall , 3 can fit in rear comfortably for short city rides.

There are a lot of handy storage spaces inside the car but the door side ones can only fit in a .5liter bottle. There's a cooled glove compartment too. The boot is not that big, it can only carry 2 medium sized suitcases. Overall it's good enough for a short weekend trip luggage.

C: NVH and AC

The NVH levels are a tad bit high for a petrol car. There's a bit of rattling and a fair bit of road noise and wind noise which creeps in the cabin but this can be dealt with the amazing audio system which almost cancels out the noise.

The AC is decent, in summer when the temperatures reach around the 48 -50 °C the car takes around 3–4mins to get down to temperature of ~26°C after that it will keep the car cool brilliantly, the blower makes a bit of a noise which is unusually higher than other cars but it's not a deal breaker.

3)Mileage

A: City

I get around ~14kmpl from my petrol Tiago, that's mainly due to the fact that I drive it with AC on and city mode all the time and since my daily commute is mostly to and fro from plant where the speed limit is 30kmph, the car is running at lower gears.

B:Highway

I get around ~19kmpl with crusing at about 100+kmpl or even with more agressive driving, with AC on and city mode.

C: Eco mode

With eco mode on there is a slight bump in the mileage but the engine becomes too sluggish for my taste and due to this reason I haven't driven much in eco mode.

4)Safety and Maintenance

With the safety features like ABS,EBD, corner stablity and airbags, it inspires confidence and these features have saved my life many times in the sticky situations.

After 2 services there is no maintenance cost whatsoever. The maintenance is pretty good.

5)Issues (nitpicking here)
The rear parking sensors went off but this was fixed by TML
There's a bit of vibration inside the cabin- partially fixed after servicing
There used to be cold start jerks but this too was fixed by TML

After 8000kms and 9 months (at the time of writing)