Tata Tiago

With the BS6 mandate, Tata Motors took the opportunity to not only improve on Tiago’s shortcomings but also spruce up its successful little hatchback. While the engineers cast the BS6-spell on its sole petrol motor, the Tiago also received a cosmetic makeover that’s inspired by the Altroz, plus, the cabin has been refreshed for the better. With a four-star NCAP rating and a starting price of Rs 5.85 lakh (OTR Mumbai), the Tiago certainly comes across as one of the most affordable yet safe cars to live with. In this review, we tell you all there is to know about this hatchback.

The nice thing about the Tiago is that it was already cute to look at. With that as a base, I don’t feel it wasn’t difficult for designers to brighten things up. But in its new form, the Tiago looks scintillating; which it has the Altroz to thank for. The newfound sportiness is all thanks to the new raked grille, sharpened headlamps, and edgy grooves on the front bumper. As for the profile and rear section, there’s little to distinguish it, other than the attractive alloys and the restyled bumper. Indeed, handsome it is! 

What’s new in the updated Tiago’s cabin is the nice seven-inch touchscreen that’s integrated with Tata’s ConnectNext interface (seen in the premium Tatas), and the contemporary all-digital instrument cluster with white illumination. What I appreciated though, is that the new steering design can now be conveniently adjusted for height. Other minute tweaks include the glossy inserts around the redesigned air-con controls on the centre console and the Tata-family gear lever.

Having said that, designers missed the chance to improve upon the quality of materials used in this cabin, and the cup holders on the centre console should have been able to at least swallow a 500ml bottle. Otherwise, since nothing has changed in terms of cabin space and ergonomics, the Tiago is as practical and usable as its predecessor.

As earlier, the front seats are supportive with generous head and shoulder room. But at the rear, tall occupants could brush their heads against the roof, and seating three isn’t advisable over long journeys, more so in the absence of the much-needed air-con vents. Finally, practicality takes a blow as there’s no split-folding bench to liberate any more than what the 242-litre boot enclosure offers.

This top-end XZ Plus offers 15-inch dual-tone alloy wheels, climate control, body-coloured inserts around the air vents, an eight-speaker Harman player with voice command, and AppleCarPlay/Android Auto connectivity. It also features keyless entry, electric ORVMs with auto-fold, and a rear-view camera with parking sensors. As for safety, the Tiago gets ABS with EBD, dual-front airbags, corner stability control, speed alert, seatbelt reminder, and speed-dependent door locks.

The updated Tiago uses a tweaked version of the outgoing model’s three-cylinder 1.2-litre Revotron petrol engine to make it BS6 compliant. This 84bhp/113Nm motor is offered with either a five-speed manual or an AMT auto gearbox; this being the manual. Although very little engine noise filters into the cabin at idle, this three-pot motor does allow some vibrations on the gear lever, foot pedals, and steering.

At city speeds, it remains fairly silent with only minute throttle inputs required to keep the Tiago running in the 1,500-1,750rpm range. However, the response isn’t as peppy as, say the Wagon R’s 1.2-litre. Now, since the Tiago is light at 980kg (kerb), there’s enough grunt for city runabouts and most highway runs. At the same time, what makes city driving so easy is that one can run in a higher gear almost always without it running out of breath or urging a downshift.

Even on the highway, there’s adequate power on tap to maintain triple-digit speeds, and also for that quick overtake by dropping a gear or two, which the light clutch makes easy. On the downside though, there is some clutch-pedal kickback and the notchy nature of the gearbox needs some getting used to. Above all, these are far from being deal-breakers.

Meanwhile, Tata hasn’t tweaked the chassis layout of the Tiago. So, like the earlier model, the taut suspension setup absorbs even the worst of bumps and irregularities with great composure (for hatchback standards). Surprisingly, while the ample ground clearance allows it to take on the worst of roads, it’s not at the cost of its rock-solid high-speed stability.On the contrary, there’s considerable body roll as one drives fast around bends. And what makes the experience worse, is that its steering is far from quick with about three turns from lock-to-lock. Apart from that though, the light steering makes it easy to manoeuvre the Tiago in tiny city lanes or into a little parking spot.

With all of its exterior updates, the BS6 Tata Tiago looks superior to its rivals- the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R and Hyundai’s Santro. Not to forget that it also drives reasonably well, thanks to its sound dynamics and the newfound refinement from its otherwise capable powertrain. Now, although the updated Tiago’s cabin feels better than before, the interior space and the quality of materials aren’t something to write home about. Interestingly, the Tiago certainly makes up for all that’s lost with its outstanding four-star GNCAP safety rating. What say?

Photos by Kaustubh Gandhi

It is finally time to bid adieu to the Tata Tiago Revotron XZ that entered the CarTrade long term garage last October. During this time, we have clocked over 8000km on the odometer, made quite a bit of money for all the petrol pumps near our office and on the whole, we had a lot of fun driving this bright, orange compact hatchback. Now to wrap up our experience with the car, here is our final long term report.

Practicality, storage and passenger space
Before I give you some philosophical reflection on my journey with the Tiago, we’ve to highlight practicality, storage and space for passengers, a trio that has not been addressed with the car so far. We start with practicality and storage in a single breath as they are quite linked. There are eight open storage spaces and one glove box in the cabin. Of these, four are in the door pockets and four in the centre console.

The open spaces are capable of holding only 500ml bottles or soda cans, but they are all easily accessible with everything falling to hand thanks to the angle in which the bottles can be slotted in. However, there is an issue with the storage space just behind the gear lever which is that if you have a tall bottle, you will hit it when you switch the gears to second, fourth or reverse. The glove box is nice and deep with a hidden button for opening and closing, as well as a vent to give you the option of cooling whatever you keep in the glove box.

At 242-litres, the boot is just marginally larger than that of the Maruti Suzuki Celerio, but it has a low and wide loading lip, thus making the process of hauling stuff in and out quite easy. As you can see from the snapshot, there is space for two big backpacks, a screen and for some reason, a safari hat too. In addition to that, there is also a parcel tray for added storage which could be used for common items like tissues boxes, teddy bears and sun shades. However, we do have a grouse with the parcel tray, which is that the hooks and rope are of low quality and are unlikely to survive for very long.

If you have been following my reports then you should, by now have an idea of what it is like to drive and get comfortable behind the wheel. So this time around, we are addressing passenger space. Despite my ‘extended’ length, it is actually quite comfortable in the front passenger seat though I still feel that the seat base could have been a bit longer to provide additional under-thigh support. It’s a better story with the rear seats as you get some decent leg room, even with the seat adjusted to my driving position.

The last 8 months
It has been eight months and over 8000kms under our belt with this petrol Tiago. In this time, it has done editorial duties, shopping cart duties, bumper-to-bumper crawling and also served as a weekend getaway machine. In each of these duties, we’ve hardly had any issues with car and it has managed to emerge out on top without losing much breath.

As a personal choice, I also think it’s a very good looking car. After all, when attention cannot be had due to size, then looks come into play. This is one department where the car has managed to score (sugar-free) brownie points with me. The things that really grabbed my attention were the head lamps, grille, shoulder line as well as the wedge-like wrap around tail lamps.
The all-important fuel efficiency figure over those many months has hovered between the 12kmpl and 14kmpl mark and on an average we were getting around 400km for every tank up that took place. However, a majority of the time was spent in City mode rather than Eco mode as the reduction in power delivery took just too much effort to wring some kind of performance out of the car. With a light right foot and optimum gear shifts, we believe that at least 16kmpl is easily achievable.
Finally, its diminutive proportions and light steering means that it´s easy to estimate distances from inside a Tiago while parking or even in heavy traffic, when you have to squeeze your way past other vehicles to get where you are going.

Highs and lows
Things we disliked: build quality, lack of top-end grunt, rubbery gearbox
Things that we can live with: non-lockable side AC vents, music system with glitches
Things we liked: seats, instrument cluster, fun-to-drive factor, looks

A future for the Tiago

We have now had two Tiagos in our CarWale Long term garage and both ownership periods point to a positive experience. There are obvious issues like build quality and some small ergonomic niggles, but otherwise the Tiago looks to be a solid entry-level product for the Indian automaker. We say this because we believe that the Nano will have a very niche future and that is pretty obvious as Tata (at the time of writing this report) was retailing 5400 Tiagos while it was able to move just 167 Nanos. There is expected to be a major shift to the next rung of cars as entry-level models, putting Tata in a good position with the Tiago and now the Tigor too.

Photos: Kapil Angane