Five labours of the Tata Tigor

In today’s world, everyone is being tested all the time. You have to constantly jump through hoops to prove your worthiness. It’s a similar story with cars - the stronger it emerges through a hoop, the better the reward. Our aim was to put the new Tata Tigor through five major labours which are things that modern car owners would put their vehicles through on a regular basis.
Launched earlier this year the Tata Tigor is the new entry-level compact sedan. It can be had with a 1147cc 84bhp/114Nm petrol motor or a 1047cc three-cylinder diesel engine producing 69bhp/140Nm. Both engines are offered only with a five-speed manual.

Yes. If you are selling a car worth Rs 7.52 lakhs (On Road Delhi) then you have to consider that the buyer will want his/her money’s worth in the form of usable spaces that can fit a variety of things.

The Tigor has nine useable spaces and of these six are bottle holders while the rest are concentrated around the central tunnel and dashboard. On the face of it, having so many spaces allows for one for every passenger but look further and you will see that quantity is not everything.

The holders are only good for 500ml bottles while the other storage spaces are oddly shaped. This top spec model also gives you the option of a cooled glove box which despite the chilling factor is narrow.

The biggest storage space is the 419-litre boot whose capacity is on par with more expensive models. However, the opening of the boot is narrow due to Tata wanting to maintain the bootlid and sedan styling. 

A weekend with the gang is usually a Friday evening-Sunday evening affair. It usually involves four people, luggage, a whole lot of drinks and snacks and of course, some amount of terrible karaoke (channeling one’s inner Himesh)

This being a compact sedan, you can pack away all the big stuff in the boot allowing for four people to travel in decent comfort. As you can see in our photos, the right rear passenger and shotgun man (You can clearly see the excitement in Nikhil’s face) both get sufficient room.

In fact, the front seats have a nice side bolstering while the rear passengers get an arm rest to lean on. These are small additions, but it will go a long way in slowing down the fatigue of sitting in the car for long periods.

We would normally not encourage eating in a car but if you have to do it then the wide number of storage spaces do help a lot. If you stop for a picnic, then the boot is the right height to be used as a table. On a personal note, my willing supermodels…err….colleagues who you see in the cover image have given me an idea that the car with its curved elements and thick black grille will also be a good addition to group selfies (if any).

You can’t escape the daily grind so why not this allow this chore to be done on your own terms and in your own personal space. Well first, you get climate control or AC depending on your variant and from our time spent in the Tiago and Tigor, it is quite capable of doing the job. The seats while being comfortable have lateral support but do not offer sufficient under-thigh support either in the front or the rear. Also, the sitting position for the driver is flawed as the pedals are off-set and with no reach adjustment, the steering is too close.   

I had been using the Tata Tiago as my long-term car for the last eight months and this Tigor didn’t feel very different. Yes, the extra length is noticeable but that’s not an issue at all. It is easy to judge when you need to move around in heavy traffic and with this diesel engine you have sufficient grunt to potter around in second gear.

However, hit a steep incline with a fully loaded Tigor and you will end up struggling due to lack of grunt and more often than not you will end up stalling the car in such a situation.

Our urban areas, today, are choked, thus making parking a testing task. Given the Tigor’s sub four-metre dimensions, it is actually quite compact and very easy to judge. Additionally, this top-of-the of the line Tigor XZ has rear sensors and a camera which is a big plus when you need to parallel park in a hurry.

The purposes of a car can be summed up into two aspects. It’s a form of social status when you have earned it and the other is that it should put a smile on your face when you get behind the wheel. The Tigor manages that in some aspects and in some places it is lacking.
The positives are that it rides relatively flat and has good straight line stability. This means that when you want to cruise along slowly and overload on statements like ‘clear my mind’, ‘wind in my hair’, ‘enjoy the scenery’, the Tigor does great.

The 1047cc diesel engine has a good mid-range and will keep you cruising at road legal speeds without struggling. Surprisingly, the petrol motor too responds in a similar manner but with a lower efficiency figure.  
If driving spiritedly is your thing, then the Tigor is not the best set of wheels. It has been built with the idea of comfort over performance. As we had said in our first drive review of the car, it is not going to throw any nasty surprises at you when you enter a turn and will, in the spirit of being a mildly powered front-wheel drive car understeer when you hit the limits of grip. The steering is light and responsive at low speeds but there is some amount of slack in terms of the dead ahead position.

The biggest highlight is, of course, the touchscreen infotainment system. It’s a Harmann unit developed specifically for Tata’s range of new cars. It gets the usual like Bluetooth, AUX-IN, USB connectivity, voice command compatibility and of course, steering mounted controls. This is the standard stuff that one expects with a touchscreen system for a budget car these days.

Tata has also added a suite of smartphone features including maps, remote control and a feature called Juke car which allows people sitting in the car (with the app installed) to share their music with each other, making for a bigger playlist!

It sounds all good and rosy but there are some glitches. The app is not the smoothest thing to use and at times, it doesn’t recognize your device. Further, the touchscreen system is slow and often has a tendency to hang.

After so much of hard labour we have found that Tigor passes the test but with an average performance. It doesn’t do great in any of the tasks but will chug along without complaining when given one. In our eyes, the car gets good marks on the practicality and people carrying front but has a glitch filled infotainment system and scores low on the fun to drive factor. However, those aren’t major deal breakers as you get a car that will do everything and we would recommend it if you want a little bit of everything in one package. 

Photos: Kapil Angane

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