Tata Altroz The Gold Standard

Tata Altroz is the company's first venture in the premium hatchback segment. This is safer and packed with features let's explore this Gold Standard Car. Design; The design of the Tata Altroz doesn't resemble any car till now. The looks are given as a part of 'Impact 2.0' that is the design language followed by Tata Motors. From the front, the position of the fog lamps is seen a little above the regular placement. Even though the car gets projector headlights, they are not LEDs. The tripod stand like grill slots looks appealing. This design is followed somewhere also. From the side, we have certain elements to note. The piano black finish for the ORVMs and the positioning of turn indicators to the body are some of them. The rear door handle also has been moved to the C pillar. The 16-inch alloys look well proportionate to the car. Towards the backside, we can see the blacked taillights. Like I said above the rear end is also distinct with its cutting edges. Getting in is not a task at all. The doors open widely at 90° making it even easy for older people. The interior has a floating touch screen infotainment panel surrounded by an ambient light setup. Automatic AC controls below it and certain ports like the USB & AUX ports. The car has a semi-digital instrument cluster. Analog speedometer & digital tachometer and other pieces of information. The seats are supportive and offer good support. They also have a tripod base shaped arrangements on them. Both the front and rear seats have rear armrests. The boot is practical to have luggage for a family trip. You can also flip the back row seats fully to expand the luggage area.  Driving and comfort: The car is powered by a 1.2-liter revocation petrol engine and a 1.5-liter diesel engine both are BS6 compliant and are mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox, no automatic till now but will be released in coming dates. The petrol motor gives 85 hp and 113 nm, it is a three-cylinder engine. But despite being a 3 cylinder mill, the engine is punchy enough to pull the car due to its lightweight This motor is seen in the Nexon also. The diesel motor is a 4 cylinder one seen in the Nexon. But it is detuned to 89hp and 200 nm this is the kingmaker "the gold standard" as said by Tata. This is a punchy motor since the torque output is got from a very low RPM, this is peppy enough and enthusiastic to drive. Both these engines have two driving options City & Eco. No sports mode, don't know why Tata avoided it. The mode selector is seen behind the gear lever. This mode changes the theme from blue to green. The top trim also gets cruise control setup. The suspension is good enough but you can feel the comfort when you glide over a pothole. Brilliant work by Tata engineers. Infotainment: The car is packed with Harman's 6 speaker system. The floating touch screen is easy to use compared to previous Tata cars. The sound quality is brilliant and is class-leading. You can customize the theme color as you wish. Variants: Altroz is available from base XE, XM, XT. The car also packs with various options that include factory fitted customizations they are rhythm, Style, Luxe & Urban. These options are available on various levels. Safety: Tata means safety this car scored 5 stars in global NCAP being the second Indian car,  and the first car in its segment to score so. The company packs the car with 2 airbags ABS & EBD as standard.  If you want your family to travel in comfort & safe. Then you can choose this car. If you are an enthusiastic driver and all you need is a diesel hatchback then you may go for this car. Because this is the only car in its segment to offer a BS-6 compliant diesel engine. Comparing with competitors: Maruti Baleno, Hyundai Elite i20, Honda Jazz, VW Polo are the main competitors. Comparing with them we see that Altroz is stronger than Baleno and its diesel engine is excellent, but coming to petrol Baleno scores the more. The i20 is the feature-rich car here it also has Hyundai's reliability and offers a 6th gear that its rivals miss. The 1.4litre CRDI diesel and 1.2litre petrol engines are also appreciable. Honda Jazz may be the car with lower specs. But the magic that honda does with its petrol mill is something that none can match with. VW Polo is the synonym of sportiness in this segment its diesel engine having a nice performance too. But taking care of a VW car is a bit tacky.  The Tata Altroz is a car that a common man can buy it is sufficiently powerful (diesel motor), and the best in safety. It also offers segment-first features like floating screen & ambient lighting.