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Ownership review of my 2021 Tata Altroz XZ+ 1.5 diesel

23rd November 2021, 09:24 by Dev Shah

All my current cars and past cars have always been the top end variants. It made more sense to get the top end Altroz in that perspective also.

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Hello BHPians and readers,

Welcome to my ownership review of the 2021 Tata Altroz XZ+ 1.5 Revotorq diesel.

The Need:

A good-looking, safe, fuel-efficient, comfortable & spacious, manual transmission, punchy diesel car that also handles well.

Comfortable driver seats, front armrests and good ergonomics are non-negotiable.

Usage:

30000 - 36000 km per year / 100 km daily.

7 years / 2 lakh km minimum.

90% of usage will be solo.

50% on National highways, 30% on rural roads with below average roads, 20% urban traffic.

Will be driven exclusively by me and me only. My previous car was driven by no one else but me, all in its 5+ years and 1,34,000 km of service.

Which car is it replacing?:

2015 Maruti Suzuki Ciaz ZDI, sold in January 2021.

Absolutely loved that car. It was my second office & second home for 5 years! Spacious, ultra-comfortable, reliable, cheap to run and own:

Link to my ownership review.

Budget for the new car: INR 10 lakhs on road (+/- 1 lakh)

Things I did not care about in a car:

Segment.
Road presence, in the sense of ability to intimidate others.
Features like start-stop button, connected car tech, air purifiers, auto headlamps/wipers etc.

All I need from a car is to satisfy my needs and not make me chokeslam the service personnel when the car proves to be unreliable.

What the heart lusted upon:

Volkswagen Polo Highline 1.0 TSI in Flash Red shade:

And

Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Monte Carlo Red:

Obviously the Monte Carlo was out of my limited budget, while the Polo TSI was well under it. I also liked Carbon steel shade of the Rapid.

My affinity towards both the above cars root from my experience owning them in our extended family & pushing the nuts out of them, both in 1.6 TDI guise.

Sense prevailed, hitting me rather hard in my head, making me realize: My driving habits + 1.0 turbo petrol + high petrol prices + my high daily usage = Disaster!

I still remember August 2021 month-end budget review of mine. The Safari had gulped 26,000 rupees of diesel and Kwid another 6000 rupees, all in 1 month. 4300 km of driving. One thing I am sure is that my usage isn't going going reduce. My average monthly fuel expense has been 25k rupees in 2021.

The next car had to be a diesel, a frugal one at that.

Cars Considered:

Tata Nexon 1.5 XM (S):

Rs. 11.5 lakh OTR.

Tata Altroz 1.5 XZ (O):

Rs. 10.6 lakhs OTR.

Nexon XM(S) pros over Altroz XZ(O):

Silky smooth 6 speed MT gearbox.
More power - a lot of fun in sports mode!
Better under thigh support in the rear bench.
Better Ground clearance.
Sunroof (doesn't matter though).Calmer high speed cruising due to 6th gear, which means the engine runs at lower rpm at 120 kmph when compared to the Altroz.

Altroz XZ(O) pros over Nexon XM(S):

Looks absolutely stunning, much much better than the Nexon.
Low seating position - I love sitting low while driving.
Better fit and finish + interior layout (personally).
More fuel efficient.
Gets front & rear armrests, alloy wheels, rear headrests and many more features when compared to almost barebones Nexon XM(S).
Better ride and handling & aerodynamics.
Bigger footwell.
Slightly better ride quality.
Cheaper by 1 lakh for XZ(O). I did change my booking to top most XZ+, even then the Nexon XM(S) was 30k more expensive. Altroz, hence more value for money.

All my current cars and past cars have always been the top end variants. It made more sense to get the top end Altroz in that perspective also.

Hence it was decided that Altroz is the one! Honestly, looks alone made my decision 80% in favor of the Altroz. I can't stand the rear design and side profile of the Nexon. No offense to owners.

Booking was done on October 4th 2021 at Kaveri Tata, Trichy.

Trivia no one would care about, but close to my heart:

The booking receipt no was same as my Ciaz's registration number 6592.

The sales team lead is my student. He promised me delivery within 50 days. I knew I wouldn't wait so long and asked the team lead as well as the AGM of the dealership to expedite the process. They gave me their word that they will do their best.

Tata's sly habit of features deletion & subsequent variant change in my booking:

Thanks to our forum, I came to know Tata removed certain features from XZ & XZ(O) variants earlier this year.

XZ(O) is just an XZ with a gloss black roof. Both XZ & XZ(O) used to be the most VFM variants which came loaded with almost all necessary features. Tata had different plans though.

They removed the 10 inch TFT instrument cluster, leather wrapped steering/gear knob, rear fog lamp from the XZ & XZ(O).

I spend an average of 3 to 3.5 hours every day inside my car. As important a nice interior is to me, is also the instrument console.

I just could not manage to keep staring at this for the years to come:

One thing is that it is bland and uninspiring, another absolutely irritating thing personally, is the odd hexagonal layout of tachometer and speedometer.

In comparison the below TFT instrument cluster felt much much better, though not a fan of that speedo analog hexagonal design:

I did the math, it was just 45k extra for the top most XZ+ trim, only in which the TFT instrument cluster is being provided.

For 45k extra, what does one get in the XZ+ over the XZ(O) :

10 inch TFT instrument cluster (fav).
Rear fog lamp.
Leather wrapped steering wheel (fav).
Premium leatherette seat covers (also fav).
Classy flat blade wipers (fav).
Express cool function.
Auto up in driver's power window (XZ gets only auto down).
IRA connectivity.

Perhaps a lot of value for 45k rupees! I changed my booking to XZ+.

Colour : Obviously red - Downtown Red as Tata calls it.

I decided red as soon as I finalized on Altroz.

But then, justification had to be given to family.

Our Polo GT 1.6 TDI, Rapid 1.6 TDI were white. Currently our Vento 1.5 TDI, my Storme Varicor 400 and Kwid 1.0 are all white. So white wasn't considered.

Grey was amazing in Altroz, but I got a grey Celerio at home and hence grey was rejected.

Dark was a great colour, which our Harrier too is. But then, Tata does not sell the Altroz diesel variants in dark colour. Only petrol N/A and iTurbo get Dark Edition.

Last red car I owned was in 2006, a red Swift diesel That was a long long time ago.

Yours truly with the 1st gen Swift diesel: