My Tata Altroz 1.5L diesel: 10,000 km ownership experience

I’m more than happy with my car. It has exceeded my expectations in all areas. In fact, it brings back memories of my Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI in many ways.

BHPian PrasannaDhana recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

10,000 km and 108 days of Altroz XZ+1.5L Diesel Ownership

Ownership experience after 290 hours behind the wheel of the Altroz. I have driven the Altroz on national highways, rural areas, dense B2B traffic as well as ghats.

My beloved Altroz has stepped onto the 5 digit milestone.

Odo : 10010 km

A very brief report for anyone who is interested in purchasing the diesel Altroz.

Likes

Gorgeous looks & Solid build quality – inside and out.

Superb ride and handling – great steering and a chassis that has excellent high-speed stability.
Spacious and very comfortable front seats, even for a big man like me. Large footwell too.
1.5 L Revotorq diesel is a delight to use. Very good driveability, very enjoyable and punchy midrange right from 1500 RPM to 3000 RPM. 120 kmph comes at ~2600 RPM in 5th gear. There is nice progress even upto 3500 RPM. 100 kmph at 2200 RPM. Engine is refined at 2500 RPM and sounds sporty when pushed harder. Top speed similar to C2 diesel sedans. I managed to clock just about 8 kmph lesser than what I clocked on our Rapid 1.6 TDI on the same road and conditions. That says a lot about the 1.5L Diesel.
Light clutch and average gearbox. No complaints about gear shift quality though I would have loved something like the one in the Polo TSI.
165mm Ground clearance is more than sufficient. No scraping whatsoever.
Interior layout and good quality interior materials. Everything feels solid.

A lot of features. I have become a fan of cruise control now. IRA, Automatic headlamps, Automatic wipers, cornering fog lamps, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, IRA, adjustable front armrest, large rear armrest, Isofix mounts, proper dead pedal, cooled glove box which is large enough to accommodate laptops, ambient lighting and beautiful DRLs, etc.
Excellent fuel efficiency – It returns 15+ even after idling for hours and driving in B2B traffic. Getting 19 kmpl is a cakewalk. Be sensible on the highways, it will return easy 23+ kmpl.

Data for the entire 10000 km

With just 5 Rs per km, I am actually burning 40% less fuel than I would in my Storme V400. First 50k INR spent on diesel for the Altroz.

Wonderful ICE quality. The audio quality is lovely.
Among the largest boots in the premium hatchback segment.
Adaptive guidelines are accurate.
MID shows an exhaustive amount of info, right from drive data and other essentials, to door ajar warning with exact animation indicating the door, boot and bonnet open warning, parking brake engaged warning, alerts to take a break if driven for 2 hours continuously, etc.

Dislikes

Average brakes. The brakes lack bite, though they are effective. One may not even feel it if Altroz is the only car he drives. For me, the 4 superb disc brakes of Storme which have an excellent bite, make the average brakes of Altroz more evident.
Rear bench has very good back support but lacks under-thigh support for anyone over 5’9.
We can choose themes that will have a preset colour choice for the MID and LCD infotainment, audio setup and well as preset notification volumes. Strangely, all presets have very high notifications volume, which ranges from that lady asking your passenger to wear a seat belt, the drive modes to the reverse parking sensor beeps. Quote loud and irritating until you change the settings.
While I like adaptive guidelines, the camera quality is below average.
Stiff suspension if you are used to cushy riding cars like Ciaz/City/Duster/Storme/Hexa. I have optimized the rife comfort to satisfy my needs by dropping a few PSI from the recommended tyre pressure. I set 30/31 PSI and the ride quality has seen quite some improvement. No more an issue. But if you have it set at 36 PSI as recommended by Tata, you are in for a ride.
Noisy GoodYear OE tyres. Grip is decent though.
Wheel wells though insulated, give out very noticeable noise when small stones hit the underbody.

Minor irritants

The driver door, on very rare occasions, send out a minute rattle when driven over bad roads. The thing is, it isn’t consistent. The same road, same speeds, with music off, you can hear the sound if you are keen at times, other times it’s not there no matter how keen you tend to be. I just can’t reproduce that rattle. It happens 2/10 times. But then, for my kind of usage, any car from any brand will develop minor rattles and I don’t care about it. Also might be from loose stuff I have left in the door pad.
Rear hatch collects a lot of dust, I mean a lot!
Rear door opening is unconventional, like the Chevy Beat. The issue is it takes effort to open the doors. For an adult of average height, it’s almost at their shoulder lever and it requires pressure to open it. Senior citizens tend to find it hard.
EGR flap noise at 1300-1400 RPM while coasting, which is a characteristic of the 1.5 diesel. A fellow owner told me Tata had updated the ECU in his recent service and that noise had gone. Not sure if that’s true. Anyways I have become used to it and avoid driving (coasting) in that RPM.
While the flat-bottom steering is an absolute delight to use, the cruise control and MID navigation button could have been more tactile. Needs firm touch to toggle to the next menus.

Any infamous DPF issues

None!

Thankfully, for every 1000 km I drive, I drive around 400 km on the highways. I mostly drive in the 2000-3000 RPM range, unless I am looking to have some fun, at which times I drive in the 3000-3650 RPM range. Let’s say, my average RPM on the highways stays at 2500 RPM for hours together every week. From what I read in the DPF engineer BHPian’s thread, the soot vaporizes at high temperatures brought by consistent 2500 RPM range driving for longer durations.

So far, so good.

Am I happy with my choice

More than happy, Altroz diesel has exceeded my expectations in all areas. I thoroughly enjoy driving it so much that all the other 3 cars of mine have seen just 3000 combined km in the last 3 months. Altroz diesel brings back memories of our Rapid 1.6 tdi in several ways.

Will I recommend the Altroz 1.5 diesel to someone looking for a fun to drive, safe family car?

Yes and no.

No – if you are going to be using it predominantly in the city or if your driving style is fuel efficiency-oriented/low RPM lugging style.

HELL YES – If you hit the highways often and enjoy driving. It is a terrific 5 seater car and at just 11.25 lakhs on road, it is extremely value for money too (given the atrocious pricing of most cars now).

And hey, Tata is offering diesel Altroz in that gorgeous Dark shade now.

A few parting pics.

At the famous Poondi Madha Basilica.

Owning a red car means washing it often to keep it looking clean.