Tata Tiago diesel long term review: After 3,800km and two months

It won't open. Are you sure, you have opened the fuel lid and not the boot? Embarrassing questions to an automotive journalist, aren't they? The petrol pump attendant seemed as confused as I was, given that the Tata Tiago is just a two-month-old car. Eventually, the great Indian jugaad did the trick - using the ignition key, the attendant opened the filler cap and then filled in fuel.

Just after my last report, I had sent the Tata Tiago for its routine first service (can be scheduled at 1,000-2,000km or two months, whichever is early). This included the customary body wash, top-up of the coolant/brake fluid and cleaning the air filter. The engine oil will be replaced in the third service (15,000km or 12 months, whichever is earlier), which incidentally is also the last free service. Tata Motors has the second free service lined up at 7,000km or six months, whichever is earlier.

I had no specific instructions to the service personnel apart from to check why the fuel filler flap randomly opens when I am driving. Unfortunately that wasn't tended to. After the aforementioned incident at the petrol pump, I cleaned the flap area, which again was filled with a lot of muck. This thankfully should close this chapter.

Apart from this, the Tata Tiago diesel has been keeping me happy. The Tata Tiago is returning close to 17kmpl fuel efficiency, which isn't bad but always makes me think about the Maruti Suzuki Celerio diesel that never returned anything less than 20kmpl. But then this is a much more powerful engine, and this shows when I take her on the expressway. The Tata Tiago diesel is also relatively silent in her operation than the Maruti diesel. Her ride quality tackles our road conditions very nicely with little or almost no bumps being transferred to the cabin. Kudos to Tata Motors for finding just the right balance between ride quality and handling in the Tiago.

There are a few features of this Tata which are making me fall for her. These include the rear wiper which is activated when you've the front wipers in action and slot the vehicle into reverse. The music system too tones down the volume once it realises that the car is in reverse gear. Then there are also the follow-me-home headlamps.

The next time I am going to test the efficiency of the Tata Tiago after running her purely in Eco mode and then in the City mode. Be prepared for some surprises on that count then!