Swaraj Baggonkar
Tata Motors kick-started a price war in the compact sedan segment launching the Tigor (pronounced tee-gor) starting at Rs 4.7 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) which is substantially cheaper than the current segment leader Maruti Dzire priced at Rs 5.35 lakh.
The Tigor is available in eight variants stretching across petrol and diesel engines with the top-end petrol variant costing Rs 6.19 lakh and the top-end diesel variant costing Rs 7.09 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The sedan comes in six colours.
In comparison the Dzire has six main variants in both the fuel options. In all the Tigor will face competition from seven models, including two of its siblings - Zest and Indigo CS – to grab a pie of the 30,000 units a month compact sedan market.
Having borrowed the platform used by the Tata Tiago the Tigor has lots of similarities with the former in areas such as engines, exterior styling, interiors and even fit and finish. The boot space of the Tigor makes the sedan stand out from the rest as Tata Motors decided to give the car a sporty look with a coupe-like styling.
Rear seating space has been enhanced compared to the Tiago and can now accommodate three adults in reasonable comfort. An exterior styling addition to the rear has freed up more headroom space for the rear seat passengers which is where the car also offers centre armrest with integrated cup holders.
Rear seats are slightly more reclined than other cars in this segment but it has been done to create more headroom and allow the coupe-like exterior styling. The rear of the front seats are also scooped out to create extra knee space.
The Tigor also has automatic climate control, reverse camera, a visibly new touch screen infotainment system co-developed by Harman, who had developed a similar system for the Tiago, too.
The Harman unit is a 5-inch screen enabled with video playback, voice command recognition, SMS read-out and display.
LED tail lamps, roof-mounted spoiler with a LED stop lamp and dual barrel projector headlamps are offered on the Tigor. The car comes with driver and front passenger air bags, central locking, immobilizer, speed sensing auto lock door, fog lamps, turn indicators on ORVMs, rear defogger to name a few.
The Tigor comes with two driving modes City and Eco which will help the driver achieve optimal driving efficiency. This has been a trend seen in Tata cars which started with the Bolt hatchback and then extended to Zest and Tiago. The default driving mode on the Tigor is City.
While the Tigor is part of Tata Motors’ continued efforts to bring about a dynamic change to its brand perception rivals including Maruti Suzuki are also gearing up to meet the challenge.
The Delhi-based car market leader, which is also ‘cleaning up’ its product portfolio, has developed and will launch an all-new Dzire perhaps later this year. Complete with new styling the new Dzire, which is majorly developed by Maruti Suzuki engineers in India, is expected to take the competition a few notches higher.
Read more: Can Tata Tigor take on Maruti Dzire & Hyundai Xcent?
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