I might have opted for the Tata Altroz DCA if the automatic transmission on the Exter wasn’t well-tuned.
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We currently own a Tata Harrier and a Tigor EV and were looking for a small city hatchback/ equivalent in AT, primarily for my wife. My wife and I test-drove the following cars in the past fortnight: (Booked the Hyundai Exter SX AMT at the end of the experience)
Maruti Suzuki Celerio VXi AMT
A wobbly, uninspiring ride at city speeds. Our heads kept wobbling forward each time the AMT changed gears. On top of that, the car kept wobbling horizontally. Tata Motors has thoroughly spoilt us. Celerio looks cute in its latest avatar, and the interior seats and space are very comfortable for our needs. Still, at on-road Rs. 7,50,000/- it is enormously expensive for what it offers. Honestly, no amount of resale value and good mileage can make me purchase it.
Maruti Suzuki Alto AMT
A very claustrophobic car to sit in, and we immediately rejected it without a test drive.
Maruti Suzuki Ignis AMT
Better to drive than the Celerio. An AMT that is less jerky than the Celerio, but my wife did not like the looks and was rejected.
Tata Punch Creative AMT
Tata needs to fire the team or Executive that named the variants of Tata Punch. Why would you complicate the names of variants in this fashion? The variants ought to be named in a fashion to make things simpler for the customers.
It’s a good-looking car, and the front design makes it looks like a mini-Harrier. Being a Harrier owner for the last ~4 years, I can ascertain that this is a timeless design, and you will look at it adoringly even after several years of ownership.
Coming to the interiors of the Punch, we did not like the seats (both front and rear). Even Celerio had better seats. The dashboard and the touchscreen, too, looked dated. The interior is not the one that will make you happy sitting inside it. The drive was also nothing to write home about, as the 3-cylinder engine is not refined, and engine noise creeps into the cabin even at city speeds. AMT tuning is better than Celerio, but mild jerks can be felt in the cabin while the AMT is changing gears. We did not enjoy the ride and immediately made up our minds that this was not the car for us.
My wife and I believe this car is merely selling such numbers because of the new space it created sans competition. A good competitive product will bring the numbers down, tumbling.
Tata Altroz DCA
Now this is an excellent hatchback! Everything from the exterior to the interior screams premiumness. The ride (barring the three-cylinder engine) was excellent. DCA is superbly tuned, NVH is excellent, and the seats are fantastic. My wife and I loved the car, which moved to the top of our shortlist.
Due to owning 2 Tata cars, I have a good relationship with the SC staff, who are very cooperative. They indirectly nudged me towards the Punch’s AMT instead of opting for the DCA. Now if the SC people aren’t comfortable with their own DCA, who am I to take that risk? We struck the Altroz off our list because of this reason.
Hyundai Exter SX AMT
I booked this car (S AMT variant) pre-launch to be in the queue in case we liked it. The car launched, and we visited the showroom on the 11th. The model on display was SX(O) AMT in Ranger Khaki-Black DT. The car looks fresh in the flesh, and while plenty of people haven’t liked the looks, we liked the aesthetics straightway. This is coming from a place where I haven’t liked any Hyundai car pre-2022. But, off late, I have begun to appreciate the design language used in the latest Tucson and Verna.
The TD car was only going to be made available in 1-2 days, so we played around with the display car. The doors, while not as solid as our Tata cars, are way better than Maruti cars but also better than those on the i20 and i10.
Combined with passive safety features such as 6 airbags and ESC, this car makes a solid case for a decently safe city car. I am 169 cm, and my wife and I found both the front and rear seats to be very comfortable in terms of the under-thigh support and the incline of the rear seats. It made the Punch backseat seem like a bench. I was thankful that my left knee wasn’t hitting the dashboard, which happens in both of my Tata Cars.
The interiors looked fresh with good quality plastic used. Fabric inserts in strategic places might have helped, but one has to be mindful of the car’s segment and the other features already given as standard by Hyundai. The car seemed like a good option for our use case, and we decided to return for a TD.
The TD car was ready the next day, i.e. a Tuesday, and we went for the same on Wednesday. The variant offered was AMT SX(O) in Ranger Khaki-Black DT. The AMT is very well-tuned, and I could only feel a slight jerk when it increased from 1 to 2. Negligible jerkiness was felt on any other gear shift, up or down. It was a relief to us, as we had been dreading using a gearbox such as that on the Celerio for our drives. It wasn’t something we were willing to accommodate. I might have risked going for the Altroz DCA. To assure myself that this won’t change after a few thousand km, I also TD a well-run i10 Nios, and it was more or less a similar experience as the Exter.
While my wife and I are strictly against a sunroof, we realised that SX seems to be the most VFM variant of the lot. Despite the fact that an S variant was readily available, we decided to upgrade our booking to SX DT AMT.
The Sales guy at Ketan Hyundai, Jagtar Singh, is an excellent salesperson with sound customer service skills. He very clearly told me that, in this case, my delivery dates could be 2-4 months. But, over the next week, he worked to track the bookings at his showroom, and as soon as another customer cancelled an SX AMT, he immediately offered it to us. On evaluating SX v/s SX DT, we decided to go with the SX as waiting 2-3 months wasn’t an option. We hope to bring this car home early next week.
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