Tata out to make amends on its return to South Africa

After a six-year hiatus, Indian car-maker Tata Motors has stormed back into South Africa by launching four models all at once. The Citizen's

- By Mark Jones and Jaco van der Merwe

With the ever-increasing number of Chinese manufacturers flooding the local market for years now, it was quite refreshing to see an Indian manufacturer emerge for a change, albeit in the form of an old familiar face.

While Tata Trucks & Buses never left, its local passenger vehicle division closed shop in 2019 after a 15-year period during which their portfolio featured the Indica, Indigo, Bolt, Telcoline and Xenon. Tata's reintroduction under Motus Motor Limited is a quantum leap from the days during which their products didn't exactly cover them in glory.

The brand-new portfolio includes the Tiago hatchback, Punch compact SUV, Curvv crossover and Harrier mid-sized SUV. The manufacturer no longer build bakkies.

TIAGO

A starting price of R184 900 makes the Tiago the third cheapest local car. At this price point some aspects will be good and others a little less so. But we must admit there was nothing glaringly wrong with the car.

Under the bonnet is a 1,2ℓ naturally aspirated, three-cylinder engine that produces 63kW of power.

Clearly you will never come close to winning any performance shootouts with the Tata Tiago.

The car preferred downhills and straight roads to inclines or uphills, and we had to row the somewhat notchy five-speed box to keep it on the boil.

We averaged an excellent 5,5ℓ per 100km on the media launch drive, which you will get close to on a daily commute.

Moving inside, you are greeted by a fair amount of space and hard plastics everywhere, an illuminated steering wheel with controls, reverse camera, digital cluster, and 7" infotainment system that offers connected Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so no real complaints here.