Tata Tiago (2025-2026) Pros & Cons

Compared to the Nios and Ignis, the 3-cylinder engine of the Tiago doesn’t feel as refined. Pushing it up the rev band, even just around 3000rpm, which is only 50% of the redline, the engine feels like it’s protesting.

Maruti Suzuki beating Tata Tigor with their 5-star Dzire is one thing. But the Alto K10 offering 6 airbags as standard in variants which don’t even get power steering and air conditioning while the Tiago continues with 2; now that is gonna hurt the Tiago and Tata fanbois.

Even in the top model of the Tiago, you may still miss features such as split-folding rear seat backs, rear AC vents, front centre armrest, front side thorax airbags and curtain airbags.

You won’t just miss out on some features with the Tiago top model. You also won’t get the option of buying it with an automatic transmission. It’s the same story whether you choose the petrol or the CNG engine option.

The base model of the Tiago carries an aggressive price tag, it does miss out on several features we have come to expect from any modern day car. For instance, it doesn’t get day/night inside mirror, height-adjustable driver seat, power mirrors, power windows, wheel covers and more. It also gets 13-inch wheels with skinny 155-section tyres. Even the cheaper Renault Kwid gets 165-section tyres on 14-inch rims.

The Tiago first went on sale early in 2016 with Zica badging on its boot and the legendary Messi promoting the car. It is now 9 years old, and for 2025, it’s again getting mild updates. 9 years is an awfully long time in the auto industry for a car to continue without a major overhaul. The 2025 model year update should prolong its life for another couple of years making it at least 11 years old before people really start hating the old design and stop buying it altogether.

That is not the saddest part though. What’s worse is that there’s no generation update in Tata’s pipeline for the Tiago and its sedan twin. Unless the customers’ buying power severely deteriorates in the coming years with a horrific economic slowdown, we don’t see Tata keeping the Tiago in their portfolio for too long. That means, even if you buy the car today, you may run into problems such as lower resale value because of model discontinuation and difficulty securing slow-moving parts for maintenance.

While every other carmaker out there has managed to figure out how to make vehicles that are reliable enough to only need yearly service, Tata appear to be stuck in the past. Or perhaps they are not! Perhaps, this is a strategy to extract more money out of their customers’ pockets.

While they will only replace consumables during every alternate visit, they will make you pay for labour even on visits where they only claim to have done some checks on the car. This adds to the hassle during the ownership and the overall cost of maintenance.

If you’re not assertive enough, then rest assured that at every service centre visit, the advisor will “advise” you to get some or the other preventive maintenance done even if they are absolutely unnecessary. Denying these optional services is going to be tricky because they are going to spend a whole lot of time with your vehicle. You don’t wanna make enemies with the service advisor because it’s fairly easy to sabotage your vehicle in a way that it will work fine for a few months and break down later during the ownership. Then, they might claim that they told you so. After all, they are the experts.

Thus, this might add to your maintenance costs. And if you don’t maintain a cordial relationship with your service centre reps, then you also run the risk of getting some warranty claims denied in future. The rest of the auto industry recommends yearly service centre visits. In such cases, you only have to see the service centre once every 12 months. So, it’s much less riskier to fight your way through their "recommendations". They probably won’t even remember you 12 months later.