December 2021 - Tata Punch Petrol Variants Explained - Which One To Buy?

Updated (Dec 15, 2021): Tata Punch is now launched, and official prices are available. We’ve updated this article to include ex-showroom prices and the pros and cons of the Tata Punch.

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Tata Punch Petrol?

The pros or advantages of Tata Punch are:

• Proper SUV styling with baby-Harrier cues in a compact, city-friendly size

• It packs a fairly long list of features

• Decent ground clearance, boot space, fuel efficiency and power/torque figures

• 5-star GNCAP adult safety rating and 4-stars for children is better than Altroz, Nexon and even XUV300

• “Traction Control Pro” mode helps the AMT model get out of tricky situations by behaving like a limited-slip differential

• 90-degree opening front and rear doors allow easy ingress-egress for occupants, pets or objects you may store in the back seats

The Tata Punch petrol has the following shortcomings or problems:

• No rear AC vents, front centre armrest, and split rear seatback even in top variants

• No turbo petrol and diesel engine options

• Overpriced mid variants and no true VFM variant, which we can recommend with our eyes closed

• The Altroz offers better VFM in higher variants, more features, turbo petrol and turbo diesel engine options and the same 5-star adult safety rating

• The ground clearance is acceptable but considerably less than what we’ve come to expect from Tata SUVs, which generally have more than 200mm clearance

What Is The Price Of Tata Punch Petrol Variants?

The Tata Punch has a starting price of Rs. 5.49 lakh for the Pure petrol manual and goes up to Rs. 9.09 lakh for the Creative petrol automatic. The price difference between the manual and automatic variants is constant at Rs. 60,000.

Additionally, the Punch is also available with certain option packs with each variant. With the option packs, the prices start at Rs. 5.84 lakh and go up to Rs. 9.39 lakh.

Tata Punch Petrol Pure - Base Model Features & Review

The base model of the Tata Punch is only available with a petrol-manual powertrain and costs Rs. 5.49 lakh. The Pure variant gets some notable features like front power windows, body cladding, tilt steering, puncture repair kit, central locking, all door pockets, umbrella holder, 15-inch steel wheels, fabric upholstery and driving modes.

However, you’re likely to miss some features like rear power windows, a music system with steering-mounted controls, power mirrors, wheel covers, and body-colour mirrors and door handles. At this price, the Tata Punch Pure seems like a good value for money for budget buyers.

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Tata Punch Petrol Pure vs Adventure Variant

The Tata Punch Adventure costs Rs. 6.39 lakh with the manual and Rs. 6.99 lakh with the automatic. The Adventure variant is Rs. 90,000 more expensive than the Pure. For Punch automatic buyers, this is the most affordable variant.

Over the base Pure variant, it adds some extra features like a day/night inside mirror, wheel covers, music system, power mirrors, steering-mounted controls, and rear power windows. While the list of additional features is short, most of these are downright must-haves in our books. However, the asking price is unreasonably high for the additional features. So, you can skip this variant.

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Even in this variant, you may miss features like a rear camera, touchscreen and height-adjustable driver seat. You can get some of these features with the optional Rhythm pack for an additional Rs. 35,000. Since the Adventure variant itself is overpriced, the addition of the Rhythm pack doesn’t help it improve its VFM rank.

Only the Punch automatic buyers who don’t want to stretch the budget any further should consider the Adventure variant. If you can stretch your budget, then you should consider buying one of the higher variants.

Tata Punch Petrol Adventure vs Accomplished Variant

The Tata Punch Accomplished costs Rs. 7.29 lakh with the manual and Rs. 7.89 lakh with the automatic. The Accomplished variant is Rs. 90,000 more expensive than the Adventure.

It adds a rear parking camera, fog lamps, 15-inch styled steel wheels, height-adjustable driver seat, keyless entry with push-button start/stop, LED tail lamps, cruise control and touchscreen infotainment with Android Auto and Apple Carplay. You may miss auto-folding mirrors, auto AC, rear defogger, rear washer wiper, front and rear armrests and LED DRLs in this variant.

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The Tata Punch Accomplished is also not a great value for money upgrade over the base variant for the additional features and the asking price. However, this variant offers better value than the Adventure trim and has a decent mix of good-to-have and must-have features. So, this is our top-recommended variant for Punch manual as well as automatic buyers. Especially for the Punch automatic buyers, the addition of traction control justifies the higher-than-usual premium for the AMT automatic.

For an additional Rs. 45,000, you can get the Accomplished variant with the Dazzle option pack. It adds style-related features like projector headlamps, LED DRLs, larger 16-inch alloy wheels and black A-pillar. The asking price for the Dazzle pack is also quite high, and most of these features fall in the good-to-have category. So, you can skip this option.

Tata Punch Petrol Accomplished vs Creative Variant

The top-spec Tata Punch Creative variant costs Rs. 8.49 lakh with the manual and Rs. 9.09 lakh with the automatic. It’s Rs. 1.2 lakh more expensive than the Accomplished trim and gets the following notable additional features:

• Projector headlamps

• Rear washer wiper

• Rear defogger

• Auto headlamps

• Auto wipers

• Auto AC

• Rear armrest

• Puddle lamps

• Power folding mirrors

• Larger, 16-inch machined alloy wheels

• Full-colour LCD instrument cluster

• Cooled box

A front centre armrest, rear AC vents split rear seatback are the notable omissions in this list. If you compare it with larger 4m SUVs, then you may also miss the sunroof. Other than that, this variant comes across as fairly well loaded. On the value front, it’s a better option than the Accomplished, but it’s not adding enough must-have features to warrant an upgrade. If you want these features, then you can upgrade to this trim or get the Accomplished variant.

The Creative variant gets the iRA option pack, which includes telematics and Internet-connected car features. This is again overpriced, but you can consider buying it if you want these features.

Which Variant Of The Tata Punch Petrol Should You Buy?

Based on the value for money, the base Pure variant is the best option. If you want the best value for money and don’t mind spending on a few aftermarket features, then this variant is the one you should buy. You can even consider buying this with the Rhythm option pack to maintain a clean, factory finish and styling.

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The Adventure variant has a nicer mix of features, but it’s overpriced. You can skip this variant and buy the Accomplished variant, which has a better value-for-money score and an even better balance of good-to-have and must-have features. Even with the Accomplished variant, you’re compromising on value,, but for a better ownership experience, you can consider taking some hit on the value front. The Accomplished variant without the Dazzle pack is our top recommendation.

The top-spec Creative variant has a better value for money score than the Accomplished variant, but it’s mostly adding good-to-have features. So, we can’t recommend buying this variant. Moreover, even with poorer value-for-money of higher variants of the Punch, even the top variant doesn’t offer you front armrest, rear AC vents and split rear seatback. With an aggressive price tag, this would’ve been acceptable. The higher variants of the Tata Altroz packs more features and they have the option of a turbo petrol engine as well.

Similarly, for the automatic, the Adventure is a decently-loaded basic SUV for budget buyers with a petrol-automatic powertrain. However, the Accomplished variant offers a better balance of features. So, we strongly recommend you stretch your budget for the Accomplished trim. You can buy Adventure automatic if you don’t want to stretch for the higher variant. The Creative variant doesn’t add enough must-have features to earn our recommendation.

What Are The Engine Specifications Of The Tata Punch Petrol?

Just like the NRG and the Ignis, the Punch also has a 1.2-litre normal petrol engine. The Tata Punch petrol shares this engine from the Tiago, Tigor and the Altroz. In the Punch, this engine makes the same 86PS of power at 6000rpm and 113Nm of torque at 3300rpm. The numbers are on par with the Tiago NRG and better than the Ignis, which gets a 4-cylinder petrol engine.

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The Punch petrol has a mileage figure of around 19kmpl, which is acceptable but less than that of WagonR 1.2 and Ignis. The torque-to-weight of the Punch is also considerably lower than the WagonR 1.2 and Ignis. So, these cars will offer better drivability.

*Estimated

What Are The Dimensions Of The Tata Punch?

The Punch is longer, wider and taller than the Tiago NRG and Ignis but smaller than the Magnite and Kiger. The Tata Punch has a better ground clearance than the NRG, WagonR and Ignis but it is again quite a bit lower than the Magnite and Kiger, which have a towering 205mm of clearance. In boot space, too, Punch is better than the Tiago NRG and Ignis, but the Kiger is in a league of its own with 405 litres of cargo capacity.

What Are The Colour Options Of The Tata Punch?

The 2021 Punch is available in the following 7 colours:

•  

• White (available in all variants)

• Grey (available in all variants)

• Orange (available in all variants except base)

• Mint blue/light blue (available in all variants except base)

• Brown (available in top 2 variants)

• Blue (available in top model only)

• Red (available in top model only)

Note: Here is a quick look at our length-based segmentation of cars to give you an idea of how we are classifying cars based on their size.