2016 Tata Tiago petrol long-term review, second report

In our first report, I extolled the Tiago’s amazing quality and how Tata’s big reliability bogey had finally been conquered. But I spoke too soon.

Within days of penning (or should I say typing) the last report, the infotainment system went kaput. The display went blank and no amount of prodding the power button or tapping the screen could make it come alive. The infotainment system is possibly the third most difficult thing to live without in a car (I would rate the horn and air con as first and second), and so an appointment with the nearest Tata service centre was booked immediately. The Tiago’s first visit to the workshop at 3,700km was an unscheduled one.

The system was quickly fixed and the car was returned in a day, but, acutely aware of how hard Tata Motors has been working to make its cars bug free, I was curious to know what went wrong. Apparently, it’s a software malfunction which simply hangs the infotainment system, and, as with your phone, you need to reboot the system. But how? Simply take out the fuse and put it back in! Easier said than done because to access the fuse box means unfastening the dash panel under the steering. A friendly Tata technician showed us how to do it but it’s a job best done in the workshop. This seems to be a common problem with the Tiago’s Harman system and until a software update comes along, it’s good to have this DIY knowledge. I won’t hold this against Tata Motors, because, for a company historically plagued with quality issues, it has come a long, long way and niggles like this are becoming more the exception than the norm. And since that glitch, the infotainment system is working flawlessly. Fingers crossed.