Tata Sierra first impressions: Beyond a trip down memory lane

New Delhi: Back in 1998, when I was just three days old, I was brought home from the hospital to home in a Tata Sierra of the day with my Dad’s friend on the wheels. While I might not remember much about it, growing up, the Sierra was more or less a popular face. While Tata revamped the SUV lineup completely, the Sierra always remained a design that revolutionised the Indian auto market.

Now, after a hiatus of 22 years, it is back, and on the surface, it retains a lot of the aspects that made Sierra endearing back in the day, but it is a new ball game. Tata have loaded it with features and brought it up to date on the outside and the inside as well. The Sierra is coming in a competitive market with the Hyundai Creta and the Kia Seltos as the big competition, and Tata has brought their A-game in the Sierra.

Tata Sierra brings the familiar boxy design with a lot of contemporary design elements. Taking cues from the new Harrier and Safari, the details at the front include connected LED DRLs, projector LED headlights, the Tata logo. The bumper is quite rugged to look at, coming with the gloss-black accents and faux silver skid plates. The stance is quite aggressive.

Sierra also gets two pixel-shaped LED fog lamps on either side that have already been seen in the Nexon, Harrier and Safari. Overall, the front is clean to view and appears quite sophisticated.

Perhaps it is the side profile that is most reminiscent of the old Sierra while staying very modern. You get flush-type door handles, which immediately makes it appear premium. In the original Sierra, you had curved glass windows. Instead of this, Sierra comes with a black-painted section between the B-pillars and C-pillars and has visually the same effect.

Sierra comes with 19-inch alloy wheels, black body claddings over the wheel arches and doors, black ORVMs and black roof rails, which all make it look modern. The back gets a full-width LED taillight bar that comes with a black, clean look. The rear bumper is much like the front, with gloss-black accents and a faux silver skid plate that is more or less the element for the minimalist design here. Design-wise, Sierra does take on its nameplate but has spun itself with the Defender look. The front fascia feels fresh and quite appealing.

On the inside, the Sierra comes with three screens on the dashboard, one of which is the driver’s display and the rest two are for infotainment, which can synchronise the contents. There was a lot of hype over it, and the ground report is that they look very appealing. You have the four-spoke steering wheel from the Curvv and which more recently appeared in the Harrier.ev along with the ICE version of Harrier and the Safari. It gets an illuminated Tata logo and touch-sensitive controls.

The cabin theme is black and grey and features a big panoramic sunroof that goes up to the C-pillar and works well to make it feel quite airy. As a five-seater, each seat has adjustable headrests and 3-point seatbelts. The seats are dual-tone in beige and grey. The seats are a little hard, and from the inside, the back windows are smaller as they get speakers mounted in the B-pillar. There is an ample amount of space and storage, and the Sierra boot is spacious.

Features include the dual-zone automatic climate control, a wireless phone charger, powered and ventilated front seats, rear sunshades, a 360-degree camera, and it have electronic parking brakes and Level 2 ADAS. It also comes with the SonicShaft Soundbar with JBL Black 12-speaker system, which can be combined with the Dolby Atmos.

​​The new Tata Sierra will come with the brand’s new flagship 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine, which was first shown in the 2023 Auto Expo and will eventually make its way into the Safari and Harrier portfolio as well. It is going to make 170 bhp and 280 Nm and will come with both manual and automatic transmissions. 

Apart from this, the Sierra will come with a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, and this will make the car quite competitive. The 1.5-litre diesel engine from the Curvv and Nexon will also be available, and the performance figures will be 118 bhp and 260 Nm and will get both manual and automatic transmission options. Prices will be revealed on November 25th, and it should place the Sierra somewhere between the Nexon and Harrier.