Tata Sierra 2025 review | Panoramic sunroof & triple screens

The Phoenix has officially risen here in Chandigarh and I'm glad that we're getting to showcase it. First day, first show here on Deck 360. This is the Tata Sierra making a comeback from the year 1991 right here in December 20, 2534. Years later, this is what the Sierra looks like. But what does it drive like and what's the tech like? Well, that's what we're going to explore in this particular segment. Let me tell you, there's three options with the Tata Sierra. The electrics not out yet, maybe in a few months we'll have some updates there. But this is the 1.5 litre turbo petrol. There's also a 1.5 litre naturally aspirated engine. A lot of tech here. This is that signature color. Andaman Adventure yellow looking electric and amazing. The tech is similar in the 1.5 liter turbo diesel Tata Sierra. We have it in the red over here. We'll drive both cars, tell you what the drive experience is like, what the tech is like. Do either of them or both of them pass the tech check? There's so much to unpack. Let's get this show started. It's frigid here in Chandigarh, but it's also sunny. So like they say, Dhoop sekhna, something we don't get to do in Mumbai. That's why the car comes with a sunroof, which I have a couple of thoughts on. But it is the longest or the largest sunroof in its class in this segment. It is massive. It extends all the way to the back. If you see right there a lot of sunlight coming in. But just like a bunch of the other SUVs in this space, for the driver, if I was just driving this alone and out on a nice journey or adventure, there's no sunroof for me over here. Its primarily for the rear passenger and it is massive. I will give them that. And honestly, from our last conversation with Martin Ularek, it is quite a task to design this car with two pieces of information. First, the fact that it was an icon in the year 1991, so much of expectation, so much aspiration. And the second piece being it was a three door. Now it has 5 doors. So some of the questions about where the spare wheel goes, which goes down by the way, not at the back, that's a conscious choice. And more importantly, the sunroof and the B pillar, these are things that honestly attract a lot of attention. And we've been driving in Chandigarh. It's a city that loves its SUVs. Everyone's been stopping, turning and looking. It's not as futuristic or like the Born electric vehicles and Mahindra's coming out with or what the Tesla did when we first took it out for a drive in Bangalore and Mumbai. But there is a lot of curiosity and a lot of interest for this Tata Sierra here in the SUV capital of India. OK, this seems to be a continuing theme with Mahindra's and now Tata Motors, the partnership with Dolby for Dolby Atmos. But Tata has taken things to the next level with this sound bar, a JBL system, which really does the trick. But before I even tell you theoretically what it's all about Dolby Atmos badging over here, this is what Dolby Atmos is like in a car at this price point. Yeah, now that's what Dolby Atmos with Immersive Theater Pro is. Sound Bar right here. It's a 12 speaker JBL system, which honestly feels like there's an orchestra or a live performance happening within the car. This is the horizontal view triple screen infotainment experience which obviously comes with Theater Pro that consists of the first in industry sound bar which is part of this whole 12 JBL black speaker system, Dolby Atmos 5.1 and 18 JBL modes. Now, a lot of this is because of the refined materials that they've used. And if you're talking about the materials, not only about the sound, there's a lot of soft touch. It's a very, very, very premium feel inside the Tata Sierra. Obviously a very different approach from 1991 when we were growing up and the Sierra was this sort of rugged performer. But over here it can do a lot of that stuff. It's very capable with these powerful engines, but it's also full of tech. And this horizontal triple screen layout is only in the top trims, but it gives it an even more premium feel. This particular screen is around 10.25 inches with your digital dials, similar design language font, almost seamless transition to the one 2.3 inch central screen right here. And in the top trims, like I said, you have a passenger screen where you can play videos, you can even play games. You can put it in relax mode, play games with an Xbox or PS controller, which is kind of cool. You can also have your own sound setup so you don't disturb the driver. In a lot of cars this is a gimmick, even in some cars like the Jeep Grand Cherokee. But over here, there's also a relax mode if you just want to zone out after a tough day at work. Both these screens go into the screensaver sort of mode. But then you also have the air purification mode, which if you see outside the AQI right now is somewhere around on my Apple Watch is reading 205 and above in this part of Chandigarh, which is a lot higher than even Mumbai. And the AQI here is somewhere between 4:00 and 8:00. And we've kept air purification on for the last few minutes to see if this actually works. The proof is in the pudding. Let's put the windows down and see how effective this is. The windows are down, and from 4:00 we're looking at the cabin purification. Now, how much does the AQI go up? In maybe a minute, it's already gone up to 8. There you go, slowly climbing up. Actually pretty fast now, But I've noticed that when it's purifying, the value goes down very fast. It takes some time maybe for the values or the sensors to really catch what's happening, but it's a matter of maybe 3040 seconds and there you go. It's like it was almost listening to me. Sad but true. It's already crossed 100 within a matter of 40 or 50 seconds. That gives you some perspective in terms of the kind and the quality of air that we are breathing. The PM 2.5, the PM 10 particles stuff that just stays in your lungs and I've closed the windows to abate this sort of rise, but I feel like a lot of that has already come in, so the air purification will need to take its time. A very nifty feature, my 2 pens. From a tech standpoint, this is a great feature, but it should be spoken about more 1 and it should also be displayed better, especially how it's displayed on PV Pro, which is on Jaguar Land Rover products. Tata Motors can definitely take a couple of cues from there because of how nicely it shows you the AQI outside and the purification system on the inside with ionization carbon dioxide. We could have made this a little fancier data now in an age of AI and so much tech in cars as well, with chipset makers talking about all of the features that they have thrust into these vehicles. Largely this is tech on four wheels or two in the case of two Wheelers. How much deck or AI is too much deck? One thing that I know that if if companies like Tata Motors and Mahindra understand the local context and these vehicles made in India for India and the rest of the world can genuinely use tech to be the differentiator and make our lives so much more useful and safer. One such thing they've done this time is the blind spot monitor. Now a lot of these cars in this category have a blind spot monitor, which if you hit the indicator on the right, the monitor shows here, you put it on the left, the camera comes on, but that's a very small pip, sort of a circular reference. Good news that you don't have to really look far away from your line of sight. The not so good news, there's not much to see. I really don't know what's happening over there. And the age-old proverb objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. So how do you fix this? Well they have the default view which is rear view plus front view which you can change all throughout. But if I want to move all of this to the infotainment display from the instrument cluster in a matter of seconds, I have a massive YouTube like view over here on the left. This is a lot more to see, especially if you're on the highway and you have a bunch of lanes over here. I'll show this to you practically while taking on the road. But this doesn't stop there. What if I want to see what's in the front of my car? Not 360, but more of a 180 or a 120. Then I can hit this button as well. And this is the front left of my car. This is the rear left of my car. Similarly, if I switch to the right, this is the right. So now I want to go onto the highway and I'm driving. I'm given my indicator. This is it. This is how you want the tech to work in a car almost instantaneously. I have the perfect view with reference points in terms of cars that are coming closer to me and cars that probably are within a safe space. This is honestly a masterstroke, a very, very stealth like masterstroke, but something as you see that car was the perfect reference point. This is the sort of tech you want to see in these cars. This is the sort of innovation you want to see when you're on the highway. Of course, this comes with autonomous features, a dash level 2, it has a bunch of things that work, but this really takes things to the next level. Well, over here in Chandigarh you might need heating on seats but usually in Mumbai I need ventilation. Works fairly well over here with the controls on my right side. The car also comes with this extendable thigh support, which means that you can have a much more comfortable driving position and with the passenger as well. Well, there you go, your first look, your impressions, review whether its a true bang for your buck here on Tech 360, the Tata Sierra Icon resurrected in the flesh. That, of course, was the turbo petrol. This was the turbo diesel. Much better drive over there. Also, I'm a little biased towards that yellow color. I think we'll be seeing a lot more on the road.