Tata Punch Ride, Handling & Off-road

The suspension of the Punch has been tuned beautifully. Ride quality is impressive and this little SUV soaks in the road undulations and bumps in an impressive manner. There were instances where I thought I would hear a loud thud going into a medium pothole, but the Punch totally proved me wrong. It handles rather well too and body roll is well controlled. Feedback from the steering is good and it weighs up nicely as you go through a corner. Braking performance is strong and impressive.

What if I tell you that the Punch does a fair bit of off-roading? It totally does and I have to admit it totally surprised me. Tata revealed the approach, departure and ramp over angles during the official presentation and I can see why. For the record, these stand at 20.3°, 37.6° and 22.2° respectively. And it comes with 370 mm of water wading capacity, which is quite a bit for its size. Tata Motors had created an off-road track where we could put these figures to test, and it is amazing how capable the Punch is. Be it inclines, declines, articulation, slush etc.. the Punch took on everything without a hiccup. I can easily say the it carries off the SUV moniker perfectly. Additionally, the AMT version comes with a Traction Pro mode, which pulls you out of sticky situations in case one of the wheels gets stuck on low traction surfaces. When you get stuck, a prompt on the touchscreen asks for permission to activate it. One you give the go-ahead, you press the brake and accelerator together and the system will apply brakes on the wheel with no traction, letting the wheel that has traction pull you out. One you are out, the system gives you a ‘Good Going’ message and a thumbs up emoticon on the screen.  I got chance to sample it and it worked like a charm.