[vasanthn21]

Slightly OT, but I am surprised to see that Bolt XT is priced lesser than Zest XT Diesel by only30k! Wouldn't everybody want to go for Zest instead?

[youngdriver]

Originally Posted by Bridge

Some negatives:
3. May be the vibration comes only on Eco mode and when on idling. Has anybody observed ?
4. The AC is not as powerful as it was during my 3 test drives
5. Unable to reset trip meter to 0. Any help ?

Congrats. Keep revving.

3. I would like to know at what rpm is the car idling? Because, I don't feel any vibrations in my car.
4. I felt that my car's A/c to be very powerful. I felt cold and had to switch if off once. (in Chennai)
5. Long press the right button (I believe it's mode) on the trip screen.

[DieselAddikt]

So many owners and no ownership reviews ? Come on guys, we need one. Many are planning to buy it if the initial impressions are good (from an owner's perspective) ! Please please give us a few detailed ownership reviews. Believe me, people are waiting.

[arindam_xeta]

R

Originally Posted by DieselAddikt

So many owners and no ownership reviews ? Come on guys, we need one. Many are planning to buy it if the initial impressions are good (from an owner's perspective) ! Please please give us a few detailed ownership reviews. Believe me, people are waiting.

Hi,
There is one here, but agree with you more need to come up.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157527

Please check this thread too, it also has a lot of detailed posts which might be of help!

[Bridge]

Originally Posted by youngdriver

Congrats. Keep revving.

3. I would like to know at what rpm is the car idling? Because, I don't feel any vibrations in my car.
4. I felt that my car's A/c to be very powerful. I felt cold and had to switch if off once. (in Chennai)
5. Long press the right button (I believe it's mode) on the trip screen.

3. It is idling at about 800 rpm.

4. I think I need to take it to service station for cooling problem. Its a serious problem. During the weekend I took Zest for a long drive and the problem was evident. The AC is not working properly for sure. Not sure what can be the problem.

5. I am able to reset the trip meter. In my earlier Santro it was only a long press, but here I have to press both the buttons.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by vasanthn21

Slightly OT, but I am surprised to see that Bolt XT is priced lesser than Zest XT Diesel by only30k! Wouldn't everybody want to go for Zest instead?

I think its the good sign of our market attaining maturity. Nowadays, people are ready to shun the boot when other factors look favorable. Example: the 9 lakhs Elite i20 is having a field day competing against the compact sedans. Over here, Hyundai cannot keep up with the demand for the top variants (Sports O and Asta). And quite a few sedans in that price range.

[ajay_satpute]

1000 Kms drive report

My family and my cousin's family went on a 1000 kms trip to coastal Maharashtra with my cousin's new Zest Revotron XT. I will try to summarize the goods and the not-so-goods of the drive experience.

The route from Pune to Tarkarli (400+ kms one way) is a mixed route of some very good roads, some average roads and some almost-no-roads. The route is also full of ghat sections throughout with lots of twists.

Overall, the Zest performed really really well throughout the journey.

The Goods:
1) Refinement of the engine: Hardly any engine sound audible inside and even outside. Excellent insulation I say.
2) Good brakes: The brakes couples with the new generation ABS are pretty good. There were few close shaves during the journey (not while I was driving ), but the Zest stopped perfectly with no sweat.
3) Suspension: The suspension is slightly on a harder side, but works very well on bad roads. Passengers don't feel any jerks, unless the road is full moon-like craters.
4) Harman system: Just brilliant!!! You can't ask for a better system at this price. The voice commands, once familiarized with, are a pleasure to work with. The touch experience is good too. The sound output is terrific for a stock system.
5) Leg space: Leg space at both front and rear is very good. However, I still feel that Vista had slightly more leg space on offer. May be it the recline angle of the rear seats, but I think Vista had a few mm more of space.
6) Boot space: Though the loading lip is a bit high and the protruding edges eat some space, the boot is sufficiently large to gobble up a long weekend luggage of 4 adults and 3 kids.
7) Fit & Finish: The paint quality, fit & finish is top notch. There are no inconsistent gaps anywhere, inside & outside. Throughout the journey, we had a quite a few people inquiring about the Zest regarding price, FE and the standard layman stuff. Some even tapped on the window. It is generating a lot of interest for sure, be it city or a village.
8) Ground clearance: The ground, though on the edge of good vs bad, is good enough to clear most the hurdles. We were 4 adults and 3 kids in the car carrying boot full of luggage and the car not even once bottomed. Even on the extreme bad roads,
9) DRLs: Just wow!
10) FE: The average FE of the entire trip came out to be 16.7 KMPL. It had touched 19 and then came down and settled at around 16 kmpl. IMO, this is a very good FE, given that the car was loaded to the brim and frustratingly bad roads.
11) The drive modes: The ECO/Sports drive modes are not at all just a marketing gimmick. While going up the ghats or while wishing to overtake on highways, the Sport mode really performs to your expectation. You can literally feel the surge in power in the Sports mode. I have become a fan of this on-the-fly setting. Everytime I was overtaking a vehicle on the highway, I was putting the car in Sports mode and the car used to fly. A big thumbs up to Tata for coming up with the innovative setup. Ofcourse, the surge in power is not like the Zest becomes a Ferrari or an AMG, but its pretty good for what its meant for.

The not-so-goods:
1) Headlights: I feel that the headlights should have been better. The light throw is not bad at all, but its probably not the best too. Unfortunately, we had to drive with high beam on those dim-lit roads of Tarkarli village.
2) Boot space: Even though I have mentioned this in positives, the space should have been better. Amaze and Xcent have much better boot space on offer.
3) Horn: The stock horn is weak and not very useful at highway speeds I feel.

I think Zest is an excellent option for those who are upgrading from a hatch to a compact sedan. Zest is surely better than the Dzire in most of the aspects (say 8/10), whereas it comes very close to the Xcent in terms of number of features and fit & finish. Amaze stands at the bottom of the lists of the less-than-4-meters segment according to me. Mind you, I have driven all of these 4 sedans and the experience is based on actual drives.

[giri1.8]

Originally Posted by IndianGuardian

I am just wondering that given Maruti does have brand value, better service etc, given the attractive price point and package, should sales numbers be more for the Zest? I mean I pretty much would have given Zest serious thought and may have taken the risk myself had I known about it.

Well, one of the main reason for lower sales number is that Zest is a relatively new product, sales number might climb if the product proves itself on the long run! I was waiting for Zest launch before booking my swift, but it took longer than expected, hence I had to give it a skip. To be frank Zest beats swift in every way, except for the fun to drive factor, which actually doesn't matter for the majority of buyers(zest isn't bad either).

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

11) The drive modes: The ECO/Sports drive modes are not at all just a marketing gimmick. While going up the ghats or while wishing to overtake on highways, the Sport mode really performs to your expectation. You can literally feel the surge in power in the Sports mode. I have become a fan of this on-the-fly setting. Everytime I was overtaking a vehicle on the highway, I was putting the car in Sports mode and the car used to fly. A big thumbs up to Tata for coming up with the innovative setup. Ofcourse, the surge in power is not like the Zest becomes a Ferrari or an AMG, but its pretty good for what its meant for.

Thanks for the unbiased opinion and comaprison.

I have a doubt regarding the drive modes. I still don't understand the purpose of drive modes in a manual transmission car.

Why can't the driver just downshift a gear and/or press the A-pedal a bit harder (while remaining in the same drive mode) when he needs more acceleration ?

Rohan

[chncar]

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

Thanks for the unbiased opinion and comaprison.

I have a doubt regarding the drive modes. I still don't understand the purpose of drive modes in a manual transmission car.

Why can't the driver just downshift a gear and/or press the A-pedal a bit harder (while remaining in the same drive mode) when he needs more acceleration ?

Rohan

Same reason that engine re-maps/tuning boxes are available for MT cars.

[pareshraheja]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

1000 Kms drive report

I think Zest is an excellent option for those who are upgrading from a hatch to a compact sedan. Zest is surely better than the Dzire in most of the aspects (say 8/10), whereas it comes very close to the Xcent in terms of number of features and fit & finish. Amaze stands at the bottom of the lists of the less-than-4-meters segment according to me. Mind you, I have driven all of these 4 sedans and the experience is based on actual drives.

Well, was pinning down my short review of the 650 km drive I had in my XT Diesel. It was the long weekend to Coorg from Blr and then back. Just thought about posting it here and I see Ajay's post on his XT petrol. Will use the same yard stick to give you a feedback of the diesel

The Goods:
1) Refinement of the engine: Total agreement with Ajay. The diesel is equally quiet on the inside. On the outside, the typical FIAT multijet clatter is audible.

2) Good brakes: Slightly differ with Ajay. IMO braking is a relative phenomenon especially if you have been driving another car. Too me, in comparison to the Palio, the brakes are a little weak. But, my uncle who picked up the same car and variant finds the brake good as his previous car was Swift Vdi.

3) Suspension: Again, total agreement with Ajay. Too add to it, the drive over bad road felt just like sitting in a Volvo B7R. You do feel the bad road below but, minus the shocks

4) Harman system: Totally agree.

5) Leg space: hehe. The vista/manza can even seat an elephant in the rear. I am very happy with the space in comparison to the Palio and Fiesta.

6) Boot space: Same here. We were four adults and my 10 month old daughter. We carried sufficient luggage with my wifey always carrys that extra bit for the baby. We still had some space to spare.

7) Fit & Finish: Again, in total agreement with Ajay.

8) Ground clearance: Very happy. It is at par with the Palio. Never bottomed anywhere on the trip

9) DRLs: 'Just wow!.' yes ajay they look cool.

10) FE: This is where I differ from Ajay big time. The FIAT multijet returned an average of 19 kmpl on the entire trip which, had pathetic traffic b/w Mysore and Blr. Of course the drive was sedate and did not exceed 90 km/hr but, I am sure this will improve. Already dad is of the opinion that car has smoothened out a lot before and after the trip

11) The drive modes: No comments as not applicable to the diesel.

The not-so-goods:
1) Headlights: The headlights are decent but yes, not good enough for projector lamps.

2) Horn: To me, the horn decibel is fine. Just that the pad is hard and you need to press right in the center which, is little irritating.

[preetamkabra]

Thanks Ajay and Paresh for your ownership reviews. Nice to hear that Tata has come up with some serious competition in this segment.

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by pareshraheja

Well, was pinning down my short review of the 650 km drive I had in my XT Diesel. It was the long weekend to Coorg from Blr and then back. Just thought about posting it here and I see Ajay's post on his XT petrol. Will use the same yard stick to give you a feedback of the diesel .....


2) Horn: To me, the horn decibel is fine. Just that the pad is hard and you need to press right in the center which, is little irritating.

Apart from the ground clearance and cabin space, next most significant things that are not immediately obvious until one drives the car are the suspension set up and relative lack of noise inside the cabin.

Headlights are powerful enough for me. Sufficiently wide. I didnt have problem with the brightness even at triple digit speeds but what disconcerted me was the lack of throw of the beam, which again is as good or as bad as that of competitors. I got used to it after driving for an hour or so.

The FE is nothing new - we have seen this engine - the diesel - in scores of cars earlier. Around 19 kmpl is to be expected. Though I managed to extract a max of about 22 kmpl, the average is about 20.5 kmpl.

[aditya79india]

Last Sunday, I went to the local TML dealer for checking out the Bolt. Since the vehicle was out with another prospective customer, I instead test drove the Zest XMA (with the AMT unit).

A small thought in this regard. I felt that the TML's implementation of AMT on the Zest doesnt have the creep function, that the Maruti Celerio has. Since I have driven both cars now, the Celerio (though not in the same segment), feels better in traffic, as it is possible to stop & go by just modulating the brake pedal. In contrast the Zest doesnt creep forward. One needs to press the accelerator to get going, and it takes of with a slight jerk! This was specially challenging when I was trying to perform a 4 point turn, attempting to move the car out of the parking lot of the dealer. Barely missed hitting other parked cars, as clutch engagement was quite abrupt. Apart from this (which I feel is a significant issue), there were no major observations. Though I must also add that the Celerio shifts a little more smoother, and also double tapping the accelerator pedal shifts the Celerio gearbox to the sports mode, staying longer in every gear before upshift, making overtakings easier. This feature wasnt there on the Zest XMA.

Just my thoughts

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by aditya79india

Last Sunday, I went to the local TML dealer for checking out the Bolt. Since the vehicle was out with another prospective customer, I instead test drove the Zest XMA (with the AMT unit).

A small thought in this regard. I felt that the TML's implementation of AMT on the Zest doesnt have the creep function, that the Maruti Celerio has. Since I have driven both cars now, the Celerio (though not in the same segment), feels better in traffic, as it is possible to stop & go by just modulating the brake pedal. In contrast the Zest doesnt creep forward. One needs to press the accelerator to get going, and it takes of with a slight jerk! This was specially challenging when I was trying to perform a 4 point turn, attempting to move the car out of the parking lot of the dealer. Barely missed hitting other parked cars, as clutch engagement was quite abrupt. Apart from this (which I feel is a significant issue), there were no major observations. Though I must also add that the Celerio shifts a little more smoother, and also double tapping the accelerator pedal shifts the Celerio gearbox to the sports mode, staying longer in every gear before upshift, making overtakings easier. This feature wasnt there on the Zest XMA.

Just my thoughts

Creep function is there in Zest XMA.
In official review, they reported it to be much better than the Celerio AMT, purely as an AMT implementation.
I have driven both, my friend's Celerio and my father's XMA to tell you that the Zest's action is not at all jerky, it is way better than the Celerio. Possibly lower torque of Celerio make you feel like the launches are smoother, comlared to double amount of torque in the Zest.
Sports mode is there in the Zest. There is a button just besides the gear lever, you press it to engage sports mode and the gears shift at higher RPM.