Team-BHP - Tata Zest : Official Review

Tata Sales still catching up with the leaders. The car wasn't cleaned, and there are 3 minor scratches on the vehicle at the time of delivery. Feedback sent, but accepted as such because they aren't very visible.

Hope the ASC have improved, because this is really disappointing after all the effort Tata has put into the car itself.

The car rides really beautifully, and handling is quite decent even on the winding, hilly roads of Kerala. One needs to plan ahead and be in the right gear though. Average is around 10.6 at the moment with 100% AC, which is quite acceptable. She hasn't run much so the impact of the initial idling will still be there.

I'm quite pleased with the small steering wheel that is not too light, and the very smooth slotting gear lever. The gates are not very well defined, but there is no notchiness or resistance that I usually associate with the Tata Indigos of old. Special mention of the light clutch with a very short travel. Driver's seat is a very comfortable place to be!

Had an anti-rust under body treatment done before delivery, which comes with a 5 year warranty and 10 checkups included within that period. If nothing else, the already quite cabin is now incredibly isolated from road noise. Very comfortable and quiet.

Universal 3D mats are not acceptable, not only because of the not-so-good fit, but also because they don't come with the velcro-like back that hold the actual ones in place while driving. I'm worried about these and will get them replaced at the earliest, and need to tie them in place for the time being.

So far the Tata journey has been good, despite the delivery hiccups :thumbs up

Yesterday, I test-drove Tata Zest 1.2 Revotron from Prerana Motors, Lalbagh Road.

1. I enjoyed the powerful Sport and City mode drive on the busy south Bangalore roads. But on Eco mode, Zest could not cope up with the honking and impatient drivers, who were coming behind me! :D No turbo lag, just like my XUV 500.

2. MID included gear indicator as in my XUV 500 with the recommended up or down shift arrows [not present in my XUV 500], which were very useful to the driver.

3. I liked the segment-first projector headlamps as in my Thunderbird 500 and XUV 500 with LED light guide [halo] rings for parking lamps [present in my Thunderbird 500, but not present in my XUV 500], LED DRLs [not present in my XUV 500].

4. I wanted to switch on both the halo rings and DRLs, but that was not possible. If I switch on the halo rings, DRLs got switched off!

5. The rear bench could not be folded to accommodate more goods in the boot.

6. Tata Motors wants to make hay while the sun shines by pricing the Pristine White Zests ₹ 3,057 more than the non-white coloured Zests, just to encash the demand. This does not apply for the Pristine White Bolts, which cost the same as the other coloured ones. :Frustrati

Tata Zest : Official Review-zestprice.jpg

Yesterday [Sunday] evening, I test-drove 1.3 Quadrajet AMT variant, thanks to the sales executive of Prerana Motors, who brought the demo car all the way from Lalbagh Road showroom to our home at Basaveswara Nagar amidst drizzles. I, being a six-footer, sat comfortably on the rear bench with more than 2" gap between my knees and the driver's seat that was fully drawn back . I found the seating comfort on the rear bench better than my erstwhile Linea. :)

I drove using the manual as well as automatic gear transmission both in the normal and Sport modes. Even in the manual mode, I had to push the gear lever only for up-shifting. Down-shifting was done automatically! So, the manual mode was semi-automatic, actually! clap: The up-shift and down-shift recommendatory arrows appeared on the MID for the manual mode. There was a remarkable difference between driving in normal automatic mode and Sport mode, the latter being activated by pressing a button even when the car was moving. The only thing that I disliked was considerable turbo lag that required careful planning under some circumstances like overtaking. I wished AMT variant was available in 1.2 Revotron too!

Beige, Zest XT RT - Jan 2015

Recently I completed a 670kms Mumbai-Guhagar-Mumbai drive with extended family. We were 6 cars (Zest, 2Swifts, Punto, Aveo, Aveo UVA).

My Odo stands at 4700kms

My Impressions -
1. Ride/Space comfort was the best among all the cars, as mentioned by rear seat occupants (we kept rotating passengers).
2. Sports Mode was awesome to drive in the Ghats of similar winding sections. Straight line was smooth as well, I could overtake very easiliy as long as the vehicle up front was under 80 kmph, above that I had to plan a bit (Bombay-Goa road).
3. Braking was nice and composed, felt hurried a couple of times but that was due to the driver in front stopping abruptly.
4. Handled superbly well on all turns, didn't try anything spectacular either so probably expected.

Just before the trip I found that my voice recognition stopped working and would accept the 'Call' command but would not recognize the name, tried 'N' times but same result.
I finally managed to fix it by resetting to factory defaults.
Has anyone else faced this ?

After the trip the reverse sensor comes on when I am engaged in First or Second gear. I switch Off & Switch ON the car and the problem resolves. So far it has occurred 3 times in 2 weeks. I am trying to do a cause-effect analysis so I can reproduce it at the A.S.S., but not been able to narrow it down.
Any one faced this? what could be the reason?

The FE for the whole trip was 12.5kmpl. It was 14.5 till I reached Chiplun after which we stopped the car many times with the Engine & ACC ON and the average FE dropped.

I still feel the car feels really heated (the temperature indicator has 3 bars) to the hand when touching the bonnet above driverside headlamp.

I have observed the oil getting dark and I will go for an intermittent service to get the oil changed.

*** Note - On our way back we halted near tamhini Ghat for 2 hrs, family had some work there, On starting the car we observed smoke from exhaust :Shockked: . It was not white but grey, was dark so not sure.

I was horrified & suspected a gasket failure but on cold starting the next day the smoke, though present, was very very less (lasted 2 secs) and vanished completely the morning after that.

I attributed it to bad petrol which I had to, unfortunately, fill at an obscure pump near Guhagar.
Is my analysis right?

I will get it checked at the next service nevertheless.

An Image from the Trip, Parked at Hotel River View @ Lote Parshuram

Tata Zest : Official Review-zest_gulmohar.jpg

PS looking for good mats for the Zest, please suggest if you have found anything good, Thanks.

- Slick

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slick (Post 3736553)

Just before the trip I found that my voice recognition stopped working and would accept the 'Call' command but would not recognize the name, tried 'N' times but same result.
I finally managed to fix it by resetting to factory defaults.
Has anyone else faced this ?

Yes it has happened with my car too but just once and a factory reset sorted it all out. Hope it doesn't happen again. If it does, I would suggest to speak to TSS and get the Harman software upgraded.

Quote:

After the trip the reverse sensor comes on when I am engaged in First or Second gear. I switch Off & Switch ON the car and the problem resolves. So far it has occurred 3 times in 2 weeks. I am trying to do a cause-effect analysis so I can reproduce it at the A.S.S., but not been able to narrow it down.
Any one faced this? what could be the reason?

In my car, it happens only when I cold start my Vehicle and change the gear from Reverse to First initially (because of gear lock) and simply switching off the reverse parking button ON and OFF takes care of it. Otherwise, it's a non issue. In your case, again, it might be the Harman software which might be playing up.

Quote:

The FE for the whole trip was 12.5kmpl. It was 14.5 till I reached Chiplun after which we stopped the car many times with the Engine & ACC ON and the average FE dropped.

This is my biggest concern. After the suggestion of my fellow BHPians, I too changed my driving style to be more relaxed and was able to bring the FE from an avg. of 10 to 14 now; but, a brief stop at a traffic light brings the FE down drastically. Not sure if it's the actual figure or just an issue with software.