[wabbster]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

On hearing the name "Toothless", I couldn't hold my laughter . What made you give your Zest that name?

Toothless is the name of the Night Fury in the movie "How to Tame Your Dragon". (link) The colour and the DRLs made it look somewhat like a dragon!

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Very good summary of the pros of the Zest, appreciate you sharing it

Thank you. Glad you liked it.

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Low power: I guess you can overcome this by learning how to drive a turbo-charged car.

Well, I guess you're right. More practice is required, methinks. It's definitely annoying when I slow down at a speed breaker!

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Multidrive: This is one of the USPs of the Zest, wonder why it is not so good. Perhaps TML should have given it a better location (may be on the steering wheel) to increase its visibility

Or on the gear-stick! Or, even cooler, a voice command!! I know, I can dream!

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Headlamps: The Vista and the Manza have one of the best OEM lamps (the famed double barrel). By giving the projector set-up have they screwed up that?

Also, the Nano's headlights. My dad's Nano could blind someone wearing shades!

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

You cannot expect great mileage in Bangalore traffic.

I agree. Bangalore is a mileage-killer! However, even on longer rides the mileage is quite low (~11 kmpl). Getting it checked out this weekend.

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

After sales service, it seems the Horizon Next vision of Late Karl Slym has not seen the horizon yet. When will TML learn to incorporate a customer centric approach? They need to make every customer feel special.

To be very honest, their service guys are really polite and cordial. They just seem a bit defensive and try to deflect the blame of my driving style. It could be the case, but isn't the customer always right?

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Wishing you the very best for your epic trip

Thank you very much! I hope it really happens. A lot of planning (including arrangement of funds) is required. So, *fingers crossed*!

Originally Posted by narayan

I am just wondering if the above two are related. Being a turbo petrol car, changing gears at the right rpm is important.

Thanks for the tip - I didn't give a lot of thought about it till you and AutoIndian mentioned it.

Originally Posted by narayan

All the best for that epic journey !

Thanks!

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by wabbster

[*]Awful, awful mileage. My first long distance drive (to Chennai) gave me ~15 kms to a liter. Since then it's a downward spiral. My last trip to Mysore two weeks ago returned an avg mileage of 11 kms to a liter. Within the city, I get between 8 & 9 kms to a liter.

I can vouch for mileage of Revotron Zest. It is excellent, better than the likes of Dzire/Amaze etc. My friend who has got one used to complain about it, and as I am the one who took him to Tata showroom, I used to take the blame, hehe. He got 8-9 kmpl in city. Then the day came when I had to borrow his car. I took it to Kanakpura road, including Hosur rd, Nice rd too. The car gave an avg mileage of 15kmpl. This was the moment when he realized something. There are multiple factors that contribute to fuel economy. For sure its a heavy car for this segment. Then driving habits etc are there too.
Then, he drove it during early morning from HSR to Airport and back to HSR. No traffic, he tried his best to get good FE. He got 19kmpl. In this very thread, you can see people reporting 23kmpl with photo of MID displaying the same. About power delivery, yes, even I don't like the way power comes in 2nd gear at lower RPMs. Sports mode helps here, but not much.
Its a tubocharged engine, but it doesn't give you big bhp numbers, but puts up a good bump in torque fugure. 140Nm is just too good for this segment, and thia results in better pulling power, meaning that even with 5 onboard, the car doesn't lag compared to driving alone. I don't know if anybody has come up with a remap yet, as its a smaller turbo, a remap won't give astonishing bhp figures but can iron out this issue and can definitely improve acceleration.

[parth.jain]

This is my second post on team-bhp and I am glad to tell that I booked a Silver Tata Zest XT Quadrajet last week, delivery is expected anytime in next week.

I had a look at Swift and Zest in the showrooms and test-drove my friends Amaze. Xcent was not considered since it has a 3cyl engine and long term reliability & performance of a 3-cyl diesel mill is questionable, also many people advised me that diesel engines from Hyundai though perform well, but don't last long. (No offence to any Xcent owner).

Amaze
When I test-drove my friend's I-dtec amaze, I really liked it's driveability and power delivery in the city and also the space. However, I was let down by the interior quality and steering feedback. The steering was too light for my liking and the car felt too light too. However, the car is really good if one has to drive it within city limits but since my daily drive includes some amount of highway driving, I had to let this one pass.

Swift/Dzire
When I sat in the Swift at a showroom, me & my dad were let down by the interior quality, sub-par SQ from the music system and the shortage of real estate. We also gave a look at the Dzire, but the interior quality of beige dashboard was a let down. Also, I never understood the design of Dzire, the boot space is pretty less as compared to the competition as well as the interiors are cramped. Where did the space go? Also, to my surprise, even the service costs were turning to be expensive for the Maruti as well as the price of the car!
However, these cars are really good in terms of reliability and re-sale value! Also the after sales service of Maruti is amongst the best in the segment, but still the heart didn't settle for this one.

Zest
One day, on our way to home, me & my dad stepped into a newly opened Tata showroom. We had to check out the Zest due to its positive reviews everywhere on the net but were not very sure about the 'Tata' thing. There were no cars in the dealership, since it was a new dealership and there cars were en-route from the factory. We talked to the SA about the deals available and about the exchange of our old car. Then the guy from the exchange department was called as we wanted to exchange one of our old cars. This guy was really rude and was talking as if he was doing us a favour buying our old car and giving us an exchange bonus! I had an argument with him and we left the showroom.

We were again in the confusion as to which car to buy, as we had liked ZEST very much but we were not sure if we should buy the car with TATA. If sales attitude is like this, I was worried how will be the attitude of the service centres! I was regularly getting calls from one senior lady from the dealership and she was courteous enough to apologize and get my appointment to come to my office and give a test-drive, but I was trying to ignore it. We were almost finalizing on the Swift, but still the heart was tilting towards the Zest and decided to have a look at the car once again.

Went to the same dealership once again after being followed up by them almost everyday, test-drove the car and fell in love with it! Booked it straight away.
Almost everything in this car was better than the Swift duos and it stole my heart away. Following is the comparison of this car from the Swift Dzire:

Benefits of Zest above Dzire :
1) More power. Here I am getting the 90 Bhp tune of the Fiat engine whereas, in the swift it is offered in 74 bhp.
2) More space! I am 6' and my dad was easily able to sit behind me and still there was some room left! Even the boot is bigger here.
3) More features. The main features I required were Bluetooth, steering mounted controls, ABS & Airbags. All these were included in the XMS as well as XT of Zest, however I would have to go for Zdi of Dzire to have these features. Also in the XT, I get touchscreen infotainment with a number of features, projector headlamps, DRLs, reverse parking sensors display in infotainment screen. Neat!
4) Lesser price. The Zest XT is a lot cheaper than the Swift Dzire ZDi and I got a free insurance and a lot of features on Zest, whereas on Dzire I was only getting a discount of 10k.
5) Better ride quality and ground clearance! The ride quality of this car was really outstanding and maybe the best in the class (?). I was really impressed. Also, it has a good ground clearance too and this aspect is important to me, as the area of my workplace has broken roads (industrial area).
6)Better build quality. The ZEST has a lot better metal work and indeed feels heavier than any other car in the segment! This one was one important point to be considered while booking the car.

Shortcomings of Zest over Dzire:
1) Reliability of Maruti and After sales service. After sales of TATA is looking like a gamble as of now, though there are a lot of reports that they have improved. Maruti is amongst the best in this department.
2) No electrically retractable ORVMs in Zest. This is one really useful feature for Indian traffic conditions which is available even in the Vdi from Maruti. This one feature is available from the Zest, which is otherwise indeed a feature loaded car.
3) Cupholders. There is only one cupholder, in front of the gear lever. This is one area where Maruti has excelled. There are a lot of cubby holes and cup holders here and there, the best place is in front of the gear level in Swift. There is place to keep your phone there, 12v socket, USB & Aux ports, and all these spaces are missing from the Zest. The reason for no cupholders in Zest given by the SE was that the 'tagline' of Tata is "Don't drink & Drive". . Okay.
4) Start stop button. The Zdi now comes with a start stop button, however this is once feature that is not very important for me. And I also fear what will happen when it breaks down or stops working
5) Looks. Looks are subjective, however I didn't like the front of Zest. It resembles the Vista and Manza too much. However, I don't like the front of Swift too either.


The shortcomings of ZEST were not enough for me to let it go and go for the Swift. We fell in love with the car, listened to out heart and booked it straightaway. However, I am a bit worried that I might regret my decision of buying the car from TATA as the buying experience has been more sour than sweet uptil now, and the after sales service is questionable. A friend owns a Safari, and he has been upset with the after sales uptil now.

That's all for now, eagerly waiting for the car!

PS: I apologize for the long post! Too much excited because of fresh & hot T-bhp membership as well as the delivery of the car is getting closer!

[isandy]

Originally Posted by wabbster

Almost 8000 KMS completed on my Zest XT RT (I call her Toothless) and here are some of my observations:

I also own a Zest Revtron XT bought from Prerana Motors Lalbagh in Oct 2014 which has done about 9000 kms. I must say you have captured almost all points about Zest almost perfectly.

About mileage, as others mentioned its about your driving style as I get about 11 - 12 kmpl with AC in Eco/City mode in Bangalore traffic and about 16.5 -17 in highways (maintaining speeds of 90 - 100 with AC). Pickup as you mentioned is pretty sluggish in 2nd gear and I had ECU flashed during 1st service which helped a bit, but still it is not comparable to other cars in the segment.

I totally agree that pre-sales and sales team at Prerana headed by Mr. Ranganath and Mr. Mallya are really top notch and whole experience is awesome. As you mentioned after sales service is not that great, at least in Prerana, Peenya. Each time I go, I see new faces, on checking I found that they are poached by other dealers/companies. However Mr. Mohan Ramesh and the team at the service are cordial and try to fix the issues, but some how they point certain things and say - sir.. it-is-how it is with the Car

On the same topic, I have given my car for 2nd service today and was told that I will be charged about 350 for consumable and 150 for wheel alignment weights, even though I have Gold AMC. Can someone confirm if it is the same with other Tata ASS?

[himarg]

Originally Posted by isandy

On the same topic, I have given my car for 2nd service today and was told that I will be charged about 350 for consumable and 150 for wheel alignment weights, even though I have Gold AMC. Can someone confirm if it is the same with other Tata ASS?

I was told by my SA that gold AMC ensures that all consumables will be covered. I am not sure about the wheel alignment weights though. Will check with him again.

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by himarg

I was told by my SA that gold AMC ensures that all consumables will be covered. I am not sure about the wheel alignment weights though. Will check with him again.

Originally Posted by isandy

On the same topic, I have given my car for 2nd service today and was told that I will be charged about 350 for consumable and 150 for wheel alignment weights, even though I have Gold AMC. Can someone confirm if it is the same with other Tata ASS?

As far as I know, the standard AMC offered with vehicle covers all the scheduled consumables like engine oil, filters, coolant top-up etc. The Gold AMC is for the unscheduled maintenance ( like worn out clutch etc )which includes the cost of the spare parts and the service charges.

Wheel alignment is included in the standard AMC, as is wheel balancing. The lugs used for balancing are charged, though. I was charged Rs. 67/- for my second service. I looked at the bill and found the charges are for lugs.

[parth.jain]

I need some info!

Where is the VIN located in the ZEST? Is chassis no. and VIN the same? My SE said so.

[himarg]

Originally Posted by parth.jain

I need some info!

Where is the VIN located in the ZEST? Is chassis no. and VIN the same? My SE said so.

There must be a white rectangular sticker on the top right corner of your car's front glass. The value that you are looking for starts with MAT.

[itsashishsharma]

I gifted my father an XMA in December that cost us 8 Lakhs on road in U.P. He had to hear a lot from people around him telling him that he could have got a Maruti/Honda/Hyundai instead and shouldn't have listened to me as it was a Tata car and was good only for a Taxi. Though he totally enjoyed driving and owning it, my father himself got some doubts as for the same money, we could have got a DZire VDi which was a "successful" car. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to visit my parents in U.P. until 2 days back, drove the car for some good time and realized how easy it was to drive an XMA with an AMT and a linear, well spread torque from that VGT 90ps Fiat that powers S Cross, Ciaz etc too. The Zest is an awesome vehicle. I own a Fiesta forast 2 months and that is my point of reference at the moment. Zest is happier to rev, quicker from stand still, more spacious in the back, easier to park. Though driving a Fiesta is an experience that you must have before dying, the Zest feels totally planted at triple digit speeds on all sorts of roads. Also, Zest has got better ride quality especially at lower speeds.
The back seat comfort in Zest is better than Vento, City, Verna, Fiesta and I found only Linea's backseat to provide that kind of comfort (I have spent good time in backseat of all these cars). I felt that the Zest was designed to be in the back seat rather than in front. Whatever the road throws at you, in front you will not feel much while in back, you won't feel anything at all, it just glides over any surface. I really disliked how awkwardly raised the Zest looked, especially in Bangalore where roads are quite good and speed breakers are nothing to worry but in U.P. when we were 5 adults in the Zest with boot full till brim, potholes like mini ponds where my father's Baleno used to struggle a lot, scrapping everywhere, my father didn't even slow down in these roads, and I was amazed how the raised GC helped.
In these conditions, a diesel VGT car with an auto box, ABS, EBD, CSC, a nice music system with bluetooth, USB, nice interiors and space, 185mm 15" Bridgestone tyres, nice 18 spoke alloys and a price tag of Rs.8L on road, this car is just great and an ideal commuter for my parents. They are happy and totally satisfied with it and they appreciate my decision of choosing the Zest over others. Its commendable what Tata gives for that kind of money as my Fiesta cost me more than one and a half times of the Zest and though it in itself a great package and VFM, the Zest is in a class of its own. Only one wish, more steering feedback.

[ambujlal]

Originally Posted by itsashishsharma

Its commendable what Tata gives for that kind of money as my Fiesta cost me more than one and a half times of the Zest and though it in itself a great package and VFM, the Zest is in a class of its own. Only one wish, more steering feedback.

Once in a while it is good to hear some good things about Tata's hard work on their next generation vehicles. Zest is no doubt an absolute value for money!

[harry10]

As its been more than a year since the launch is there any news of a face-lift coming for Zest. Like end of the year or early next year?

Also, can anyone tell me the current discounts both on petrol and diesel in NCR?

[parth.jain]

I am regretting for booking a TATA Zest now at Tuli Motors, Wazirpur, New Delhi. The one of the best cars in the segment but the worst sales & (most probably) service.

1) As per the dealer, my car has been booked by them to TATA factory in Pune on last week's Monday(17th Aug 2015) and was dispatched in the next two days, but still they have no clue about where the car is at time(It was going to be coming at the showroom day before yesterday).They say that now all the cars from the factory first come to some yard of TATA in Delhi, after that it comes to them(Till last week the cars used to come to them directly from the factory). Also, the status of the car is not updated so they don't know where it is (most probably it is in the yard but they can't confirm).
Actually, this is the second time they had booked my car since the first time TATA sent a sky grey coloured car instead of Silver I wanted.

2) He told me a couple of times thinking that I am not well educated about cars and affairs of automobile sector that "your car is freshly made in the factory... it is manufactured on 16-17 Aug 2015.. blah blah". He gave me the VIN today after asking for two days and when I decoded it, it came to manufactured in July 2015. Though it's not bad, but still he could have told me this earlier instead of trying to fool me.
When I confronted this to him, he told me "manufacturing date is the one on which the car is dispatched from the factory for the dealership, you asked me for the chassis number, I told you the chassis number. Either he is a fool or he is trying to make a fool out of me.

3) Unfortunately, I handed over the cheque of booking amount to them day before yesterday and the loan amount shall be transferred to them by tomorrow. That's really stupid of me I guess

4) They also created an issue regarding the RTO on which the car will be registered. The SE promised me something else while taking the booking amount and after that took a U-Turn.

There were a couple of more things that are irritating. The main point is I am really worried that I will be taken for a ride by TATA in case they receive the full payment(tomorrow). What should I do now? Do you guys think that everything will be alright?

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by parth.jain

The main point is I am really worried that I will be taken for a ride by TATA in case they receive the full payment(tomorrow). What should I do now? Do you guys think that everything will be alright?

Sorry to know about this. Why don't you hold the payment till car reaches the stockyard and once you do PDI and confirm you can release the payment to dealer after which it can be registered. Since you are not really happy with the showroom guys holding the payment would be the best part. Hope this helps.

[parth.jain]

Originally Posted by fusionbang

Sorry to know about this. Why don't you hold the payment till car reaches the stockyard and once you do PDI and confirm you can release the payment to dealer after which it can be registered. Since you are not really happy with the showroom guys holding the payment would be the best part. Hope this helps.

Thanks fushionbang for the quick reply.

I am also thinking on the same grounds. Is it possible to tell the loan guys (loan taken from the showroom) to hold the transfer? Or shall I stop the down payment cheque?

Also, since it is a Saturday day after tomorrow so their will be a half-day for bank and I want the delivery on a Sunday. Maybe, I'll stop the payment and if all goes well, will take the delivery next Sunday

[himarg]

Originally Posted by parth.jain

I am regretting for booking a TATA Zest now at Tuli Motors, Wazirpur, New Delhi. The one of the best cars in the segment but the worst sales & (most probably) service.

I too was in a similar situation with my dealer in Pune. Had to follow up almost every second day. Eventually, I threatened to move to another dealer and held the balance amount (all except 21k), until I had done the PDI.

I am not sure about the feasibility of holding a loan payment, but should be possible, since it is your money.