Re: Tata Zest : Official Review A brief medium term ownership report of my Zest RT XMS, purchased in March 2015.
After 2 years, the odo stands at a little under 30,0000 KMs.
The great things about this car:
-> The purchase price. Came to a little over 7L for me on road. With that kind of money, I would have to content myself with a Tigor today, which although with it's own merits, would be a less spacious and less powerful car compared to the Zest
-> Ride quality : Plush. The suspension setup, 15 inch tyres and EPAS are a treat to somebody like me who upgraded from a hatchback with hydraulic PS and 13 inch tyres
-> Drive modes : I use eco mode most of the time. In city FE is around 12-13 kmpl. City mode for highway drives or when driving with AC on. FE drops to 9-10 kmpl in City mode.
Sports mode when the car is loaded or when a quick overtaking manoeuvre is required or a steep incline needs to be climbed. Never used Sports mode long enough to measure FE with it.
The sports mode is one of the things that owners of the later Tata models (Tiago, Tigor) will miss. It has been really handy in some situation where otherwise I would have had to ride the clutch to gain speed.
-> Build quality : Resistance to two wheeler hits and scrapes (I dont want to jinx myself here). The car shrugs off small hits and bruises from two wheelers without any visible battle scars.
A two wheeler rider who was focussed on a pedestrian to his left, rammed into the car from behind. He fell and got a few bruises. The sound of the impact was scary. The car had a minor bumper bruise which is not visible now after multiple wash/polish cycles.
On another occasion, I scraped the side of a stationary bus while turning, which left a bruise near rear passenger side door. (misjudged the length of the car, coming from a hatchback). One round of polish and rubbing and the bruise is gone without a trace.
The windshield too has had its fair share of stone hits and vandalism, but has stood it's ground. Windshield world tried to force me to replace the windshield for a small crack, saying that it will certainly expand and cause problems. One year later, the crack is just as it was the day it was born and the windshield is doing it's duties
The 'could be better' things
-> FE : Could have been better, but not really a major pain point for me
-> Service cost : Used to be far lesser before, but is on the uptick now. On my last service. they squeezed in an AC cleaning item and billed 650 for it. The SA murmured something about fluids when I was handing over the car for service, to which I didn't pay enough attention and it later turned out to be this AC cleaning, which I would have flatly declined had I comprehended it before handing over the car
-> Occassional, unplanned trips to service center: Both the low beam headlamp bulbs conked off within a few weeks of each other. Was charged ~500 rs for replacing each. Buying the bulb myself online and getting it replaced at a local garage might have worked out to approximately the same cost, if not more. The call answering button on the steering wheel has given up now and will require another service center visit to have it fixed. Vehicle turning off suddenly while driving, seems to be a feature of the summer months when its very hot outside (by Bangalore standards) and AC is running. A little scary, but not something that will give me sleepless nights, because all I have to do is start it again and off she will go as thought nothing
had happened ConnectNext system: The sound quality is great, but every now and then the speakers will be speechless
immediately after starting. Seems to have something to do with putting the key in the slot and quickly turning it to ignition. The workaround is: Insert the key, turn it to allow the electronics to power up (but dont turn it to ignition), wait for about 20 seconds till Connectnext boots, confirm that the speakers are talking and then switch on the ignition
Tata Motors service attitude has improved by quite a bit since I bought this car. What stood out for me:
-> Workshops are now open on Sundays, with prior appointment. A great thing. Also, on Saturdays, the crowd at the service centers is regulated. Not sure how they achieved that, but I have seen a far lesser number of cabs crowding the service centers on Saturdays. Earlier, the SA's couldnt be less bothered to hear you through when you explained the
problems with the car before handing it over. The last time I visited a workshop on a Saturday a gentleman walked up to me as soon as I parked the car and introduced himself as the service head. Asked me the reason for my visit and called in the
service advisor immediately to attend to me. Even when I was walking around the service center, other SA's/receptionist would politely ask me if somebody was attending to my request and offer to help. A positive change of attitude towards the customer. Hope they keep it up.
If I had the chance to go back to 2015 and choose another car, would I choose the Zest again ?
Absolutely.
Last edited by benbsb29 : 4th April 2017 at 09:46.
Reason: Fixed formatting of post.
|