[drmohitg]

Wow! I never thought I would be using that expression ever for a Tata car but this one surely deserves it. Excellent product from Tata and until the last few images showing the lack of quality still prevalent at a few places, I couldn't find any fault with the car. The exteriors look great, the interiors are outstanding and the car is fairly well kitted. Above all the AMT box is the highlight of the car and I am really surprised why Tata hasn't really marketed the AMT availability with the diesel motor a bit more. This feature alone should sway lot of customers in its favour and regardless of how this car fares in the market, I am sure of one thing that now other car makers will soon start offering AT boxes with diesel compact Sedans atleast. The exterior blue colour looks really nice.

I do feel that the key fob should have rather been provided with a boot release button rather than the headlight button as that would have been more useful.

Kudos to Tata for finally coming out with a well packaged car. The rare instances of uneven plastics and loose buttons is still prevalent I guess. If only they can offer a competitive price tag to this so compensate for those quality issues!

[sumitgovil2311]

Another top notch review from BHP, kudos to the reviewers.
No doubt why BHP is where it is today.

The car looks decently good if compared to all Tata products till date. However, it will have really strong competition with Xcent.

DRLs looking amazing btw.

[KMohanan]

Mod Note: Please make an effort to space out your paragraphs for better readability and please avoid typing in all caps.

Originally Posted by gsurya

Agree, great pricing is key to draw in big initial volumes like Ecosport did.

I am expecting top-end Zest Diesel to cost 7.5 lakhs & top end Zest Revotron to cost 6.7 lakhs (ex-showroom), lets see.

Even though all reviewers of the Zest are of the opinion that the Quality of the car is on par with the competitors Honda, Maruti and Hyundai, tata should remember that tata do not have the image which the other manufacturers have gained in the minds of customers.

In my opinion, Tata Aria was a very competitive product against Innova, but the wrong pricing decided aria's failure. Once a product fails to catch good initial responses, it is very difficult to come up with subsequent discounts, price cuts etc.

Therefore, if Tata prices the Zest at par with other competitors, it will be inviting failure. For attracting customers to Zest (and later to Bolt), Tata will have to price them substantially lower than its competitors.

If I were Tata, what I would have done is to price all variants of Zest more than one lakh Rupees less than the competitors "as an introductory offer". This initial cost may not give any profit to tata, but will ensure the success of the product. This offer is very likely to give good initial response which is essential for Tata at this stage. Being an introductory offer, Tata can think of increasing the price later based on the responses.

One simple question : Even with such great pricing also, if a product is not reaching expected volumes, what would have been the fate, if priced high ?

Another question is regarding the AMT. Now, Celerio AMT got an unexpected market demand and Maruti is finding it difficult to deliver the AMT Celerio to customers. Waiting periods are more than four months in Kochi. The reason quoted for the lower production of Celerio AMT is the inability of the AMT foreign manufacturer to supply the AMT units to Maruti. I understand from reviews that Tata Zest is also sourcing the AMT unit from the same manufacturer, even though the variant may be different. Tata should ensure that the manufacturer will be able to supply the AMT units if the Zest receives huge bookings. The waiting periods to be kept below 2-3 weeks. I already have a valid booking for Celerio AMT, but if the waiting is going to continue like this (even though news reports say that Celerio AMT production is going to be increased), I don't bother to cancel the booking and go for another car.

Another unpleasant factor what I found with Celerio is that Maruti is not offering the AMT variant in ZXi or ZXi(O) variant! I wanted steering controls, airbag, ABS etc as essential features, but I wanted AMT more(due to lower back pain issues in city traffic), so I 'reluctantly booked' VXi AMT with a special written request to dealer to upgrade if AMT ZXi or ZXi(O) is launched by Maruti. In fact, news reports say that Maruti is planning to launch AMT in ZXi and ZXI(O) trims also. My point is that, Tata should learn from all these failures of Maruti and take necessary measures to avoid such failures. Tata Zest should have AMT in all variants.

I am an ex-owner of a Tata car and had enough bad experiences from the poor Tata quality and service. At present, both my cars are Maruti and I am about to buy a new car. I will decide to go for another Tata car only if the pricing is too attractive, which I cannot resist and which will compensate for all kinds of troubles Tata vehicles used to give in the past. I do not want to believe on the Tata promises on the best quality of service for Zest. There will be so many like me. In past, I used to get shocked in the Tata service station, where all service technicians and managers are taking long oath that they will do all for the customer satisfaction while many customers were restlessly waiting outside to get their cars register for service and reach their office in time! I have even commented this to Tata service station that instead of taking oath for 30 minutes, serve the customers 'that much time' early so that customers will leave happy.

Being a proud indian, I pray for tata's success in Zest & Bolt encouraging the team which worked sincerely and also pray to almighty to give insight to Tata why their products fail. Tata is very poor in analysis of failures which is evident in Tata's efforts to improve the sales of Nano.

[S2!!!]

The Zest is leaps ahead of any Tata vehicle on sale and kudos to Tata for such a fantastic job on the interiors, equipment list and innovation - turbo-petrol and diesel+AMT.

The drivability of the Revotron is truly impressive although the lack of mid-range poke is surely disheartening. There is no turbo kick what-so-ever! What I also liked was the minimal clutch play, the short and precise gear shifts and the nice to hold steering wheel, all of which make this an extremely competent city car.

Originally Posted by Aditya

The Smaller yet Significant Things:

The Zest doesn't have those black strips running from the roof's front to rear. Resultant gap at the windscreen end is visible:

That gap does make it look ugly to an extent and especially near the rear windscreen (when seen in person). However, what is interesting is that like the Europeans/ VAG cars the Zest's roof is laser welded and not spot welded. This improves rigidity and gives a clean look. Wish Tata had gone that 5% further and ensured that such minute flaws were avoided.

An excellent review nevertheless

[gauravdgr8]

Awesome review and a truly fabulous job by TATA.

Now am confused even further. My Vista has clocked 44k in 2.5 years and is running trouble free. I have so satisfied and not bored with the car, that I think I should drive it for a couple more years, unlike the U-VA i had. I was bored after 2 years.

Most probably I will go in for a exchange on the Zest once TATA decides on that.

A feature that the ZEST is sure to have:

1. Intermittent + 5 speed wiper function (only on Vista and above) and only on TATA


I would not even compare the car to the XCent because of the engine dynamics. XCent has a 1.1 vs the 1.3 on the Zest.

Compare it to DZire and Amaze, the Zest is the most desired and very amazing.

In terms of pricing, Tata has always been a killer. They have surely seen sales numbers of XCent and will place it right there. Take my word. Because for them, the competition is DZire and XCent.

When seen in comparo to the Amaze, amaze looks jaded.

What was the onboard FE that was recorded?

[ganesc]

Very neat review as usual.

TATA has done a great job with Zest. Like others said they should market Diesel AMT more than the petrol at least until the ARAI figures are out for Petrol to justify the hype. The mass market is least bothered about whats under the hood, its the drive and numbers that would speak.

Hope TATA is able to provide this level of quality consistently and with their future launches as well. A Sierra with this level of quality would be Wow

The big bug - After sales service is the area where TATA should really focus more now. As a customer, I will be happy if an issue is sorted at once and doesn't re-occur; that is more important to me than how the showroom looks with full of LED screens and sales reps with their tablets on hand. I have not found TATA showrooms to be bad (In fact better than some other car showrooms) but the sales people who doesn't even care when a customer enters, the showroom etiquette.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I do feel that the key fob should have rather been provided with a boot release button rather than the headlight button as that would have been more useful.

+1, I have found the boot release button really useful in the old Fiesta, but I think that headlight button is to turn on follow me home (?) light in which case an useful feature again.

Rehaan, Aditya
The headlamp clusters have halogen projectors for the low beams (a first in this segment). The headlights also have a “follow me home” function and cool "angel eye" light rings around the projectors.

At night, all the pure-white LEDs of the dash, steering and interior are visible. Dimming the instrument cluster adjusts them too. Very premium:

Any night shots to share? Interior and Exterior. It will be good to add to the starting posts especially when that's again one of the first for its segment feature.

[lal79]

An excellent review covering every thing about Zest. Rating a well deserved 5 stars.
Good to see tight and even panel gaps and very well designed interiors from Tata. The interiors are ages ahead of Amaze and more spacious than Dzire. It can accommodate 5 adults in comfort. Another interesting thing is the City, Echo and Sports modes of the Revotron engine. Good to see a manufacturer trying this in this segment. Good work Tata. Zest can do wonders for Tata if it could prove to be reliable and Tata iron out the issues in their after sales service.

[vb-saan]

Very impressed with this effort from Tata. The car does not scream cheap or built-to-cost, and they somehow managed to make a sub-4m meter car to look nice. This is how a home-grown manufacturer should react on the cost-saving efforts from the Japanese giants (Amaze, Etios etc.).

And as usual, excellent review

[srishiva]

Hope TATA does really well with this car and owning experience and running costs are also great.
I like everything they have done except the exterior design part. They dont seem to have cared much for that.

[arnabchak]

Fantastic review. Strongly deserves 5 Stars!!

Of late, this car has created the maximum buzz and now that the review is out, it clearly shows why.

Everything is neat and the interiors are leagues ahead of any Tata car and is at a striking distance to any German. Hide the T logo and my guess is as good as yours if any could safely bet this is a Tata.

PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN AND EQUALLY PROUD OF YOU TATA!!

Fantastic product both in and out.

Some insights:

1) Especially loved the dash and the white dial background. I really loved the Manza dash with the small fonts. Zest just ups the ante. Also loved the fact that the temp gauge(albeit Digital) has been retained. Very well laid out and posh looking dash.

2) The steering looks wow and meaty!!

3) The seat looked comfortable with good under thigh support.(Just my impression from the pictures).

4) A full display MID with instantaneous FE. Wow. Way to go Tata!!

5) The exteriors looks good and the boot integration is a lot better than the quirky Dzire and the clean sides better that the chiseled Amaze.

6) Loved the Diesel Alloys of the Top version.

7) Overall a very nice Indian Package...

To sum it up,

Verito(Truth) is, Zest is a highly "Dzirable" product with some "Amazeing" features enough to set "Sail" the competition away!!

[S.MJet]

SVP tweets, Zest to be launched on 12th Aug

https://twitter.com/sidpatankar/stat...34846793269248

[RSR]

Thank you, Aditya and Rehaan (& Stratos), for a superb 5* review with excellent pictures! This tells me all I need to know about the car without even checking it out in person, or taking a test drive. I'm glad you drove the car again after coming back from Goa, in order to get a proper feel of the user-switchable driving modes of the Revotron. Kudos! Most reviews have wrongly dismissed it as more of hype and less of substance.

Tata have indeed put in loads and loads of effort to come out with a good offering. The late Karl Slym deserves plenty of praise for his efforts in bringing about drastic change in the way the company operates in a lot of areas - design, interior quality, overall fit and finish, petrol technology etc. I hope they continue the good work and don't give any room for complacency and lethargy to set in again.

The overall quality, ambiance, feel of the interiors and the fit & finish levels are a big leap for a Tata car. Yes, two or three ill-fitted parts are still present, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt with these pre-production media evaluation cars and hope the customer cars have all such things sorted out. Everything has to work well right from the word go, and the first set of customers should not be turned into guinea pigs for the company. Tata must go all out to ensure that their long term reliability turns out to be on par with (or at least very close to) the competition. They should keep a tight leash on their dealer workshops and ensure that any potential issue is sorted out immediately to the satisfaction of the customer. The long warranty is a big positive step in this regard.

Apart from the quality levels, it's good that Tata have worked with the best suppliers & tuners in the business for components such as engine electronics, electric power steering, automated gearbox, petrol engine, suspension and even a non-critical component like the ICE. The results show in this new end product, although it is essentially based on an existing platform and powertrains.

It's quite difficult to believe that the Zest uses essentially the same engine & gearbox as my earlier Indica Xeta 1.2 - the combination was average at best in that car. I'm delighted to learn the engine feels refined with well-controlled NVH levels, and has great drivability & throttle responses at low speeds. The small movement & vibration of the gear lever that you mentioned (easily felt when driving with one hand on the lever) and noise/whine from the gearbox was rather pronounced in the Xeta, but I think it should be much less in the Zest. Getting rid of the vague, rubbery and hard feel of the geriatric TA-65 gearbox is an achievement in itself!

The diesel AMT is a great inclusion to the range, and will surely contribute a significant chunk of the Zest's sales. Tata should not skimp on airbags and LED DRLs (these not only look cool but more importantly, they are a useful safety feature and not a gimmick!) for the AMT car and provide the AMT on the XT variant as well.

Now all that remains to be known is the pricing, and how the market responds to the sixth & newest addition to the sub-4m sedan brigade (after the Indigo eCS, Swift DZire, Verito Vibe, Amaze and Xcent).

Well done to the folks at Tata Motors for putting in so much hard work which shows in the Zest!

[mandywanders]

What a review! Rated a well and truly deserved 5 stars
The attention to detail is amazing. Was eagerly for a team-bhp review like everyone else and not disappointed even a bit.

And what a car! Although I do not expect the Zest to vroom ahead saying TATA to the Dzire, Xcent or Amaze in terms of numbers, it does offer a very competitive package. This is one car which checks a lot of right boxes. Well done TATA. Only things they need to sort now is the pricing and the rather infamous ASS. Zest could well be a phoenix for TATA.

If priced well, I for one would be game to put my money on the diesel AMT.

[madhu33]

Originally Posted by ganesc

A Sierra with this level of quality would be Wow

Mods i know this is OT, but cant stop myself the temptation of going OT for just a minute here . Some fond memories hit me.

Yes Ganesc , A Tata Sierra with Aria/Storme chasis/ platform(shortened version) with similar underpinnings and suspensions with the same 150hp tunes 2.2 L Dicor would be a rock star. PLEAAAASSSEE TATA PLeaase are you listening?
150hp , 320nm torque with approx 1600-1700 kgs body weight would be so much desirable in that looks of the Sierra. Please guys.

[shashi63]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Hope TATA does really well with this car and owning experience and running costs are also great.
I like everything they have done except the exterior design part. They dont seem to have cared much for that.

Tata Cars have traditionally provided very low cost for maintenance. From my perspective among the Dzire, Amaze and xcent the Zest has the best profile and looks. Has a road presence which will make heads turn plus remember every feature is a first in segment and some atleast a few segments above!

Originally Posted by arnabchak

Fantastic review. Strongly deserves 5 Stars!!

Verito(Truth) is, Zest is a highly "Dzirable" product with some "Amazeing" features enough to set "Sail" the competition away!!

Loved your summary!

Originally Posted by RSR

Now all that remains to be known is the pricing, and how the market responds to the fifth & newest addition to the sub-4m sedan brigade (after the Indigo eCS, Swift DZire, Verito Vibe, Amaze and Xcent).

Well done to the folks at Tata Motors for putting in so much hard work which shows in the Zest!

If I am not wrong from my chat with the TML guy during my test drive, TML is aiming at large volumes with no compromise on quality! I wont be surprised if they price this around 50K below competition!

Originally Posted by mandywanders

Only things they need to sort now is the pricing and the rather infamous ASS. .

I hear this many times about the ASS! Am I plain lucky over the past 6 years? 5 years with Indica DLS Turbo and 15 months now with the Club Class Manza and I have never had a problem with the ASS!

By the way the TML guy who was with me during the TD told me that the aim of Tata was to benchmark Dell for service and support! On road assistance is already there for the Club Class Manza so it's no big deal for TML and at a cost which a fraction of the cost of the others who provide such service. Maybe TML should price the service higher like the others and become snooty for the Indian buyer? Well then we Indian's will crib about the high price for support!