Team-BHP - Tata Tiago : Official Review

Tata Motors have announced what they call a ‘7 Senses’ experience for the recently unveiled Zica. As a part of the exercise, the company plans to roll-out an immersive experience that enthrals the seven senses of the customer. The exercise, if Tata Motors are to be believed, is meant to “create an emotion that is greater than the sum of its parts.” The campaign will unfold in a phased manner and comprises all 7 senses – Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, Intuition and Equilibrium.

In case you are wondering how you can smell or taste a car, do not worry, Tata does not want you to go around smelling the Zica or attempting to eat parts of it. :)

They will launch a Zica perfume and a Zica chocolate to cover these two senses. Quite a weird marketing campaign. Credit for the effort though.

Quote:

SMELL: ZICA is a fresh product that will connect with the youth as well as anyone who is young at heart. It will make a person feel great while also making him/her look aspirational to their peer group. Distilling these attributes into a bottle, Tata Motors will be introducing the ZICA signature fragrance that captures the spirit of youth.

TASTE: Tata Motors truly understands that life isn’t just about the big achievements, but about the little victories in life. To celebrate these little joys of life, the company will introduce ‘The Zica Chocolate’ which will allow an individual to reward themselves for the goals achieved in life.

Source: Motoroids

Slightly late with my reply. But nevertheless, S2 & Vid, take a bow for this review. What a fantastic one it is - rated a well deserving 5 stars. The attention to detail is simply amazing. Who needs other reviews when we have such top class reviews on Team BHP!

Coming to the car, it is indeed an excellent effort from Tata. It does not look like an Indica most importantly. Tata has evidently put in lot of effort into the design right down to the finer details. The engines come as a disappointment though. The car falls short of being a complete package due to the engines, especially petrol.

Really hoping to see Tata Motors launch an aggressive campaign for the Zica. I sincerely wish it is a successful car. However the odds are heavily against it due to Tata's usual negatives - perception, service quality :( I wonder what will be unique in the Zica chocolate, though.

[Tata's sub-par after-sales service is far from that of Maruti & Hyundai]

I honestly do not understand why the above statement has to be made in the review of a car, especially Tata cars. Is our goal to kill the baby before it is born? This has nothing to do with the actual car itself and the review should stick to the car and that is the primary goal of pre-release review. It is unfair to every car manufacturer when you make such statements after being invited to review their products. It is almost like, ohh I have only 3 or 4 cons listed, so let me add this one to the list.

It is a myth that Maruti or Hyundai has better after sales service. The whole car dealership and service centre model in India is flawed and almost all dealers irrespective of the make of the car will try to suck money out of you as much as they can when you take your car to them for service.

That's my rant for the day :eek:. I more than appreciate the rest of the review.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

The whole car dealership and service center model in India is flawed and almost all dealers irrespective of the make of the car will try to suck money out of you as much as they can when you take your car to them for service..

I second you on this mate. Ain't this generalization unfair in regards to quality of after-sales service? It is more of a subjective opinion and more so it varies with the dealers.

For instance, many of us are aware of foul practices by VAG (Skoda particularly) dealers across the nation and numerous resentful experiences shared by members on our forum but I've been very contended with my dealer (Skoda) for the past 2 years in fact more than with M.A.S.S in my city.

IMO, it's the dealer who plays pivotal role in customer satisfaction albeit choosing such dealers is the responsibility of manufacturers. Just my two cents.

Cheers! :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

In my view, after sales is a big part of any purchase decision, especially here in India. For most regular buyers, after sales experience perception can be a deal breaker. If it were not, we would see a lot more cars from brands like Volkswagen and Skoda on the road. You can have a world class car, but if your after sales is poor, it is not going to sell in volumes. So i think a note on the current after sales perception is definitely needed in any review of any car from any brand.

Now, what that note should be would depend on the dealership/service network, experiences and the general perception among the public.

In case of Tata, their recent launches, the Zest and even the Bolt are great packages with several segment first features and are competitively priced. But it is struggling to sell in any significant numbers. I can only attribute this to the sales network and showroom experience and perception of Tata. So I think the above statement is a fair one to make in the case of Tata at this point of time.

The Zica also looks like an excellent product and will definitely be priced well. Tata seems to be working hard on their marketing and after sales. So hope that will reflect on the Zica.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

It is a myth that Maruti or Hyundai has better after sales service. The whole car dealership and service centre model in India is flawed and almost all dealers irrespective of the make of the car will try to suck money out of you as much as they can when you take your car to them for service.

I agree with you here. I personally have had a better experience servicing my Volkswagen than I have had with my Maruti. All of them try to suck money as you said, but if you are knowledgeable enough, you can see through these things and control it. This is also probably easier to do with a Maruti/Hyundai/Toyota as compared to say a German brand. Considering the scale at which Maruti and Hyundai operate, they have done a 'relatively better' job of keeping the customers satisfied. Hence the perception that Maruti and Hyundai have better after sales continues. It helps them that others seem to be going from bad to worse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

I honestly do not understand why the above statement has to be made in the review of a car, especially Tata cars. Is our goal to kill the baby before it is born? This has nothing to do with the actual car itself and the review should stick to the car and that is the primary goal of pre-release review. It is unfair to every car manufacturer when you make such statements after being invited to review their products. It is almost like, ohh I have only 3 or 4 cons listed, so let me add this one to the list.

It is a myth that Maruti or Hyundai has better after sales service. The whole car dealership and service centre model in India is flawed and almost all dealers irrespective of the make of the car will try to suck money out of you as much as they can when you take your car to them for service.

I have a number of friends / relatives owning a Tata car / UV currently or in past. After reading the post, I just asked them the feedback about after-sales.

All of them said that the Tata spare parts availability was always good. All of them said that their complaints were resolved satisfactorily. Need for occasional re-visit (for complaint resolution) was reported once in a while. No one reported lack of knowledge / competency on the part of technicians.

When I asked them to compare the after-sales experience with other cars owned by them (which happen to be Honda, Hyundai, Maruti, Toyota and Skoda with this group of people) they said Tata did not offer inferior service. They also said that the Tata service and spares were reasonably priced.

They said that the service station atmosphere and the overall presentation by the staff and the SA was better with other brands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

[Tata's sub-par after-sales service is far from that of Maruti & Hyundai]
I honestly do not understand why the above statement has to be made in the review of a car, especially Tata cars.

Don't fret mate - this is kind of standard disclaimer you see when you read the product documentation.

Team-BHP puts this mention about scary\sub-par ASS in all the reviews of any cars from the stables of Tata, Mahindra, Renault, VW, Skoda, Fiat and Nissan (I may have missed few, I did search only three pages of our official review section of this forum), so if you really want to take it on face value, then among the budget brands, only Maruti, Hyundai, Ford and Chevrolet offers good after sales service ;)

This is one part of the review I just ignore - it is said that changing perception is a Herculean task, and I do not see any of these manufactures changing the Team-BHP perceptions in the near future.

--Anoop

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

[Tata's sub-par after-sales service is far from that of Maruti & Hyundai]

I honestly do not understand why the above statement has to be made in the review of a car, especially Tata cars. Is our goal to kill the baby before it is born? This has nothing to do with the actual car itself and the review should stick to the car and that is the primary goal of pre-release review. It is unfair to every car manufacturer when you make such statements after being invited to review their products. It is almost like, ohh I have only 3 or 4 cons listed, so let me add this one to the list.
It is a myth that Maruti or Hyundai has better after sales service. The whole car dealership and service centre model in India is flawed and almost all dealers irrespective of the make of the car will try to suck money out of you as much as they can when you take your car to them for service.
That's my rant for the day :eek:. I more than appreciate the rest of the review.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pferdestarke (Post 3889631)

I second you on this mate. Ain't this generalization unfair in regards to quality of after-sales service? It is more of a subjective opinion and more so it varies with the dealers.

Cheers! :D

Good Catch Theyota.

This has become a standard statement among reviews. But again it may be subjective. We had an Indica V2 DLS which we used for around 1,40,000 KMs. In terms of the service, we had difficulties with an older firm called KOYENCO Motors in Calicut. But soon after we moved to FOCUZ motors in Cochin, it turned the way around.

I infact am still in touch with the SA who did a commendable job in getting things done and my car was still in best shape while we sold it just because the attentiveness, and the quality of services done and their understanding of the product.

And in terms of the others, Mahindra is the best I have seen while taking my car for service and the company's keenness in value creating and building customer gratitude.

Meanwhile, Ford's support has been disastrous. While the dealer tries to get things done at their best. None of the SA''s or the Garage staff are trained by FORD unlike Mahindra. Thus there is a huge gap in company's relationship with the customer.

Added to the above, Maruti has the most number of Service center's around. But have not seen anything like that when it comes to service. I had recently taken my dads Celerio for a body work and the Body Shop Manager was a newbie with no experience at all. He was totally dependent on the senior Body Shop staff. My borther-in-law gets the service on his Swift done at a local garage and not at MASS. He says, they just complicate things as their Service centers are all dependent on some senior service guys who runs the show and the queue to get things done is another headache.

Quote:

Originally Posted by i74js (Post 3887558)

The review is providing a real insight to the car. Few questions about the old push pull type door looks

Quote:

1.Can we get a central looking installed in the car or will there be an issue? I was not able to clearly understand this aspect in the review.

2. Also, does it mean that no speed sensing auto-lock is possible in the car? and last

This car does have central locking and the doors also lock automatically as the car reaches speeds of 20 km/h.

Quote:

3. Is there child lock in the rear doors.

Yes, there is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by i74js (Post 3888212)

- Missing engine guard (both in petrol and diesel). This cannot even qualify as cost cutting because TML has made investments in all the bells and whistles, they should have given it instead of making the ground visible from within the engine bay

Actually, I would be surprised if this was present. As far as I can remember, no other car in this segment or a segment above has an engine guard.

Quote:

I am not able to understand why AMT has not been offered right from the launch when MSIL can manage for multiple cars, why TML is not able to get their share of AMT units?

From the discussion we had, while there is a demand for AMTs, supply is restricted as of now. Tata is working towards addressing this issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prashanthyr (Post 3887841)

A couple of observations and questions:

a. Did Tata indicate what competition they are targeting with the Zica? Is this the Celerio or the Grand i10? If it's the Celerio, then at a similar price point, the Zica will make infinitely more sense than the Celerio, which looks very dated.

As Vid6639 mentioned, Tata compared the Zica to the Celerio and Grand i10. There's a news article with pictures from July 30, 2015, which shows that the Zica test mule was being driven alongside these two vehicles for testing and benchmarking.

Quote:

b. Can you please provide a picture of how much the rear bumper protrudes out from the body?

Don't have any image which clearly answers your question but I think the below image gives a fair idea:

Quote:

Originally Posted by KiranPatil (Post 3888545)

Pardon my ignorance please: but is this body colored Vents concept is new or already implemented by any Indian Car maker ?

I don't know any other manufacturer that gives customizable body coloured interior panels (apart from the Beetle or 500). Yes, the (old) Figo, Ritz, Active i20 do have coloured dashboards but having the option to paint panels at the dealer levels seems to be a new concept.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan (Post 3889186)

If this is really what you say, I got to hand it to Tata for taking the effort in using this process.

I don't think it is the first time that they have used this process. If I remember correctly, their Vista D90 display car (at malls & exhibitions) had cubic printed interior panels and outside door handle (+ a sunroof). Unfortunately, I can't find the picture.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theyota (Post 3889552)

That's my rant for the day :eek:. I more than appreciate the rest of the review.

I won't deny that what you're saying is true but at the same time, it is our job to list out all the macro level positives and negatives of a product. A new buyer needs to know everything that he needs to be looking out for while making a purchase. If we call Toyota's, Maruti's, Hyundai's and Honda's ownership experience fuss-free, it is based on real ownership experiences. Sure, there will be exceptions, but after sales service is a part of the overall ownership experience and it is worthy of a mention here. If you or your acquaintances have had good experience with the Tata service, do share it on the forum from time to time.

The thing with T-Bhp official reviews is that it makes your test drives so much easier. Nowadays, I test drive vehicles with only one parameter in mind, i.e.,how it feels to be in and how it feels to drive the car in person. Rest all points are already made known with great deal of intricacy and accuracy, often, much before the Test Drive vehicle is available with the dealer. You can just mute the SA, you need not pay attention to the gadgetry, etc. Just drive it. So, thanks for another great review.

For the Zica, I'm all praises for the product and the effort that TATA has seemingly put in it. For my part, though I'm most likely not going to be a prospective hatchback buyer (having had my fun with them) and wish to move on to a small SUV, I have managed to convince an acquaintance to book a Zica. Tata surely deserves a nod of appreciation with the wallet this time, with this car for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by S2!!! (Post 3889865)

I agree with the first part of your comment - that stating the macro positives and negatives is a part of the review. You have access to the product during the test drive so you get all required info to comment about it. Now when it comes to the service, you depend on ONLY feedback posted in T-BHP.

While at it, is there any particular manner in which you would review the feedback posted on Tata Vs brands like Maruti/Honda etc to make a comment that TASS is sub par ? Reason I am asking is, I see a lot of cribs around Honda/Hyundai. I see many REAL OWNERS of Tata also put in feedback about decent service. So I wonder how you arrive at those conclusions in the reviews. Do you also consider the JD POWER survey results by any chance ?