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-   -   From Zen to Zilva - The silver Tata Zest 1.2L Revotron (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/164108-zen-zilva-silver-tata-zest-1-2l-revotron.html)

Guys,

This is my first thread, and starting off my long-pending ownership review of the Tata Zest. So if I have missed out things, let me know. I will include them as soon as I can. I will also update this thread regularly as and when I get time.

Our search for a car started when me and wifey decided to learn driving as a life skill back in end-2013. We enrolled for driving lessons in our neighborhood driving school and started looking for a car. Initially, we were looking to buy a new car and had zeroed in on Maruti Suzuki A-Star/ Alto K10. These choices were based on our budget and the reputation of Maruti ASS and these cars primarily satisfied the requirement of going to office and some weekend trips in the city. We did not even know anything about cars. Thus wanted to go with the manufacturer having the most reliable reputation in India. When we announced we are going to buy a car, everyone in our family including dad suggested that we go for a pre-owned vehicle and get used to driving, as driving in a metro city like Kolkata is a hell of a job. Though we wanted to own a new car, we came under pressure and finally decided to go for a pre-owned one. Our neighborhood uncle has a travel business and he agreed to help us with selecting a car as we knew nothing about cars. After searching for a couple of months we got a Maruti Suzuki Zen 2002 VXi which was approved by our him. He told us that the engine is in very good condition and it was a steal if we could get it for INR 55,000. After much negotiation with the dealer he agreed to sell it at 60K instead. The road tax was paid till May 2015, and we decided that we’ll keep it for a year till 2014 end and then buy a new car. We’d be used to driving till then and thus the new car would be better run and better maintained.

Although the zen really had a reliable engine and never left us stranded anywhere, there were niggles related to power windows and the alternator (they had to be changed - cost INR 5,000) and it’s body and suspension required some work. Suspension required to be redone and that could have been costly.

From July/August 2014, me and wife again started to look for a new car having the following criterion:
1. Reliable like the zen.
2. Give better mileage, with AC. That 2002 model used to give us around 14 kmpl on the highway and 10-11 in the city. This was primarily as we realized in humid Kolkata that it’s a pain to drive without the AC. I used to carry extra shirts as after every drive without an AC, my shirt used to be drenched in sweat.
3. Handling should be better. Since the suspension was totally gone, whenever I went over 60, it felt like we were flying and controlling the car was very difficult. It felt like a small stone chip would disturb the balance and make the car turn over. I had to drive between 40-60 km/h and that was frustrating on highway drives.
4. By then I had already started reading Team-BHP posts a lot and safety was on the top of the priority list. ABS, cornering stability, airbags for both passenger and driver were must-haves.
5. Looks - needs to be modern, but not too edgy, and needs to stand apart.
6. Maintenance - needs to be affordable, and good after sales service.
7. Budget- INR 6-7 Lakhs

One of my colleagues had a Nissan Micra and I loved its design and its ride as well. So the Micra was on our list. The only one issue with it in Kolkata was the after sales service. We decided not to opt for it after seeing at our colleague’s experience. Like everybody, we considered the Swift - but even the petrol with safety features was costing way over our budget. Then launched the Datsun Go. But again, safety was a major concern with it along with ASS. In between, there were talks about the Bolt. We heard Tata was developing an awesome machine and both simply loved the front view from the preview website that was at bolt.tatamotors.com. We knew that the launch was in August and wanted to wait. We also considered the Indica Vista, but were wary about Tata after sales service and the taxi image of Tata cars and the diesel version of these cars were more reliable as we heard from everywhere. Our running (weekly 150-200) km demanded a petrol car.

We kept on getting disappointed as the Bolt launch got delayed, and suddenly they launched the Zest! It got rave reviews from every critic, a Tata car which doesn’t feel like a Tata car. Loved the design too. Spec-wise there was no match for it, even the top model of the Swift costed more and had less features compared to the the top model of the Zest! A superb sedan with all bells and whistles at the price of hatchback made us wait for the ownership reviews to trickle in. Alas, there were very few. I read the ownership review of Arindamda (Team-BHP handle “arindam_xeta”) and was very inspired. But still waited for some more reviews.

It was December 2014 and last month we had already sold our Zen 2002 VXi for INR 55,000. We planned to save up for the down payment and get the new car by March/April 2015. We almost finalized on the Zest based on feature comparisons and reviews. It did tick almost all our 7 points, but I was waiting to get some more inputs on reliability and read some more ownership reports. On 9th December 2014, a leading newspaper had an ad of the Zest which stated that the 333 offer would be taken off from January. I thought if we buy this car, we’re not going to without the 333 offer as its reliability was yet to be proven. I booked a test drive online and on the 10th, K. B. Motors, Alipore came to my office with a buzz blue test drive car. The car looked great and was very spacious. I took the key from the person and when sat in the seat. It almost felt like I am in the driving seat of an SUV. I had driven a Zen for one year, so the Zest looked huge from the driver’s seat. Adjusted the seat and mirrors to my liking and turned the ignition key, and started to get surprised from then onwards. After turning on the ignition key, I thought the car didn’t start! It was so silent, that I tried to start the car again! Now the person who came with the car said, "Sir, engine is already on". I could not believe it and started releasing the clutch and it started to move! Wow! I never knew a car could be so silent. Took the test drive from Sector 5 to Ecospace, where my wife works. And man it was some car - so silent, the steering weighed more as the speed increased, and the clutch and accelerator felt smooth (probably as I’ve driven a old zen before). There are some sharp bends in the way and without realizing it, I was driving at 90! I used used the same route before, but never had the confidence to go through those bends, even at 50. I used to slow down and go through those bends. I noticed the speed when the salesperson asked me to slow down. But yes, for the first time I drove at 90 kmph, that too in the bends where i used to drive at speeds of around 40, without realizing. The car's handling was amazing, bumps and potholes seemed to have disappeared and the sound insulation was amazing. In fact I had issues with hearing horns of other cars during that drive, as I was more used to louder noises while driving.

I was totally in love with the car. Then we reached my wife’s office and let the driver drive the car this time, while I took a ride in the backseat along with my wife. Yhe salesperson explained the various features. We were so impressed that we booked the car on the spot.

We have ridden in the Swift, Swift Dezire, Honda City, Hyundai i10, but the only car the ride quality was equivalent to was the Honda City, probably better. We told the sales person we’ll be opting for Gold AMC and we will cancel the booking if we don’t get the 333 plan.

XT Revotron was the simple choice as I wanted all the bells and whistles at this price point - touchscreen infotainment, 8-speaker Harman system, the cool corona rings, DRLs and all the safety features. Our weekly running would be around 100-150 km, thus petrol was a no-brainer considering initial investment of Rs. 1 lakh more.

We had decided about the product but were not decided about the color. My wifey selected dune beige, but since that was not available/would take more time to arrive, we opted for silver. Reasons behind choosing silver color -
1. Easy to maintain.
2. Scratches would not be standing out too much.
3. Car looks bigger and elegant.

We made arrangements to get the loan - contacted nearest SBI and went for a loan in wifey’s name,as the interest rates were lower for a woman. The car took a while to arrive at the dealership and I did the PDI according to the Team-BHP checklist on January 1st. I took a big risk here. As the car didn't arrive at yard before December 31st and that was the last date of the offer, we had to disburse payment and get the invoicing done on December 30th. If anything wrong was discovered in the PDI, I would have been in a bad scenario, and would have probably had to accept a defective car. Fortunately enough, everything was fine and the car was sent for registration. On January 9th, 2015 we took delivery of the car with my wife, dad, brother, and brother's wife.

Some pics during delivery:

My wife during the delivery


Wifey receiving the key, dad and brother's wife, brother attending a call in the background


Me on the delivery day


Booking experience:

The sales person was helpful, he came to my office on time on the scheduled date for a test drive, gave a demo of the features, but I was already aware of everything as I was following the Team-BHP official review from the start. When we decided to book the car, he came all the way from Alipore to Sector 5 to receive the cheque and give me the bills. He was cooperative and didn’t force me to take insurance from them. I got the TATA AIG 0 depreciation Pearl Plan from outside at 21K (approx), whereas a normal insurance from the showroom was costing around 20K.

The only issues I felt while booking were -
1. Inability to get the car in for PDI as promised - I was told in 15 days but it took them one week more. Which is why I had to pay even before doing the PDI. Else I would not have been eligible for the 333 offer, and I wasn’t interested to buy the car without it.
2. Rs. 6,000 as handling charges which are not mentioned anywhere in the bill.
3. During the delivery date, the car wasn’t squeaky clean as the showroom was undergoing some construction work.
4. All the paperwork didn’t arrive in time and we had to wait a couple of hours before could drive the car out of the showroom. My wife had to get back to office that day, so 2 hours were wasted (not appreciated at all). More so, when we told them specifically that we needed the delivery on time.

Now comes the overall experience of the car for 3,000 kms driven.

Driving and comfort:

What I like:

1. Smooth and silent - Coming from a 2002 Zen, this definitely seemed a huge leap. As said previously, initially I was having trouble detecting if the ignition was on or off. Multiple times I tried to turn on the ignition after getting stuck at a signal, only to realize that it had been on.

2. Sport mode - The car becomes a beast, haven’t used it much and haven’t revved too high as I still haven’t crossed 5,000 kms, but for a couple of times when I did put on the sports mode, the car just seemed like it was on boosters. Most effective i think in the 2,000-3,000 RPM band.

3. Eco mode - On a regular commute of 50 km with AC, I normally get 13-15 kmpl depending on traffic conditions. I once tried without AC and got 17.8 kmpl on the same stretch in moderate traffic conditions. In my opinion, driveability in eco mode is best for bumper-to-bumper traffic in the city as one can shift to 2nd gear and without any acceleration, the car moves slowly enough and can easily be controlled with only the brakes. This trick also does not let the fuel efficiency drop too much.

4.City mode - I haven’t used it too much as till now. The majority of the drive is in eco mode.

5. This car handles so well and the steering gives so much confidence to the driver. It is light at lower speeds, but as you speed up, it weighs up enough to give one confidence. One can maneuver the car right where he wants and when he wants.

6. It just glides over bumpers and bad roads - The same stretch of road seemed to have improved a lot when traveling in the Zest. Ground clearance is so good that I now never bother about bumpers now a days. Previously, with the Zen, I used to use the diagonal tactic to go over bumpers, now just slow down and glide over them.

7. Sound insulation - Roll up the windows and outside noises are just shut down completely. The silence becomes awkward if you’re traveling with someone and no music and no conversation. Just pin drop silence.

8. Stability - I went up to 120 kmph once and the car felt to be planted just like it was in the 70’s range. In fact, without looking at the speedo or outside one wouldn’t be able to tell at what speed the car is cruising. But touched that speed only once as before 5,000 km, I don’t want to stress the engine.

9. The seats are very comfortable and a 300-400 km drive won't stress you much.

10. The sound of the turbo kicking in - It’s music when the rpm starts going over 2,000 - you’ll get the turbo grunt, which I also use to keep the rpm below 2,000. But yes, the grunt is sweet, at least to my ear. It’s not much perceivable, but a driver who has ear for detail, would notice. I do fail to notice the grunt if the music is played at a volume greater than 6. I love to drive while music being played at a lower volume so that I’m in touch of the sound of the engine.

11. SUV-like appearance and high seating position.

What I didn’t like:

1. Frugality of engine WRT fuel efficiency - drive with a heavy foot and you’re sure gonna average 9-10 kmpl.

2. One has to develop a specific driving style while driving in eco mode on slopes/bridges. I normally carry a lot of inertia to bridges if they are empty. If stuck in the jam, make sure revs are just above 2,000 rpm to ensure that there’s enough power and the car doesn’t roll back. While I understand Eco mode is supposed to be economical, this incline issue shouldn’t be there.

3. The lower portions of the doors are too high and one can’t get into the car without stepping on the door sill. And it gets dirty as hell, especially if it rains.

4. Mode toggle switches could have been in steering, if we place a 1 litre bottle access to these mode switches are limited.

5. Bottle holders on doors seem more practical to me specially, not in the front of the 12V socket. Spillage of liquid may cause probable issues.

Looks:

The car is a real looker and I have had people looking at it with appreciation and amazement everywhere. Gives a nice feeling. Recently, I was driving behind a Honda City and when I overtook it, I saw the owner who was driving, was actually staring at our Zilva with appreciation. Something one can’t buy :).

What I liked:

1. The front face - absolutely love it more so with the corona rings and DRL. Looks upmarket.
2. The back - love the LED tail lamps and the overall design is much better than other compact sedans.
3. The flowing curves on the body nicely complement the design.
4. Simply love the dashboard and steering design. Looks and feels very premium.

What I didn’t like:

1. Honestly the raised stance is the only thing that I don’t like in the looks area.
2. The 8-spoke alloys - I thought the Zest looked much better with those, rather than the 18-spoke ones. They could have given the customers an option to choose which variant of alloys they want.
3. No option to turn on the DRLs on demand along with the corona rings. This would have upped the cool quotient.

A snapshot of the corona ring


Infotainment:

What I liked:

1. Superb sound quality - No need for extra woofer settings (try listening at volume near 15-16 and you’ll get the thump). Crystal clear, perfectly balanced sound.
2. Voice command on a touch - very convenient.
3. Bluetooth integration with phone helps a lot to take a short call while driving.
4. Touchscreen IMHO is all bells and whistles - don’t use it too much and think the interface and touch sensitivity could have been better

No dislikes in this area.

Safety:

ABS, EBD, CSC, airbags and heavy build quality does make this car feel safe. The dislike in this area would be the thump sound it makes while going over potholes, while ABS comes into play. The sound is very disturbing and the first time I encountered it, I thought something went wrong with the suspension.

After Sales Service:

I have completed first service and went to the service center one more time to get suspension checked when I first encounter the thud noise when ABS came into play. Both the times the Tata service advisor patiently listened to complaints and worked hard to get me satisfied. MIB kit was installed and gaps were sealed as even after installing MIB kit I was seeing mud in engine bay. Post that seal, the issue seems to have resolved.

What I don’t like:

Seems to me that Tata service personnel are still not trained enough uniformly across centers to handle this car. Based on interactions on Whatsapp and Facebook groups in and some other places, attitude towards solving issues hasn’t changed. Touch wood, till now I’ve not faced this, but there are a lot of people in different places who are still facing this.

Post-delivery,we installed seat covers for INR 4,000, bumper protectors, door protectors from Road Star, a car accessory shop near Selimpore Kolkata. Wifey bought a Gopal idol and placed it in the dashboard. Some pics of the interiors with these fittings -








I was also contemplating on adding a shark fin antenna (not the dummy ones) which would actually connect with the radio antenna. After much contemplation I ordered one from aliexpress and it got delivered in 14 days to my surprise! It cost me INR 750 and fits perfectly.



Till now we’ve run around 3,000 kilometers and already have some wonderful experiences with our Zilva - the silver Zest. All of those will be coming up one by one in this thread. Till now this has been a wonderful ownership experiences with pampering from Tata Motors as well as lovely journeys. Currently it’s returning around 14.5-15.5 kmpl in the city for our regular office drives of 50 km. Maximum mileage got in a trip was 22 kmpl, which surprised me considering it’s a petrol engine.

A recent Pic of Zilva


P.S. Tata Motors, pull up your socks and please provide world class service with this world class product. If the reliability quotient does not improve with the Zest and the Bolt, these wonderful products will be again of no use, and we really know it’s only you guy’s who can provide us with these luxuries at this price point.

Congrats on the great buy.
Wish you happy mile munching on the Zilva.

The ride quality and comfort is going to spoil you in coming years .

From my Manza experience i can surely say that be prepared for a few niggles here and there . Nothing to worry as such , but you will be rewarded with great ride and handling in exchange.
The amount of kilometers you drive each month is surely going to increase a lot with the Zilva (after the zen).

Thanks Madhu, till now we're totally happy with Zilva.

-

Indeed it is doing that at least till now

Many owners are reporting some in the facebook owners page - Nothing as of now for me apart from some freak things(Will be posting the details of those) which dissapeared on their own, but yes at the back of mind these niggle reputation of TATA plays and I very much try to notice each and every change (sound/smell) Zilva presents to me during each drive(Probably these are not noticeable to other people as well).

I sure hope so - Currently we normally drive around 600 Km per month, one tankful of 44 liters :)

Updates from March


It’s been around 3 months and I’ve been itching to hit the highways with Zilva. My previous highway trips were not many and apart from going to Ghatakpukur a my mother in law’s native via Basanti Highway. Since I had no previous experience, wanted to take the first highway drive within 100km’s. Odo was around 1.5K km at that time On the Holi weekend me and my wife were thinking of a*weekend get away which will not be too crowded but will be full of serenity.

We shortlisted the Nirala resort as pictures and ratings of this resort*seemed nice, We a total of 6 booked two non ac rooms for a night. Plan was to visit famed bengali writer Mr. Sarat Chandra's house at morning, Do some swimming in the pool of the resort have some good food in the resort and visit Rupnarayan river in the evening.

As planned we started at 6.30, aiming to reach the resort within 8.30 - 9.00. I located the place in google map and kept my phone charged the previous night mainly for navigation purposes. My brother asked his brother in law and sister in law to come to our place the previous night so that we could leave on time. I wanted to avoid the traffic as much as possible.

The luggage for 6 people made our dickey full and Zilva was fully loaded with people as well. It’s probably only in Tata car you can stuff one more people even for longish trips and they won’t have issues in seating. Let me give you an idea of the load Zilva carried in that trip - Dickey was loaded among 6 of us two were in 100Kg range and two in 60-70 range and rest two 40-50 range. Grossly put people only weighed around 1140 Kg + luggage.

So here’s the route that we followed.



And within our estimated time we reached Deulti, Nirala resort.

Disappointment started from entering the resort. It's poorly maintained gates and signboards made us wonder how good a resort it is?

The Place is big though and has ample car parking space, though in open air under tree shades (Can get risky on a monsoon night).

We didn't have breakfast and were hungry, and as we reached there quite some time before our check in time we directly went to have breakfast.

Oh man the canteen/restaurant (I don't know if you call this a restaurant even) was dirty as hell and was smelling like
garbage. The food tasted good though, only thing you won't be able to finish the food inside the restaurant.


Then we were given access to one of our rooms. And boy we were disappointment there too. Rooms were not at all maintained- damp spiderweb, no locking system of bathroom doors, smelly room, dirty bed and bed sheets.

Three of the ladies immediately revolted that they won't be able to stay a moment in this place. We then started thinking our weekend is screwed and what other alternatives do we have. then we decided we can go for Digha/Mandarmani/Shankarpur. So it was final we were not spending the weekend at this so called Resort and head over for the seas.

Me and my bro went to have a talk with the manager and after talking with him we came to know that we’ll have to forfeit the advance amount as they won’t be giving any of it back. We have had already paid Rs 1000 as advance and had to forfeit that even though we stayed there for a total of 1 hour.

A parting snap at the Nirala resort

The Gang






But we can’t waste a weekend for a mere Rs 1000 right ? So post breakfast we again hit the road for the sea. We decided we will decide the final destination on the road itself. Based on hotel availability. So I got on to the driver’s seat again at around 10.00 and started off. Ladies members tried calling up hotels for availability but were unable to get any as that was the Holi week end and rooms in mandarmani and tajpur seemed to be full.

We then decided we will go to Digha as options for hotels are much more there and we have more chance to obtain rooms than any other place.

The road was in pretty good condition apart from some areas and I was maintaining a constant speed range of 70-80. The ride was super comfy and the Harman system was being utilized fully from the play list created in gaana.com. The sound is amazing and the play list kept us entertained well. AC was on at 23-21 100% duration of the journey and cabin was totally noiseless.

We reached Digha around 1 p.m and went straight to hotel Sea hawk to check for availability.
Luckily we got two AC rooms and our day was made. Finally a good weekend.
The hotel has good lawn, we didn't have trouble finding a parking spot in front of the hotel and the car was safe for the night that we stayed there., though it was a open air parking. The hotel can't be stated as excellent but is clean, affordable having very good location with a bit of lawn and greenery thrown in.

We checked in our rooms, those were clean, and nice had showers and had some food as we were terribly hungry as well. Post lunch we hit the sea and stayed there for couple of hours.

In the evening we roamed around the beach and went to the marketplace (How can one avoid that if one’s better half is accompanying them :D) bought some small memento’s for other members and then went for dinner.

Sunday morning meant some good breakfast photo session and lazing around beach. We had to start by 1p.m for Kolkata since I didn’t want to drive at night and wanted to get in by 6-7.


We had light lunch and started back from Digha at around 1.30 p.m and we planned we’ll get something to eat in the famous Shere Punjab dhaba.

Again started to drive, and as usual the drive was super comfortable, no tiredness or fatigue (previously 2 hours drive in zen used to squeeze me out of all energy).



Snapped while returning from Digha




In between I wanted to increase the fuel avg and started to drive at the range of 60-70 and suddenly people started to get tired. Just before that I was doing a steady 90-100 and have hit a max speed of 120 for some time. Lesson learned - in highways sweet spot is 70-90 speed where one will get optimal fuel efficiency and the ride will not be boring as well.



So after a couple of hours ride we reached Shere punjab at around 3.30 -4.00. Since it was almost post lunch time we got our seats within 15 minutes.

Our wives have never been here and they were totally excited to have lunch in this famous Dhaba.

The chief special mutton priced at Rs 260.00 were amazing. With 4 big tender pieces of mutton in amazingly well tasting*
curry melted in our mouth. The lassi and the butter nun's were awesome as well.*

The veg item's we tried were also good , the paneer tikka and the kulcha etc were also wonderful

At shere punjab.






Post having lunch we started off for home and hit terrible traffic as supposedly there was some meeting at brigade and lakhs and lakhs of people have came together for the same from outskirts of Kolkata. At the time we were trying to enter Kolkata they were returning and there were lorries buses full of people going back. We reached home at around 6.30 p.m were very happy with the excellent short road trip that we had.

Some main take outs of the trip are -


Drove 40% @ eco mode 10% sports mode and rest in city mode. Never felt lack of power, bad roads were made smooth by the ride quality and overtaking maneuvers made easy by the superb handling of the car.*

The best compliment our zilva got, that too with 6 people on board out of which 4 were pretty healthy (If you know what I mean :P) and one light weight
"even traveling in SUV's (They were comparing with the Bolero, Scorpio, Sumo) are tiring but not in this car".

The trip of about 400 km with 6 people on board and full dickey gave 14.5 kmpl with Ac set to 23-21 100% of the trip.


Another thing experienced during the trip

While going I located two big potholes very late- there's a stretch where road was being made and there's big hole created at the place where the good road ends and the under construction road starts, Since stone chips were also layed but were not rolled, thus I didn't consider to slow down too much. Was at the speed range of 70-80 when located the hole and braked , I slowed down to 40-50 range and went over those big potholes, the front suspensions made very uncomfortable noise.. both the times. The thuddering noise seemed like some thing broke there. At that moment I thought that whoa.. we're done.. But after that impact the car felt all right.*


I got zilva checked up at the service center next weekend and everything was fine.
I was Also Talking with Arindam da (Team-bhp handle arindam_xeta) regarding this experience and he outlined that this may be due to ABS system ... as he also had a slimier experience which he outlined in his ownership review.*

Hi Prithvi. Congrats on your purchase. I am a huge fan of the Zest, simply because of how it made a statement and surprised all the auto experts who used to be happy criticizing Tata Motors. It is a segment leader now too.

I love the fact how you are enjoying the Revotron engine. It is a very under rated engine with the only flaw being low fuel efficiency since it is based on old school cast iron block engine (XETA Engine). It is very nice to see how you are making work of the ECO mode. While most are struggling to vehicle in ECO mode, you seem to be confortable with it, which shows that you are a very flexible driver.

I would like to hear more about the interior quality and the touchscreen infotainment system. And of course, more pics Prithvi. Keep rocking buddy and let your reports flood this applaudable thread.

Reg interior quality, since quality is relative I can compare the interiors with the cars of same class, Dezire and Amaze as I have rode these two pretty often. And according to me Zest is better than two of these, from the looks and feel, to fit and finish. Amaze interiors look very bland and outdated, and Dezire although fit and finish wise good zest outclasses it from equipment levels and the dashboard look and feel. Even the sounds of the indicators/ warnings feels better IMO.

Infotainment system - Harman simply rocks. Since mine is the XT top of line, mine has 8 speaker system. Sound is crystal clear, to me best test of sound system is how much clarity it presents when sound is low and if the sound gets distorted when you turn it high. It should be as clear in both extremes. Honestly Harman simply excels in both extremes although i have never been able to drive with sound levels over 11 as I loose connection with outside road sound totally as NVH levels are so good. I prefer to listen between 5-7 range and for the highway drive when I want that thump as well
i turn it up to 10-11.

Mid low and high performance is very balanced and if you have good quality music >192kbps with dolby you would be amazed. I tested with 128kbps and 192 kbps music of same track and the difference was mind blowing.

And thanks, yes will keep on updating and will post some more interior pics as well.

Issue Update

I normally fill petrol from a neighborhood BP petrol pump, since I have a credit card which has tie up with HP i did the previous tankful from a HP station as I would have got some waivers on the fuel price. To my surprise, immediately after filling in I started getting a light petrol smell when the windows were rolled down. No smell when windows up and AC on. I checked if anything was leaking or not multiple times but could find nothing. Now in this cycle I reverted back to the old station where i used to fill, and the smell is gone! No petrol smell whatsoever. I am a bit surprised also, Will try the next refill from another HP station and see if the problem persists. I understand different fuel pumps may have different mixture percentage but would it differ so much that it would in turn make a car start running rich?

If experts in this area could suggest their opinion, I would be obliged.

Congrats to your Zest purchase. I have one as well which I bought in Dec 2014. Has done 8k odd so far. Beautiful car indeed. Revotron rocks. I fully agree with u on Tata Motors after sales service. Have had far too many bad experiences in past so worried now for my Zest as well. These guys are fully capable of spoiling beautiful cars. Anyway very happy with my Zest so far as she has not yet gone for service. The only thing I am not so happy about is the AC. It is quite low unlike other Tata cars. Generally AC on Tata cars use to be the best.

Thanks and congratz to you too. Wish you loads of happy miles with the new baby.

Agreed - And how - Yesterday while driving it started raining cats and dogs. When I returned back home I saw quite heavy moisture formation in the both indicator lamps section. Below are the images -



And when I went through the manual I saw this :Frustrati



Will have a hard time convincing SA to replace the assembly. And the issue may again crop up if the assembly is replaced! Isn't this weird? ASFAIK in long term this will have detrimental effect in head lamp assembly. - Experts can you please guide me on this ?

Touch wood and fingers crossed so that it doesn't have to. Mine too have been without any issues till now. I have experienced a sudden drop in pick up only once when i was in 5th gear and cruising at 60kmph. It just dropped automatically and picked up automatically after few seconds. Mind you of throttle input was same the whole time. No repeat of the issue since then.

I did some testing today - I found to have AC working as other cars you must turn the AC temperature to LO(minimum) and adjust fan speed. For mine 2 was sufficient to cool quickly in 5 mins and then I turned up the temperature back to 24. I guess this is because the other cars doesn't have temperature control gauges one tends to turn it to full cool mode, but since zest has temperature controls we tend to put it in 24-21 and expect same chilling effect. Another option i found very comfortable is turning on Auto climate control. I normally put the AC in 24- 25 and turn on ACC which keeps the cabin very pleasant.

5000 Km update -

So finally have hit the 5000 Km mark after 8 months. Let me quickly summarize the issues faced and resolutions and mileage

Mileage -

With AC in our regular 50 km drive the mileage is hovering around - 13 - 15 kmpl in normal city drives depending upon traffic.
At some point I felt sudden drops in pickup while cruising at 5th gear, had discussions with a fellow zest owner and a good friend Arindamda (tbhp handle) arindam_xeta as he was
also facing same issue and was instructed from the service center to shift in a bit upper rpm range (1.5k - 2k). I followed his advice and started shifting around 1.5-1.7k rpm
and post that I never felt the drop in pick up issue. Probably to optimize fuel consumption I was shifting too early at 1.2k rpm range which probably was being detrimental for engine health?

Currently happy with mileage in city like kolkata with ac 13-15 is very good IMO.

Another long trip taken to Tajpur Digha (around 430km's) again with 6 people (Can't say no to family) and with 100% AC 6 people on board and after cruising at speeds mostly in the range (100-120) Total FE for the trip was 14kmpl.

I just was too tempted to cruise at those speeds as driving for the long distance trips at 70-80kmph to get best FE was getting boring and felt like so slow. So just went ahead and enjoyed the drive.
My cousin who rides a i10 told his dad that the big difference in both the cars is comfort and one can't feel one's cruisig in 120kmph in the car where as in thier i10 those speeds isn't comfortable at all. Which made him sleep in the backseat
almost 60% of the trip :D.

Some Shot's of Zilva at tajpur follows -








This one's currently my mobile wallpaper :)



Issues faced and service center visits.
---------------------------------------
Issue -1
===========
When zilva was nearing 4500k km I saw a distinct drop in mileage of 2kmpl. The roads which used to give 14kmpl started giving 12kmpl. I then referred to the service manual and saw at 5000 km the air filter needs
to be cleaned. That weekend I got a call from B.B motors Chingrihata for free monsoon checkup camp. Went there on sunday afternoon at 3. When I reached there they said we're overbooked and we're taking the entry for your car but it will
be attended next saturday. I told them am here to just clen up the air filter and they don't need to do anything else. They agreed and sent a mechanic who just took out the air filter cleaned it. Took 15 mins over all and my
how did effect mileage. The same road (10kms) while going in the same traffic condition game a mileage of 13kmpl without ac and while returning 17kmpl! I was happy both with the fast service in 15 mins and the mileage.

Issue -2
===========
I get a faint rattle from the right side ac vent intermittenly when AC in turned on and the car is in neutral. Few days before the sound increased but currently there's no sound and can't replicate it anymore.
Told SA about the issue and told him I whenever I am being able to reproduce this issue more consistantly I will get back to them. He agreed.

Issue -3
==========
13th august I got a call from K.B motors park circus that Zilva needs to have some critical updates and I need to visit them that day or the next day. I went off rushing from office taking a half day, reached there
and guess what my SA checked the chassis number in their software and said that Zilva actually has no updates, but they will do a general check up as I'm already there (Free of course). I was furious and asked fellow
members of "Kolkata zest owners group" in whatsapp if they have received any updates. Got to know there were multiple updates for different batches of car. Some has received some assembly change for bonnet, some ac hose pipe
some ECU updates, and people who haven't got MIB kit there were MIB kit fitments. My MIB kit was fitted and ECU was updated way back and I didn't require any other updates. Also as soon I posted my grievances in that group
Mr Subhajit from TML(TML has some people in that group also) who looks after KB motors workshop called me up apologized and cleared up the confusion and said they call the owners like this as there are many people who simply doesn't turn up for updates.
I suggested him to look up the car chassis numbers in their software and only if updates are pending only then call those owners. That way both they can save their manpower as well as customers are free from these hassles.
Wonder why it isn't so till now. He said though he will work on the feedback and make sure this doesn't happen.
Now while zilva was getting checked we found out that the left projector was not working. The SA directly asked for a lamp replacement which would cost me around Rs -400- 500, I insisted to check the connectors and requested a friendly
mechanic there to check the same, and indeed the connector went loose somehow thus the light was not working. The connector plug of the projectors were beneath the headlamp assembly in the engine bay and he just opened the connector and plugged it back and
it started working. This incident confirmed my insistence to stay in front of the mechanics while they are working at every service. Let's you know your car, saves unnecessary bills and headaches.
Then they took zilva for the wash and they also cleaned the interiors and polished the interiors including dashboards and seats. Was there at the service center from 3-6 but was well worth it at the end.

Issues -4
==========
Post the monsoon I am seeing some rust formation at the inner side of dickey where the rubber meets the metal. That's mainly as the rain waters get cuaght in the rubbers and stays in contact with metal unless dickey is opened and
wiped off. SA took records and asked me to come on a morning as it was very l;ate to start working on body. He said he will get those area's touched up and if the issue still persists he will replace the part of
the bonnet that is having the issue

Over all the visit was fruitful. Will go for the dickey part touch up when I have a bit of time in my hand.


In this time TML also presented with couple of surprises. I shared some of my pics with the hash tag #myzestlife in their FB page and zailva was showcased in their official FB page a couple of times. Now the biggest surprise came
when I saw mine and Zilva's photo on their anniversary celebration collage in the official FB page. A very small thing but did feel special those days.

The images which were showcased given below


The anniversary celebration collage -


The other image that got featured

Congrats on your purchase and for being featured on TML's fb page :).
In my opinion the Zest is a sensible VFM car. It has great features and mileage. Plus you are able to cruise at 100-120 on the highway with 6 people on board!
I honestly can't figure out why this car is not a bestseller in India.

And that too comfortably without any stress on the engine. Felt like can do 140-150 easily, but i'm not ready to try that on Indian road condition specially with family on board.

- Had it been a car from any other stable it would have been a runaway hit but coming from Tata stable it has the tata perception attached with it, also honestly tata service and dealer ship experience though is improving they are trying hard to be responsive they will need to be at the level of "Peace of mind" till then wonderful products will still sell avg numbers.

But the way they put up zest i'm confident on them the next 4-5 launches coupled with good service and dealer experience can track them back to hit products.

Your ZEST with the beach and beach sand is just too good, really mesmerizing !
Congratulations on your ZEST acquisition and good luck for more & more successful Miles/KMs.

Prem.

Congrats Prithvi on your ride.

Question related to Zest?

Is the 5 spoke alloy wheels permanently discontinued? I believe for petrol xt they had this design rather than the 18 spoke one. Even the grey finish one in Bolt also looks good.


//Abhishek

There were two designs - 8 spoke and 18 spoke. Based on feedback from initial launch TML started giving out 18 spoke as default but can be switched /changedto 8 spoke design on payment of some amount. You can check with the dealer regarding the same

I am attaching the accessories list where you would find there's a 8 spoke alloy as well fro replacement.

TMGA - ZEST.zip