Sep 15, 2014 10:44 PM
76102 Views
And it Zested Me.
What do you like?
Stylish back with neatly integrated boot.
Muscular front grill from a deviation from the normal Indica design.
Contemporary interior styling, with good quality material.
Good quality music system.
Front seats are very supportive.
Panel gaps are totally even throughout.
Low end torque(Which means better drivability in city) is really good in the petrol Turbo charged engine.
Very good ride and handling.
Affordable automatic transmission for diesel(read it as Fiat engine)
Multi driving mode will really help the people looking for economy.
Ride and handling is surprisingly good.
What could have been little bit more different?
The head light assembly still resembles Vista.
Top end variant is not there in AMT.
Mid end torque in the revotron engine is not that linear.
Exterior.
The first glimpse itself will give you a fresh thought about this new launch with new grill and first time in the segment projection head lamps. The DRL and the fog lamp assembly chromes add as an icing on the cake. When you come to the first quarter on the sides, the wheel arches are given a muscular curve and that very well placed on the big 15 inch wheels .(Personally I liked the spokes in the revortron variant but some people liked the diesel variant alloys.). The B-pillar black strips are very good quality ones. The curves on the doors are neatly visible and it continues the design principle in the front. Come to the last quarter and there this car scores better, the boot integration is neatly done. Come to the back you will be surprised to see such a simple yet elegant design. I would say the better in sub-4 meter cars. The LED tail lamps are neatly done and the chrome is really matching with it’s design.
Interior.
When you get in, you will be seriously surprised as the quality of interiors are a notch ahead of any of the Tata’s that are available today. The dashboard quality is really good, I would say in par with the Dzire/Swift. But with the contrast color on the dash board and door pad, the interiors are looking more fresh and roomier. The dials are the one, which needs special mention. The quality of the dials are best in the segment. With brightness adjustment in picture, that is like something which you can’t never ask for. The front seats are really comfortable and you will not get tired on long rides. Come to the back and you will be surprised to see the leg room. I am 6.3 feet tall, and when I adjusted the driving seat for my height and when I came back to the rear seat, I had lot of leg room and I could stretch my legs without any issues.
One thing which is lagging in the interiors enough storage spaces. Couple of points are lack of big bottle holder and back seat pockets are missing. The dead pedal is also solely missed and for long drives, this is really unwelcoming.
How it drives
I drove revotron, and I was really surprised to see the low end torque drivability. It really picks up from stationary and picks the momentum very fast. Even though it has a turbo and it kicks in at 1500 RPM, but still the city drivability would not bother you.
Tata engineers are really made it frugal, as I could able to go to 55 KMPH in first gear and 80 KMPH in second gear before it touches the redline. This means that overtaking would be a smooth affair for you.
The other point to be noted is the breaking, in our test drive, we could validate that 80 to Zero happened under 50 meters, in straight line. And in curvy braking as well, the car behaved perfectly fine.
Handling and Suspension.
The suspension isn’t really harder and good for our city speed breakers.
The cornering and handling is the part, that made us to say “Wow” and at this price point that really means. Under sub 4 meter we have a competitor for Swift/Dzire for handling.
Infotainment
If we don’t mention about this in the write-up then that is an insult to this car. The 8 speaker(4 speaker and 4 tweeter) Harman system is really good. If you have a good bit rate music file, the system doesn’t disappoint you. The touch is good at this price point.
Apart from infotainment, the automatic climate control integration to the touch system is a smart move Tata engineers have done.
Couple of points that could have been better for infotainment system are
• Could have gone with capacitive touch screen.
• The voice recognition understands only sets of commands, and you need to train yourselves.
Couple of other points to be noted
• Zest uses ABS 9.1 from Bosch and that helps to reduce the torque from Engine in case if there is a drift in any of the wheels.
• When you put your mode in Eco, not only the engine is tuned for economy but also the A/C compressor runs with lessor load to increase the fuel efficiency.
• The NVH levels are best in the segment.
How does Zest compare with Competitor?
• Zest is the clear winner if you are looking for a petrol Entry level Sedan.
• In case of Diesel, if you are looking for mileage, then you can trade it on Amaze, else you can go with this.
• For boot space all the main competitors are of almost equal size, but Amaze’s loading bay is little bit convenient.
• If you want a diesel and city driving is easy, then you have two options, either go with Zest AMT or go with Amaze.
Overall, Tata really Zested me with this car. Now it’s your turn, are you ready to be Zested.?
